Day Three, Four, Five
2:27 p.m.
I have now been in Taos for exactly 48 hours. Loretta is tucked comfortably in RV site #5 at the base of sagebush covered hills next to the mighty Rio Grande, I caught my first New Mexcio brown trout last night and my heart aches every waking moment.
Taos sits high at 7000ft. on a mesa above the Rio Grande gorge smack dab in the middle of Carson National Forest and horseshoed by three mountain ranges. To the north reigns the San Juans and Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico at 13,161 ft. To the east is the Sangre de Cristo Range and the Nacimento mountains border the west. You stand and turn a circle, every horizon is painted by layers of mountains, the highest peaks still holding snow. The elevation gives newcomers trouble and the arid climate sucks the moisture from the skin. I have never comsumed so much water and every morning, afternoon and evening I bathe myself in lotion although my lips remain dry regardless of how much chapstick I apply. I learned that the monsoons come in July and stay through August and everything turns from dusty red to vibrant green.
The greatest surprises so far are the depth of my loneliness and the ferocity of the wind. Last night as I slept the wind blew in gusts that shook Loretta waking me and sending me to grasp the sides of my bunk. I placed my attention on the voices that I could hear in the wind and asked them with white knuckles to drop me peace on their way through. Eventually they obliged...
