Tag: airstream

Albuquerque Part 1. The Mother Road episode 18

The campground selection for Albuquerque turned out to be a point of interest on the Rte 66 list. Enchanted Trails, I was just trying to pick something reasonably close to the highway and more to the west of the city…and really…Enchanted Trails….who could resist…. 😃

It’s maybe a bit close to the highway (nighttime road noise) but otherwise a pretty good pick. Lots of 66 memorabilia and some vintage trailers (rentable)

First order of business was to see if we could get a timely fix on the AC. After days of trying to arrange something with a couple of places by phone, the lady at the Enchanted Trails desk recommended Good Sense RV. Jeremy Hogan, the service manager was terrific….. ordered the unit on the spot as we stood there in his office on Friday and tentatively booked us to switch it out the following Wednesday……. So 4 extra days in Albuquerque….I’ll tell you there’s worse places to pass the time…. 😁

What a great city. There is a flavor of artistic pride here. The bridges have murals or friezes or at least some decorative element. The architecture embraces the Adobe rounded, earth coloured aesthetic which makes the buildings less imposing.

We stopped in to a new route 66 visitor centre just across the highway from the campground. There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot…we poked around a little and it was closed.

Just as we were about to leave a door opened and the guy asked if he could help. Turns out the centre had just and only just, been gifted to the city after its original planners/developers had run out of money. He let us come in and have a look around…… ( Thanks Dominic..!!)…..

….there was an impressive collection of Route 66 cars……

The upper floor of the centre is an event space….with the most amazing view from the balcony…..

He made some great recommendations for things to go see in the city………and also shared with us his ‘Breaking bad’ story……the guy with the crazy moustache is his dad…. 😁.

On Dominics recommendation we found a great parking spot downtown to walk the Old Town of Albuquerque. A touristy spot, but a quite lovely walk around the old original town…….and a big dose of Breaking Bad that came with it……!!

The Old Town was built on a grid, perfect for a bit of touristy traipsing around…..

It was hot that day…..but it seems like that terracotta colour of the stucco and concrete of the sidewalks does not reflect the heat in the same way as that regular stone/grey colour.

Or maybe there was just enough shade to keep it comfortable. There were lots of lovely little artisan stores, weavers, antiques, jewellery and more. Lovely for browsing.

The Breaking Bad store was a must stop too….

It was more like a museum of the series and spinoffs with a gift store attached. It was a cool little place…

Next task was to scope out the Kiva Centre and where the parking was in prep for Lyle Lovett in concert. (Did I mention that Scott had scored us tickets for this, the opening night of this years’ big band concert series……!!)

Lyle was awesome, as usual. Always worth the price of admission.

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Nambe Badlands. The Mother Road episode 16

The old route 66 does a loop up through Santa Fe, adding time and distance to the journey. Even although this is the original route there was still a little bit of debate whether we should do this loop or not. We were conscious of the increasing temperatures in some of the destinations ahead of us, and the urgency of having that a/c unit repaired.

In the end we were so glad we decided to do it. We fell instantly in love with Santa Fe with its cooler climate in the mountains particularly welcome, especially with just the one air conditioner working.

The cooler clime created the opportunity to get the old legs stretched out again and Alltrails offered us a couple of likely candidates. The downside of a trip like route 66 is a lot of time sitting and driving and this far into the summer months…..the heat adds to the disincentive to be particularly active.

We picked a hike on the road up toward Taos, (Taos is on the list for a return visit 😁) Nambe Badlands. We have seen many different badlands landscapes by now but never tire of them…..they are all incredibly beautiful, and all so very, very different …

It’s a loop trail……

and we had lots of water….it was cooler than Tucumcari….but still pretty hot…!!!

There was really no shade for the truck….

….also no real hope of any shade for us on this particular trek through the coulees…….

…..and up onto the plateaus and mesas…..

……. taking every opportunity for a little shade…..

The path was well laid out and easy to follow ……..

….and the views were suitably spectacular…..

..as per the landscape we went up,

then down,

then up and down again….

…and again……

We kept up a steady pace and drank lots of water……

..it really is a spectacular landscape…breathtakingly beautiful…..and then….on the way down we met one of the local residents. Our first sighting of that old Western movie favourite, the Diamondback rattler.

I did not get anywhere near him despite encouragement from the photographer (“it’s for the blog..!!!!”) I circled around the bush. He may have been stretched out lazily in the heat, but I was not about to find out how quickly he could coil….!!!

Finally….hot, sticky and dusty we sighted the truck again……it was good to be out……but good to be done…..

