March 31, 2011: Carlsbad to Las Cruces, New Mexico (214 miles)

This morning we bid farewell to our KOA Karlsbad Kampground and headed into town for a last coffee with the Blue House Crew. Our plan was to head southwest on Highway 180 through the Guadalupe Mountain pass to El Paso, then to pick up I-10 there and land in Las Cruces for the night. Our route would take us through a familiar patch of New Mexico that we travel every time we fly here from California -- Highway 180 is a 180-mile stretch of road (we think only coincidentally named) that runs from the airport in El Paso, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico. It takes almost exactly three hours (if you drive 60 MPH, a little less if you take advantage of the posted 75 MPH speed limit), and there is almost exactly nothing between El Paso and Carlsbad. Laurie's brother, Brian, and she one time saw an ostrich. as they came out of the Guadalupe Pass and were looking at miles of flat, arid road ahead of them, running as fast as he could along the highway ahead of a huge thunderstorm, dust kicking up behind him as he ran his fool heart out trying to stay ahead of that rain. Now that was something to see. Nothing like that today though.

It is truly amazing to us, after doing this drive several times over 15+ years, that these two towns can be so impossibly far apart with so little in between. We did stop at the 2/3 mark, a little truck stop named Cornudas, Texas, where someone named May had apparently returned to cook some good homestyle meals for folks passing through this place. Her return was marked on a billboard coming into town. Art went in to get some bottled water, but came out with Aquavita, not the desert spring bottled water advertised on the building.

A few of the folks at the Blue House recommended a good way to bypass El Paso -- Route 375 which is an HC (Hazardous Cargo) loop that was built to route hazardous materials around the town of El Paso. It goes through the Bliss Army Base then on up into the Franklin Mountains before coming down right at I-10, northwest of El Paso and only 30 minutes from Las Cruces. We took that route and it turned out to probably save us close to an hour's travel time. Thank you to Pat, Danny, Ron and Glen for your suggestion. Poor Pep was hitting meltdown stage when we finally pulled in to camp tonight; another hour and he would have been in bad shape. We were of course obsessed the entire route with the trucks driving along beside us carrying hazardous materials. We found the Department of Transportation website on our iPhone, which lists all of the hazardous materials that get transported around the U.S. and their corresponding placard codes, and we stayed busy looking those up for all the trucks that were around us. But the views coming over the Franklin Mountains were gorgeous and in the end, no trucks flipped over or exploded or anything like that.. Definitely much more scenic than battling your way through rush hour traffic and the stoplights of El Paso.

The good news is that 395 didn't bypass our favorite part of El Paso.There is a stretch of Highway 180 east of the airport and on the outskirts of town that is just a sea of salvage yards, strip joints, and a fantastical combination of businesses.

We captured a few photos but none that totally do this piece of road justice. We'll post a few of the better ones here but will continue to collect them along this stretch of highway as it is so photogenic.






Our campsite in Las Cruces is another KOA and another winner. We haven't visited the restrooms yet, but this is very well maintained, and if the guy that checked us in is any indicator, we are pretty confident there has been some attention paid to the bathrooms.
(It took like ten minutes to check in because we went through every detail of the site map, local map, internet access instructions, codes for the bathroom, BBQ, etc.) I don't know why, but when we were making reservations last night for this place, I selected the best site in the place -- actually called "Super Site". It was only $3 more so I figured, what the heck??
Well, we got the puccimanui (sp??) of sites here. Ours is extra wide and we have a concrete pad at the rear end of the site that has a patio table (with tablecloth), four chairs, a gas grill, lights, and well.... a view over the city of Las Cruces that you cannot believe. We aren't the only ones with the view, but we have the goods when it comes to seating and BBQ'ing. Again, the wind.... But hey, they supplied tablecloth clips and we were able to eat out on the patio so we're good.


As we finished up our chicken on the barbie tonight, the sunset was unbelievable. We tried to photograph it and did so with all three cameras we have on board but none quite captured the intensity of the colors, the mountains, or the city lights as they came on below us here. It was absolutely magnificent. We will just have to remember it as well as we can and as long as we can.

Tomorrow we are going to camp in the grand town of Benson, Arizona, but maybe make a side trip to see some cool rocks on the way. We'll see how it goes!

