We departed Holbrook and drove about 60 miles to Meteor Crater. Normally I drive when the Barbarian Invader is attached to Charlotte but Peggy was a really good sport and elected to drive today. It is rugged sitting in the right seat and actually getting to see all the stuff as we went by and today was a good day for me to be cruelly excluded from driving duty. I’ll get over it.
We covered the distance in less than an hour and were able to find our park for the next two nights, register and set up the Invader before noon. We love the short hauls with the trailer. We finished all the stuff we needed to do like having some porter before deciding to take an aimless spin around the ‘hood. We started by going west on I-40.
After about thirty miles we pulled off at Walnut Canyon National Park. We knew nothing about this park and until we pulled off I-40, we were ignorant about its existence. The park charges $8 a head but we had our federal access pass and got in free again. There is a nice visitor center with a gift shop and some exhibits. The back door of the visitor center leads out to the edge of very steep-walled canyons where some folks named the Sinagua (Spanish for “without water”) lived in caves and cracks underneath some of the layers of rock. I guess if the crack was wide enough and deep enough, the former residents would build mud and stone walls to keep out the weather and critters and neighbors.
The cliffs where the Sinagua selected for their homes are either very steep or outright bluffs so going down to the canyon bottom for water contributed to efficient use. Getting up the cliffs without water jugs looks to be pretty nasty so sending the kids down for water must have kept them busy all day. These folks were tough; the canyon is at about 6,000′ elevation and getting around in the bit of the park we saw left me gasping, at least on the uphill sections.
We fiddled around in the park for about an hour before departing and driving a bit further west on I-40 until we turned north on US-89 toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. There are actually a whole bunch of volcanic vents and cinder cones in the monument left over from a giant fracture in the earth that spewed tons of lava and cinders extending for about 20 miles or more.
The road through the monument takes motorists on a serpentine route between the cones, through lava flows and tremendous sections of bumpy land covered by cinders. The vegetation, where there is any, was open for business and the clumping plants were festooned with purple, red, white and pink flowers. This is a pretty spectacular place and, just when we thought we had seen it all, the road passed over a ridge and an amazingly colorful vista of iridescent cliffs maybe 25 miles away on Navajo lands appeared. The colors, even from a distance, are vivid and I can see why the Native Americans in this area enjoyed peyote. The cliffs must be fantastic on psychedelic drugs.
The Sunset Crater loop road exits the monument property and, for a bit, wanders through stunning scenery showing all the fun this area must have been when eruptions were in full tilt in the early 1600s. The loop road then enters Wupatki National Monument, another place we were ignorant of until today. The road leads past Wukaki, Wupatki, Lomaki, Citadel and Nalakiku pueblos (actually, former pueblos since they are all ruins) in addition to a bunch of unnamed evidence of former civilizations in this area. The view to the west is the snow-capped 12,633’ elevation peak of Mount Humphries and the views to the north and east are the constantly-changing hues of the Navajo lands. This loop is a great drive. It took us about four hours to go 60 miles because the scenery was so great.
We then drove back to our camp near Meteor Crater because it was getting dark and we both prefer to keep our veering limited to daylight hours. On the way home, the clouds and sun put on a spectacular sunset demonstration that I photographed liberally although the camera, despite being a Nikon, just can’t quite reproduce the amazing subtle colors the eye can see. I guess you just have to go see for yourself.

