Walking

Santa Fe, NM – Day 6: Tucson Spa Day

Gates of Santa Fe #2

Drove to Dunkin’ for my 14oz Regular….that and a neighborhood walk with a gate photo are the only things the same as yesterday.

We took the Travelling Tucson to the Hyundai dealer for an oil change and tire rotation. They also changed out both cabin air filters, well, because it is dusty here in the desert. After that we went to La Chosa for lunch. Vegetable Quesadilla for the lady and I wolfed down a Green Chile Bacon Cheese Burger.

Not only do I love the blue skies, the 80% percent of the year sunny day count, the architecture, and the vibe, the food with green chiles on it would be enough to made want to live here. If only I could afford to.

Tomorrow we are off to Bowie, TX with Hammond, LA our destination again. So, no more “Gates of Santa Fe” photos until Star Wars Day.

Santa Fe, NM – Day 5: Going Rogue

Gates of Santa Fe #1


 
Daybreak – Drove to Dunkin’ for my 14oz Regular and a couple Munchkins to start the day.

Sensible Morning Hour – Walked over to Tune-Up Cafe as seen on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I devoured the Smoked Duck Hash-eggs al gusto, cheesy hash browns, bell pepper, your choice of chili, onions, tortilla. Eggs over easy and for the chili, I roll green. Sally had the omelette. Fresh squeezed OJ for me, water for her.

Post Breakfast – Walked around the surrounding neighborhoods while Sally regaled me by pointing out the sub thousand foot homes that start at around $400k for a fixer-upper to the nicely renovated ones that approach the $1mil mark. The above picture is of a gate that probably hid a slightly larger home that that would easily fetch seven figures.

Lunch – Still full from breakfast we opted for a Clementine…

Early Afternoon – Test drove a Nissan Rogue that might be a replacement for her 2023 Hyundai Tucson. We both came away impressed with the car. It is probably ahead of the Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forrester we test drove back in January. We were going to try a RAV4, but the Toyota dealer didn’t any in stock.

Late Afternoon – We watched a movie, my choice, but she agreed when I told her Stanley Tucci was in it. A movie from 1996, Big Night. Tucci had hair! I’ve seen it a couple times and enjoyed this third viewing as well. Sally enjoyed it not so much, so next movie time, it’ll be her pick.

Dinner – Ham & Cheese Sandos with a broccoli salad and chips and salsa.

Dusk – A drive up to Sky Santa Fe and pretty much straight back down that is a near prefect Miata road and put a big smile on my face. I think she enjoyed too, but I think I saw a few instances of ghost braking over on that side of the car.

Another Day In Oldmanland

The highlight of the day was my once every second fortnight haircut. And when I say haircut, it is more like mowing a lawn, in that I have them put the #2 comb on their shears and just cut everything they can see.

The standard Senior Haircut is twenty-one bucks, but I’m not sure I’ve ever paid that. The first few times I went there I had a $5 off coupon, but ever since then it has been $15 or $16 dollars. They always say something like, “If the boss was here, I’d have to charge the full price.” And although I usually go to the same shop, it’s always different stylists.

Today’s haircut price hit a record low; she charged me just ten bucks. I don’t get it, what is the reason for the random price cuts? They are on a salary and it is so low that are “sticking it to the man” because they get to keep the tip? Maybe they found that the price cut makes the tip go up? Also, what’s with the “if the boss was here” thing? No one is keeping track of how many haircuts they do and comparing it to their money taken in? Whatever it is, I like it, its anarchy.

Morning Walk

This morning’s sunrise appeared like normal, but after breakfast and I stepped outside to go for a walk, the unusual higher temps turned that into a lot of low level fog. By the time I finished my 2 mile trek around Salish Ponds the fog was gone. And the sun sort of came out, there was scattered blue to be seen. After making a coffee I hopped into a Miata and went for a short drive east of here where the roads have more curves.

After lunch I went back out and gave both the boys a bath, even though the rains returns tomorrow and will probably reverse the cleanliness in short order.

Wetlands, Not Wet Man

Bonus Monday Post
I had already done the indoor cycling this morning, so I figured I’d just rest on those laurels, until I noticed a sunny day outside while making my lunch. After eating, I checked what the weather called for and if AccuWeather was correct in their local forecast, the rain in the area wouldn’t materialize until around 3PM.

So around 1:30pm I changed the sweatpants for some grownup adult pants and drove over to City Hall because there is a small park there where I could get onto the trail over to the Salish Ponds. I wanted to start here because the last time I had done this trail walk I stared on the other end. And you know my guiding rule of life, always mix up your route, when possible, it makes it harder for any hitman your enemies may have hired to find you.

The sky was dappled with both blue sky and gray clouds when I set off, but as I walked the blue became harder to find. About a half mile in the sky was all gray and getting a little darker. I continued along. Until the breeze turned from cool to cold, when I remembered that discretion is the better part of valor. I turned around and headed back. Almost back and it started to sprinkle. I was maybe 20 yards away, I could see the car…right about here I could create big drama by telling you that the heavens opened up and I got soaked through in sight of my destination, but the rain held off until I was inside the Miata.

It rained all the way home. After changing back into those sweatpants, I went into the kitchen to make a warm beverage, I looked out the window and the sun was shining brightly.

Quiet Sunday

Watched a couple of car videos on YouTube, watched an episode of The West Wing and then listened to corresponding podcast episode of The West Wing Weekly and then watched a Red Sox spring training game on MLBTV.

After lunch I headed over near the Troutdale Airport where there are some paved and unpaved trails and took a 3 mile saunter. Now, ripping a bunch of Noir Jazz off of YouTube for listening to in the car when I have to drive somewhere and it’s raining.

After dinner I’ll probably watch an episode or two of something called The Story of Film: An Odyssey. It is fifteen roughly one hour long episodes covering film from all over the world. The first couple on the origins of motion pictures was real interesting, but now it is starting to fracture and my interest is wanning, but it kills some time and it is still interesting in spots.

A Good Walk Spoiled

Turns out my favorite coffee shop is a mile and a half away. Because today was a nice day I decided to walk there and get a 16oz Salted Caramel Latte and walk back.

There are two ways to get to Stomping Grounds coffee shop and each is roughly the same length because it is on one side of a rectangle and home is on the opposite side. Probably will not do that again, it was not a lot of fun, all four sides of the rectangle are busy roads.

Donna and I used to walk to our favorite coffee shop in Klamath Falls, Brevada, and it too was a mile and a half away. The difference was that we had three different routes between our home and coffee. Two of the routes were very quiet, one was mostly on a multi use trail and the other involved quiet residential streets and a short trail. Only one was via a busy road and it was no where near Portland Metro busy.