……now home for a shower…!!!

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July 20th. The Road East.

Packed up and ready to go.

Coincidentally, its exactly a year since we took the Chi Cheemaun ferry across to Manitoulin and set off on this journey of ours. So here we go east this time. First stop was a Harvest Host just outside Kingston. The Doner Studio perfectly located close enough to the Trans Canada to be convenient, and tucked away enough to be beautifully secluded and private.

Our hosts, Randall and Darlene, were super friendly and helpful. The parking spot they had for us was quite magnificent. It’s a level, gravel area across the road from their studio and store, but facing out over the Rideau Canal at Lower Brewers Lock. The added bonus to this spot right now is that the bridge by their property is out for re-construction, so the through road is actually closed.

It was a real breath of air stopping here to break up the drive. The walk around these old locks on the canal was another unexpected bonus.

Lower Brewers lock.

A little bit of history mixed in to our evening stroll.

…and a little bit of fishing……well…..the throwing of a line into the water….!!!!

…..on the way back to Xolo, we happened on this heron showing himself off quite magnificently……..

….. and then disturbed a gaggle nibbling the grass around our site..!!

…..the sunset was pretty decent too…..!!!!

With Harvest hosts there is no unhitching…..so in the morning, coffee in hand, its just lifting the stairs, locking the door and off we go again. ( That might be a slight oversimplification…!!!LOL)

Next stop Quebec City……..

Gas prices take a big leap when you cross in to Quebec, and the gas stations become more impossible to get a 30 foot rig into…!!!

Neither of us could believe that we did not take any pictures of the site in Campground Bernieres (just off the Trans Canada, and just outside Quebec City.) It was a very nice campground, very friendly staff. We drove through some horrific thunderstorms on the way there……collected our first ‘giant hail’ dents in the front of the trailer. (🙁)

We stayed a couple of nights so that we could take a wander round the old city.

Lovely buildings and little art spots scattered around.

Its a very beautiful city…….if you mashed up Edinburgh and Paris (France) with a handful of Montreal….you pretty much have Old Quebec city.

We wandered down to the harbour, and stopped for a foot cooling session in the arty sprinkler system. ( it was a hot day…!!)

Lots of soaking wet kids around…..😁😁

Its one of those places that is trapped between old beauty, interesting fine art and tourist kitsch.

It was a lovely place to wander through, but it also reinforced to us that cities are not where we’d rather be anymore.

We did have an interesting little lunch stop at Tora-ya ramen. Very yummy..!!

All the pictures in this post are clickable if you wish a clearer view. Additional information is included in clickable links which appear as underlined text.

November 9th, Dogtown Trail….head in the clouds.

This was the trail recommended by the couple we met up the hill on the last walk……the weather is definitely changing now…and it was a bit of a last minute decision to do this one….it had been heavy rain all morning but we decided to go for it and so glad we did.

The trailhead is up a steep winding road from Okanagan Falls …about 20 minutes from our current home spot. The drive was up into an ‘out of the way’ little valley…and a less well travelled road.

I was finding it tough going as we headed up the hill….it did not seem that steep so I was thinking it was just cos it was quite a bit colder……by this point we are in to multiple layers of clothing….(and my newly finished latest knitting project, a very cosy double layered hat..!!!).

There was also this weird bucket/barrel swing thing hanging from a tree , in the middle of nowhere…any ideas?…anyone..?

Halfway up the path, the view is down in to a valley we did not know was there. Another chocolate box scene…as now there are the snow capped peaks behind.

As we approached the top of the hill, where the promise of more views down the other side resided….the clouds were moving in fast ( at that elevation) Mr Adventure was all for pressing on “into the clouds”…!!!

So…up in to the clouds we went……cold, slippery with poor visibility……but it was quite fascinating….silent and moody for sure….!!! But of course…no view from the top.

As we started to descend….coming back out of that cloud level was another amazing unveiling by mother natures weather department…..with the wispy cloud above us and the visible sun rays down in to the valley below……and the glinting waterways and roofs of the buildings below in full sunshine……

….and as ever….the return journey down the path reveals how steep it actually is…..leaving me strangely reassured about how hard I found the journey up. I think we are getting so used to seeing these steep grades that we are losing our sense of ‘steep’…lol…..

It turned out to be quite an exciting hike all in all…….yet another different terrain…..and another fabulous visual experience……Thanks Deb and Keith for the heads up on this one…….

Next trip out will be Hawthorne mountain….(.AKA Snowy Mountain per Mr Adventure…!!!)

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