Albuquerque and Beyond!

We skidded into Albuquerque on two wheels leaving a path of death and destruction in our wake. No literally, well maybe not destruction but definitely death. You ever have one of those moments when a bird or an animal dodges in front of your vehicle and you think to yourself “I hope that guy made it”? Well, sadly, this meadowlark did not make it. Poor guy.

We had one mission when we got to Albuquerque, score on some Crystal Blue. Those of you who are Breaking Bad fans know exactly what I am talking about. Albuquerque is the home of Walter White, Jessie, Saul Goodman and Gus Fring. Breaking Bad is one of the best dark (dramas?) ever and it was filmed right here in Albuquerque! So, we set out to see if we could score some of the infamous 'Blue'.

Our first stop was Walt’s house. Although Walt is dead, maybe Skyler can point us in the right direction. According to the show, it should be at 308 Negra Arroya Lane. Well, they must have moved some streets around as we did not find that address, but we did find the house! A quick internet search will tell you the real address of the house along with many of the other filming sites for the show. There was a note in the site we read asking you to leave the residents alone. It even stated that more than once, someone has thrown a pizza on the roof!

Apparently, they must have a lot of people looking for the same thing as there was a fence, gate and signs asking people to basically leave them alone. Seriously, what do they expect, they bought the house of basically the most famous meth manufacturer in the world.

With no luck there we went to find Saul. Surely, he would know where we could score. If memory served me correctly, his office was in a nail salon…… Found it! Unfortunately, it was boarded up and no one there to help us.

Undaunted we carried on to the car wash. You know, the one Walt and Skyler bought to launder all their money? Well, we found it, but it was sold, and the new owner had no idea where I could find some ‘Blue’.

As we were leaving the car wash area, we spotted this in someone's driveway.

Now I cannot say for sure if this is the RV as I could not see the door with the telltale bullet holes but I do not think it was a coincidence!

By now the dogs were ready for a walk so we went to a nearby park. The park, like most businesses in the area was closed. It looks like the meth problem has really taken its toll on this area of Albuquerque. But we parked the truck outside the gates and walked the dogs in where we found this….

There was really a lot more than this. There had to be a dozen syringes and two crack pipes (and a bunch of other stuff) in an area that was very recently vacated. My first guess that Dino was in the area, but I looked around and did not see anyone in an EZ Lift chair. If it was him, he obviously left the area.

Where to next? How about Los Pollos Hermanos the fast-food place where Gus had his office? It too had been sold and changed names.

I had one last place I could look. Certainly, Wendy would know we could get some. We headed over to the Crossroads Motel that she frequented. It was exactly how it was portrayed in the show. Run down, beat up, seedy and weedy. As we pulled into the parking lot, I found the song ‘Windy’ on Pandora and cranked it up hoping she would show up, but she was a no show. She must have been "busy" somewhere else.

So, we were not able to score, but we did see some interesting sights. Not your typical tour of Albuquerque, but being such big fans of the series, we found it entertaining. 

So, what else did we do in Albuquerque you ask? Well, we went to the Petroglyph National Monument. Although we had just seen some petroglyphs a few days before, we wanted to see some more (and Barb wanted to get her Passport stamped). We went to the Piedras Marcadas Canyon area which is dog friendly and walked the 1.5-mile loop which contains hundreds of petroglyphs.

It is believed that the majority of the petroglyphs were created from 1300-1680. Very interesting. 

Was this really a means of honoring Gods or communicating to others or was it some bored kids in the 1200's doing rock graffiti? We may never know. 

The hike and entire area did not disappoint. We saw dozens and dozens of petroglyphs throughout the area and one wily coyote who was eyeing up Zoey like she was a tasty morsel.

Having worked up an appetite, we headed to our Harvest Host location for the night.  Starr Brothers Brewery has a nice gravel lot that would accommodate a dozen rigs or so. We were one of 3 to stay there that night. Their slogan should be 'Come for the beer, stay for the food' as both were delicious! If you stop there, get the truffle fries, trust me. 

The next day we rode the Sandia Peak Tram to the top. The elevation went from around 6,000' to just over 10,000'. At $24/person it was well worth it. The views were incredible! If you look closely at the bottom left picture, you can see the shadow of the tram in the bottom left corner.

New Mexico has a very interesting State Flag and here is a tidbit of information that we had not known before.

Another 'Must stop at' in Albuquerque is Amy's Donuts. A definite top 10 in all the donut places we have stopped at in our travels. 

So, what do the girls do all day when we are exploring? They spend the day in the camper snuggled up in their beds or on our bed. The first time we left them we came back, and poor Zoe Belle was shivering. So, from then on, we left the heat on for them. 