March 27-30, 2011: Carlsbad, New Mexico

The next three and a half days we have spent in Carlsbad, catching up with Laurie's mom and brother. Gradually, Pepé and Winston have become comfortable hanging out,
and the three of us are getting used to all this wind out at Kamp Karlsbad.

We have participated in two Blue House Gatherings, a ritual that can only be experienced by joining these local friends at this coffee house in Carlsbad. The stories spun at that table are something else, but the camaraderie that you feel among this tribe of people who gather every morning (except Sunday, but only because the Blue House is closed that day) is really heartening. You want to know that your mom has a strong community of friends surrounding her when she lives so far away. Brian also is part of this circle of friends and their support of him through his trials and tribulations is significant and very meaningful to him. It is a good group of people who have gathered for years for this morning ritual of friendship and that is a beautiful thing.


We have had multiple good meals here in Carlsbad and are happy to see that at least some restaurants are really thriving here. We also cooked Sunday brunch at Laurie's mom's house for her and Brian and pulled off a pretty impressive meal. On our last night here, Brian wanted us to go out to the Riverside Country Club where he works, which is really members-only dining. The restaurant manager OK'd it though and we had a terrific meal out there tonight, very reasonably priced, but as we went to pay the bill, his boss had picked up the tab! Incredibly nice gesture.

We didn't do any sightseeing on this trip as it was mainly a task-oriented visit. But we did visit one local attraction and broke our rule to never shop at WallyWorld (Wal-Mart). It was a crisis, however, as we somehow forgot to pack our fold-out canvas chairs for this trip. We scored a couple of very nice chairs (with cup holders!) for less than $20 total. They will be a great permanent addition to our camper paraphernalia.

Tomorrow we bid goodbye to the Blue House Crew, Laurie's mom and bro, and start heading towards home. Next stop, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

March 26, 2011: Capitan to Carlsbad, New Mexico (146 miles)

[Note: The most amazing thing about keeping a blog on a trip like this is how quickly you can go from being caught up to being four days behind! We are now four days behind but we're going to cheat and consolidate a couple of entries to get back on track.]

This morning (Saturday the 26th) we awoke in our Capitan campground to tremendous gusts of wind that hit the camper every five minutes or so. We're thinking they were about 40 mph on average. So much for our plan to get out of here early to beat the wind. Turns out you can't beat the wind any time of day at this time of year in these parts.
The deer didn't seem to mind too much. There were three standing feet from the backdoor of our camper when Art opened the door to let Pepé out this morning; he (Pep) promptly sat down and watched them in stunned amazement until they wandered away and he got the courage to go down the steps and sniff around where they had been.

We packed up, paid the park owners the grand total of $20 we owed them for the stay, our excellent Internet connection, and the entertaining chickens, then headed on down the road. We made only a small pot of coffee, thinking there would be a coffee shop or something resembling one in Capitan, but the only place that looked likely for a decent cup was a diner that was spilling over with pick-up trucks and people streaming in the front door. We figured it would take us 20 minutes to get a cup of coffee, so gambled that the historic town of Lincoln a few miles down the road would have some good cowboy java.
Well, Lincoln wasn't awake yet on this Saturday morning. We took a few pictures of Billy the Kid monuments, the Sheriff's office, etc., then headed on, hoping the next little town would have something.
The Starbucks app on Laurie's iPhone said our next chance for a real cup of coffee was Roswell, far enough away for us to expire in the meantime, so we kept our fingers crossed for the great town of Hondo.


On our way into Hondo, we pulled over to photograph a herd of elk munching on a cultivated field down below the road. There was one bull and about 15 cows. And they were gorgeous, gracefully moseying through the field. We stayed for about 15 minutes as they were captivating for some reason.

Hondo fortunately had a convenience store that seemed to be the only going concern in town. There must have been 20 cars there and twice as many locals gossiping inside. The coffee was Farmer's Brothers or something and not good at all, but by that time, we weren't going to complain. Roswell was another hour away.

Hondo is located right on the Rio Hondo, in a valley which is five miles downstream from where Rio Ruidoso and Rio Bonito join together; the town was originally called La Junta (the junction) because of the joining of these two rivers here. The drive southeast out of Hondo is beautiful, following the winding river closely down a meadowed, sometimes flood-irrigated landscape. It is dotted with trees that are chartreuse this time of year, and separated by ranches that are set way off the road. As soon as the road leaves the river, you are back to more high desert, dry and flat grasslands, that take you pretty much the rest of the 45 miles to Roswell.

