Our trip to New Mexico was definately a much needed vacation! But it caused me to get so far behind on everything else… which is why this blog is suffering! So I decided to get day 3 posted today. If you would like to read starting with day 1, click here.
By the time day three rolled around, we were all so exhausted. We could definitely feel the lack of sleep catching up with us. But that didn’t stop us. We woke up around 7:00 am, took our showers, went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel, and set off in search of the Turquoise Trail.
After driving down the Turquoise trail for about an hour, Meagan spotted a fabulous little church that was surrounded by a chain link fence. Inside this fence along with the church were these really fabulous grave sites (grave sites in New Mexico are really fascinating). And right next door to this little church was the ruins of a stone house that had obviously been through some sort of storm. It wasn’t until we stopped at this site to take pictures that I realized I left my stinkin’ camera battery at the hotel! Can you say, @@X##@X!!?? Meagan and Scott were being a really good sport about it, and kept telling me not to worry. But I was totally sick to my stomach that I was causing us to have to drive an hour back to the hotel and then another hour back to where we were so that we could continue our journey down the trail to Santa Fe. I am blessed to have such understanding, patient, and wonderful people in my life.
So once we finally went to retreive my battery, stopped for lunch, and ended up back on the trail, we stopped back by this little church and took some pictures. It was then that we realized that there were several set of ruins in the area, and we didn’t skip a beat. We spent a good 45 minutes in the area. But that wasn’t my only disaster of the day. Somehow I managed to lose some of my photos from this area. I guess I’m lucky that I only lost the shots of the church, but it is still sad. For whatever reason, my laptop decided to have a panic attack. I was dumping my cards on my external drive every night at the hotel, but somehow I lost a few when my laptop decided that it would only work for me again if I did a complete system restore! But at least I managed to salvage the other 99% of my photos from my trip.
Nashville Wedding Photographers: Wendy C. Photography
Wendy C. Photography: Nashville Wedding Photographer
Nashville Wedding Photographer: Wendy C. Photography
Wedding Photographers Nashville: Wendy C. Photography
We continues our journey down the trail and we surprisingly stumbled upon a little community by the name of Madrid. This is the town where the movie “Wild Hogs” was filmed. It is a cute little community that is full of Harley Davidson lovers (imagine that) as well as sophisticated art lovers. The restaurants were cooking and it smelled like food being grilled in the back yard. This liitle town made me dizzy as it overwhelmed every sense in my body. It was eye candy for a photographer, and the smells made my tummy rumble with hunger as I smelled something being grilled in the middle of town. And the food was delicious. I ended up eating a taco salad (I craved spicy food while I was in New Mexico) and I watched Scott and Meagan finish off an ice cream cone and a chocolate malt (as my mouth watered). And I swear the guy in the photo below is Willie Nelson! (I WISH!)
Nashville Wedding Photographers: Wendy C. Photography
Nashville Wedding Photographers: Wendy C. Photography
And for all you movie buffs or “Wild Hog” fans… you will appreciate this one!
Wedding Photographers Nashville Tennessee: Wendy C. Photography
After enjoying the relaxed atmosphere in this community, and stuffing our faces with food because the smells drove our tummies wild, we decided to keep on driving. We had no idea where we would end up at the end of the day; we just knew we would keep driving until dark and then head back to the hotel. Well… the trail ended in Santa Fe, new Mexico so we decided to head toward the little town of Taos where I had heard about a fabulous spot where people still live like they did 1000 years ago. They still live with no running water or electricity, and the town surrounds the most sacred spot to them… the mission. So that is where we were headed. We had no idea what we were in store for along the way. I’ve never seen such beaty as that of New Mexico. Just look at what we drove through on the way to Taos.
Nashville Wedding Photographers: Wendy C. Photography
We had no idea that we would be driving through the Santa Fe Canyon down Canyon Road. Like I said before, we had no destination in mind when we left the hotel. We just decided to wing it on this particular day. What a gorgeous drive it was to Taos. But by the time we got there, it was too late to photograph the community that I had hoped to. When we arrived, there were signs up telling us that they were closed for the day, and that there was no trespassing or photographs allowed. We decided not to risk it (although I was trying to talk Scott and Meagan into it). So we headed down some other road just to see what we would see along the way and after driving through the forrest for what seemed like forever, we ended up passing this fabulous little shop in the middle of nowhere… literally! We simply stopped the car on the side of the road and stuck our camera out the window to take a picture of this green door that was lit up in the middle of pitch black nowhere. I still have no idea what this place is, or why it is even there. Surely people do not drive that far to go here. As we were hanging our heads out the window shooting this door, we were listening to the coyotes scream and howl at us for invading their territory.
Nashville Wedding Photographers: Wendy C. Photography
There wasn’t much more that we could photograph in the middle of nowhere in the dark. When it gets dark in the mountains, forest, and desert, it is REALLY dark. You can barely see your hand right in front of your face. So we told Laura Lou (my gps) to take us back to the hotel. As usual, Meagan fell asleep in the back seat, and I tried my best to keep Scott awake (because he had driven constantly since we arrived in NM). About the time we made it to Santa Fe, the ipod on shuffle, starts playing the song “Back to the Hotel” by N2Deep. That totally brought back an 80′s moment for me and Scott, so we turned up the music and jammed like our lives depended on it. How ironic that this song came on as we were actually headed “back to the hotel”. Meagan never woke up.
Thanks for letting me share my vacation with you. I hope you enjoy the stories, and the pics! Day 4 in New Mexico will be next, and it is actually my favorite day! So don’t miss it!
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