New Mexico

Saturday June 6, 2015, it has been a week and a half since I made the last entry. We have been quite busy. We spent 4 nights in Navaho Dam, NM on the San Juan River. We arrived on Wednesday and I took Pia to the river’s edge at the Pump House area and taught her how to cast a fly rod. She did pretty well so the next morning we headed back to the Pump House and spend most of the day fishing. We caught and kept 5 rainbow trout. We ate them for dinner and they were delicious. Friday we fished again, we started at Texas Hole and moved up the river to the Kiddie Hole, it was crowded with people, and we did not hook any fish. This area is catch and release only. There are a lot of big trout in this area, but they are harder to catch. We ended up going back to the Pump House and caught seven trout that we kept. Saturday I went alone back up to Texas Hole and worked my way up stream to a wide open area of slow moving water. I finally got a nice 16” trout, and then caught another one on the way back down stream heading back to the car. That first fish will go on YouTube when we get back home. We met an 87 year old gentleman camping at Abe’s RV Park. John lives full time in his 5^th Wheel trailer. He winters in Arizona, and then works his way back in the spring to Montana for the summer. He is an expert fly fisherman, and a very interesting man. He stays here for about a month, and left early Sunday morning heading to Montana, which will take him about a day and a half. I hope I am able to keep doing this at his age.

Today is Memorial Day 2015, we have been here in Santa Fe since Thursday. With the severe weather all over Texas, and Eastern New Mexico we decided to push through and get to Santa Fe. It was a wise choice as the weather here has been very nice. Warm days and cool nights, that is the kind of summer weather I like. We spent the first two days poking around the shops and churches of Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a very cool town albeit a little on the touristy side.

Saturday we headed down to Madrid on the turquoise trail (Hwy 14) toward Albuquerque. Madrid was a mining town, coal, copper, turquoise, some gold, and silver. It became a ghost town when the coal played out. Now it is artist colony, and there are a lot of interesting characters, cool shops, and a couple of restaurants. We did a little shopping, ate lunch at the Hollar restaurant which is next door to Maggie’s Dinner (which is now a tee shirt shop) of the movie Wild Hogs fame. The food was very good, and there was an old cowboy singing and playing guitar who was great. He reminded us of our friend Jerry, who we met at Cedar Key, very similar voice.

On the way back we wanted to check out Cerrillos, a small historic village. We came across Broken Saddle Riding Co.; decided to take an hour trail ride. We were standing around talking to the owner Harrold and getting situated; I kept looking at the group of people who had just come back from a ride, and one man in particular. Harrold noticed me looking and said do you know who that is, I said I think that is the guy from Longmier the A& E television show. He said it was and do you want to meet him, so we did. Pia and I got a picture with him. He and a number of the cast had just gone on a ride together. I asked why they were in New Mexico, and found out that although the show is set in Wyoming, it is filmed here in New Mexico, and Robert Taylor who plays Longmier, lives in Santa Fe.

Once we were mounted off we went, Pia and I, and a guide. We were riding along, and the guide was telling us about the area, and pointing out things of interest. As we started to get to know him, it came out that he grew up in New Mexico, but went to high school in Conroe, TX. He graduated the year after me, and lived in River Plantation. We did not know or at least remember each other, but we did know some of the same people, and he dated one of our neighbor’s daughters. The farther we travel, and the more we see, the smaller the world seems to get.