Our main objective in Roswell was to find that Starbucks (by now it is almost noon!), but our secondary mission was to photograph as many UFO-related sightings as we could. On our approach to the town, I read to Art off of my iPhone the full Wikipedia summary of Roswell and the Roswell UFO Incident, as it is known, so our expectations were pretty darn high that we would at least see some strange looking creatures in town.
We did see a pretty good ho-down going down of Harley riders, took some pictures of the UFO museum, and a few surrounding attractions, but all in all, Roswell was not very exotic. We bought our coffee and drove the remaining 75 miles to our KOA Kampground on the north end of Carlsbad.

This is a very nice campground, extremely well maintained and managed, and equipped with THE best shower/bathrooms we have ever seen in a campground. Seriously, they are nicer than our bathrooms at home. The K-9 park met Pepé's requirements, with green grass, an obstacle course, and lots of good smells.
And they have bunnies here, which he really likes. The sites themselves are level, very well laid out with lots of room between sites, and in the summer it is probably also green. But boy, is it windy. The sites are positioned so that the prevailing wind blows right up to the back of your rig, which happens to be our backdoor. We got there around 1:00 and the wind just steadily picked up as we got the camper off the truck and hooked up. By the time we left to head into town to see Laurie's mom and brother, it was truly howling.
Your first clue upon arrival should be the wind generator that is set up out in front of the office. Laurie suddenly realized why the one amenity these incredible shower rooms don't have is hair dryers after working her way back to the camper, upwind, after her first shower here.

The KOA is about 15 miles north of Carlsbad and Laurie's mom's house, which we were a little worried about at first, but the drive was actually very pleasant and easy, and turned out to not be a big deal at all. We made our first trek into town after getting the camp set up and showering. After Pepé was semi-successfully introduced to Sir Winston, Laurie's mom's pug, and her brother got off work from his job at the Country Club, we all went out to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town, the Stock Exchange at Old City Hall. This place is owned by Kevin Zink, a successful chef who last year won the International Iron Chef competition in Toronto. The food was great and everyone enjoyed their meal, especially Brian (Laurie's brother), who hadn't seen fresh crab in an awfully long time.

We returned to fetch Pep from Laurie's mom's house then made the trek back to camp for a good night's sleep.

March 25, 2011: Albuquerque to Capitan, New Mexico (204 miles)

After showers and a good, long game of catch with Pepé in the K-9 Kamp this morning in an attempt to burn off some of his energy, we folded up our tent and left the Albuquerque KOA around 10:30.

This is the first day that we don't really have a plan.... We know we want to get a little closer to Carlsbad, which is about 300 miles south of here, but our general route was really not set until about an hour before we left this morning, and even then, we hadn't totally decided the latter half of the drive. Art very much wants to avoid snow and high winds, which is perfectly understandable. The problem is that there is nowhere to go today in Southeastern New Mexico that doesn't have high winds (gusts to 40 MPH is what the National Weather Service Red Flag Warning says). So after discussing whether to just cool our heels and drive up to Santa Fe for the day or to make some forward progress, we decided on forward progress.


We've decided to follow the southern part of the Turquoise Trail, a scenic route that we have not driven before. We really enjoyed the northern part of this drive up to Santa Fe from Albuquerque several years ago, but this was a new route for us today. Also, since we aren't in a huge hurry, we decided to take some more rural routes and avoid the major highways. The drive took us up through heavily forested hills, to a high plains area at about 6,000 feet and through several small Indian towns.

We don't know much about the remote area we traveled today but did stop in one of the larger towns called Mountainair for some information and learned that this was the site of a number of Salinas-Pueblo Missions. Apparently this area was once inhabited by a few different Pueblo trading communities. In the early 17-century, Spanish Franciscans discovered the area and found it ripe for their missionary efforts. Several missions were built and many of the native people converted to Christianity. Unfortunately, due a devastating drought, the area was abandoned by the 1670s, and although the mission ruins still stand, the people who once lived here are gone.

