March 11, 2000
I have been to concerts at Carnegie Hall and the opera at Lincoln Center, so I decided to attend another great American cultural event, Daytona Bike Week (Mar. 4-12), in Daytona Beach, Florida. The year 2000 version of this motorcycle celebration has brought more than 500,000 bikes to this city which hosted the Daytona 500 car race just a few weeks ago.
Bike Week events are centered in two locations. I visited the first, Daytona International Speedway, to watch the racers test the track. They hit speeds of over 155 m.p.h. The Speedway is also the host of the Motorcycle Show where the manufacturers show off their new models and offer test drives. I had to arrive at 6:30 in the morning to get on line to test-drive two slick new BMW models on roads near the Speedway.
Main Street in Daytona Beach is the other big spot. A visiting biker must take his bike slowly down Main Street, through the tunnel made up of thousands of parked bikes and people and dozens of leather shops, to honestly claim he has "Been to Bike Week." Every kind of motorcycle is there, but most are Harley-Davidsons. The loud rumble of their exhausts makes conversation impossible. The police on duty wear earplugs and give tickets to the noisiest bikes.
The bikers' outfit themselves in everything from heavy leather jackets and chaps to almost nothing at all. Girls drive their bikes or stroll in thong bikinis. Nudity is down this year since the police are giving $100 tickets to offenders. They made one leather dealer take down his sign: "Show me your tits and avoid the sales tax." Many men and women use their Main Street walk to show off colorful tattoos.
With so many motorcyclists in one place, danger is inevitable and this has been the deadliest Bike Week on record. Twelve bikers have been killed in accidents so far and the most dangerous night (tonight, the last Saturday) is still ahead.
March 21, 2000
Growing up, one of my favorite t.v. programs was Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges. I also enjoyed those early black and white Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller. Both shared a common movie set, Silver Springs, located in the center of Florida.
Silver Springs is one of the oldest paid attractions in the United States and, at 122 years of age, it is, by far, the oldest in Florida. The pure water springs that bubble up through hundreds of feet of limestone to create the headwaters of the Silver River are so pristine that movie makers see it as the perfect underwater movie studio.
Today, visitors are transported down the river in glass-bottom boats that offer a clear view of the river bottom with its swaying grasses and dozens of varieties of fish and turtles. The shoreline is filled with exotic birds, alligators, even monkeys. It's definitely worth a visit.
March 26, 2000
It's easy to summarize Florida. If you like summer, especially in January and February, you'll like Florida.
Sure, it's crowded and it's filled with northerners. The insects commit suicide on your windshield all year long. And many of the native Floridians would prefer that the visitors send their money down but stay in Quebec or Michigan or New York. But if you happen to be like me and love the beach and the golf course and the warm air spilling over your body as you cruise on a motorcycle through the Everglades, then winter in Florida is for you too.
Florida in winter is just like the north in summer. Fairs and festivals and outside art exhibits occur every weekend. There is always something to do and the difficulty is in the choosing.
This winter I didn't miss my heavy jacket. I didn't miss the icy roads. I didn't miss the grey days and the sub-freezing nights. I didn't miss the snow-covered golf courses. I missed my friends and family a great deal, but I didn't miss the cold of New York at all.
April 1, 2000
My brother lives in Longville, Louisiana and we had a chance to visit the Antique Tractor and Engine Show at Longville Lake Park today. The show featured tractors and engines dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century. John Deere green was the color of the day and the excitement was delivered by the tractor barrel roll, the slow race, the blind man's obstacle course, and the egg cracking contest.
What's an egg cracking contest, you ask? That's where a driver displays his skill backing up his/her tractor just enough to crack an egg held in a vise-like contraption. The winner produces the smallest cracks in two eggs. The losers squash their eggs.
The best character of the day drove down from Pineville, Louisiana, to show off his handcrafted miniature locomotive. His single remaining gold-capped front tooth had migrated to the center of his upper gum line. The rest of his mouth was filled with chewing tobacco as he explained that his coal-fired steam locomotive actually worked. I asked him where the coal was inserted. He looked at me as if I was the dumbest man in creation, then pointed to the opening in back of the engine and said, "Right here, son. I can tell you've had way too much book learnin'."
He showed us pictures of the Model-T Ford that he had restored to like-new condition.
