Train Ride to Santa Fe (Thursday)

Well, we are still in Albuquerque.  Our excellent adventure on Thursday was a round trip train ride to Santa Fe, a day pass for $7 each.  Someone yesterday on the tram ride told us about it, so we decided we should do that.  Joe has never really been on a train, except for little touristy ones, so he got to enjoy this 1 1/2 hour-ride (each way) from a passenger seat.  The train station is just a little southeast of where we are staying, and we began the ride east of I-25, and for a very short time alongside the Rio Grande River.  Then we crossed under the freeway and were west of I-25.  Then we went through a short tunnel, and were right in the middle of I-25, between the northbound and southbound lanes.  We stayed in between all the way into town.  Interestingly, the train ride took us next to or through several Native American communities, and we were not allowed to take pictures during that part of the trip.  Mostly, there were trashy mobile homes, shacks and junk, so I'm not sure what they were "preserving" there, but we complied anyway.

We took it to the last stop, then caught a free shuttle to the State Capital building, which was very beautiful.  The walls and floor are travertine marble, which is native to this state.  Congress was not in session, so we got to step into those chambers, and walk through the entire building, with just a few exceptions.  There is a tremendous amount of very beautiful art on display in this building, and we all know Santa Fe is know for its art and artists.  One sculpture caught our eye, a unique bust of a buffalo, made out of materials relevant to the buffalo era.  And the Governor wasn't in, but her receptionist invited us into her lobby where you get an education about the history of the chili.  A very enjoyable tour.

This is the floor and ceiling of the rotunda, which was beautiful as well.

Next we stopped at San Miguel Mission, regarded as the oldest church in the U.S., built a few years before 1628.  Though damaged and rebuilt numerous times, the church's original adobe walls remain intact.  Across the street from this Mission is "The Oldest House in the U.S.," also called the De Vargas Street House, reportedly built around 1646.  But it was closed so we didn't get to see inside it.

We stopped for lunch, and to rest, then walked on down toward the Historic Plaza, passing the Loretto Chapel, no longer in use as a chapel but now as a museum and wedding chapel.  Inside is the "miraculous spiral staircase" which goes up to the choir loft.  It is to this day an architectural wonder because it has no support.

This church was one of those "oh wow" things when you stepped inside.  Not only was the spiral staircase amazing, the altar was beautiful as well.  There was a miniature version of the staircase on display for photo purposes, so you can see the entire staircase in that last photo. 

We finally reached the Historic Plaza, and finally located the Palace of the Governors Museum, one of the things Joe had read about.  Local artists had taken up residence all along the front patio of this building, selling their jewelry and other wares, or as the brochure states, "during the daytime, Native Americans artisans sell authentic American Indian jewelry beneath the Palace's long portal."  Reminded me an awful lot of Mexico, except they aren't in your face trying to sell you something.

We couldn't take pictures inside the Palace, but is is now a History Museum.  The oldest continually occupied government building in the U.S., it was built in 1610 and currently houses numerous exhibitions, collections and artifacts reflecting the area's nearly 500-year history.   It is an extensive museum, and we joined a walking tour for a while, then did the rest on our own.  It has many rooms of artifacts and art work, and a lot of archeology information.

 By the end of that tour, we were pretty tired, but we walked out to the plaza.  It was established around 1610 originally as a presidio (fort) surrounded by a wall that enclosed barracks, a chapel, a prison, a few homes and the Plaza of the Governors. 

By now we were tired, so we checked out a couple of shops, then took the free shuttle back to the bus station.  We had taken jackets with us and were glad of it, although by mid-afternoon we were able to take them off.  On the way back, the wind kicked up and by the time we ate and got back to the RV, it was probably gusting 50 mph.  Our RV was rocking and rolling for a while, and we were glad we were not out on the road.

This was a good trip, and even though we are eventually heading to Santa Fe, we will not have to go downtown now.  Which is good, because the streets are crooked, narrow, and many are one-way.  We were told it is a pain to drive in the downtown area, even in the car, and we could see why.

By the way, the tram ride we took the day before was the world's longest aerial tram ride.  And after we signed up at the casino for their rewards membership cards, for which we each got $25 on our card, we came out $70 ahead. 

Albuquerque (Wednesday)

We left Gallup this morning at 9:07 a.m., fed and fueled.  We bought gas for $3.339, an improvement over our last tank in Chino Valley.  It was 36 degrees when I got up about 6:00 a.m., and it was in the 50s as we drove toward Albuquerque.  We weren't sure if overnight camping was allowed at the truck stop we stayed at last night, but when we fueled this morning, we saw they had an RV dump right there at the gas station, so we are thinking they are happy with the RVers' business.  There were some semi trucks that stayed there too, one other RV, and a station wagon with two guys in it pulled in right beside us sometime during the night.  We did have an old Indian knock on our door this morning, wanting to sell me some jewelry.  He asked if we were "selling food," I'm thinking he was hoping for a handout.  I just shut the door on him.

