This weekend there is a fiesta that celebrates the "peaceful" reoccupation of Santa Fe in 1692 by Don Diego De Vargas. Seems it wasn't so peaceful! As the driver explained the local Indians in 1690 burned down the entire city and forced the Spanish to flee. The Spaniards came back two years later and massacred the locals and I guess because none of the Spaniards got killed - they declared it a "peaceful reoccupation".
But why let the actual details get in the way - it's fiesta time!
The town has a population of about 70,000 people and it appears as best I can tell about 60,000 of them are artists and the rest are employed selling art. Again according to our shuttle driver - Santa Fe ranks third in the US when it comes to selling art (right after NYC and LA). Fact not verified - but there are a shitload of studios.
The biggest tourist site is the Santa Fe Cathedral.
And thanks to my shuttle driver - the City passed an ordinance that no building can be higher that the steeple of the church. If you can notice the church is on a hill - so some hotel in town (down lower on the hill) hired an architect and figured out the church's tallest part of structure in terms of feet above sea-level. They then built the hotel to the exact same "feet above sea level". So while the hotel is taller than the church - it is not "higher" in terms of feet above sea level and therefore complied with the law.
Seems they need to change the law!
Speaking of sea level the City is at 7000 feet. That is like the top of Squaw. Coming from the Cape at basically 0 feet above sea level it was quite the feat to do a ride today without first acclimating.
But before coming out I found a local bike club called the Santa Fe SOB's which stands for Seniors on Bikes. And the have rides every Thursday - so I did not want to miss the opportunity to check out the local bike scene.
We meet in the De Vargas Shopping Center this morning and banged out a 36 miler in the hills. Adding in the ride to and from my hotel - I'll count it as 42 miles. Did I suck wind! I got a bloody nose about half way into the ride - but because I didn't have a clue of where I was I was afraid to stop for fear of getting lost. I basically tried all my proven techniques for stopping the bleeding but none worked. Hard to apply "CPR" while riding down hills at 30 mph and still hold onto the handlebars. Not a pretty site.
In any case they were a great crew and I snapped a photo of some of the gang in their SOB shirts.
It's hard to see from the photo but on the back of the yellow shirt is a bicycle with two wheels and the SOB slogan emblazoned on the shirt. They explained this was the "new design" as the "old design" had the bike with its two wheels on the front of the jersey. It seemed this design did not "sit well" strategically on most of the women club members. As one of the riders said - the only thing missing was two tassels in the middle of bike wheels - well hopefully you get the picture!
Most of the crew is checking in today. One bike was damaged in shipment and the rider is out buying a new bike today. Just meet four guys from Canada and I know there are several coming in from Australia. Should be fun (except the camping part).
We are all watching the weather and it's changing by the hour. First it was a 30% chance of thunderstorms. By mid morning it was up to 80% and extended until Weds. By noon it was back to rain on Sunday - maybe Monday and back in the 30-40% chance. So I am going to only look until I find a forecast I like and then I am going with it.
Expect to try another ride tomorrow with more of the Santa Fe crew and of course head down to the Plaza for some "peaceful fiesta" local brews!!
cheers for now.
1 comment:
Let the "write" begin! Love the lore and SOB's...keep 'em coming!
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