Welcome to Arizona

We left Gallup last Wednesday and drove to Tempe, Arizona.  I decided to avoid the interstate route which would have taken us through Flagstaff then down to the Phoenix area.  Instead we took some state highways through the mountains and canyons and were rewarded with some spectacular scenery.  The downside is we had to climb some mighty big mountains with the truck and trailer.

Most of the RV parks in the Phoenix area are geared for the the snowbirds, those that flee the cold states and come live in their RV here.  As a result a majority of the parks are very huge and only allow those that are 55+.  I still have two weeks until I am 55 and we were not really interested in these mega parks (1000+ spaces) where people are permanent residents.  I found a park a few miles from our daughter’s place that was smaller and had no age restriction.  It is OK but it is very tight quarters, which is what most of the parks are in the area. 

Here are some pictures to show you

Our rig on the right looking down the exit road.  We were fortunate to get an end space so I am able to park the truck on the left side of the trailer which is much easier than in front of the patio.

All the other spaces have to park their vehicle next to the patio.  You can see how tight that would be for our large truck.

There is one cactus in the place and it is wrapped in lights!

We are here for two weeks so it should not be too bad.  While we are here we are going to explore other parks for our return visit next spring for our daughter’s wedding.  We plan on being here for a month so a more comfortable spot is needed, probably outside of the city.

On a separate topic, regarding our truck.  When we were in the Smoky Mountains a noise coming from the drivers side, near the windshield started.  It usually only happened and highway speed and was very loud.  Over the course of the next few weeks I tried everything to diagnose it without much luck.  While in Kansas City I took it to the Ford dealer and, of course, it did not do it then, and they could not think of what it could be.  While in Colorado Springs it came up again and it appeared to be affected by the wind outside.  So now I believed it had something to do with the windshield.  On this last trip from Santa Fe to Gallup to Tempe I taped up the molding on the windshield on the outside.  No sound the entire trip.  While here in Tempe I took the truck to an auto glass place and they took one look at it and said my molding was coming off but that I needed to take it to Ford because of the warranty.  I stopped at the Ford dealer and am set to bring it back on Monday but I am fearing a fight to get this covered may ensue based on the preliminary discussion with the service manager.  I will keep you posted.

Route 66–Gallup, New Mexico

We left Santa Fe on Monday to make our way to Phoenix for an extended stay and visit with our daughter.  To break up the drive we stopped in Gallup, New Mexico, which is about half way.  Beautiful country but not a lot to do in Gallup unless you are into Indian jewelry as there are shops everywhere.  What is cool is that the town is right on the old historic Route 66 and many old buildings and signs from that bygone era remain.

The best one from the “old days” is the El Rancho Hotel/Motel.  This was the place to stay back in the 40’s and 50’s and it is still well maintained.  Many westerns from back then were filmed here because of the red rock and famous mountains.  The stars of the movies would stay at the El Rancho so the second floor of the lobby is lined with autograph pictures of these stars.

After the El Rancho we took a drive out to Red Rock park to see Church Rock and Pyramid Rock.  There are two famous rock formations in the area.

Church Rock

Pyramid Rock

Earlier this year, my aunt and uncle who are quasi-full time rv’ers were driving Route 66 and stopped in Gallup.  My uncle took a picture of restaurant sign and posted it on Facebook.  I thought it was hilarious but had forgotten all about it until we were driving down Route 66 on our way to Red Rock Park and saw the sign.  I just started laughing!  I will post his picture so you all can get a laugh.

I did not try the food.

8 month update

Eight months and still going.  We slowed down a little this past month as we liked Colorado Springs so much we stayed for almost 3 weeks.  We are finishing up a week in Santa Fe and will be leaving on Monday to make our way to Phoenix by Wednesday to visit with our oldest daughter.  At the moment our plans call for us to be in Phoenix for two weeks but that is up in the air.

I have been amazed by the great weather we have had over the past month, especially this late in the year and the elevations we are at.  I thought for sure it would be much colder and we would not be able to stay as long due to possible snow or freezing temperatures.  In Colorado and New Mexico it has been pretty much sunny every day and generally in the mid-70’s.  It has been getting chilly at night but not below freezing.  We are making a two night stop over in Gallup where it should be about the same weather, then into Phoenix where it is hot 24/7!

Here is an updated map to reflect our 8 months of travel.

Lastly, I have to add this as it just continues to amaze me.  You may remember a post a few months back about me finding a new storage area in our rig.  I found a key or jewelry storage cabinet built into the window molding.  Because this was our second find (remember the table top) I searched the trailer for possible other areas and did not find any.  Welllllllllll, I found another one.  We have a slide out drawer under the couch.  I discovered it by just happening to look at pictures of a new model Jayco online and it showed this drawer under the fold out couch.  So I checked ours and there it was.  We have owned this trailer for a year now, I wonder what else we will find!

