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.