Skipping Down Candy Cane Lane

Candy Cane Lane in St. Louis Hills was impressive both in its Christmas-lightiness and the fact that it had escaped my attention for so many years.

My first indication that Candy Cane Lane was anything more than just a couple houses screwing around was when I started seeing dedicated traffic signs for the event.

I guess the event started in the early 2000s as a friendly competition between neighbors over who could have the most insane electric bill. They raise money for charity too.

Professional sand sculptor Dan Belcher carved this bad boy. In an interview he said that this sculpture would take about three days to complete depending on the weather.

Back home we continued our holy work on the 2020 Christmas Movie Challenge. I was excited to dust off the laserdisc player and put my collection of gigantic Japanese media to work. Sadly my copy of Bill Murray's Scrooged had a crack in it and so was a bust.

My copy of Christmas classic Die Hard lived up to its name, however. Lasers!!

This was our eventual damage done to every Christmas movie that we decided was worth seeing.

The Best Trip North of the Rio Grande

Up until now we hadn't done much but drive and make frequent visits to gas stations. Today things started to get interesting.

In the night I heard that nasally whistle sound that deer-like creatures make. It was kind of spooky.

Shitter was full.

The only thing more fun than piloting a giant rickety house around is driving one up and down mountains.

My US trip bible, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, describes Taos as "if one town had to sum up an entire state, Taos would come close". It's kind of like an artsy resort town.

I have questions.

Lydia somehow already knew who Kit Carson was. I guess he lived in Missouri in the Boone's Lick area and his family and the Boones were friendly, so I guess he must have been covered in MO culture class somewhere between cousin kissing and confederacy joining. Anyhoo, Kit was a frontiersman who was important in opening up the west to American settlement. Carson City, Nevada is named after him. 

I think New Mexico must be like the most hardcore state in the Union as it was the law that we had to wear masks even outside.

Taos was a fun enough place that we were entertained just walking around and not even entering any buildings.

Lydia said she had been in Taos once before fairly recently.

This is disturbing but it gets a lot of extra credit for being Lincoln related.

Our attempts at curbside grocery pick ups at local stores had mixed success.

Next we hiked along the Rio Grande Gorge and saw some pretty amazing views. We took a correspondingly large amount of pictures.

I don't remember if we came here on purpose or just happened to be passing by, but this Quartzite Rio Grande Gorge spot was nice.

I was proud to see a St. Lunatic get a shoutout on this historical marker, even if it was as a party to some sort of kidnapping mail order bride ring.

Over dinner we continued our 2020 Christmas Movie Binge. Lydia's intention with the Grinch entry on the list was that Jim Carrey trash. Not in this house vehicle! I'm about that 1966 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! life.