Madrid, a big scare, and a Margarita...

Today we decided to go sightseeing to the town of Madrid before Suzanne's radio interview. Madrid is a former coal mining town that is now an artist and hippie community, with lots of wildly painted houses and shops selling herbs, leather goods, metal sculptures, rocks, turquoise and silver jewelry, etc. (Also lots of stray dogs running loose in the streets.) This shop advertised the "Cheapest Silver West of the Pecos". Fortunately (for me), it hadn't opened yet when we were visiting.


Madrid was the setting of Wild Hogs, a Harley Davidson rider movie from a few years ago. We had not seen it, but these two Harley riders had ridden 800 miles from Kansas just to see the town and Maggie's Diner, where a lot of the movie scenes were shot. After seeing these cool Harleys, I am having second thoughts about motorcycles... maybe a black Road Glide Custom with lots of chrome... and let's see, I'd need a ponytail, leathers and some bad tattoos... hmmm..... and maybe not....


The big scare of the day came after we took our dachshunds Rudy and Gretchen to the vet for some shots that needed updating. All went well for several hours, until we noticed that Gretchen was acting a little hyper; then we saw her face and eyes swelling horribly and red skin on her belly. She was having a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine shot. A quick run back to the vet (fortunately only 3 minutes away) for an antihistamine shot and within a couple of hours she was back to normal. We cancelled all afternoon plans and stayed home to keep an eye on her.  She's doing fine now and relaxing next to Suzanne as I write this blog.


Our good friend Terri from Minnesota had told us about a great restaurant in Santa Fe, Cowgirl BBQ, that also had the best margaritas in town. We were in the mood for Southwestern cuisine, so off we went. The two dishes to the right were fabulous: our appetizer was Chipotle Shrimp Tamales with a tangy butter and ancho cream sauce, tomatillo salsa and pico de gallo; our entrees were Pescado Tacos, prepared with delicious grilled mahi mahi, chipotle aioli and mango salsa.

 

And did I forget to mention the Margaritas? They, too, were terrific.  Here is one happy cowgirl! That's two Margaritas in one month, two more than she's had in the past year. This book tour is hard work!








And lastly, the highlight of the day for Suzanne was seeing a skunk alongside the road. When she received Sanaya's message on Saturday about a skunk, she knew that she would see one very soon. We can't remember the last time we saw a skunk, so this was very special.