As we drove through Gallup on I-40, we saw a couple of huge pots decorating the highway.  Our destination today was Santa Fe, but I picked up some brochures in Gallup, and one of them was about a tram ride in Albuquerque.  So we decided that would be our excellent adventure today.  Then, just because we can with our "flexible" lifestyle (aka no jobs), we decided to spend the night in Albuquerque and leave Santa Fe for tomorrow.  Or, Joe said, the next day.

The tram ride took us to the top of Sandia Peak, the majestic mountain range that sits behind beautiful Albuquerque.  On the road to the tram ride, we stopped to top off with fuel ($3.249), and there was a herd of domestic bison right next to the gas station.  Not exactly wildlife, but we are always happy to see buffs!  We are in the Cibola National Forest.  Cibola (sea-bola) is Indian for "buffalo."

We saw a few more herds as we drove on up to the tram.  The scenery was beautiful from there, and we thought our RV looked just fine sitting out there in the parking lot.

We decided to have lunch in the very nice Mexican restaurant there before we went up to the top.  There was another restaurant at the very top of the tram ride, named High Finance, so we figured we better eat at the bottom, and in fact we shared a meal and drank water to keep the costs down.  Joe thought there was probably a message in that name.  The food was very good, and very hot.  I'm thinking I now have stripes on my tongue, something Mazie worries about when Joe talks her into trying a bite of something.

Winds at the top were ranging from 7-9 mph, and the temperature at the top was 41, so we were glad to have worn our coats.  We talked to some guys who worked up there in the restaurant, and they said we had picked the nicest day they had had so far this year because it was not very windy.  Actually, it was only cold on the edge of the walk-outs.  It was a pretty hazy day so the views were not real clear, but it was a nice ride and good views.

The tram did not have seats on it, which surprised us, but it was very comfortable.  We looked for wildlife (especially bears) both ways but didn't see anything.

The return tram that came up had an employee riding on the top raking pictures.  I asked him if he got the cheap seats.  Not sure I would want to try that.

Inside the Center there were many exhibits, including a hummingbird nest with eggs.  Not sure if this will show up, but the nest and the eggs were very tiny. 

There is a resort/casino at the turnoff to this tram ride, so we decided to spend the night on the parking lot here and explore Albuquerque a little in the morning before heading on to Santa Fe.  I'm sure we will win enough in there to pay all our expenses for this trip.

We drove 162 miles today, and were off the road by 4:30 NM time (we had to move our clocks up an hour today).  

Petrified Forest

We met Collins and Marilyn's British friends this morning, Marilyn fixed breakfast for the 6 of us, and we visited for a while, then prepared to leave.  Collins had to do some more warranty work for us, on a support post he had given us a few years ago to put under the step.  The weld did not hold, in fact it broke into two pieces.  Of course, Joe did not harass him or anything about that.

So we pulled out just before 11:00 a.m.  It was 68 degrees, and our temperature stayed in the 60s all day until evening, when it quickly dropped.  We didn't get off the road until after 7:00 p.m., and it was a chilly 54 then.  But we did make it out of Arizona, 5 days after we left home.  We drove 294 miles today, a little longer day than we had planned.  No wildlife today, except that we saw about 6 horses that could have been wild mustangs, near the Arizona/New Mexico border.  As we drove through the Flagstaff area, we could see close-up the snow on top of San Francisco Peaks, which we could see in the distance from the Brundiges.

Joe came up with the brilliant idea of taking a side trip through the Petrified Forest National Park, so when we got to Holbrook, we gladly left I-40 with its heavy truck traffic.  Holbrook has lots of shops selling petrified wood, all of which supposedly was found outside the Park.  This one shop had quite an inventory, and was right at the turnoff to the road leading to the Park.

We stopped at the gift shop right outside the park and picked up a map.  They had absolutely beautiful rocks in there, not just petrified wood but agates and lots of bookends, some table tops of petrified wood, etc., none of which was in our budget. 

The park is open from 7:00 to 7:00, and it was about 4:00 when we headed in.  When Joe started to hand over his America the Beautiful pass, which lets us senior citizens into national parks for free, the attendant told us she didn't need anything because this is National Parks Week. 

We didn't make any of the hikes because we didn't think we had time, but we did make several of the loop drives.  We had only been through here once before, when we were driving out from Indiana on our move to Arizona.  John was 8 and thought he had to inspect every piece of petrified wood in the park.  We took a more cursory drive this time, but it is a very unique place and well worth the time it took.

There are lots of scattered pieces of the petrified wood, some as whole logs, some look like they have been cut for firewood with a saw.  Here's a little information from the map/brochure.

"The high, dry grassland was once a vast floodplain crossed by many streams.  Tall, stately conifer trees grew along on the banks. ...  The trees fell, and swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplains.  A mix of silt, mud, and volcanic ash buried the logs. This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the logs' decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits.  Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. ... Over the 225 million years since the trees lived, the continents moved to their present positions, and this region was uplifted.  As a result the climate changed, and the tropical environment became today's grassland.  Over time, wind and water wore away the rock layers and exposed fossilized ancient plants and animals.  The hills will yield more fossils as weathering sculpts the Painted Desert's soft sedimentary rock."

