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The month began for us at Caballo Lake State Park in New Mexico and ended 2,050 miles later at the same place. The Rio Grande is dammed here to create Caballo Lake. There are two campgrounds here; one on the lake itself with boat ramps and facilities for water sports; the other is on the riverside below the dam with trees, shade, and quiet with natural surroundings. The latter is one of our favorite campgrounds. We left Caballo Lake on July 1st and drove to Albuquerque where we spent a few days at the Kirtland Air Force Base Fam Camp. The first night we had to spend in the overflow lot (power but no water or sewer). The following morning we were able to get a full hook up and stayed until July 8th. While there, we visited Skip Maisel’s, a store which specializes in authentic Indian arts and crafts from all of the southwestern tribes (see photos). It is situated in downtown Albuquerque on the original Route 66. Afterwards we discovered a very interesting international supermarket with food and specialty items from practically every part of the world. On another day, a neighboring RVer approached Chuck and remarked that he remembered meeting him at a campground in San Antonio, TX in December 2006! It is a small, small world!
Pueblo. Two overlays were planned, one in Las Vegas, NM at Storrie Lake State Park; the second at Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton, NM. Storrie Lake was quite full but we found a spot with hookup that was narrow, tight and not very attractive. We spent two nights there with weather that was cool and |
overcast. This was a welcome change after the hot clear skies of southern New Mexico. Las Vegas is at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and is the home of Montezuma Castle that houses the USA’s sole campus of the United World College (<- <- please click) and (see photos). Also, the architecture of Las Vegas is quite a unique mixture of old adobe structures from the Spanish settlers and subsequent newcomers that built in Queen Anne, Victorian, Gothic Revival, timbered, stone and clapboard. This unique mixture of preserved architecture has earned Las Vegas a place in the National Register of Historic Places. Incidentally, Las Vegas was named by the Spanish settlers and is an abbreviated title that describes the fertile valleys (meadows) of this region (Las Vegas = The fertile valleys). Our second stop was at Sugarite Canyon State Park and was even shorter than our stay at Storrie Lake. The campground was full and our only possibility was an overnight stay in a reservation-only spot that was vacant for one night. That evening after supper we decided to take a hike along the mountain trail to the upper campground. We hiked for over an hour through the rocky, wooded terrain and never reached our destination. When it became too dark to continue, we turned around and hiked back down the mountain. We decided that we would give this park another chance on our return trip from Colorado since we had heard that the upper campground was quite nice. So we left Sugarite the following morning, July 11th driving on I-25 through Raton Pass (see photos) and that afternoon arrived in Pueblo, CO. In Pueblo we also experienced difficulty in finding a campground. After finding out that the campground in Pueblo West was full where we had stayed in 2005, we did a lot of online research. A Colorado State Park was nearby but had little to offer and was expensive. A second commercial park on the outskirts of the city had terrible ratings with horror stories from other RVers. Nevertheless, we drove by to have a look and determined that by sight alone, they deserved their reputation. As we drove to the next address on the list, we found ourselves in the middle of a little neighborhood with the address belonging to a small house. Later we found out that not only was the online listing and the GPS listing incorrect, the campground was actually in a Colorado town almost 400 miles away near Utah; right address but wrong city! The last campground on our list was the KOA. With no other choice in Pueblo we went to the KOA, spending $244.20 a week. This included pool, hot tub, kiddies playground and daily newspapers. Families actually go there for a mini-vacation, but that was not our reason for being there. After becoming accustomed to getting our news via the Internet and rarely being near a city to get a newspaper, it was amusing to read the same stories that we had read online a day or more earlier! After setting up camp and settling in, we called Helga and decided to meet on Sunday afternoon (see photos); with dinner at “Johnny Carino’s”. Helga recently underwent a radical mastectomy and we were pleasantly surprised at her recovery and general well-being. We had several nice outings in Pueblo; a picnic at Pueblo Lake State Park (see photos); a bratwurst cook-out at the campground; pork chops at Helga’s apartment; and several nice restaurants in Pueblo. Renée and Helga played several rounds of Scrabble in German while we were there. Helga experienced a contusion on her ribs when she fell during one of her early morning walks in the nearby park so she wasn’t up to accompanying us when we visited the “Garden of the Gods” and the “Seven Falls” waterfall (see slide show and photos) but did accompany us when we visited the Royal Gorge Bridge, the highest suspension bridge in the world (see slide show and photos). Two days before our departure, the awning that we had ordered finally arrived in Colorado Springs, so we made a quick trip to pick it up. The following day was spent on installing the awning and that evening we went with Helga to the Tian Jin Chinese restaurant in Pueblo for a Bon Voyage celebration. As planned, we stopped at Sugarite Canyon State Park again on our return trip, but this time we stayed at the upper campground (7,920 ft) (<- <- please click) . There is no electricity available there but we were fortunate enough to have the only site with a water connection. The temperature was quite comfortable and dropped to the 60’s following a thunderstorm shortly after we arrived. The nights were quite cool and perfect sleeping weather. Lobo developed a bad case of diarrhea so our nights were not uneventful. On Saturday we toured Raton and the surrounding area. A beautiful lake lies in the mountains a few miles from the campground. That evening we had a campfire and had smoked/grilled salmon steaks for supper. Afterwards, a guest speaker gave a presentation at the amphitheater entitled “Life in a coal mine town in the thirties.” This area contained numerous coal mines which have since been shut down. Sugarite is the site of one of the former coal mines but except for the remains of a few structures the land has since recuperated. The weather was quite damp as we left on Sunday the 27th. The truck developed a miss when towing the RV at an incline and over 50 MPH. We had noticed it at times before but now it could be described enough in detail. It would only occur when towing the RV on a highway such as an interstate and on an upward incline. Not something that could be duplicated in a dealership’s garage. We arrived at Villanueva State Park around 4 PM. The park was also quite full but the Ranger suggested that we could hook up at the group shelter directly on the banks of the Pecos River. This is normally reserved for large group events, but since it was not in use, we could hook up there. We spent two nights and while we there we contacted the GMC dealer in Albuquerque and made an appointment for the truck. On the 29th we left Villanueva with plans to return during the off season when it won’t be so crowded. We once again had good luck and got the last open 50 Amp hookup at Kirtland Air Force Base, spending the planned two nights while the truck was in the garage. Lobo was doing a little better and didn’t have to be taken out in the middle of the night, so we all got a full night’s sleep. With a very detailed, typed description of the problem, Chuck took the truck to the garage. The mechanic immediately found an intermittent short on one of the igniters, which he repaired. Experience has told us that nothing is that easy so the following morning we hooked up and took off for the nearest mountain to make sure the problem was, in fact, resolved. After driving five miles uphill, we determined that the $157.51 spent at the garage actually solved the problem! So we turned around and headed south. At about the half way point we stopped in San Antonio, NM at the “Owl Bar & Cafe” for lunch which consisted of one of their world famous Green Chile Cheeseburgers. If you have never eaten one, this link will describe it for you: http://abqstyle.com/albuquerque_restaurants/000026.html . Afterwards, we headed to Caballo Lake State Park from where we called the dental clinic in Mexico to set up an August 7th appointment for Renée to have her implant procedure continued. This completed the round trip that we had begun on the first of July. To be continued… |
Travel Journal July 2008
Our Motto: Home is, where our RV is.
| To view photos click on “Photos & Slide Shows July 2008” above. |
| Each comments entry box in the guest book is limited to approx. 250 characters including spaces. For longer messages please e-mail us at morton@rmortonc.com |
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| One might wonder how long the bill board in the picture below has been advertising apartments in Pueblo, CO |