We stopped in Corona for gas, and after talking to the woman managing the store, decided to take the southerly route that we feared might be snowy. It wasn't, and it was actually a very beautiful (although VERY windy) drive. We were going to call it quits in Carrizozo, but that town was so windy, dusty, and depressing looking, we decided to press on -- much to Pepé's dismay. We drove another 20 miles to Capitan, the home of the real Smoky the Bear, and after passing on the first campground we found (scarily dismal), we located a second one where we are ensconced tonight.


This place is called Pinion Hills RV Park and is really just a meadow with hookups:-) There are probably only four rigs in here tonight -- spread out all over several acres -- and we think we are the only non-permanent guests tonight. The owner, who came out to greet us late this evening, is an ex-Los Angeles then Federal cop who retired fifteen years ago and moved here from L.A. with his wife, who maybe inherited this property. It is actually a very pretty spot and we chose a site at the far back end of the facility. There is nothing but more meadow then hills behind us. But it is windier than holy cow out there and hopefully we will still be upright in the morning.

We had our doubts when we pulled in and were greeted by a young woman with a baby (apparently the owner's daughter), who just told us to pick a spot and someone would be home eventually to get us checked in. There were at least three dogs of all sizes running free, jumping on the truck, and barking. (A bit of a contrast to the place in Sedona where there were two full pages of rules, one of them just about dogs....) Have I mentioned yet that there are chickens running around all over the place? But we picked our spot, got hooked up, and have great water, power, sewer, and YES.... Internet service!!! This is the best connection we have had in all the places we have stayed since the beginning of our trip. Little Capitan, out in the middle of practically nowhere, on the edge of a meadow with chickens and dogs running wild, about to be blown over by the winds coming through here, but we have Internet. Tonight we are getting caught up on our blog for the first time since the start of the trip and are grateful we decided to press on.

With luck we will get some pictures uploaded here before we fall asleep and then we will be in Carlsbad tomorrow. More from there then....

March 24, 2011: Sedona, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico (350 miles)

Today we set all kinds of records, leaving the campground by 10:00 and driving a whopping 350 miles!! If you have been following this blog or read any of our 2009 USA Road Trip blog you know that we rarely break the 300-mile mark during a day. But we made a reservation in Albuquerque at the KOA and that kept us pushing. Pepé seems to lose it right around 200 miles, so the poor little guy had a rough day. But he hung in there and landed at a nice spot with a great big dog run so I think he forgave us in the end.


Before we left the campground this morning, we took some great video of those blue herons flying back and forth above us and nesting in those trees along the creek where we were camped. If you read those posts earlier, check back in a couple of days and I'll try to remember how to upload that to the blog page. It is worth seeing though.

The climb out of Sedona was spectacular. 89A North follows Oak Creek Canyon uphill to where it intersects with Interstate-17 in Flagstaff. After grabbing a cup of coffee at Starbucks in Sedona, we hit the trail, winding our way past the red rocks, then sandstone-colored cliffs, then into a lush forest of Ponderosa pines.
At the top of the hill, you are treated to a Scenic Overview that doesn't let you see quite all the way down to the red rocks of Sedona, but you definitely get a sense for how far you've climbed on your way out of the valley. There are a number of Native American vendors selling handmade jewelry here as well, so if you didn't get your chance in Sedona, you can find something here.


At Flagstaff, I-17 quickly intersects I-40 and we followed that East all of the rest of the 320 miles to Albuquerque through mainly high plains desert.

We got to our KOA in Albuquerque a half hour before they were supposed to close, then remembered that it was actually an hour later in Albuquerque than in Arizona! Luckily, the manager saw us come in and escorted us directly to our site. This RV park actually got very good reviews in the RV Reviews site I always check online, as well as the Woodall's guide which is like a Bible to us on the road. But he said they get pretty mixed reviews and as the new manager, he intends to perk the place up a bit. We could sort of see what he meant once we were there. No grass around the sites, just rocks. No shelter from the winds, which were ominous when we pulled in. And it is right on the frontage road for I-40, which is pretty noisy. But their K-9 Kamp was great, so Pepé gave it 5 woofs and we ended up having a very pleasant evening there inside our nice, warm camper with our take-out Applebee's dinners. And the Internet was excellent, which for some reason has been a real problem on this trip so far.

Tomorrow we are going to try to get a little closer to our final destination of Carlsbad, New Mexico, where Laurie's mom and brother live. The idea is not to put in another 350-mile day. We'll see how we do.