He claimed that one day he drove it into the parking lot of a shopping center and a man in a new SUV pulled in next him. The man admired the Model-T and said, "I'll trade you my SUV for your car and I'll throw in my bird dog in the back seat and my wife in the front seat."
"No thanks," our hero claims to have said. "I have enough problems."
April 5, 2000
Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas but he grew up in Hot Springs, famous for its water that gushes up from the ground pre-heated to 143 degrees. Located in the Zig Zag mountains on the eastern edge of the Ouachita Range, Hot Springs has seen better days. Most of the luxurious spas located on bathhouse row are closed now while the wax museums and souvenir shops still prosper.
The Buckstaff, the only remaining bathhouse still in operation, opened in 1912. A total bathing package there includes a thermal mineral bath, a whirlpool bath, and a massage for $34.50. That's quite a price jump from its opening prices, when a ticket for 20 baths cost $19.00.
The National Park Service maintains seven bathhouses, six of them spruced up on the outside but closed to the public. One, the Fordyce, is open for tours. There the visitor can see the empty tubs, the steam cabinets, the needle showers, the cooling rooms, and the mahogany paneled locker rooms.
Free samples of the "therapeutic" water are available in fountains, the largest called "The Thermal Water Jug Fountain." The original rainfall takes 4000 years to make its journey from the surface, through pores and fractures in the earth to the hot rocks below, then up through the springs on the west side of Hot Springs mountain.
April 7, 2000
If you ever get to Arkansas, Scenic Route 7 is a great way to travel. The road runs north-south through some of the prettiest country in the U.S. Just above Hot Springs, the road twists and turns through the Ouachita (Wash-uh-tuh) National Forest, then plunges into the Ozark National Forest.
I stayed the night in Russellville, then took the motorcycle on a 175 mile side-trip, first to Mt. Nebo State Park (2000 feet up), then to Magazine Mountain, (2700 feet), then to Petit Jean State Park. The roadside was covered with mountain laurel. Meadows were filled with daisies. Wild dogwood and fruit trees were blossoming in riotous color. I ate a delicious hamburger in the Bellville Classic Cafe where I was the only diner without cowboy boots.
North of Russellville, the signs said "Crooked and Steep for the next 63 miles." Now such a sign means fun on a nimble motorcycle. It's just a fearsome pain in the neck for the driver of a 25 foot R.V. towing a 12 foot motorcycle trailer. But I made it to the top of Arkansas with no real difficulties and crossed over into Missouri for the first time in my life.
April 8, 2000
If Mel Tillis or Lawrence Welk or Mickey Gilley provide your kind of entertainment, then Branson, Missouri is for you. But not for me. This is still part of the Bible Belt, so the entertainment here is wholesome with the emphasis on the religious or the patriotic. And "country" is the music of choice. The show times give a hint of the average age of the audience members. There are lots of "breakfast shows" that start at 9 a.m. There are not many late night shows. Everything closes before midnight.
Branson is located in the southwestern part of the state. The factory outlets include "Bible Bargain" and Christian paraphernalia stores. A perfect stop after an Ozark Gospel Concert.
April 11, 2000
Polls opened at 6 a.m. today in Scott County, Kentucky. Voters must decide whether the county will remain "dry" or allow liquor sales for the first time in generations.
Local television, always a good source of local color, interviewed a strange alliance of players in the controversial liquor vote. On the "dry" side are the local Baptist ministers and their prosperous allies, the liquor store owners whose businesses are strategically located just outside the Scott County borders. These booze dispensers would lose many customers if drinkers from inside the dry county could buy their alcohol closer to home. One liquor store owner said, "...it would be shameful if folks could buy their beer and wine in their local grocery store. Plus it would cost me a whole bunch of money!"
April 12, 2000
I spent the night in Corbin, Kentucky, famous for Colonel Harland Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken with its 11 secret spices. His restored restaurant is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The other famous area resident is Daniel Boone, trailblazer extraordinaire. He was one of the first to explore the Cumberland Gap, that slot between the Appalachian Mountains that allowed 300,000 pioneers to move more easily from the East to the West.
I stopped at the Gap today. The National Park Service Ranger informed me that my RV and trailer would not be permitted to travel the steep and curvy road to the observation deck at the top of the mountain. So I happily unloaded the motorcycle and drove the looping four miles.
