April 30, 2008 by Rick and Tinka.

On our fast paced journey east toward Texas, we stopped and visited Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico.  These are two of our favorite towns.

SANTA FE 

Santa Fe occupied by the Pueblo Indians from the year 1050 until 1607 and was established as a town by the Spanish in 1610.  It is the oldest capital city in North America.  You can read more about the history of Santa Fe at: http://www.thesantafesite.com/history.html.

If you’re looking for things Southwest, this is the place to come.  The square is filled with shops loaded with beautiful art, jewelry, furnishings, and clothing.  Local Indians line the square to sell their arts and crafts.

The La Fonda Hotel is a good place to stop for a drink or at least to look around.  The bar is very comfortable and, oh yes, quite expensive.

Santa Fe is famous for its doors.  As a matter of fact, there are merchants in Santa Fe that sell nothing but doors.  This photo shows some of the painted glass-work that can be found on doors at the La Fonda Restaurant.

The Loretto Chapel is another must see location in Santa Fe. 

Inside the chapel there is a mysterious spiral staircase that makes two full revolutions and has no visible means of support.  It was also built without the use of nails.  Information on the legend of the staircase can be found at: http://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase.html.

When heading north from Santa Fe you’ll come across Camel Rock.

Camel Rock seems to have become another excuse for a casino.  Casinos litter the landscape north of Santa Fe.

BANDELIER MONUMENT 

About 30 miles north of Santa Fe, near Los Alamos, you will find the Bandelier Monument.  If you do nothing else on your visit to Santa Fe, this is a must stop at least once in your life.  For about 10,000 years, the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians made dwellings in the cliffs and built ceremonial structures in the surrounding wilderness.  Don’t miss it.

Gotta watch that first step.

More information about the Bandelier National Monument can be found at: http://www.nps.gov/band/.

TAOS

Tinka’s cousin, Steve, has been living in the Taos area for over 20 years.  So, with only a couple of days notice, we  descended upon Steve for a visit of this beautiful location.  This worked out well, because, unknown to us, some years back Steve had been a tour guide in the area.

There are basically two ways to get from Santa Fe to Taos.  The low road, which follows along the Rio Grande River, is the most direct route.

I don’t think that this much water ever makes it to the Texas and the Mexican border.  This is the road that we took on our way to Taos.

The other route is the high road, which reaches altitudes of 9500 feet.  We chose this one for our return trip.  Yep, that’s snow, you know, the stuff we have been trying to avoid for 6 months.

Back in 1772, the San Francisco de Asis Mission was built in Taos.

The mission is made of adobe and the walls are several feet thick and was used as a defensible location when the community came under attack in less friendly times.

Adobe structures require annual maintenance to keep them from becoming a pile of mud and straw.  Each summer the building must be resurfaced with new mud.  This is a shot of the corner of the mission.  You can see the straw showing through to the surface.

A building across the street has not had the tender loving care granted to the mission.

I guess they have a law requiring adobe style design because that is all that can be found throughout most of New Mexico.  Newer adobe style buildings have modern surfaces that don’t require the annual mud resurfacing.

Dennis Hopper, who fell in love with the area while filming the movie Easy Rider, bought the house shown above.  It is now a bed and breakfast.  As you can see by this photo of Tinka and Steve, some of the doors inside the B&B are a little small for Rick.

Just outside of Taos is a bridge across the Rio Grande Gorge.  The bridge is 650 feet above the river below. (Click on Photo for Panoramic Shot.)

Looking up the gorge from the bridge is a fantastic view. (Click on Photo for Panoramic Shot.)

The Taos Pueblo is an Indian community that has been continually occupied for over 1000 years.  It is one highlight that we didn’t have time to visit.  We’ll make sure that we go there on our next visit.

We want to thank Steve for taking time to show us around.  On our next trip, we’d like him to bring along his neighbor Julia Roberts.  We’ll spring for lunch.

Posted in New Mexico | 2 Comments »

April 2, 2007 by Rick and Tinka.