Albuquerque has been on our list for several years now and was very interesting. We had wanted to get to a few other places like the rattlesnake museum, but they were only open on the weekends. There were some nice parts, and some very run down parts. Hundreds and hundreds of homeless, many with obvious mental health issues. Signs of drug abuse were everywhere as we saw them walking the streets, panhandling, ranting or huddled in ball trying to keep warm in the freezing cold. Many of the businesses were boarded up and closed. Those that were open had bars and gates on their doors and windows. I do not know what the answer is but what we are doing now is not working. Really sad. 

The next day we carried on south looking for some warmer weather. We did not find it. What we found was, snow, snow and more snow. At first it was just flurries, then it got progressively worse until the road was covered entirely. 

We followed NM 117 up, down and around mountains. Another very desolate route. Had we broke down, Zoey would have been fat and plump having eaten our bodies before anyone found us. 

We did have portions of the route that were snow free and very cool though. The first was La Ventana Arch. I believe it was John and Pam's blog that alerted us to this attraction. The next was this bull statue in Quemado that Barb had to stop and take a picture of. 

Our destination that day was Catwalk Recreation Area. We saw this gem on Steve and Debbie's blog most recently. It is a hiking trail with a series of catwalks attached to the side of a rock face right over the river. Although dogs are allowed on this hike, I knew Dakota would not have been a fan of the open grates.  

We got to one spot where the river was flowing over the trail. We stood there for a few minutes contemplating whether to turn around or walk through getting our shoes soaked. We did neither, we took our shoes and socks off and waded through. It was beyond cold. By the time we got to the other side our toes were stinging like someone was poking needles in them! As luck would have it, the trail was closed 100 yards later due to a rockslide, so we had to turn around, and do it all over again! 

Selfie Time!

We spent the night a few miles down the road at the Aldo Leopold Scenic Picnic Area. We were all alone, it was peaceful and very dark!

The landscape was dotted with these trees. Anyone have an idea what kind they are?

The next day was a day that Barb and I have been looking forward to for a long time. We have seen this site in numerous blogs and every time we see it, we want to go there. Well, it finally happened!

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are 44 miles outside of Silver City. But those 44 miles takes you 1 1/2 - 2 hours with twists and turns and ups and downs and all arounds. A very pretty road but you cannot be in a hurry and if you are not a fan of roads with steep drop offs with no guard rails mere feet away, you might want to think twice. 

These are the first dwellings that we've been to that we could actually hike up into themselves. 

It is believed that they were inhabited from around 1200-1300AD.

Sorry for the picture overload but this place is so cool I could not help it. 

While we were exploring the dwellings, we got to talking to another couple that were in there. Ken and Donna (Roadtrippin' Roadlovers) are also parttime truck camper explorers based out of Michigan. We have been to many of the same places and some that one of us have yet to get to. We compared notes and experiences. A very nice couple. Feel free to follow along on their adventures using the link above. 

Their rig is very identifiable so if you see this setup going down the road tell them Jim and Barb say hi!

Tomorrow, we leave New Mexico crossing over into Arizona where more adventures await us. For those of you in Q, we will be stopping by Total Wine and More in Tucson on or around the 28th (arriving in Q on 2/8). If you want us to pick you up anything, contact us via email, text or messenger.

So Many People!

 When we last left you, we were just getting ready to depart on our great winter vacation. As we were packing the last of our things up Zoey would not leave the door. She just sat there and stared at it as though she thought we were going to leave her behind, never to be seen again.

Our first day took us south and a little west through Lusk Wyoming, down through Cheyenne and into Colorado where we spent the night in the parking lot of the Loveland Colorado Scheel’s store. This is by far the largest Scheel’s store that we have ever been to with parking lots on both sides of the store. They have a parking area for RV’s and vehicles with trailers. We pulled right in and made ourselves at home for the night.

The next day we carried on south through Denver and into Colorado Springs. So many people! Even though it was Sunday there was traffic and construction. We have lived in the country so long that we have become spoiled. Rapid City with its booming population of 76,000 seems too crowded for us. By comparison, the Denver metro area has just over 2.93 million, Over 3x's the population of the entire state of South Dakota! Businesses, houses, condos filling every square foot of land as far as the eye could see. There is a reason we live where we do, we may need to drive over an hour to our nearest Walmart, but it is worth it! I told Barb that if our 63 acres were in a residential development like these and the average lot size was a ¼ acre, would have over 250 houses on our property. Crazy to even think about.

From there we continued south until Barb announced, “Take the next exit”. I followed her directions for the next 15 minutes until we pulled up to this Roadside Attraction. I mean, who could not stop to see the statue of Dizzy, the most famous dog of Palmer Lake Colorado?

She then directed me down another road for 3 miles to take a few pictures of horseshoe art that some guy made for his granddaughter. I stayed in the truck and passed on this amazing exhibit. I need to find out what website she is looking at and block in on her phone.