The view there is magnificent! To the north is Kentucky; south is Tennessee; Virginia is east. Two lakes and the Cumberland River are clearly visible below. The mountains are painted with the muted springtime greens and yellows of new leaves.
April 13, 2000
The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the United States. I traveled most of it before, but I hadn't been on one 100 mile stretch in Virginia that runs from Roanoke to Waynesboro, passing through the Geo. Washington National Forest. Today I finally had the chance.
Like the other sections of the Parkway, the road is built along the top of the Blue Ridge mountain range. It twists and turns and offers spectacular views of the valleys below. The speed limit is 45 and there is little traffic, especially in the winter and spring. Since most of the high altitude trees have not yet produced their leaves, the view is clearer than in the summer when the leaves block the view.
Driving an RV on this road is a bit frustrating, a little like trying to caress a lover while wearing oven mitts. I dumped the RV at a campground in Big Island, unloaded the motorcycle, and retraced the same route on the Parkway. What a difference! The twists and turns were now fun. I saw silvery streams and a waterfall that escaped my attention in the RV. I saw a scampering beaver and a group of cautious deer.
If you can only do one scenic drive in the U.S., choose the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some day I hope to do the entire 450 miles of the Parkway on the bike.
May 2, 2000
Spending three months in Florida, one gets quite tired of the relentless flatness of its topography and the starched straightness of its roads. A wonderful antidote for this environmental ennui is a trip through West Virginia. There are no flat spots or straight roads in this state.
Driving an RV through the beautiful mountains of West Virginia is quite an experience. I never saw so many signs cautioning drivers that the next four miles were ten degree downhill slopes dedicated to increasing fright and burning out brake pads. Uphill was another thing. Thirty-five miles an hour was all I could manage on a climb where the speed limit was 55. Drivers of the cars stacked up behind were not happy with me.
My motorcycle, trapped in the trailer being towed slowly behind me, would have been the perfect way to travel these roads. But I must get my "home" to Indiana for some warranty repair work, so I'm forced to lumber slowly over West Virginia's mountains in the RV instead of galloping over on the motorcycle.
May 3, 2000
A few years ago, I visited the beautiful rural town of Cooperstown, NY, the home of Baseball's Hall of Fame. Today I went into the small city of Canton, Ohio, to see Football's version of the Hall of Fame.
Like Cooperstown, Canton is the storehouse of old uniforms and equipment. My favorite was Joe Namath's knee brace (followed closely by Tom Dempsey's shoe used to kick a N.F.L. record-setting 63 yard field goal.)
I learned that the first professional football player was "Pudge" Heffelfinger, who was paid $500 for a single game by the Allegheny Athletic Association's Pittsburgh team. That was a lot of money in 1892.
I saw a sample of every ring awarded from Superbowl I to Superbowl XXX. A special exhibit displayed "Refrigerator" Perry's size 23 Superbowl XX ring, the largest ever made. That ring would fit my wrist.
Most impressive was Byron "Whizzer" White, paid $15,000 to play football for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1937. His post-football career? Supreme court justice!
And it was curious to see O.J. Simpson in the Football Hall of Fame while Pete Rose can't make it into Baseball's National Shrine. Simpson deserves the honor, but so does Rose.
May 7, 2000
My RV needs some warranty repair work and because it will be in the shop for a week in Elkhart, Indiana (where 80% of the recreational vehicles in the world are manufactured), I decided to see Michigan, located just 20 miles north.
May is a bit early to visit Michigan, especially on a motorcycle. It is still cool and rainy. But it is the perfect time for two things. The first is the "Big Lotto", now worth over 300 million dollars. I will get my lottery ticket soon after crossing the border on Monday. The second is "Tulip Time" in Holland, Michigan.
The "Tulip Time Festival" is the biggest flower festival in the United States. The residents of Holland celebrate their Dutch heritage with street washing, clog dancing, and parades. Millions of tulips decorate this small town that passed a bond issue to finance the purchase of a genuine Dutch windmill, the last one allowed to be exported from the Netherlands.
From Holland I ride up the west coast (the Lake Michigan side) to the Mackinac Bridge, the five mile span that connects lower and upper Michigan. Then a loop around the Upper Peninsula (and a ride along Lake Superior) will bring me back to the bridge followed by a tour of the East Coast, the Lake Huron side. It will be a 1000+ mile, seven-day motorcycle ride around the 41st state I have visited.