As we left the D/FW area we were low on fresh veggies and meat and planned on stopping at a Wal-Mart along the road.  In Texas you can find a Wal-Mart everywhere.  They all look the same except in certain cities like Addison that make them build it to code of their city.  In Addison Wal-Mart is a red brick building.  We saw several Wal-Marts along the way but we were in a hurry and didn’t stop.  Then we got to New Mexico and Arizona and couldn’t find one along the highway.  In AZ there is no big sign letting you know you are near a Wal-Mart.  They all look like all the other buildings and just a sign on the building itself.  We finally did find one in Phoenix and loaded up on groceries.

We went to Wal-Mart in El Centro to look at digital cameras as our battery cover latch is broken and we have to tape it shut.  They had a limited selection as they were expecting new cameras in April. We didn’t buy one.  The Wal-Mart looked like any Wal-Mart in TX.

A few days later we were in El Cajon and stopped by Best Buy to see what kind of cameras they had and their prices.  As we drove into the parking lot of Best Buy, we saw a sign and an arrow pointing to Wal-Mart.  Did not see it any where.  As we left Best Buy we asked where Wal-Mart was located.  Best Buy was next door to a shopping mall with Macy’s as one of its anchor store.  The salesman told us to drive around the mall and it was on the other side.  It was not in a parking lot by itself but IN THE MALL ITSELF.  Not only was it in the mall but it was 2 stories tall.  It was one of the anchor stores.  How COOL is that?  So we went in to see what their selections of cameras were. 

Rick always gets a cart and uses it to walk with around a store.  So he grabs a cart and we look to see where their cameras were.  They were up the escalator on the 2^nd floor.  How do we get the cart up the escalator?  Well, between the up and down people escalator, there is a shoppinig cart escalator.

Notice the garden center is upstairs.  You can park your car in a covered 3 story garage.

Posted in New Mexico, California, Arizona | 2 Comments »

March 19, 2007 by Rick and Tinka.

Monday, March 19, 2007 – El Cajon, CA
Today we made a nice hilly trip into El Cajon, CA to visit all RVer’s favorite store, Wal-Mart.  We also were looking for a good place to get the thermostat and coolant changed.  We found a Pep Boys that could do the job, just not today.  We had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, picked up some groceries and headed back into the hills.  We use the Escapee’s mail forwarding service in Livingston, TX.  They have been very efficient.  Our first attempt to have our mail forwarded to a post office general delivery address was successful.

Thursday, March 15, 2007 – Phoenix to Southern California

We left Phoenix at about 9:00 AM on Thursday and headed toward Southern California.  Our only incident was a session of overheating on a ten-mile incline from 50 feet below sea level to 3200 feet.  This was a surprise because the truck had no trouble pulling the load up the hill.  I intend to have the coolant and the thermostat changed next week.

We ended up at a recreational area in the mountains east of El Centro and west of San Diego where we intend to stay for about a month to relax and work on getting in shape.  The internet access is somewhat spotty here too.  We’ll work on getting a better connection.   But we’re not going to do much of anything for a few days.

Tuesday & Wednesday, March 13-14, 2007 – Tucson, AZ to Phoenix, AZ

Since we decided against Life-On-Wheels, we freed up a couple of days for relaxation.  We headed to just north of Phoenix to visit some online friends Carl and Peggy, who are also full timing. Their decision was helped along with the arrival of hurricane Katrina to their home in New Orleans.  We had a chance to relax and even get in a little swimming.

We had no internet or cell phone service here.

Monday, March 12, 2007 – Tucson, AZ

We went to Camping World and Beaudry’s parts place in search of a new little door to cover our sewer hose storage compartment.  The original must have opened and blown off early on our first day of travel.  None in stock.  We’ll try to get one at the Montana Rally in mid April near Santa Barbara.

We finally heard from the Life-On-Wheels people at 11:00 AM.  They said that we could get into the three-day Rally (Seminars) if we could get there by noon.  That wasn’t going to happen.  We’ll have to pick up another one later.

Monday night, we met with friends Roland and Karen and some other friends, Mike and Marilyn, for dinner at a north Tucson resort.  It was fun and we got back to Beaudry’s by about midnight. 