Peggy and I jumped up this morning, drank a bit of fortified coffee, packed some vittles for a day of exploring and departed OK RV Park before 0900 hours. We headed back east on I-40 until we reached the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. After a short stop at the visitor center for postcards, we pulled up in the entrance line to pay $20 to access the park. Fortunately, we had our federal access pass and got in free.
The first several miles takes you along the road through a section of the park called Painted Desert. I do not have the capability to use adequate superlatives to describe the scenery in this magnificent place. The terrain exhibits all the colors of the spectrum in the cliffs and mesas and we could have easily filled up our data chip in the camera taking pictures of the stunning scenery. We stopped and strolled around wherever there was a possibility and were delighted.
Things only got better because no sooner had we left the dazzling panoramas of the Painted Desert when we crossed I-40 and entered Petrified Forest. There isn’t too much petrified anything at the beginning but soon we got into the really neat stuff. The terrain is extraordinarily colorful with hues of red, pink, orange, blue, white and purple everywhere we looked. As we continued south through the park, more and more petrified wood started showing up near the road with equally extraordinary colors of what used to be wood 225 million years ago. We pulled out everywhere we could and again took all the available short little trails they have through the wonderful gardens of petrified wood chunks strewn about the stunning terrain. This is definitely an E-ticket ride and a bucket list adventure. Plan on spending the whole day watching the colors change in the sunlight while covering the 25 mile long road through the park. I will come back if I get another opportunity.

A travel day today. We broke camp by about 10:00 AM and started west on I-40. In Albuquerque, we finally got to see our only hot air balloon despite being in the area for 5 days during their Balloon Fiesta. Albuquerque is in the Rio Grande Valley and there is a substantial climb going west from town. We passed through Albuquerque at about 5,200′ elevation and ascended to around 7,000′ at the continental divide before starting the long descent across the remainder of New Mexico and eastern Arizona.
I-40 passes through some truly magnificent canyons with brilliantly colorful rock formations. In eastern Arizona, the interstate passes right by Petrified Forest National Park but there are no RV camping areas near the park so we continued to the OK RV Park in Holbrook, AZ. The run from Tijeras to Holbrook is about 250 miles, nearly at the limit of as far as we are willing to go in one day. The park is another desert-type facility with not much shade because not too many species of trees grow in this part of the world. The park has full hookups, wi-fi, cable TV and our dreadful phone works here for some reason.
We decided to go out for Chinese food at a joint called Mandarin Beauty. I got the General Tsao chicken and a combo rice and Peggy chose a chicken with vegetable dish with a typical Chinese name like “twice frazzled chicken” or “vegetable chicken poon tang.” My food was very tasty and Peg liked her food. Later that evening, I found out why people say you get hungry a short time after eating Chinese food because mine passed right through with considerable alacrity.
We also took a spin through the town of Holbrook. It is a unique little burg with many plaster dinosaur statues, Indian rug merchants and the complete array of fast food joints like DQ, Aliberto’s, of course the Mandarin Beauty and some little Mom & Pop eateries. They also have a motel called Wigwam Village where travelers can stay in a genuine concrete teepee with window-mounted air conditioners. Very spiffy. This same motel, in the interest of historical accuracy, has several old 1940s, 1950s and some 1960s American cars spread amongst the concrete wigwams. Some are in great shape and, if they run, could probably be sold to guys like my son, Sam, or our friend, Steve Perich, back in San Diego. Very little rust on these relics.

Today is our last day of our two week stay in the Albuquerque area. We drove into Albuquerque to try out a highly-touted restaurant called California Pastrami.
The place is quite a ways north in the city so it took us about 25 minutes to get there. It is in a mini-mall; one small suite among many. When I walked in I thought I may be in heaven because they specialize in pastrami which I would gladly slam-dunk down the grocery hole until I pop. Reality quickly set in when I noted the 12 ounce pastrami sandwich with some provolone slipped in runs some $13.88 and the chocolate shake I got to go with it comes in around $5. Peggy got the Reuben (which they spell on the menu as “Ruben”) and was unimpressed. My sandwich was okay and there was ample meat but they slice it transparent thin which dries it out during heating. The food was okay but we got two sandwiches and two shakes which ran to $36. They are no match for Phillipe’s in L.A. or R Deli in Hulett, WY.
We picked up fuel on the way home and then spent the rest of the day preparing to break camp from our two-week stay along with some dedicated television watching. We got TV over the antenna in Tijeras; maybe 10 channels. All of them are shit.

