Shimer Summer Trip: To Taos We Will Go

Have you ever seen the movie "The Hilla Have Eyes"? Thankfully, I have not- and the drive from Kansas to New Mexico STILL scared me a bit. We drove through literally hundreds of miles on 2 lane roads with nothing and no one in sight. I was TERRIFIED that we would run out of gas and then... God knows what I thought would happen next.

I have no idea if there was a more populated way to go and our GPS was just playing with my emotions, or if maybe this really was the best way to go. I'll tell you one thing- I was grateful to find a gas station and keep Bessie (the van) plenty full on our way to Taos.

The most memorable things we saw in Kansas and the first part of Colorado are shown here. Yep, 5 combines at once.

The drive was broken up by two more interesting sights. One was a fire on the side of the road. We could see this thing for miles! I HOPE it was a controlled burn...The other was all the wind turbines. They were really pretty amazing to see, lining the fields as far as we could see.

After a few hours of driving, and a while after we had passed into Colorado, the scenery did start to change. Suddenly, there were dark shapes in the distance- were they mountains?

These giant shapes coming out of the flat landscape was breathtaking. So was the shift from green and golden farmland to the rich browns and tans that suddenly filled the scenery.

Luckily, the wonderful lady we were renting a house (and later an apartment) from warned us that GPS does not work well in Taos. So we had to go old school, and follow her directions after we crossed over the New Mexico border. I was nervous! But we found our house with little trouble. The house was fantastic! It had just been renovated, and we got to spread out in beautiful surroundings. After a month on the road, our own (temporary) house was really exciting.

And the kitchen was great! So, as soon as we were unpacked we were heading for the grocery store so we'd have something to eat for breakfast. Yes, it was 9 pm and I should have been putting the kids to bed- but I was thrilled to check out Taos. So the whole family went out for a bit! Hope you like the pictures. I'll tell you more soom!