Sunday, March 11, 2007 – El Paso, TX to Tucson, AZ

On Sunday morning, we headed off to take a look at the house, in El Paso, that Tinka was living in when we met back in 1985.  This is where I convinced her to marry me.  The house looked good.  The town had grown tremendously.  What used to be desert a few blocks from her house is now miles and miles of houses.

We hooked up and at 11:00 we pushed on through New Mexico toward Tucson.  In New Mexico, we passed a fantastic rock formation in what is known as Texas Canyon.  Next time through here, we’ll take some time to explore the area.  Our current schedule didn’t allow the time.

We pulled into Beaudry’s RV Resort around 3:00 PM, totally confused by the time zone changes combined with daylight savings time.  It turns out that Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time.  Beaudry’s is a fantastic place.  They even have “hot tub” spaces.  All of the sites were quite large, with concrete patios and patio furniture.  This facility is huge.  They have an RV service area with 50 bays with lifts for the largest RV’s.  There is also a Camping World onsite.  By the way, their restaurants are closed from 2:00 PM Sunday until Monday at 11:00AM

We fired up our new ice maker and the thing started spitting out cubes in about six minutes.  Our friends, Roland and Karen stopped by shortly after we were set up.  We had a couple of drinks and went to dinner at Famous Sam’s. 

Saturday, March 10, 2007 – Pecos, TX to El Paso, TX

In the morning, we headed back to Barstow, TX to take a look at the town in daylight.  Unfortunately, the years have not been good to the, once prosperous, farming community.  When New Mexico dammed the Pecos River, irrigation became impractical.  The cottonwood trees, that were once plentiful, have all died and blown over, along with nearly every other tree in the county.  The 30’ X 24’ old farm house, where Tinka grew up, had been burned down several years ago.  All that is left is the foundation and the garage that Tinka used as a playhouse.

It seems that a good paint salesman could have made a fortune in Barstow.  Nothing has seen a new coat of paint since being built. Below is Tinka’s grandmother’s general store.

At noon we headed off to El Paso.  Along the way, we reached a maximum altitude of 4683 feet, near Van Horn. We pulled in to the Mission RV Park in the late afternoon.  There had been reports that the pull-through spaces at Mission were too narrow for big rigs.  Ours is as wide as any and we had no trouble.  True, putting out the awning might have been too much.

We met with Tinka’s childhood friend Sherrie and, with her, visited her son’s art gallery.  He was preparing for a showing so we didn’t get into his hair for very long.  After the art gallery, we went to one of Rick’s favorite restaurants, Billy Crews.  This is a fantastic steak house on the edge of El Paso, just over the New Mexico border.  After dinner, we visited with Sherrie at her home for a while then headed back to Mission RV for the night.

Friday, March 9, 2007 - Weatherford, TX to Pecos, TX

We left Weatherford at about 9:15 AM and headed to meet Tinka’s Aunts, Faye and Corky, and her uncle, Laddie for a late lunch in Midland. We had a nice visit and left Midland for Pecos, TX at about 4:00 PM. We arrived in Pecos at around 6:00 PM and made camp at the Escapees RV Park there.  The park itself was clean, flat, and not overburdened with frills.

At 7:00 we headed back up the road six miles to the town of Barstow, TX where Tinka was born and grew up.  We visited with some of Tinka’s family friends, Theresa and Bobbie, in Barstow and headed back to Pecos for the night.  It was kind of ironic to start our new life where Tinka was born.  Below is Judge Roy Bean’s place.

Well we’re finally on the way.  This is an effort to catch up from for the first week of travel. Internet connections were not always very reliable and truthfully, we’ve been exhausted.

Tinka returned from Canada after relocating her mother near her sister, who lives in Kelowna, BC.  Our plan was to leave town on March 8^th, but we had a few things left to tend to and couldn’t get it all done on time.

We departed westward on March 9, 2007, a day later than planned.  Our goal was to get to Tucson by Sunday, the 12^th so that we could attend the “Life-On-Wheels” Rally.  We were on the standby list because of our fluctuating schedule didn’t allow us to get reservations in on time.

Posted in New Mexico, California, Arizona | 4 Comments »