Cool App

Since we got our Xoom tablet I continually look at the app market to see what new and interesting apps are available for the Android tablet.  A few months back I searched under astronomy to see what was available and an app called Google Sky Map came up.  It was free so I thought I would download it.  I have opened it up a few times since I downloaded it but really did not give it a good look until last night.  Being in Santa Fe, we are at 7,200 feet elevation and it is really dark at night.  I stepped outside around 9 pm  and could not even see the steps on the trailer.  I checked the sky and just saw so many stars I thought I would see how Sky Map works. 

I took the tablet outside and started the program.  You hold the tablet up to the sky with the screen facing you and it tells what all the stars and planets are where ever you point the tablet.  You can even search for something and it will tell you where to look.  It was so cool.  I wanted to see some planets but the only one visible above the horizon at that time was Jupiter, but it clearly stood out once I knew what I was looking at.

You can use this app on a tablet or smartphone and it is free.  I would highly recommend it.

More Rocks!

On Thursday we drove to the Bandelier National Monument, which is about 50 miles from Santa Fe, near Los Alamos.  Bandelier is known for its cliff dwellings and great mountain views.  The landscape was made from a huge volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, so the rocks  and cliffs take interesting forms.  The park was ravaged by a fire this past summer that claimed 60% of it, but fortunately the main tourist part (cliff dwellings, loop trail and visitor’s center) were not touched.  However, following the fire came a flood and that caused the park to shut down for three months.  It just reopened two weeks ago but you can only get in via a shuttle and can only walk on the main loop trail for about two thirds of it.  So, what could have been a day long visit to hike a few trails and have a picnic turned into a 30 minute shuttle ride (one-way), a 1 hour walk on the trail and then a 30 minute return ride.  It was still worth it and fortunately it was free for us as we have an annual pass to the national parks and monuments.

On to the pictures.

The visitor center and parking lot with mountains in background.  This is where the shuttle drops you off.

Adobe dwelling.  Notice the holes in the rock, these are living spaces carved out by the Native Americans hundreds of years ago.

 Interesting rock formations.

Fran examining one of the cliff dwellings.

More cliff dwellings.

A view of the area.

Following Bandelier we drove to Los Alamos as it is only 10 miles away.  This is where the first atomic bomb was built for World War II and currently houses the Los Alamos National Lab where various government research projects are conducted.  There is a small museum, Bradbury Science Museum, that gives you the history of the lab and shows you what it currently works on. 

Replica of “Fat Man”, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. This was a plutonium bomb.

Replica of “Little Boy”, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.  This was a uranium bomb.

The drive to Los Alamos was spectacular.  The highway is on the edge of a mountain up to the town.  The views are just spectacular on the drive up and down on this highway (highway 502).  I could not get any pictures that would show the road but you can get a feel for it if you go to Google Maps and put in Los Alamos, NM.  The satellite image will come up and just follow Highway 502 out of town.  If you zoom in you should be able to get an idea of how cool this drive was.

Here is a picture I did take to show you the view.

Your science lesson for today has concluded.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We have moved from Taos to Santa Fe.  We did this on Monday and it was a nice short drive, 80 miles.  We took a back route instead of the interstate and it was very picturesque.  We arrived in Santa Fe to some fierce winds.  I believe the gusts were upwards of 35 mph.  I thought for sure the awnings covering our slides would ripe apart, but everything came through OK.  We are staying at an RV park about 10 miles from downtown, so it is very open and has expansive views of the area.  The interesting thing at this park is the number of large, expensive motorhomes (huge diesel pushers) that are here.  In most parks you get a good mix of smaller motorhomes, smaller trailers, fifth wheels and large diesel pushers.  For some reason this park, each night, has about 2/3 of the occupants to be huge, expensive, diesel pushers.  Even the majority of the fifth wheel rigs here are the high end models. 

Our rig parked in its row

A sampling of what surrounds us

On Tuesday, since the wind died down, we decided to explore downtown Santa Fe. 

The cathedral

Inside the cathedral

The alter

Organ and rose window

Loretto Chapel

Inside the Loretto Chapel

The Loretto Chapel is famous for its “miraculous staircase”.  This is a staircase that goes from the chapel floor to the choir loft.  It is spiral and made out of wood with no visible means of support.  There is a whole inspirational story behind it you can read at http://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase.html

We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the plaza, walked around the shops then took a tram ride touring the city. 