We might be considered unimaginative because we have pretty much exhausted our list of stuff we wanted to do here in Albuquerque. The Balloon Fiesta is still a non-event for us because we have been near the Fiesta grounds twice and still await our first sighting. In addition to some unfortunate weather the ascensions are mostly around 7:00 AM which is somewhat early for us.
We elected to go back up Sandia Crest (el. 10670′)and were rewarded with a drive that looked different than it did Saturday before last. The Aspen trees are changing color and the breezes on the sides of Sandia Peak wiggle the leaves resulting in a great show. Some of the Aspens are green, some yellow and the rest red. It is pretty neat. The views in all directions from the Peak are terrific, particularly with today’s balloon flight cancelling wind and clouds racing up the west face of the mountain. Got pix.
We descended after a while but instead of heading back down NM-14 to our trailer, we headed north towards Santa Fe for a while. There are some stunning views of wide-open New Mexico land with multiple ranges of mountains visible in the background. After a bit we turned east and south back toward Edgewood on I-40. We noted a Wal-Mart next to the highway and we needed some deli meat so we pulled in to do some light shopping.
The deli was closed for a mysterious reason that seemed to be unknown to other Wal-Mart personnel. Some who worked in adjacent sections responded “Oh, is it closed?” when queried about the lack of deli staff. We left still stumped.

We don’t generally go out for breakfast but today we decided to give another Albuquerque restaurant a go. Although I am sure that my selections for breakfast fare are bad for me, I persevered to continue my quest for the best chicken fried steak in the nation. Currently, Jake’s in Bend, OR, and Dean’s in Clackamas, OR, are the undisputed leaders in serving this very tasty but possibly unwholesome meal selection.
I started by accessing the internet using our terrible phone and phone service provider, both of which seem to work in this locale but few others. I was able to find a website that purported to illustrate the 15 best places in Albuquerque to get chicken fried steak. Murphy’s Mule Barn led the list but, in the interest of fairness, we selected a place called Tim’s. This place was supposed to have large, fat person-sized portions of this tasty meat dish. We hopped into Charlotte’s cab and drove the 25 miles or so to Tim’s.
Right after arriving in Tim’s parking lot, I began to suspect something was fishy because there were signs out front indicating the place offered free hugs. I do not cotton to free hugs from strangers since 1. I don’t know them and I do not normally touch people I don’t know. 2. Hugging offers an opportunity to savor the B.O. and stinky heads of strangers. 3. Hugs instead of food are not what we were seeking.
We were promptly assigned a waiter who turned out to be a tubby little twit that grinned maniacally as he approached. The other waiter had big wood platters in his earlobes that closely resembled round plastic laminate tabletops. When queried on what we wanted, I explained that we had found this restaurant by perusing the web and they were way up on the list of restaurants that served chicken fried steak. He revealed at this time that they no longer served chicken fried steak because it had been removed from the menu two weeks prior by the manager. Things went downhill from here.
The twit was a competent waiter but the food we ultimately ordered after dealing with my heartbreak was mundane and nominal. I had a bone-dry breakfast burrito and Peggy had a Reuben that she described as “unsatisfactory.” The fried potatoes were okay but, all in all, the food was unremarkable.
We left only partially satisfied (no longer hungry) and decided to wander over to the part of town where the annual Balloon Fiesta was supposedly taking place after visiting the bottom station of the Sandia Aerial Tramway. We accidentally took the longest route through town due to some road selections based entirely on ignorance and, after circling the balloon launching area several times, finally achieved our goal. Unfortunately, the weather in Albuquerque has not been ideal for ballooning so there was absolutely nothing to see except a big empty sky.
Balloon watching found to be boring and hard-to-see, we then drove to the National Museum of Nuclear (nucular if you are W.) Science which is right across the street from the local Costco. Because of my geezerism, they knocked $2 off the regular entry price for my ticket. Peggy is not ancient so she had to pay full price of $12.
The museum starts with a lot of reading of nifty plaques on the walls with text explaining who was the funny-looking guy in the adjacent picture. They are not real forthcoming on nuclear theory or physics. After reading a bunch, you enter the more entertaining parts which have models of reactors, replica Fat Man and Little Boy atomic bombs that were used to barbecue about a quarter million Japanese, cannon-fired atomic shells (hope they don’t fall short), rockets, bomb control units, a Packard military limousine(?), interactive experiments, weird tubes that used to emit ionizing radiation and an outdoors section where they have some fighter-bomber and bomber aircraft along with a selection of missile systems. They also have some exhibits about alternate forms of energy like solar, geothermal, coal, gas and wind.
This museum was a great place to spend a few hours when the weather outside was being uncooperative and would probably be just as good on nice days. The docents were sharp, the exhibits were interesting although sometimes terrifying, the aircraft are fun to look at and the price is very reasonable.
We went back home and are returning to our policy of not eating out unless seized by a desire to be disappointed. Peggy is a much better cook than most of the chefs in the places we have visited. The remainder of the chefs might get a tie but I’d bet they can’t do it regularly.

