9/24/14 – 9/28/14

Back into Taos, we tried re-charging the A/C. It did’t do the trick, so we had someone look at it, who spent quite a few hours on it and traced it back to the relay under the dash. The part we needed had to be ordered by a Volkswagon dealer and had to come from Dallas, Texas. It  had to be paid for in person, before anyone would order it. We had to go to Albuerque or Santa Fe. No brainer. We headed to Santa Fe.

Not a bad town to wait for a part. We enjoyed the plaza and native artists selling their wares. We bought a few gifts, did some sightseeing, and delighted in some New Mexico fall colors.

 

 

When the part arrived, we picked it up, quickly installed it, and ta-da…had cold air blasting into the cab.

To try out our refreshing luxury, we moseyed over to  Bandelier National Park. Mostly we needed a place to camp for the night, and the park was handy.

 

 

A peaceful setting to enjoy the evening and early morning.

 

 

Some interesting campers were also visiting. In fact a lot of these Western Bluebirds were camping along side of us.

 

 

This Northern Flicker and White-breasted Nuthatch didn’t mind sharing a site.

 

 

Pretty sure this was a Merlin watching over the entire loop.

 

We moved on after these visitors left and lots of the two legged type moved in. (It was a weekend.)

 

 

Found this place a little quieter and more to our liking up a forest service road. Room for Pia to run and play, and plenty of New Mexico sunshine for the solar panel.

 

Some of these Bluebirds thought so too, as they followed us to our new camping spot.

 

 

 

We drove by and visited Valles Caldera National  Preserve.

 

 

It was a beautiful valley, but there was no place to spend the night. We inched our way around the Jemez mountains.

 

 

A quiet walk  in the Santa Fe National Forest.

 

 

Nature’s sculpture…

 

 

And yet another lovely peaceful camping spot, thanks to the forest service folks for maintaining their roads.

The countryside changes abruptly.

 

 

Emerging out of the forest and into Jemez Pueblo.

 

It was about here when our air conditioner quit working again…

 ❧