We took a short nap and saddled up for another afternoon ride. The woman from Geared Up recommended driving out of town to the ranger's station at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge to ride another out and back route. The view from the car was dramatic as we drove to the ranger's station so I had to ride to the middle of the bridge to take pictures before we did our ride.
My stomach dropped as we were so high up (565 ft) and the bridge moved as an eighteen-wheeler drove across it. Even though I was on the sidewalk on my bike, I thought I would be blown over by the wind and the truck. I was screaming like Cameron from Modern Family. The view was intensely dramatic and amazingly beautiful. And I was hyperventilating at the same time. Yes, I have a little bit of a fear of heights. We rolled off the bridge, avoiding the expansion spacers that my wheel almost got caught in going across for the view.
We had a slight head to cross wind on a false flat with a few risers. The road was rough and I did my best to stay on Brad's wheel. Poor Brad was going slow but I could barely hang on - I want to blame it on the altitude as I was out of breath the whole time. It was a beautiful, sunny day with the temperatures in the mid-40s again but luckily no shaded areas. On our ride out for 40K, we passed a neighborhood that looked like it was a set for one of the Star Wars movies.
Earthship Global. It is sustainable living at it's finest. We could totally live in a house like this. I have stayed in homes similar to these practices. In El Salvador, we had compost-able toilets, water filters for the house and gardens that could feed the household. Once in Bermuda as the water supply is limited and the house I stayed at had a roof system that collected water that was stored in the basement cistern and it was filtered and reused for the house. I was bummed we did not take the time to research where to stay as it would have been wild to try this homestead out. Although, being spontaneous is fun as well because we were not sure where we were going to end up in New Mexico. Here is a Washington Post article about the Earthship concept and renting a room or home in Taos.
After visiting the Earthship community, the Taos Mesa Brewing was on the drive back into town so we stopped for a pint. We were going to eat dinner at Orlandos (Mexican food) but the beer was good and there was a blues band playing at 5 pm! Our kind of senior citizen "night" out - the early bird special. I had the Biere De Guarde and 2017 Barleywine for dessert :-). Brad had two Cross Eye Rye IPA. Dinner was grilled steak tacos and sweet potato fries and I had a happy hour special; squash quesadilla. We are easy to please. Jackson Price and the Blue Rockets filled my fix for Willie Marples, too. The place is an airplane hanger and the food came out of the kitchen through a hole in the wall on a conveyor belt. People were dancing and have a grand time. Excellent impromptu stop.