Today will not be a big day for my faithful readers. We went nowhere but we did get in some football watching. I also dumped the holding tanks but there are no interested parties who can be thrilled by long manuscripts describing the technique used to get rid of sewage.
Therefore, I shall use this space to give my usual description of the RV park where we are staying.
Name of facility: Hidden Valley RV Mountain Resort
Pithy comments about facility name: It is not in a valley, is not really a resort and “resort” may be stretching it when describing the place.
Facility roads: There are no roads, as such, and gullying is rampant where adequate drainage structures have been omitted during grading.
Pool: Covered with a nice blue tarp. No swimming.
Facility wi-fi capability: Negative.
Facility cable TV hookups: None.
Facility public pavilions or recreation availability: Limited to rock collecting, mostly from the roads.
Facility wildlife: Moles, small birds, rabbits, rednecks, Harley riders, old people, some dogs.
Cost: We have an RPI membership so the cost is $10 / night which is about right when taking the amenities into account.
Other: The nearby freeway traffic can be heard but only rarely.
Facility appearance: Rustic but weedy.
Nearby tourist attractions: None.
Facility administration: Unknown. No apparent management interference in daily operations or maintenance. Maintenance activity unrecognizable by the naked eye.
Overall rating: Nominal. This is a high-altitude parking lot with spaces the size of an ordinary postage stamp accessible over roads of dirt and gravel. Reviewer was assigned a spot adjacent to asshole who warms up his/her diesel pickup truck by idling for 20 minutes at 5:30 AM. Dumpsters are regularly, if noisily, emptied. Posted facility rule violations are rampant because of management disdain for doing anything requiring the burning of calories. Reviewer noted the following regulation violations because management didn’t: nighttime open ground fires, widespread “quiet time” violations, machinery repair within the park, outdoor welding operations despite high fire danger, permanent residents with substantial junk scattered about their and others’ sites, unclaimed dog doo.

We took another drive of exploration today but very little exploring was actually accomplished. We started out by going west from Hidden Valley RV down Historical Route 66 that is called 333 by New Mexico. At the non-town of Tijeras, we turned south on NM-337 and climbed up to the two collections of non-functioning junk cars of Escabosa and Chilili.
The towns of Escabosa and Chilili seem to be little sovereign nations where new blood, operating automobiles, paying customers and conventional residential construction are unwelcome. They even have large, misspelled signs with pithy messages indicating nobody is to trespass, hunt, gather anything, look funny, think or otherwise disturb the stagnation. We scooted through these towns trying not to look any funnier than normal and continued south on NM-337 until we hit NM-55. A few days ago, we turned west at this intersection. This time we went east and, after crossing over about 10 miles of prairie, we arrived in Estancia.
The drive through this country is pleasant but the towns are just plain old agricultural towns and Estancia is no exception. Estancia is big in pinto bean production. We turned north in Estancia and drove until we arrived in Moriarty and at the intersection with I-40. Moriarty is similar to Estancia except larger and they have a big graveyard next to the freeway that has markers representing unfortunates who were slain by drunk drivers. I didn’t investigate to ascertain whether the drunks were also represented.
We turned west on I-40 back to our spot at HVRVMR. Not a big day today but the stress level certainly was low.

