Santa Fe, NM
Can you believe it's October already? In just a couple of weeks we'll be back in our winter digs outside Phoenix, putzing with projects around the house and planning next summer's adventures.
We've been following our normal plan over the last few days, getting in both relaxation and sightseeing. Monday, Geri did some laundry and I cleaned several hundred miles worth of bugs off the front of the coach. I've got to give the coach another treatment, though, since there's still a spattering of road tar all over the front from a section of resurfacing we went through near Socorro. I'm sure I have a spray for that in the basement.
Tuesday, we took a drive south on the "Turquoise Trail", aka NM-14. We didn't find much turquoise but did go through the little artist enclave of Madrid (touristy shops interspersed with buildings you'd expect to see in a ghost town), and then made the trek up to Sandia Crest. At 10,400' in elevation, the drive up the mountain (about 3,500' in elevation gain) is about 13.5 miles long. Of course, we stopped a few times to get some photos. The aspens are just beginning to change color, and they provide quite a contrast to the primary greens of the pine forests.
At Sandia Crest, I took some time to get some additional photos before we headed back down. We've determined that 8,000-9,000' is about Geri's limit. Similar to Pikes Peak, she opted to stay in the car while I poked around. There's not much at the peak, other than a gift shop, a snack bar (don't feed the bears), and a large complex of radio antennas. Signs around the site tell you that the radio signals may interfere with car alarms and keyless remotes; we can confirm that the latter is definitely true.
The interesting thing about the crest is that, while the drive up the eastern flank of the mountain is typical steep grades and switchbacks, the western face is almost a vertical 4,000' drop that directly overlooks the city of Albuquerque. It was a bit hazy, but I could see all of the city and pick out various landmarks (downtown, Sandia Casino, Balloon Fiesta Park, the Rio Grande, I-25 and I-40, the airport south of downtown). I walked for a bit along the Crest Trail, south toward the top of the tramway that brings tourists up, but it was a 2 miles walk and I wasn't water-equipped, so I limited myself to about 3/4 of a mile round-trip. OK, it was also a bit strenuous, with several sections of steep terrain, or stairways cut into the rock. In one area (probably too close to the edge), there were different kinds of rocks, with some just embedded in the main surface of the cliff.
On the way back north to Santa Fe, we saw an interesting house that was built into the shape of a pyramid under a faux sandstone arch. Of course, our budget is more in line with the other interesting place we passed by...
Our friends, Wayne and Eva, rolled into town Wednesday afternoon. They are staying at a different park (reserations are hard to come by this time of year, as a lot of RVers stay here, or stage here, during the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, about 50 miles away), but came over to our place for dinner (Geri's kicked-up meatloaf with shallot mashed potatoes and sauteed haricots verts). We went over to their coach for dinner last night (Hatch chiles stuffed with crab meat that Wayne caught over the summer in Oregon, Eva's Chili Verde with Spanish Rice and baked pinto beans). We've been focusing on "value wines", so several bottles of Mattie's Perch and Little Penguin are no longer with us.
We'll be hanging out here for the next few days before moving to Albuquerque. The Balloon Fiesta starts tomorrow, and it's essentially broken up into two "sessions". Most groups have reservations for either the first (arrive today and depart 10/7) or second (arrive 10/8 and depart 10/12) waves. We're in the second group, although a large number of the coaches parked near us left this morning (there was a group rally of 30+ Prevost bus conversions - the $1-million-and-up land yachts - here; we're not sad to see them go). We'll have an opportunity to get in the last grocery shopping, do some laundry, fill the water tank, etc. before we leave on Wednesday.
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