To my surprise, I missed the sunrise. Even though I was up an hour earlier than I’d been getting up, thankfully, I could go back to sleep. I still made it up before everyone else, settled into my spot on the sofa next to the fireplace, and worked on yesterday’s post. Though I missed the sunrise, it was still low enough to be blinding off the snow!
I’d made a quick Keurig cup of coffee, but Amanda didn’t follow too long behind me and made us a latte. She’d made Kim one yesterday, and she liked it, so Amanda is the barista of trips now! We use an Italian moka pot and a standalone milk frother to make our coffee. We’ve wanted a good espresso machine, but we don’t want to spend that much now. We’ve talked about once we have a high-end setup doing a pop-up friends-only coffee shop out of the house on Saturday mornings, just for fun.
Nathan and Kim still hadn’t decided what to do, so we watched them back and forth deciding. It was comical and reminded me of Amanda and I; we do the same thing, just weeks or days out, not the morning of decisions! They finally made the call to go snow skiing and not stay another night in the house. I don’t think they knew where they would stay on the way home yet.
As they were getting ready to go, Amanda packed the kitchen up, and I loaded the van. Obviously, we aren’t used to having kids, but it amazed us how much time it takes to get three kids ready. Waiting for them to get up, eat, and get dressed, and then actually get out the door! All were trying on their snow gear, walking around the house with their balaclavas and goggles on!
The weather this trip has been great, so nice Nathan and I could stand it outside without jackets in the daytime. We even used the garage for a cooler for the kids’ sodas, and Nathan kept beer on the porch table outside like it was a fridge! After the family left, we finished getting ready, packed our luggage, checked for anything left behind, and headed out. We stepped out on the back porch “fridge” to get one last selfie before we departed.
The property we stayed on was amazing, and I can’t speak highly enough about it. The house was great, with an open floor plan and expansive views. You could only see two houses in the distance from the back porch, and I never heard another sound except what we made. It was close enough to town to head in for a quick bite to eat or grab groceries. I imagine we will be staying in the future for sure. We were already planning another winter trip with our friends. The only thing I would change is the length of our stay, it would be longer!
The first stop, you guessed it, was coffee. This time, using Starbucks points, though, once our coffee shop total hit a hundred for this trip, it was time to pump the brakes! We needed to fill up the car before we hit the road. I waited to get to the east end of town; it was cheaper there but still .80 cents higher than home.
We didn’t make it far before we needed a restroom break, so Chama was our first pit stop, not an hour away. One gas station looked creepy, you know, where you have to get a key with a big piece of wood attached to it, and the other had bathrooms out of order. So we made our way over to the local coffee shop, where we got coffee on the way in. It was only a shared cup since we just had coffee!
The next stop was Red River, New Mexico, for an early lunch. A friend mentioned it on our ministry trip to the New Mexico area in November. I wanted to route through there to see it, I always like to see new places. We should have been able to go just south of Chama and cut across, but the road was closed. So we had to go about halfway to Santa Fe to cut across toward Taos, then back north and over the mountain.
With the detour, we needed a potty break again, so we stopped at the Echo Amphitheater. They’d recently had upgrades to the park, though national park-style water closets, they were extremely clean. Only needing the typical close-the-lid signs. These toilets are permeant porta potties, so the lids must be closed to vent well and keep the smell down.
It was all new once we turned off 84 onto 285 and headed north. Highway 285 was what we’d taken north from Sanderson when we came up. Making our way toward Taos, the area wasn’t pretty and not what I’d expected. I guess I had envisioned Taos Ski Valley in my mind. We turned north before getting to Taos, then over the Rio Grande gorge toward Red River. Once we gained elevation and got closer to Red River, we got in the mountains quickly. It was the area I liked, where you have to bend down to see the sky over the mountaintops.
I’d asked our friend if he had any restaurant recommendations or sights to see. One restaurant was closed, and the other, I couldn’t find a good menu online to see if we’d have paint-based options. We settled on a brewery that had black bean burgers. We had onion rings as an appetizer, and both got the New Mexi Melt, a green chili take on a patty melt. It was good, and Amanda, the French fry connoisseur, approved of the fries. The meal was ready so quickly; the onion rings showed up in a hurry because they were already made, evident by their cold temperature. The burgers were fresh but still done super quick. It took longer to get our ticket than the food! It was close to 5, and the place was getting busy.
This small ski town surprised me; it seemed like a nice little place. I wouldn’t mind coming back. It was beautiful, and the mountain’s east side was much prettier than the west by Taos. There were long valleys with pleasant pasture land, then a beautiful alpine lake in Eagles Nest. There was an old hotel that looked to be burned down. I told Amanda I would love to fix that for a vacation home. I’d been nonstop talking about having a Pagosa property of our own since we left
The way Apple Maps was routing was through Dalhart; I wasn’t interested. I can’t stand that ugly, flat, desolate part of Texas! So we went toward Tucumcari. It was getting dark, and after dark, we hit some drops in elevation. I was surprised we dropped so much, hitting some slow switchbacks. We’d go just east of Tucumcari to Logan, down to I40, and then east to Amarillo to overnight.
The New Mexico slow speed limit was killing me. I was driving Texas speeds on those desolate county roads; thankfully, I never saw any red and blue lights! I was determined to beat the ETA on the CarPlay navigation. With my steady overspeed, I shaved a good bit off, too; we were ready to get to bed.