We had a full agenda of loafing proposed for today and we followed it closely. We started our fooling around by making reservations for the segment of our trip between Albuquerque and Sedona which will commence on 10/8/15. We will be staying near Petrified Forest for a couple of days followed by a couple more days at Meteor Crater before heading into the Flagstaff area for about 10 days.
Forethought completed for the next three weeks, we drove down into Albuquerque to a Costco store and we only got lost once. A hundred and a half dollars later, we departed and were free of our pressing commitments for the duration.
Peggy had been looking out the Barbarian’s windows for a few days and had spotted some roads she wanted to try so, after cramming our Costco purchases into the fridge, we departed on a journey of exploration in the ‘hood around our camp at Hidden Valley RV Mountain Resort.
Folks may be a bit strange here because during our journey we spotted a residence with an Xmas tree in the yard made entirely of antlers, a really big chrome agave plant, one place where the owner had his own private observatory and another place where we photographed the owner’s ample collection of old, dead Pontiac Grand Prix automobiles parked alongside his collection of old, dead International, Ford and Chevy trucks. There were also some really nice homes with spectacular views looking west down the pass to Albuquerque.
Our imaginations ran out of steam and we ran out of daylight so we headed back to our RV park and arrived just in time to see another magnificent sunset. The sunsets here are very colorful and we end up spending quite a bit of time standing in our driveway looking west watching the sky do it’s thing. It is wonderful having enough time to just watch nature go by. I think we will continue this unless we get caught.

Exploration was the agenda for today. We frequently find the best stuff when we head off without a destination in mind and also find often when we closely plan our routes we end up disappointed with our selection. This speaks volumes about our abilities to plan excursions.
Today we started by going to a fixed destination. We drove just a short distance from our campground towards a place called Travertine Falls. As we approached up the narrow road to the parking lot we noted that there was not a drop of water in the creek below the falls so we gave it a pass. Maybe we will return after it rains which it is supposed to do right as the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta starts on October 3. They also expect lightning and I am sure the fools who ride in hot air balloons will appreciate this form of weather phenomena. Up….up….bzzzzt….thud!
After not seeing where Travertine Falls isn’t, we took off south on NM-337 through Escabosa and Chilili, both authentic, rustic junkyards with some historic condemnable buildings just waiting for some idealistic buyer or idiot to see through the ugly all the way to the even uglier. The countryside along the highway is quite pretty but the hamlets are genuinely hideous. Many non-functional vintage automobiles have come here to die. After some more pretty countryside, we hit NM-55 and continued south through more sad, decrepit towns called Tajique, Torreon and Manzano before turning off into the Quarai segment of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.
At Quarai, there is the ruins of an old church and some foundations of Pueblo Indian home structures. The church was built by the local Pueblo women who were enslaved by the Catholic missionaries who brought the benefits of slavery, smallpox, flu and the Inquisition. The Pueblos had gotten along very well for 300+ years until Spanish missionaries and soldiers brought the benefits of Christian religion to the region. The advantages brought by the Europeans were quite effective, annihilating the population in 40 years. The ruins and scenery here are very nice. The history is a bit disgusting.
We continued south on NM-55 to Mountainair, a small town with fragrant air but no mountains, where we turned west on US-60 to the Abo segment of SPMNM. Here there is the ruins of another church, the most recent construction, since shortly after the construction the population was again eradicated by modernization of their lifestyles and beliefs. The tangible benefits of introducing European traditions and cultures to people who had a cooperative, peaceful society are clearly ascertainable through the improved death rates, loss of property and forced labor for outsiders.
We continued west on US-60 to northwest NM-47 to I-25 north to I-40 east back to our camping spot. Right as we got home, the western sky put on another fantastic light and dark show as the sun set. I took way too many pictures.