Made a left turn in Denver

I am dropping the Day 1, Day 2, format as doing this daily is against the laws of nature such as RV Parks whose WIFI service is, naturally, not as advertised and my natural procrastination. Also, and editorial note, Day 2 and Days 3&4 are in reversed order and I have yet to find how to correct it.  It should be less confusing than what appears on your Internet home page.

Since the last episode our hero has spent five days in Denver (please refer to previous paragraph, "Parks WIFI service") where Denise had daily meetings with nephews and nieces and their offspring. Highlights for me was meeting our great-great-niece (at one year old the "great" refers to the generational relationship). A second highlight was nearly losing a game of chess to great nephew Andy (don't be confused there are two). Andy is entering first grade in the Autumn. Last, Embeth, a great niece who ignored me two years ago when she was one year old, was now my best friend. I am so happy that Denise got to visit here kinfolk as you can see it allowed me to rest.

With the exception of a wine supermarket that has weekly sales, there is not much to recommend Denver. I am not singling our Denver, it is a city with all the negatives you can find with any "metro" area. We said good-bye to Bob, our RV park neighbor, retired Navy chief, and old movie fan, on June 28th for what the Internet info said was a four and a half hour drive to Questa, New Mexico. Nobody believed that the drive could be done in that time. Five hours later we pulled into Questa. During the trip we wasted a half-hour refueling (with an RV you refuel, cars stop for gas) in Walsenburg, Colorado. At this time I am going to skip a sermon on ____________ drivers who leave there vehicles at the pump after the gas up and go in the store to do whatever they do.

Questa is twenty miles north of Taos, New Mexico. The 7500 foot elevation allows for rather cool nights often below 50 degrees (10 degrees C. for my foreign friends who refuse to give up those archaic systems of measurement). Questa Lodge is a nice park still in development. It is located convenient to the highway to Taos but far enough to be quiet. Also, it is at the base of the Taos Mountains (according to the state map) which seem to be the northern end of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. It is easy to entertain yourself for a week.

Taos is an artsy-fartsy town, but it is one of the better artsy-farsy towns. The galleries/shops have a variety of original art and prints with very little repetition. Two subjects are common but not overdone, San Fransisco Asis Church and the Rio Grande River Gorge. Both are worthy of the attention. You might be expecting me to mention food. In an artsy town you expect artsy food that relies on presentation to justify the ridiculous price. Yeah, they got it, but there are an abundance of small cafes and restaurants that feature  a spectrum of Hispanic, Native American,  American, and other cultures which blend into Northern New Mexico cuisine. (If the word "fusion" is used it probably adds 10 bucks to a meal.) We have spent too little time with the local wines but what we have found is quite good.

It is the fourth of July today and we will be heading to southwest Colorado the day after tomorrow.