Vacation in Taos

You know what, to be frank, Taos was not awesome.  We went down with grand ideas of how this project was finally going to be.  Dan's girlfriend Kat met us there and we thought that with two happy couples in tow it would be like a ski weekend in Vail--pure heaven.  But it wasn't.

It was monsoon season and it rained every afternoon.  We stayed in this paid campground area in the Kit Carson National Forrest which was $5 per night but no one ever checked.  We stayed there a week and only paid $10.  Shady business I know but hey, we cleaned up the campsite that was originally a total mess.

The boys played several open mic nights and yeah, there were some good musicians, but I couldn't find any Native American musicians who wanted to talk to us-period.  So that part was a total bust.

Open mic at Cafe Tazza

For the most part, it seemed like people checked out of the real world, moved to Taos, and now indulge in their eccentricities to the fullest.  For example it was raining-again-and we had gone to Sabroso to have a drink.  I started talking to this older man at the bar and he ended up being Laird Grant, road manager to the Grateful Dead.  I googled him and yeah, he was their road manager.  It seems like a good rule of thumb that whomever you talk to in Taos, be nice to them no matter how weird they are because they're probably going to been someone back in the day and have made quite a bit of money.  And they would've had to make some money to live in Taos because it's ridiculously expensive...drinks, grocery store, restaurants.  Julia Roberts lives there.  Dennis Hopper lived there before he died.  Checking out of reality to be weird in northern New Mexico.

Laird Grant

Like I said, it's monsoon season and it rained every single afternoon.  Thankfully we did have the trailer and could pile in there reading or playing poker.  

I started hanging out at the coolest coffee shop I could find in town called Wired?  One day I was camping out to do a little Photoshopping and I spilled water all over my computer.  Consequently I was sitting next to the owner and he offered me a job.  I was supposed to start the next day but we decided to skip town and head back to Colorado; we were on weird overload.  Whoops, extra gas money missed.  But if you're ever in Taos and need a good coffee shop, head to Wired?

Wired?

We made it a week and then hightailed it back to Colorado--which is another funny story.  This post seems full so I'll put that story into the next post...something I'll call the Attack Of The Bobcat.