four years? for real?

I can't believe that four years have passed since we made that journey out west.  We leave again in two weeks and we are heading south!  I am so looking forward to the slower pace and no more alarm clocks!
Elvis, here we come!

Day 27. 8/25/10. Albuquerque or bust

Weather was beautiful in the morning. The sun was shining and it was in the low 50s. By the times we hit the road it was in the 70s. Albuquerque was only about and hour and a half away, however, we opted to take the scenic route called the Turquoise Trail. This byway added quite some time on because there are places to stop along the way.
Some history on the Turquoise Trail:
It encompasses 15000 square miles.
It links Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
The highest peak is Sandia Crest at 10600 ft.
The name comes from the blue-green turquoise first mined by the early Pueblo people.
Francisco Coronado was the first of many explorers to the area.
The trail stretches 65 miles and includes towns such as Sandia Park, Golden,Madrid and Cerrillos. Originally it consisted of two smaller towns called El Real de San Franciscoand Puerto. Along the way are homes, ranches, galleries and shops, a golf course/ ski resort, lodging and a horseback riding trail.
The trail was designated an American Scenic Byway in 2000.
A major gold rush occurred in 1825. Cerrillos was ceovetedlong before that for it's turquoise and lead ores used for glazing pottery.
Golden grew in popularity in the early-mid 1800s for it's placer gold deposits, hence its name.
Madrid was mined by squatters in the early 1800s and later became a company owned coal mining town.when the coal market collapsed, Madrid became a ghost town. In 1954, the whole town was for sale for $250,000! In the 1960s and 70s, artists, crafts people, and renegades rediscovered Madrid and helped it to become what it is today.
In the 1920s, Madrid was best known for its annual Christmas lighting display. New Mexican families came for miles and TWA diverted nighttime flights for their passengers to view the display.
The newest tidbit....it was the setting for parts of the movie Wild Hogs.
Madrid was the ticket and it boasted some neat shops. Our favorite was Chumani Gallery. The owner Todd could not do enough for us. He was definitely one of the best shopkeepers we've met along the way. Rianna was also very nice. She owns Trading Bird Gsllery.
Nick had lunch at The Hollar which was highly recommended by several locals. He said the hamburger and fries were done to perfection.
We enjoyed the rest of the ride and savored the sights of pinon, junipers, and mountain mahogany trees.
We got to American RV park early, and decided to spend the afternoon poolside. We had the pool to ourselves which was wonderful. This campground was one of the nicest we've been to.
They serve a continental breakfast daily, the sites were spacious, and the pool and hot tub were clean.
I spent the afternoon in the pool. After dinner we relaxed and looked forward to our trip into Albuquerque the next day.

Day 26 8/24/2010 do you know the way to Santa Fe?

Gorgeous morning! The girls we had spoken to yesterday mentioned a bus called the Santa Fe Trails that we could take right into the Plaza, but we opted to drive in since we were out the door so early. If we couldn't get parking, we'd go back to the campground and take the bus.
The Plaza was 4 and a half miles away. There was a lot of parking on the street and we were good to go. A Plaza is an area in the center of town where people gather to socialize. In Santa Fe, on one side of the Plaza you see the Palace of the Governors which is the oldest public building in the US and on the other three sides you see shops and restaurants. Plaza records date back to the early 1700's when Santa Fe was settled by Spanish Conquistadors. When Mexico governed the land, it was an open spot where people brought their cattle to graze. Between 1821 and 1846, the Plaza became a place filled with carts, livestock traders and people. In 1844 trees and benches were added.
The shops were lovely. On one side a group of Native Americans were selling their wares. Each store had a Spanish influence architecturally. We shopped for a while. Lunch was beef fajitas from a vendor in the plaza and we sat on a bench at the edge of the Plaza and ate. Dessert was Hagen-Daz ice cream. We walked around a little more then headed back to the RV.
It was early yet so off we went to the Tesuque Pueblo. It is one of the most traditional
pueblos. Tesuque may be translated to Cottonwood Tree Plaza. The Pueblo on the banks of the
Tesuque River may have bee inhabited since 1200 A.D.
At the entrance we were greeted by a few kids and a crazy dog who chased cars as they entered.
He had no fear! It was pretty funny, but scary because he went under the cars when they were
moving. No pictures were allowed to be taken. Here is where the RV is a
disadvantage.....the roads were narrow and difficult to travel on and without knowing exactly
where we were going, we could not go too far back. We did venture to the plaza where
traditional homes were and I got to see the school. It also felt a little disrespectful driving around without direction, so we headed out and went on to the Harley dealer.
We went back to camp to relax and it started to rain........what a great day we had.