March 23, 2011: Sedona with a Day Trip to Jerome and Prescott, Arizona

We decided we definitely wanted to stay another day here in Sedona so made the trek to the RV camp office as soon as they opened and were lucky to get another nigh. This really is one of the nicer spots we have ever stayed in and will definitely stay here again. The owners take impeccable care of this campground. The shower facilities are spotless, it is totally peaceful just about any hour of the day, and the location is spectacular. Laurie, at least, would rate this among the top three of any campgrounds we have stayed in across the U.S. since getting the camper.

Today we drove south on Highway 89A to Prescott, but most importantly through the mining town of Jerome, where our good friends, John and Mary Lou McKenney lived for five years back in the '90s.

To get to Jerome from Sedona, you follow Oak Creek Canyon south, traveling first through the surprisingly -- and somewhat annoyingly -- congested Sedona.... I guess we have just as little right to be here as any other tourist, but this poor little town is at capacity, even in late March, before peak season. We made a very necessary stop at the local Safeway, then chose the right direction on Highway 89 as people seemed to be more interested in going north today.

Jerome is only about 30 miles from Sedona but about an hour away down Highway 89A. You pass through a couple of small towns along the way, and remarkably about six seemingly unnecessary roundabouts. If you have not traveled through Europe or seen these roundabouts, they are a method of slowing traffic and directing you through several optional right turns. Often this is done at one would normally be a four-way stop. Everyone rolls through the intersection without stopping, although you have to yield to others coming into the circle and heading your way, sometimes resulting in your stopping. These seem to make great sense in the middle of Paris, but in the middle of Cottonwood, Arizona, it is kind of strange. Surely some traffic engineer somewhere understands the rationale, but it seemed more hazardous than expedient to us in this situation.

At any rate, eventually you start winding your way up Cleopatra Hill to Jerome, a great hillside mining town at 5,200 feet that was founded in 1876. Once known as the "wickedest town in the west" because of its reputation for gambling and prostitution, Jerome was a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents to a thriving mining community. The town's population reached a peak of 15,000 in the 1920s. Although its prosperity as a mining town ended in the 20s, it had a short rejuvenation in the 80s, but has essentially become an artists community with a population of about 450, with a number of popular restaurants and hotels. We found the main draw to be the photogenic quality of this town, perched so seemingly precariously on this hillside with a view across the valley to the red rocks of Sedona. The road winds through the town via four or five hairpin turns, and everything seems to be just hanging there.

The mine itself is no longer operational and sadly, because of Arizona state budget cuts, the park is only open Thursdays through Monday now (we arrived on a Wednesday). Fortunately the townspeople have sort of adopted the old mine site and there were a number of people there with some knowledge of the place. The home where our friends the McKenneys used to live was bought some years back by a woman who totally restored the house, including small details like the butler's call bell that is a foot pedal under the dining room table. This was reportedly the honeymoon cabin built by the mine owner, James Douglas, for his son and his new bride, who he hoped would take over the mine. Unfortunately, after only a few months in the place, the daughter-in-law declared she would not live here and they vacated the premises. Today, due to the lack of smoke and haze and crap generated from the smelt operations of the mine that surely she was inundated with then, the view from this house is unbelievable.
It stretches 30 miles to the north and the red hills of Sedona, at least the same distance to the east and those desert plains, and up the hill to the south to the picturesque town of Jerome. Probably a million dollar view in any state today. But that was then and this is now....

We followed Highway 89 out of Jerome, up and up to about 7,000 feet, then back down to Prescott Valley, then into the town of Prescott. We took a loop from 169 back to 17N then 179 back through Cottonwood to 89A going north, basically one giant loop. We wanted to see The Enchantment, a resort that our friend George Renwick had highly recommended for lunch. Unfortunately, they had a strict no-pets policy so we just drove through the property to take a look at the accommodations and views. It is an absolutely unbelievable place and next time we will make arrangements to have a meal there. They have three restaurants, all of which get excellent reviews. This is their website: http://www.enchantmentresort.com/.


We got back early enough and with a fresh load of groceries to marinate chicken and get the BBQ out. We had a delicious meal of lemon rosemary chicken, rice, skinny asparagus, and leftover biscuits from last night. Another successful camper meal:-)