Aug. 13 & 14

Tuesday - stayed put to get caught up on paperwork & projects.  We had found an opening at the bottom of the shower wall that needed to be caulked.  We wanted to go boating, but the rain clouds moved in again. Mid afternoon we received the email from Amazon giving us a location for the drug test they require to work for them.  An HOUR away!  We were going to call & try to get somewhere closer arranged, but then decided to just get it over with.  We hopped in the car & drove to Las Vegas, NM to the clinic and got it done.  We drove downtown to historic Las Vegas and looked around some shops.  I ended up buying boots, cowgirl? boots!  I still can't believe it!  But, they were comfortable the minute I put them on and still are.  Had a great sandwich at a local pizza shop and then drove back on the Santa Fe trail.
Wednesday -  we drove southwest through Coralles, found a nice winery & then headed north into the Jemez Mountains to the Ponderosa Winery.   Great wines and the owner was fun to visit with.  Continued north on Hwy 4, saw beautiful red cliffs and scenery, stopped at the Valles Caldera, a 12 mile wide crater formed by the volcano many years ago.  As we left we watched two young badgers cross the road in front of us, chasing prairie dogs.  To return to Hwy #84, we had to go through the Los Alamos checkpoint.  He checked our driver's license, asked our business there & told us to drive straight through, no stopping & no pictures.  Still a very high security area for the Dept of Interior.
For Happy Hour & supper, we stopped at the Tesuque Market, a rustic bar/restaurant in the small town of Tesuque very near the opera location.  Very Good food!  A great way to end our fun day.