  City claims this is the oldest house in America dating back to somewhere between 1200 and 1600.

San Miguel church.  Claims it is the oldest church structure in the US.  It is made of adobe.

Santa Fe Plaza

The Palace of Governors.  Claims to be the oldest government building in the US.  The people you see on the walkway are Native American vendors selling jewelry and art.  They have been doing this at this spot for something like 150 years (obviously not the same people!)

And of course the shops.  Jewelry store, art store, clothing store, repeat, repeat, repeat…………….

On the tram tour we were taken on Canyon Road which is where all the art galleries are.  There is something like 200 galleries on this one road.  Some looked very interesting so we may make a return trip to take a closer look.

Taos, New Mexico

We left Colorado Springs on Thursday, which was a few days later than we planned as we had to wait for a FedEx package to arrive before we could depart.  To get to Taos I put in the address of the campground into our GPS unit and selected fastest route and did not think anything of it.  The mileage came up as 249 which I thought was a little longer from my previous calculations.  I saw that the GPS was taking us via Interstate 25 to US Highway 64, which is where the Taos RV park is located, so I figured that would be the most direct route to go.  It was not the most direct route but it did take us the most scenic route.  Highway 64 is part of the Enchanted Circle route that surrounds Taos.  Our route took us on half of the circle and the views were just spectacular.  It was a narrow two lane highway which meant some slow going pulling our rig, but it was worth it.  Here is a map of the Enchanted Circle, we were on Highway 64.

I had picked out a little RV park outside of Taos as the reviews were good and the view from Google earth made it look nice.  It is not that far from town and it has great views of the surrounding mountains.

There are only 18 spaces in this RV park and the landscaping, as you can see, is natural desert. 

Today we went sightseeing.  First stop was the San Francisco de Asis Church, which is something like 200 years old.  It was made famous by Ansel Adams in photographs and Georgia O’Keefe in paintings.  It is constructed of adobe.

From there we went to downtown Taos to the historic district to walk the plaza, window shop and have lunch.  Here are pictures of the plaza

Lunch was outdoors at a café in the John Dunn Shops plaza, The Bent Street Café.

From there we went to Taos Pueblo which is a working community of Native Americans living in the original pueblo buildings. 

Interesting note for this attraction.  There is an entrance fee for each person, plus a fee for each camera! 

From there we went to the Rio Grand Gorge bridge.  This is a bridge that spans a very deep gorge created by the Rio Grande river.  It is only a few miles from our RV park.  It is fascinating  to be driving on the highway and all you see if flat land with mountains in the the distance then you come upon this gorge that is something like 900 feet deep.  Can you imagine what the settlers traveling west must have felt when they came to this!  We have bridge, they did not.

The bridge

The gorge

The gorge

View down from the bridge

Last stop was a housing development just past the bridge that is called Earthship.  These houses are made into the earth using recycled materials and are completely self sustainable.  It was interesting to see, but actually it seems like a pile of junk in the desert!

The visitor center

One currently under construction

That was our day.  We did not plan on seeing all these sites in one day, it just worked out that way.  The weather is spectacular with sunny, warm days and cold nights.  We are here till Monday when we will move to Santa Fe for a week.

Another Tourist Destination

I added the post about the snow on Saturday and forgot all about our a visit to Seven Falls on Thursday.  Here in Colorado Springs there is a large  waterfall called Seven Falls and is one of the tourist things to do.  Now what I find so interesting here is that these tourist destinations are privately owned so you must pay to see them.  This was the case for the Royal Gorge Bridge, The Manitou Cliff Dwellings and now Seven Falls.  You must pay to go see a waterfall!  Pikes Peak is controlled by the city and there was a charge.  Garden of the Gods was a donation from a family to the city with the stipulation it had to be free to the public, great idea and thank you!

Seven Falls is actually one large waterfall, something like 180 feet high that falls in seven steps.  The drive to the falls is really quite cool as you drive in between two very large towering cliffs on either side of you.  They have it set up so you can take a elevator up to a viewing platform, which gives you a great view and picture taking opportunities.  You can also walk up the falls via steps installed and then hike to another little waterfall about a mile further.  We did both.  The walk up the falls is 224 steps straight up!

The falls were nice and it was worth the admission charge, but really, how does someone own a waterfall!!! 

Here are the pictures

The parking lot for the falls

The falls from the viewing platform

The stairs to walk to the top of the falls

The view down from halfway up

Yeah, you are smiling now!

View from the top

This is the fall we walked for a mile into the woods for once we walked all the steps up.  Not much, but it is late in the season so water flow is very low.

A view of the falls from the top.