Blogs from New Mexico, United States, North America - page 9

We were up early again this morning, but for some reason it took us a while to get moving. Perhaps it was the great breakfast at La Quinta…better than average…cheese omelets and thin and delicately crispy bacon. Just ask Beamer. He had his share of both. We got on the road at 8 AM and attempted to follow the onboard GPS to I-20, which was not far from the hotel, but we missed the first turn and ended up having to find a place to turn around. Steve chose to drive down a side street and, by chance, it took us to a place I had read about but forgot to look for yesterday. The road led to UTPB (University of Texas at Permian Basin) and what did we find, purely by accident? A replica of ... read more

Blog 04-05-19 Los Alamos and Bandelier On Thursday I moved from Elephant Butte and headed north on 25 and drove past Albuquerque , past Santa Fe and found my way to White Rock, NM. Lynne had suggested I stop in Bandelier National Monument to see the Pueblo ruins and she also gave me a tip on where to stay, at the visitor's center in White Rock. It's basically a large parking lot with electric hook-ups but right across the street from the whole town. There is a grocery, library, 3 eateries and the post office all within walking distance, get cell service and several tv channels, what more can you want. I went into Los Alamos which was only 6 miles away for some Mexican food but the place was closed but I did discover this ... read more

blog 04-01-19 April Fool's Day I woke up to a red glow on the eastern horizon and frost on my car. The storm blew through during the night leaving the air clear, crisp and cold. But once the sun came out it warmed up quickly. The day started slowly and never did really pick up much steam. After breakfast I headed to T or C (Truth or Consequences) for an exciting shopping trip to Walmart, a camper's heaven. As I pulled up to the parking lot I noticed that the entire lot had covered parking, how strange was that. The covers as it turned out, were solar panels to power the store, which they did completely. The state has a plan to become completely independent of fossil fuels in the next few years so they are ... read more

blog 03-30-19 Cabolla Lake to Elephant Butte Lake Yes, I like camping on or near the water. There are a series of dams on the Rio Grande and 2 of them formed lakes that have become state parks. Elephant Butte is just 25 miles north of Cabolla Lake and a very easy drive. I arrived about 2:30 found my campsite and proceeded to be crazy about leveling. Usually it's the front to back that needs to be leveled but this site was off left to right. That meant that I had to use the boards for the rear duels and it's a little tricky mixing the boards and the blocks. But after several adjustments, in and out of the cab, on and off different number of blocks, I got it. This time I was the entertainment. ... read more

We got an early start from the Wahweep Campground, it would be a long haul to Taos, if we got that far at all. The route we were taking would be all two lanes across the top of Arizona, with a brief detour up into Utah to take that famous drive through Monument Valley. I had done that before on my Porsche trip a few years ago, but I was surprised to learn that Cathy had never seen it. We made good time on open roads, and there was plenty to see. It's funny to think that geographic features that would be celebrated and famous were they situated back east are completely overlooked here, to travel here is to be visually spoiled. In due time we entered into that famous valley of red rock mesas. Maybe ... read more