Tolsons' Discovery Travels: Balloons, Madrid & Santa Fe, NM

Tue (10-6-09): Busy day today. Watched this mornings balloons go up and over our coaches. From inside I could hear them giving more gas to the flame so they would rise. Chuck took some MORE pics. A group of us left at 9:00 a.m. to head for Madrid (left over artsie hippy town where they are still smoking pot out in the open) and then up to Santa Fe for lunch at an authentic mexican restaurant--Tomasita's, shopping and sightseeing--Loretta Chapel--to see the free standing wooden staircase. We rode with the Halsteads and the Mertz.

I was on a mission today to find some more Kingman Turquoise jewelry. I had gotten a bracelet at Gouldin's in Monument Valley, UT when we were there two years ago and now I was looking for a slide, earrings and ring. Well, I found a ring in Madrid and then the earrings in Santa Fe. This is a good time of the year to shop because it's the end of the season and alot of things were 60% off! Mem and I were in one jewelry store where we found my earrings and they had white and black turquoise, which is called White Buffalo. The lady there explained that they just found this kind of turquoise in the last 8 yrs or so and that it is white because it lacks copper. Well, it was time to meet the guys for our return trip back to Albuquerque, so we had to leave. So now we have another mission--find White Buffalo jewelry! We are going to Old Town Albuquerque tomorrow!

MADRID, NM