Walking Down Memory Lane...

When we were kids, during the 1950's and 60's - every alternate summer, my Dad would pack up the trailer and take our family our for our two week summer vacation - usually to the desert to "hunt for rocks."  As you can imagine, it was probably the very last thing kids would love to do for their summer vacation (in blistering hot weather, with sand, cactus, and rocks as our scenery)...but it was our father's passion, so we all went along with him and helped him find the rocks he liked (jasper, beautiful agates, opals, and petrified wood).

Walking in the Steps of the Ancients...

This past Thursday through Saturday, we visited Chaco Culture Historical National Monument in NW New Mexico - north of Albuquerque off of Hwy 550.  This desolate park is located 21 miles off of Hwy 550, 13 miles of which is a rough, dusty, dirt road  (and 5 miles of which is washboard).  The camping is fairly primitive here (there's heat, flush toilets and non-potable water in the restroom), but there's no electricity or water at the camp sites and drinking water is only available at one location at the visitor's center.  The visitor center is barren - missing a museum and historical displays. It's not an easy place to get to and there are few creature comforts there,  however, the peace and quiet of this remote location, the massive surrounding desert, the honey-colored Chaco Canyon cliffs and mesas, the phenomenal number of ruins and the tremendous importance of this Ancestral Puebloan site in its central relation to other important sites in the southwest (Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Bandelier, Betatakin, etc.) make it a "must see" for those interested in "first people" history and culture. Thank you, Betsy (from our hiking group), for recommending this place.

It's been a tough day here...

Holy Frijoles!

For the first part of this past week, we spent three wonderful days in the Bandelier National Monument near Santa Fe, New Mexico (off of Hwy 550 and Hwy 4) and we explored the ancestral pueblo sites there, which were built of stone and mud mortar and anchored by tree trunks into the sandstone rock of the surrounding cliffs. We were even able to climb up the wood ladders to peer into the small cavates (caves) which were carved out behind the individual top floor rooms. Enchanting.  And to think that these pueblos were built in and around 1175 and were lived in until the 1400's.

Eat yer heart out - Lucy!

Last night, we camped in a little 50's retro-style RV park (Enchanted Trails) on old "Route 66" just outside of Albuquerque.

Local RV "expert" and greeter

$10 Horse and a $40 Saddle

We're camping in Texas and loving it!

 As we drove from Corsicana, TX to our first camping spot, Copper Breaks, we noticed a significant change in scenery - from lush, green grassland (in Austin and Corsicana) to open golden prairie grassland with scattered misquite, juniper and cactus.  You can literally see forever.  This is the area that was so heavily impacted by the dust bowl disaster in the 1930's when the land was over-grazed and over-farmed.  It remains a tough area to survive in and it shows. The Texans here are consistently charming and the cowboy here is clearly King (many big open-spaced ranches with cattle and horses and limited agriculture). But it must have been tough to make a living here. Livestock was always cheap; but good saddles a priority.

She's Ours!

Well, we finally did it!  We adopted our little Casita on Tuesday and she's now all ours!  It almost feels like having a new family member!  Yes; we're being absurd, but we were both so excited we hardly slept the night before picking her up in Rice, Texas.

She' all ours!

Driving Friendly - the Texas Way...

Looking forward to transferring the gear to the Casita

We drove for 10 hours today from San Miguel to Austin and, unfortunately, we weren't able to fit in any sight-seeing or photos.  But as we became bored, we started reading signs and we had fun observing that:

• Hwy 10 was a great road for covering a substantial distance and the speed limit was 80 mph.  Even the fully loaded big rigs were passing us with ease. These roads are well-engineered!

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin....

It's late afternoon on Friday and, as the wind is whipping up a dust storm outside, we're relaxing in our cozy little Airbnb bungalow in southeastern New Mexico in a tiny town called San Miguel just south of Las Cruces, New Mexico.  The bungalow is a charming rock cottage, (next to the main home - an old adobe) which the owner has remodeled and decorated with antiques and charming collectibles.  She's stocked it full of treats. books, movies and every creature-comfort imaginable. Without a trailer, Airbnb is definitely the way to travel - we're convinced!

Our cozy bungalow in San Miguel

Breakfast nook

On The Road; Finally!

Well, we're on our way and the truck is absolutely "stuffed" with everything we could possibly ever need or want (and more) for our trip.  It's absolutely ridiculous and we actually "tried" to keep it down to a sane amount.  Time will tell and I'm certain that we will be gifting items as we progress with our travels.

395 - The 14's - "On the road again...."