We could see many logs just being uncovered by erosion, with the tops just becoming visible.  The petrified wood in the first picture is lying at the base of some boulders, and in the third picture the pieces are just scattered down in the valley.

There are also lots of beautiful colors in the sand formations as well, reminded us a lot of Death Valley.

The 28-mile Park road crosses over I-40, and there's a sign here about historic Route 66 which was replaced in many places by I-40.  There are also the remains of an old rusty car here, and the front fender from an old Cadillac on the back of a bench.

We are now in the Painted Desert area, which we have seen parts of many times on our way to Colorado.  The sun was at a good angle as we drove through here, and we saw some beautiful colors.

By now it's 6:00 p.m., and time to get off the road.  But there were no campgrounds in this area, so when we got to Gallup we just pulled off in the lot next to a truck stop and spent the night there.  I fixed dinner, we watched a little TV, and called it a day.  A Good Day!

2013 Road Trip - First Stop - Chino Valley, AZ

Hello everyone.  It's been a while since I have posted to the JoeWilmaExcellentAdventures blog.  After our very interesting trip to Death Valley in January 2012, we didn't really make any new road trips.  With the price of gas last year, we decided to make short trips, and fly to our further destinations (with help of free tickets from Eric's frequent flyer mileage).  So we went to Colorado,  New Mexico, and Big Lake, Arizona in the RV, and by air to Indiana in February and November, and on from Indiana to Florida in December. 

In January 2013, we made our annual trek to Quartzsite to the RV show, then we ventured on to Yuma and Los Algondones, Mexico where Joe got new dentures.  That is really a hotspot for dentistry, with more than 300 dentists in that little town.  You can also get eye glasses there.  So Joe has retired his 45-year-old Army dentures and is now sporting new ones.  In March we went over to Yucaipa, California for Bridgette and John's baby shower, then we sidetracked back to Los Algondones for an adjustment on the dentures.  But now they seem to be fitting fine.  In both trips to Mexico, we parked the RV on American soil and drove over to the border crossing, where we walked across.

On the California trip, we spent the first night in Indio, then drove down to the Salton Sea the next day before heading on to Yucapai.  We had seen glimpses of the Sea on our trips to California when John was going to school there, but had never taken the time to drive down to it.  Well, unfortunately, we found out that it wasn't worth the time.  We took some pictures, but the water was too nasty to stick my toe in, and there were no pleasant beach areas to be seen.

From a distance, it is a pretty sight, but up close it was very disappointing.  We couldn't imagine what it must have been like back in the day.

Now we are ready for our summer venture.  We had tentatively planned a trip up the Northwest Coast this summer, but when John and Bridgette gave us the exciting news last fall that we were going to be grandparents again, we had to redo our summer plans to be in Florida in June.  So last Thursday, April 18, 2013, we began that trip. 

We left at 10:05 a.m., after loading for a week.  We drove a total of 145 miles today, under windy conditions but a nice day otherwise.  It was 69 degrees when we left, and probably about that when we arrived in Chino Valley with has an elevation of about 4750 ft.  This is a good place to start our travels, because we generally get to see some antelope up here, and we saw a few almost every day we were here.
We parked the RV in the driveway at our friends, Collins and Marilyn Brundiges.  Collins always tells us he lives on a hill, so maybe we are camping at an elevation of 4752.  They had alerted their neighbor that we were coming because they happen to have a lilac bush, and it happened to be blooming, so I am back in good times with my favorite flower.

  Kaylee has a soccer tournament this weekend 10 miles from Chino in Prescott. Kaylee plays goalie and most other positions on the All Star Soccer Team that she is on, and this is the last tournament of the season.  We got to spend a few nights playing cards with Collins and Marilyn, and went to 4 soccer games on Sat. and Sun.  We won 3 but lost the championship in a "penalty kick" shoot-out.   In the pictures below, Kaylee is the one in the green/black catching the ball, and in the second picture, she is between the legs of the opponent with ball in hand.

Joe and Collins got to spend some quality time together on Friday, spraying weeds around their house while Marilyn and I scoped out the annual garage sales in a neighboring subdivision.  Collins remade my book rack for the RV to fit the oversized camping directory I bought (I told him I was bringing it back for warranty work). 

Monday we had a "down" day, doing laundry, vacuuming the RV, etc., while Collins and Marilyn drove into Phoenix to pick up some friends from England who will be visiting them for the next couple weeks.  We are heading out on Tuesday, destination Santa Fe, NM, for a few days.  We have only driven through there so we intend to see what we've missed.  Then we are heading on to Indiana, then Florida. I want to give the Midwest plenty of time to get rid of their tornado season, so that might determine how much we meander each day.  Hopefully, I will have lots of adventures to post, and some exciting pictures.