Day 25 8/23/10. Montezuma's revenge

We awoke to 75 degrees and sun and headed out to Las Vegas. I set the GPS to the general area of where we needed to go. Uh huh. Where is everyone? Where is everything? The center of the city was more of a ghost town than the ghost town we visited. Most buildings were deserted and even the architecture was limited. We never even got out of the car. We were parked while I was setting up the GPS for our next stop when an old man in a pick up pulled up next to us and honked. Nick looked up and rolled down his window to hear what the man was saying. He was telling us about Montezuma's Castle and the hot springs that were there.
We drove the 7 or 8 miles up there and found the castle. We took the narrow road up to it and discovered that it is now a college so we couldn't get in to tour the building. Its structure was beautiful. It was originally built in the early 20th century as a hotel. We found the hot springs, but they were not accessible, so they really didn't serve a purpose either.
We went back down the hill and headed for the highway to Santa Fe. Piñon trees lines the mountains. Instead of log cabins, there were mobile homes and bungalows spread out on the highway. What a totally different atmosphere.
We found our campground that we had reservations with and it was very remote. We wanted something closer to town so we decided to go down the mountain and did a quick search online.
We decided to check out Los Campos de Santa Fe. The office was closed. While we were waiting
we met two very nice women from New Orleans who are full time RVers. They recently retired
and were spending a month in Santa Fe. They sold us on the campground and we liked the
location, so we went for lunch to wait for the office to reopen.
We found a Mexican restaurant and they didn't serve seafood, so we decided to eat there. The
tacos were ok, but the sopaipilla was delicious. When we returned, we registered for two nights and went grocery shopping.
I had grabbed a bunch of brochures from the office and one was on Pueblos in the area. I wanted to visit one, so we went back out. As we headed in the direction, we noticed very dark skies in the area, so turned around and went to the mall instead because they had my favorite store.....Dillard's! I bought an outfit for the first day of school. We also saw a Harley store and figured we'd stop there too, but it was closed. It never rained by us, but I saw on the news that the sera near the Pueblo was hit hard. It was cloudy the rest of the night, and we had a little rain later on.

Day 24, August 22, 2010 another new state

The rain stopped and we got off and running before 9 am. The skies had cleared and it was a nice day. We were headed into New Mexico. We were surrounded by the Rockies, but have decided that the Grand Tetons were more beautiful and majestic.
Sign spotted on I-25......High winds may exist. They weren't kidding.....it was just like being in Wyoming.
Today I miss the roads in Arizona and southern Utah. They weren't major highways and you were able to pull over and take pictures. There were small shacks with lack of a better word that Native Americans sold their handicrafts. You could easily stop and buy something to drink or stretch your legs.
Our favorite places to date: Monument Vslley and West Yellowstone.
We went over the Raton Pass at 7834ft. It felt like an ant hill considering what we have climbed! We went over less mountains, but we were still surrounded by them. There were also less trees. There was still a lot of open space with ranches.
Sign of the day: attention: please do not pick up hitchhikers in this area. Thank you......as if we need to be told! Farther into the state we saw the same sign only it added that this is a state penitentiary.
The only trees now were in the mountains and they were getting farther and fsrther away.
We stopped in Ocate, NM to have lunch in a rest area. Our view was open range and grazing cattle. Along the way we've seen a lot of pronghorns.
Our planned stop was in Raton, but because we weren't traveling as much in the mountains, Nick decided we'd go on. We traveled about a hundred miles down the road, and the sky started to get heavy with rain clouds, so we decided to stop. We picked Las Vegas,NM. I had taken a glimpse of the city's website when I was planning the trip and thought it had a bit of history and would make an interesting stop. Much to our chagrin, we stopped for the night at a KOA. I don't know how to describe it.....it was old and obviously had history. Sites were on different levels of ground and there was some ground cover. The oddest part of this park was the tent sites. They were at the EDGE of the road! It was a fairly busy road too! The best part was, we had a fire ring and we had fire wood from Colorado Springs. We took a walk, started to get ready to light a fire and here it comes......the rain!
Pet peeve.......why can't we find any decent radio stations! We were hoping to listen to some old country at some point. We found one station on AM and it only lasted for a little while. Missing my Sirius radio a little today.