May 19, 2000
"You know, we were suffering a drought until this week," many said to this sodden motorcyclist. The local t.v. weatherman claimed the rain was so welcome that not a single viewer had called to complain about the string of moist days. He didn't offer his phone number or this traveler would have called. Out of the ten days I spent in Michigan, it rained on seven.
On the one hand, May is not the time to visit Michigan, especially the Upper Peninsula where most of the traffic signs refer to snowmobiles, not cars (or motorcycles.) I saw ice. Snow was predicted but, thankfully, didn't materialize. Temperatures went as low as 29 degrees and I found out what pea-sized hail meeting exposed cheeks at 65 m.p.h. felt like.
On the other hand, May is when the tulips are blossoming in Holland, one of the prettiest towns in the U.S. I spent a wonderful hour sitting on a park bench there, reading and watching contented local residents walk babies or have relaxed conversations. It got up to 80 degrees on that day.
May is when apple and cherry blossoms cover the two peninsulas above Traverse City, an area responsible for one-third of the world's cherry production. May is also the time when the road leading to the cherry region is a thin ribbon of asphalt twisting for miles through beds of white and purple wildflowers.
So I guess I can't complain, even if the 1500 miles I traveled in Michigan were not always covered in perfect weather.
May 20, 2000
If I asked you to name the states with greatest coastline mileage, I'm not sure if Michigan would be on your list. It should be. The state borders on four of the Great Lakes, Michigan, Huron, Superior, and Erie.
The West Coast butts up against Lake Michigan and I began my tour of the state by following that shoreline northward. It was my first chance to see a Great Lake up close. I was astonished by its size, by its jade-green color, and by its absence of odor. My experience had taught me that bodies of water this size came with a sea-salt smell.
This coast features some lovely towns, including Holland, the town I mentioned in my last mailing. Saugatuck is picturesque, filled with coffee shops, art galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. Harbor Springs has lovingly maintained homes that date back to the early 1900's.
Just beyond the Bessie Point Lighthouse lies Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Some of the biggest sand dunes in the world are here. It's possible to drive up to a place where the top of a dune is a short walk. Signs there warn the adventurous to avoid sliding down the face of the 450 ft. dune to the lake below because the climb back up the steep sand face requires a huge effort.
Topping off Lower Michigan's West Coast is the aptly-named Wilderness State Park where I saw no one but a college girl who was looking for evidence of nesting plovers. The sand here, the short dunes, the large rocks in the water reminded me of Long Island Sound and gave me a brief surge of homesickness.
May 22, 2000
When it was built in the 1950's, the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Connecting the Upper Peninsula with the rest of Michigan, it stretches for five miles over the treacherous straits of Mackinac. It often posts warnings to "high-profile" vehicles because of strong winds, winds that make crossing on a motorcycle quite a challenge.
The Upper Peninsula is sparsely populated and relatively flat. I headed north to the Whitefish Bay Scenic Byway, a beautiful thirty-mile long bayside road where I passed just one car. After the town of Paradise, I stopped at the Tahquamenon Falls parking area and hiked in heavy rain to take pictures of the falls.
I woke up the next day happy that the predicted snow did not materialize and headed for Munising, on the shore of Lake Superior. The Grand Island National Recreation Area shoreline is very different from the other Great Lake shorelines. Instead of sand beaches, there are huge sandstone cliffs that overlook the water.
Moving south to Manistique, I arrived at the northern shore of Lake Michigan and followed Rt. 2 along the shoreline all the way back to the Mackinac Bridge.
All along the Upper Peninsula I saw many roadside stores offering "pasties" for sale. I stopped at one and found out that a pastie is a tasty beef and vegetable mix enclosed in a flaky pie shell. I was also informed that it is pronounced "pah-stie" to distinguish it from that minimal part of a stripper's costume.
May 23, 2000
The Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper and Lower parts of Michigan and its southern departure point is Mackinaw City. Stormy weather forced me to stop there before crossing over to explore the U.P. It was a fortunate delay.