On our way back to the interstate I saw the lake in which Palmer Lake was named and people were ice fishing on it! My turn to stop and see what is going on. We took the girls for a walk on the ice. Zoey took to it with no problem, Dakota was not a fan.

There were several families out ice fishing. With the town as a backdrop and a train going by it looked like a postcard. I could see myself living there in another life.

Our next stop was unexpected but when we passed the sign, I got off at the next exit, looped around and headed back the other way. Sometimes the unexpected is just what you need. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame is located in Colorado Springs. 

We walked the hall looking at the names and memorabilia from the inductees. Most of the names we did not know but several we did. Like these two. Many of you will remember Lane Frost from the movie 8 Seconds portraying his life and his tragic death.  

That movie also featured this inductee. Bodacious, one of the meanest, rankest bulls to ever be on the circuit.

Then there are the Barrel Racers. Barb knew several of them, competed against, attended clinics and even met one or two.

If you are into that sort of thing, it is worth the $9 entry fee.

Continuing our way south, we made our way into New Mexico. Barb had found us a Harvest Host spot to stay the night at in Cold Beer, NM. How can you not stop at a place with that name? It is located between Maxwell and Taos on a lonely and desolate road. I mean this place is out there in the middle of nowhere. Just a bar, alongside the road. 

There were a dozen trucks in the parking lot, we walked in and everybody and I mean everybody stopped what they were doing to see who walked in. But they were welcoming enough, they had decent food, a T.V. where we watched the Vikings lose to the Giants, and of course….cold beer.  

We spent the night in the parking lot. A cold and restless night as it was windy and snowing. This is where we first ran into a problem with our camper. Not a big one but an annoying one nonetheless. We just had a new furnace installed last month and it works fine but when it kicks on it somehow cuts off the propane to the fridge causing it to beep. I turned the fridge off and back on and it seems to light up just fine. Until the heater kicks on again. It does not do it every time the heater kicks on but enough to make it annoying as hell in the middle of the night forcing me to get up and turn it off and on again. Does anyone have any idea what is causing this? The propane tanks were full when we started so that is not the issue.

Leaving Cold Beer we drove towards Taos, through Cimarron Canyon, Angel Fire and a few other snowy but beautiful towns.

We stopped in Taos for a couple hours and walked the town. A cute little town but too artsy for us, just not our thing. We finally arrived in Santa Fe where our first stop was the Santa Fe Brewing Company for a refreshment before we settled in for the night.

We spent the night at a trail head parking lot for LaCieneguilla Petroglyphs. Another cold night but the fridge only cut out twice, so we got a pretty good night’s sleep.

It rained and snowed throughout the night, so we woke up to a sage-covered and white backdrop. With the temps in the low 30’s Barb and I decided to take the 1-mile hike up to the petroglyphs leaving the girls in the camper. The trail is not very well marked, and nothing really tells you where the petroglyphs are, but we hiked up to the most likely looking rock walls and found a few. There was a bit of rock scrambling involved so it was probably a good thing the girls stayed home.

We returned to the camper with wet feet and a bit chilled. After warming up we headed into town to see a few things. It was still cold and rainy, so we looked for a couple of indoor activities. The first stop was a local antique mall. It is always interesting to see what antique stores carry in different regions of the country. Lots and lots of Southwestern Art and Décor. Pretty in its own right but would not fit into our house at all.

We then went to a place recommended to us by another Jim who commented on the blog last week. Now, I have never met this Jim, but he recommended the Sopapillas at Tia Sophia’s in the plaza area of Santa Fe. I had never even heard of a sopapilla before, but I thought what the heck, if Jim recommends it, it must be good.

 So, we go there, find a parking spot (which was not easy with the truck) and went to Tia Sophia’s. I ordered the Chicken Sopapilla while Barb ordered the beef and bean. The waiter then asked “red, green or Christmas?” I had no idea what that meant so I asked him what he recommended. He said, “Christmas since it is snowing outside”. Our food came and it looked delicious, and Christmassy, I guess.

I took my first bit and realized that Jim was trying to kill me! My mouth was on fire, my eyes were watering! The waiter came over to me and asked how we liked it. He took one look at me and said, “Let me get you some water”. After the first few bites the heat diminished (or I lost all sense of feeling) and I ate the whole thing. It was actually very good, and I would get it again, although with the milder sauce.

Barb, who is into all things hot and spicy absolutely loved it. The meal also came with two plain sopapillas that you put honey and cinnamon sugar on. That was even better than the meal. Thanks for the tip, Jim but next time warn me! Remember, I am a Wisconsin boy who thinks pepper is a spice.

We had more adventures planned for Santa Fe but most were outdoor based, and the weather was not cooperating, so we decided to leave a day early and head further south in search of a little less snow and a little more sun. 

Next up Albuquerque!