Day 23 august 21, 2010. garden of the gods

We got on the road early and were headed to Colorado Springs, Colorado as our next stop. We headed out about 9 am. We woke to blue skies and high 60s with the temperature rising to 90 according to weather.com.
Today's trip was mainly on an interstate highway which makes the trip rather boring. The mountains continue to be rather high and the winds continued. We were noticing less and less rental RVs on the road and two-thirds of the trip is over. We are on the downside heading south.
Most of the scenery on I-25 was factories and malls. Occasionally we would see a small llama farm.
We got to Co. Springs early. Originally I was hoping to get together with a Navy Mom friend. However, with all the craziness at home before we left, I didn't get a chance to reach out to her. I was hesitant because we weren't sure what was happening with our trip. Once we got on the road, I didn't always have reliable Internet service and sometimes I didn't have Internet, so sending a message was difficult. Needless to say, she made other plans.....but Connie, I'll be back!
We decided to spend some time at the Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Go was dedicated in 1909 as a free park. There is an abundance of plant and animal life. The park is most known for its redstone rock formation, some of which are over 300 million years old. These formations were formed by Erosion. We walked around for about an hour since we both were tired of sitting in the RV and enjoyed every breathtaking view possible.
Our campground was about half an hour away. It was a ways out of the city high in the mountains at about 6900 feet. There was no cell service or Internet service which fit the setting perfectly. The campground was lovely and even though there were quite a bit of people there, the sites were far enough apart that no one opposed on another's privacy. They allowed campfires, so we bought wood and anticipated sitting sound the fire. Nick improvised and made dinner over an open fire,and it was delicious.
Just as we were ready to get a campfire going, we felt one....then two....then a whole lot of raindrops. We hoped that it would end soon, but it continued steadily through the night so we hung inside and read and listened to the rain.

Day 22. 8/20/2010. How the west was won

Headed out of Glendo early to go to Cheyenne, wyoming. We were really psyched about this stop because of the big part Cheyenne played in the early western days. The city had its' beginnings in 1867 and was named after a tribe of Indians that Roamed the area. The Union-Pacific Railroad came through Cheyenne at the start on its way to the west coast. We were expecting an old town much like we've seen in other areas. We were quite disappointed. There was some great architecture to look at, but that was about it. There were a couple of museums, but they were similar to ones we'd been to and we really wanted to be in the outdoors. There was an Air Force base close by and we called to see if we could go on base to their museum, but we were told they did not have anyone to escort us.
We got to the campground in the late afternoon. It was a small campground with lovely owners, but the campground appeared to be old and the sites were right on top of one another. We did not have a table, so it kept us from sitting outside on a glorious day (not to mention we were stuck in the cab of the motorhome all day). The campground had a renowned restaurant known for its barbecue. I don't care for smoked foods so I had leftovers, but Nick decided to give the brisket a try. I took a few bites though and found it to be very tender. He agreed. Two sides and a roll came with the dinner. Dessert was a selection of homemade pies. I chose apple and Nick had blueberry. They were perfect. The crust was brown and flaky, the apples weren't too sweet, and there was cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Nick said the same about his blueberry pie.