Weekend in Southern Colorado

Maren and I spent a lovely weekend in Southern Colorado visiting with my mom and my grandparents. Here are some of the things we saw while we were there:

Lilacs as big as houses--really! This must be some year for lilacs, because the town was filled with huge, lush lilac bushes, positively loaded with blooms. Alamosa is small with mostly older homes, many of which have at least one lilac that must have been planted around the same time as the home was originally built. Those bushes have grown into what could easily be called trees now, in many cases as tall as the homes they accompany. They were truly spectacular!
On Saturday we made the 80-mile drive south across the New Mexico border to have lunch in Taos. On the way we went through a town (not much more than a wide spot in the road) called Antonito, home to this impressive homage to recycling:
This is Cano's Castle, which is said to be created primarily of beer cans and hubcaps. It's...well, it's something else, that's for sure. Here's a close-up of the helpful health advice on the sign in the front:Duly noted.

The house next door (not pictured) is well on its way to being completely lined with beer bottles and the surrounding lots give any junkyard a run for its money. Small-town America kook at its finest!
Further down the road we went over the Rio Grande Gorge bridge, the fifth highest bridge in the United States and no place for the vertiginously-inclined.The view is impressive and were in the right place at the right time to see a group of river rafters hit the rapids just below the bridge:Wheee! We could actually hear them scream as the water went over the sides into the boat.

From there it was just a few more miles to Taos. We had lunch at a restaurant inside the historic Taos Inn, which still sports this awesome neon sign:I do believe over the course of this weekend I ate my weight in guacamole. Yum!

It was the Saturday after the school let out and traffic was bumper-to-bumper through town, which is small to begin with. The crowds and the looming black rainclouds cut our visit short and we headed back north across the border. This time we used a different route, which took us through the oldest town in Colorado, and then on to home.

I'm happy to report there was indeed some small-town thrifting! Pictures of my loot tomorrow.