After our last breakfast at the Inn, we took the high road
to Taos, rather pretty, but nothing unique - there are a
hundred drives in Colorado that are more beautiful. Stopped
for gas on the way and picked up a handful of pinon nuts
from a 25c vending machine: these were good, if somewhat
inconvenient to eat.

Taos bores me.

I don't ski, that might be it, and I'm not into new age
things (although Taos is not nearly so nasty as Sedona).
The shopping, which I don't do anyway, appears to be
mediocre as well. Oh, well, one can console oneself by
stuffing oneself.

After a quick once over, we headed north out of town to
Arroyo Seco, where we'd heard good things about Abe's
Cantina y Cocina. An unprepossessing little joint. You
get your beer or whatever at the bar/liquor store on the
left and your food on the right, and you can consume these
either at the bar or at tables in the front of the general
store part. We came in through the bar and as we crossed
over to the other side a wonderful aroma struck us. The
menu is posted behind the ordering counter; it was hard
to read, but luckily a piece of paper was tacked up with
"burrito - chicharrones and beans $5, meat only $5.50" in
big readable letters. Having been beaned out over the last
couple days, I went with this, meat only, red sauce. It was
by a fair margin the best Mexicanish food I've ever had -
the chicharrones were cubed in tiny neat crisp cubes,
utterly fresh, like the outside of a pork roast just
roasted, piled into a fresh tortilla, and smothered in the
smoothest red sauce imaginable. A Negra Modelo went
nicely. Carol had a slightly more normal but excellent
beef, cheese, and avocado burrito with the green chile
and a Bohemia.

At the next table, an older local couple sat down with a
bowl of menudo for him and a burger and fries for her.
He asked how the chicharrones were, so I gave him a
bite; after which he reciprocated with a spoonful of the
tripe stew, which was spicer and better than that which I've
had before. They live just down the road and gave us some
tourist tips, and then we were off to explore.

We didn't go far. Taos Cow is two doors down, and the ice
cream is famous. No rBGH, too. Abe's is a window into the
'50s; Taos Cow is a time-warp into the '60s - it reminded
me powerfully of the original Steve's up in Davis Square
when it was manned day and night by Steve Herrell, before
he sold out to International Multifoods. Carol had some kind
of chocolate concoction; it was delicious. My coconut ice
cream was made with newly shelled coconut, which has pluses
and minuses. The pluses are an intensity of flavor and
aroma; the minuses are that you can taste the fermentation
of the coconut water inside and that there are little shards
of brown coconut skin, and these get between your teeth.

Off to the Rio Grande Gorge bridge 10 miles west, which
looks like kind of nothing, unless you get onto the bridge
and look down, and down, and down. It's spectacular, with
sheer cliffs dropping to the river 650 feet below. It must
have been quite an architectural feat, and when it was
completed, it was awarded the title of most beautiful bridge
of 1966 by whatever certification agency is in charge of
such things. Worth the detour. We walked the length of it
and back and then went and got the camera and did it again.

It was still early, so Carol went to the Plaza to shop and
left me to my own devices - there's free wireless on the
Plaza, but it involves filling out a form that asks for more
personal information than I want to give (I could lie, but I
am not fond of that choice, either), so I headed to the La
Chiripada Winery tasting room for a cheap entertainment. A
smiling and solicitous agent poured me a couple of tastes:
Viognier 05, rather peachy, medium dry, low concentration;
Special Reserve Riesling 04, more interesting, apples and
stone, with a slight smokiness, good balance of acid to
sweet, but still rather low concentration. I would have
liked to try a few more - a Shiraz, an LHR, and a Port - to
get an idea of the other end of their line, but it turns
out the water pitcher was empty. I volunteered to go to the
bar upstairs and beg some, which I did. But then Ogelvie's
ensnared me with the (also floral and hoppy) Long Board pale
ale on draft, and after a couple of these, tasting more wine
didn't seem like such a good idea; so I went back to the
car, and lo and behold, Carol had exhausted Taos Plaza.