The weather cleared after I had checked into a motel, so I asked the desk clerk if there was anything to do in Mackinaw City. She suggested going to the Center Stage Theater to see the musical "Return to the Fifties." Now I love fifties music and I often judge the level of sophistication of areas I visit by the quality of their local oldies station. So I called the box office and was told that tickets ranged from $20 to $25 but if I was a Michigan resident tickets were free today because of special promotion.
I walked to the theater and got on line to buy my ticket. A woman walked over to me and said that she and her husband had two extra tickets. Would I want one? A free ticket. Of course, I took the ticket and the show was terrific!
Mackinaw City is also the ferry departure point for Mackinaw Island, one of Michigan's most popular tourist stops. The island features a restored fort, dozens of beautifully refurbished homes ranging from the colonial era through early 1900's, and charming shops. Motor vehicles are not allowed on Mackinaw Island, so all goods move by horse and wagon. People get around on bicycles. The island has the only state road that has never had a motor vehicle accident.
May 28, 2000
Since 2000 is the year that I had the chance to sample Daytona Bike Week in Florida, I decided to further enrich my experience with a similar cultural event, the motorcycle hill climb being held in Bristol, Indiana.
The motorcycles used for climbing the 150 foot hill are customized models, elongated so that they won't tip over backwards when they scamper up the very steep slope. While it was exciting to see the bikes cover the uphill distance in as little as three and a half seconds (or crash down in a backwards tumble), it was the spectators that I found most interesting.
The sponsors of the event sold no beer so they could not be held responsible for any post-event traffic accidents. The tattooed audience, dressed in universal black, carried their own liquid refreshment in large coolers. Many sat behind the starting line so that the spray of dirt from the spinning rear wheels of competitors could rain down on them. In one area, skinheads sprawled wearing tee-shirts that proclaimed parts of their sick ideology.
Dressed in my white turtleneck and golf hat, I felt like a spy who would be discovered soon. But I escaped safely.
June 9, 2000
Long before the Gateway Arch became the symbol of St. Louis, Missouri, Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser purchased a small brewery on the western bank of the Mississippi River. In 1876 they introduced their new product and called it "Budweiser" to appeal to the many local German immigrants, known beer lovers. The new beer was an instant hit and today is the best selling lager beer in the world.
The Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour was the first thing I wanted to do in St. Louis. The brewery is situated south of Busch Stadium and the Arch. It covers over 40 acres and employs over 5000 people. The free one-hour tour is led by a pair of young women who do a tag-team description of beer making. It starts with a visit to the stainless steel beechwood aging tanks. In a huge building kept at a constant 50 degrees, 66 of these monstrous tanks are installed, each large enough to fill a municipal pool with beer.
From there the tour enters the brewing building where the ingredients (hops, rice, barley, etc.) are mixed and heated. The temperature there was over 100 degrees. After these grains are used to make beer, the remaining mulch is sold to farmers for livestock feed. The Anheuser-Busch mash provides four percent of the feed given to livestock nationwide.
The grounds of the brewery are landscaped as beautifully as any of the Busch theme parks and the buildings are all designed to match the late 1800's architectural style. Perhaps the most beautiful example of this is the Clydesdale stable, built in 1885.
Of course, the "hospitality room" at the end of the tour is a favorite of most visitors. Each person gets a glass of Budweiser and two more glasses of any of Anheuser-Busch's forty different brews. Since I was riding the motorcycle through city traffic, I limited myself to two.
June 11, 2000
I had seen pictures of the Gateway Arch, built as a monument to the westward expansion that began in St. Louis, but I never realized how enormous it is. Standing 63 stories tall, it may be the most graceful 43,000 ton structure in the world.
Architect Eero Saarinen designed his arch, made of structural steel and concrete covered with a stainless steel skin, with an internal tram that allows visitors to travel to the top for a spectacular view of the Mississippi River on one side and the city on the other. It's a journey that those suffering from claustrophobia should avoid.
The tramway car is like a small space capsule. It holds five tightly compressed passengers in a windowless container for the four minute ride. The three year old boy sitting next to me was very frightened and held onto his dad's leg with one hand and my leg with the other.
At the top, visitors can peer out one of the long, narrow windows, then climb back into a capsule for the ride down.
June 12, 2000
A short walk from the great Arch brings the visitor to The Old Courthouse, an outstanding example of Greek Revival Architecture. In 1846, a slave named Dred Scott sued for his freedom in this courthouse. The state refused to give Scott his freedom and the decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court which stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens and had no legal rights under the constitution. This decision fueled the sectional conflict which led to the Civil War.
