New Mexico stays and into Texas

 We stayed at Humming Desert Alpaca Farm through Harvest Hosts, in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.  They have a herd of 30 Alpacas along with 3 Livestock Guardian Dogs.  We had n in depth tour with the owner learning about Alpaca fleece microns; how their breeding and what food they eat can determine how soft or thick it is.  For reference, most human hair is 60 microns (per the owner) and the Alpacas we saw were between 15-30, so fine that you can't feel the fleece between your fingers.  We learned that Alpaca fleece is hollow, which makes it warmer than wool; it's water resistant and fire resistant due to not having any oils.  Anyone need new Alpaca socks (instead of the common wool)?  The owner shows these great animals and they recently took 1st place for their fleece! Their Alpaca herd is in the top 10 in the country.  They are starting to make plans for their retirement and will be selling their business...if anyone is interested!?!

Curious, but cautious of new people

Our souvenirs: a couch throw(handmade) and Alpaca hiking socks

For the next couple of nights we stayed in Santa Fe at an RV park while exploring the city.  We decided to put the dogs in play care for the day while walking through the historic plaza, beautiful churches, surrounding galleries and stores.  The dogs were exhausted and we felt like we had a date day!  We found out that there is a "margarita crawl" with 40+ establishments to visit and taste, oh boy!  We did not sign up, but did visit 4 of the places for margaritas which were tasty, especially the frozen margarita/sangria one I had with dinner.  We also tried the New Mexican green chile smothered enchiladas, and sopapillas with honey.  Yum!  I think the flower of Santa Fe has got to be the dried red chile, they were at every store, on all the light posts and in every size.

Amazing art all over!

Into Texas we went, to Lubbock to be exact.  Jason had a nice trip down memory lane of places he remembers from his early childhood growing up there.  Mamma & Papa's house, the park pond he used to fish in and ride his bike to, Bacon Heights church, Buffalo Spring lake outside of town he used to fish and off-roading trails his Uncle drove him on, and his fathers grave stone.  Lubbock has cotton fields all around, endless variety of foods and looks to be a pretty industrial city.  We didn't really see anything else interesting, but loved the warmer weather!

Cotton pickin

And now, into other parts of Texas.....Roscoe, Abilene, Brady....