Madrid, NM to Madrid, NM
Happily today started much like yesterday. 5:30am and I’m up watching the sunrise. Just Bear decided to come with me today and boy did he look handsome in the glow of the sun.
Jason did his yoga and I tried out the Blackstone for the first time by myself. What a machine! Would’ve been better if we had leveled it first because the oil kept finding its favorite corner to go into. I made us a lovely breakfast of Just Egg, Sweet Earth Bacon, and toast. I even added some of our leftovers from the nights before onto this just to see how they would do.
Today our plan was to tour Madrid. This fun and quirky town had a lot of different galleries and shops so we look our time taking turns going into stores unless they told us to bring the pups in. This is the hardest part of vacationing with them. They do not like to be separated from the pack, which means Patch pulls and whines to go into the store and Bear finds the most difficult spot to lay down in and plops himself there. Every time. No fail. We went into Gunky Folk Soap and Sundries and had a great conversation with the staff. She also happened to have taken our drink orders the night before at the Mine Shaft so she remembered us by our drinks. She is a native to Madrid and is in college for education, minority in sped and sociology. You can imagine we had a lot to talk about. We grabbed some lovely gunky soap and were on our way. We got a coffee at Java Junction and they had both almond AND oat milk! Woo-hoo! They also made their ice cubes out of coffee so that was a nice addition.
We wandered for an hour or so but nothing was catching our eye. With limited space in the camper we have to be mindful at this point in the trip what we can transport home.
We headed into Santa Fe again, this time for the museums. We both picked one to go to separately and one we would both go into. Jason chose the International Folk Art Museum. I waited in the car with the pups, having tried to bring them to the Botanical gardens across the street but they didn’t allow pups. There was another rain storm brewing in the area. Close enough to make noise and darken the sky, but no rain. Patch wasn’t happy until Daddy returned.
Jason loved the museum. There was a lot of different items to see and even a whole display about different masks worn around the world during Covid.
Next it was time for lunch. We headed to Annapurna which is where I was trying to go the night before when the flood warnings came in. Jason ordered an ABLT with avocado and vegan bacon. Carrot soup came with it as the soup of the day. I ordered the veggie lasagna and grabbed a slice of vegan Pecan pie. 😋
We headed to my museum of choice- Georgia O’Keeffe. What I didn’t realize was that it was by ticket only and all tickets were sold out as of now. Arg!
Jason swung back around and picked me up so we could go to our last Santa Fe destination- Meow Wolf
I am going to start this by saying everyone needs to go to this place. I walled around for an hour and a half and I could’ve stayed for hours more and still not seen or experienced everything Meow Wolf has to offer. Meow Wolf is an immersive interactive art experience. You are encouraged to play with and manipulate the items in the rooms. Turn things over, open doors, go behind walls.. whatever you need to do to solve the puzzle. We chose not to worry about the puzzle and just enjoy the experience. I texted Jason midway through and told him to get ready!
Colors made music. Animal figurines made noises. Sounds and sights were intertwined in ways I couldn’t try to describe. It was dreamlike. Like falling into your very own Alice in Wonderland scene. You opened the fridge and went inside to another room. Everything messed with reality. I will 100% go back to this experience if I can find anything like it again. I had fun in the gift shop and texted Jason to get his ticket for the next opening and switched spots.
Bear, Patch, and I found a park a few blocks away that was a playground and a loop trail. It was wide open so I would be visible throughout the walk. The pups and I jumped out and explored. This park was right near El Camino Real.
We set off to find coffee and then back to Meow Wolf. Jason loved it too! He grabbed some videos of inside which I’ll try to share.
We went back toward Madrid but neither of us wanted the night to end. We searched for a brewery where I might be able to eat. We chose one we thought may be less busy called Beer Creek Brewing Company. What a find!
BCBC looked, I’ll say it, a little like a dive bar from the outside. Typically those are our favorite places but they don’t usually have food for me. Jason told me to jump out and check the vibe to see if the dogs could handle it and I was blown away. Behind this very bland exterior was a beautiful oasis with huge trees and nice seating spread around. I signaled him to come in.
We walked up to the bar to order so I grabbed us two flights of whatever they made that didn’t have lactose or honey in it. This is one of the rare breweries where every beer was good. None of them were throw aways.
They had pizza on the menu but no vegan cheese. No problem. I ordered mine with hatch green chiles , jalapeños, red onion, and pineapple with olive oil base. The flavors were great, loaded with veggies, and great crust!
The sky began to get dark so we headed back to our campsite. I definitely am glad we stopped at BCBC tonight. The owner was awesome too, came over to talk to us about the dogs and the trip.
We arrived back to the campsite to see the moon huge overhead. I wanted to practice photographing the moon. I have always wanted to get a great one but there is so much light pollution at home. Tonight I was going to take my time and figure it out.
Got it.
Vegan On the Rhode 