This month a St. Louis court ruled that a man who had been declared the father of a ten-year old boy and had been paying child-support for most of those years must continue to pay even though D.N.A. tests prove that he is not the father. Bill Neal sued the mother of the boy, hoping for a return of the money he had paid her over the years. Instead, the judge ruled that it would be unfair to disrupt the boy's life and that Neal must still be considered the boy's legal father and continue to pay.
June 20, 2000
Dear Kids,
Megan is home and I miss her a great deal already. It was a happy visit and we had an excellent time together. The sad part was seeing her go and thinking about how little time we have had together in the last six or seven years. She has grown into a sweet and confident young woman. (So confident that she managed to meet a young man--Bradley--in the brief time she was here. He seems like a nice guy.)
Love, Dad
June 22, 2000
I drove through Kansas yesterday. It's a flat, corn-covered, tedious tornado playground. If I were Dorothy, I would have clicked the heels of my Ruby Slippers together and asked to be transported to California.
June 23, 2000
I parked the R.V. in Tulsa and asked the people in the campground office where I could take a motorcycle ride to see some of the best of Oklahoma. They all agreed with the book I have used, "The Most Scenic Drives in America," that going east into the Grand Lake region would be my best bet.
I left the flats of Tulsa and headed east on Rt. 412 through some real western towns built on hilly, lush land, very unlike what the movies depict. The first community, Locust Grove, featured a gun shop built next to the Free Will Baptist Church. The Rev. Will Peterson ran both of these operations. Down the street was the alliterative Bob's Bait and Barber Shop.
Heading north on Rt. 10 I passed many Indian reservations and the cut-rate tobacco shops that accompanied them. There were dozens of fireworks shops, including one built on the edge of a local high school's property to raise funds for the school's teams.
The road meandered through beautiful oak forests and along the sides of numerous lakes, finally ending at the huge Wyandotte Indian Reservation. The reservation included a magnificent school building, a modern gas station, and a shopping center (complete with Wyandotte souvenir store).
I covered over 200 miles in just a few hours, a reminder that the speed limit on the back roads of Oklahoma is usually 65 m.p.h.
June 30, 2000
I headed for Northern New Mexico to visit Keri Ramsey, a former student newspaper editor I worked with at Brentwood High School. She is employed as an engineer at the Los Alamos Laboratory and as a mom to Sean, her precious two and a half year old son.
An artist visiting Los Alamos need not bring his oils or his water colors or his pastels. Los Alamos can be captured most effectively in a charcoal sketch. The forest fires that started as "controlled burns" wiped out 48,000 acres and over 200 homes. The golf course I played on is bordered by black trees and scorched earth.
Just five blocks away from Keri's home, entire neighborhoods are gone, marked with fireplace chimneys standing like tombstones. Burnt, rusting remnants of cars squat in driveways. Melted streetlight globes give evidence of the incredible heat that moved down from the mountain above.
At 7200 feet above sea level, Los Alamos was an interest place to take my morning run and find enough oxygen to breath at the same time. The level of education is equally high there. Since the Laboratory is the major employer, Los Alamos has more MS and PhD's per capita than any other place in America.
Perched below mountain peaks and surrounded by dramatic canyons, Los Alamos is a beautiful spot, even if it is temporarily scarred by fire.
July 3, 2000
The two most famous towns in northern New Mexico, Santa Fe and Taos, have quite a bit in common. Most of the buildings are constructed in the Mexican/South Western style--flat roofs, stucco surfaced in pink or tan or peach tints. Many of these buildings house art galleries and the quality of the art runs from superb to sappy. I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Gallery and the Indian Art Museum, among others.
It's the landscape and the history of the region that inspires the artists and craftspersons. And, of course, the light. The land rises and falls, is richly colored in muted rust and rich yellow. The colors change depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. At this time of year, the days start clear and turn stormy as the temperature increases. I entered a restaurant for lunch under a sunny sky and had to wait inside when I finished because of a hailstorm that had developed in that short time.
Taos is also a ski area and the summertime is a perfect time to ride the "Enchanted Circle", a 90 mile ride through the mountains and canyons of the ski resorts of Red River and Angel Fire. Enchanted indeed.
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