Hello readers, glad you're back. Our
last chapter concluded on Thursday, April 23rd on our last
day in Camp Verde Arizona. On Friday we packed up and left Camp
Verde about 10:30. I was a little concerned about the weather since
there was a storm front moving through the area and there were
predictions of rain and even some sleet in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is
over 7,000 feet, so there is always the threat of ice if it gets cold
enough. We are not staying in Flagstaff, only passing through on the
way to Winslow, which is only 5,000 feet elevation. The biggest
problem on the trip was the wind, which was blowing about 20 mph with
gusts to 40 along I-40 out of Flagstaff.
We did run into some rain, heavy at
times, on the way up the hill to Flagstaff, but by the time we got to
Flagstaff we were in partly cloudy, mostly sunny skies and we did
fine. We arrived at the Homolavi State Park campground, just north
of Winslow, Arizona, about 12:30 or so and quickly setup camp. We
only have water and power, 50 amp, but we are only here for three
days so sewer is not an issue. This is the first time we have ever
been to this park. It is quite barren, sitting on the high prairie
that marks most of northeast Arizona. There are not too many other
RVs in the park, but we were greeted by a park volunteer who checked
us in. The wind is blowing up here too, so we didn't put anything
outside, not even the sun screens. It is supposed to rain on Sunday
and I don't like the 
Saturday, April 26th, we woke up to
partly cloudy skies, morning temps in the low 50's and lots of wind.
The wind blew all night and I expect it will blow all day too. We
left the coach after lunch to go out and do some exploring and
geocaching. We first went to the Visitor's Center for the State Park
we are staying in to see what it was all about. Homolavi State Park
was founded in 1986 to help preserve and study over 300 Ancestral
Puebloan archaeological sites. Homolavi a Hopi word meaning "place
of the little hills". The Homolavi cluster of archaeological
sites includes seven separate pueblo ruins built by various
prehistoric people, including ancestors of the Hopi people, between
approximately 1260-1400 AD. This fertile area is on a floodplain of
the Little Colorado River, and the inhabitants grew cotton, corn,
beans, and squash. The visitor's center was interesting, but we
learned that the sites are actually little more than ruins, piles of
rock, and we have been to better preserved pueblo sites before.
Given the cold and wind we decided to forgo visiting any of the ruins
today.
We then drove down into old town
Winslow. Although we have been through the town many times over the
last ten years, we haven't really spent any time here. Winslow was
incorporated in 1900 as a rail stop on the Sante Fe line. It sits an
an elevation just under 5,000 feet and has a population of just under
10,000. Winslow was located on the famous Route 66 cross country
highway, and the main street of town reflects this history with
dozens of old motels, eateries, shops and ersatz Indian trading
posts. Some of these buildings are still in use, many are barely
standing ruins.
Although Winslow missed out in being
named in the lyrics of the song Route 66, it does make a big deal of
being a part of the 1972 Eagles song, “Take it Easy.” “Standing
on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see. It's a
girl my Lord, in a flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me.”
There is now a park in old town called “Standing on the Corner”
with a bronze statute of a guy with a guitar and a big mural
depicting a Ford flatbed truck reflecting in a shop window. In one
of the second floor windows shown in the painting is a large Eagle.
There is also an actual restored red 60's model one-ton Ford flatbed
truck parked at the curb next to the park. In the middle of the
nearby intersection is a large “Route 66” shield incorporated
into the pavement. Of course, we had to take our pictures at the
park. We also visited a couple of the souvenir shops nearby.
After “standing on the corner,” we
started doing some geocaching, and actually, the park had a virtual
cache and was our first find of the day. We ended up with 13 new
finds and no DNFs for the afternoon. Two of the caches were located
at the historic La Posada Hotel. The La Posada was the last of the
famous Fred Harvey railroad hotels to be built. Harvey began
partnership with the Santa Fe Railroad in 1876. He started by
opening eating houses along the railroad. At its peak, there were 84
Harvey Houses, all of which catered to wealthy and middle-class
visitors alike and Harvey became known as "the Civilizer of the
West." Harvey also gained a boost in business with his
incorporation of the "Harvey Girl". He hired women between
the ages of 18 and 30 and did not permit them to marry until they had
put in a full year of work. Harvey Girls resided in housing adjacent
to the restaurants, where they were supervised by the most senior
Girl, who enforced curfews and chaperoned male visits. Roughly 5000
Harvey Girls moved out West to work and ultimately marry. The
corporation also built more than a dozen large, luxurious hotels at
various stops along the Sante Fe line.
The La Posada opened May 15, 1930, just
after the stock market crash of 1929, and remained open for just 27
years. In 1957, the hotel closed to the public. The museum-quality
furnishings were auctioned off in 1959. In the early 1960s, much of
the building was gutted and transformed into offices for the Santa Fe
Railway. Several times over the ensuing 40 years, the building was
nearly demolished, as recently as 1994 when the railway announced its
plans to move out for good. The building received protection from
the National Trust for Historic Preservation and was finally
purchased by a private company from the railroad and was completely
restored and reopened in 1997 as a full service, luxury hotel. It
also still serves as Winslow's Amtrack station. We walked around the
public rooms and grounds of the hotel for a while before continuing
our caching.
After our caching adventures we went to
the local Walmart for some supplies, then headed back to the coach
for the rest of the night. Sunday we had a stay at home day. The
weather called for possible rain most of the day and we did have some
on and off rain showers. We got a few chores done, but mostly just
relaxed.
Monday, April 27th, we
finally woke up to clear skies and light winds. It was another
travel day and we were packed up and on the road by 10:30. We headed
east on Interstate 40 towards Gallup New Mexico, about 120 miles.
The trip was uneventful except that the further east we went the more
clouds we encountered and the winds picked up some too. The trip
only took a couple of hours, however, when we crossed the border from
Arizona to New Mexico we lost an hour as we entered the “actual”
Mountain Time Zone as opposed to Arizona Mountain Time, which is the
same as Pacific Time during the summer. Arizona does not do daylight
savings time. We got settled into the USA RV Park in Gallup, New
Mexico, a place we have stayed numerous times in the past. We
decided that we didn't need to do anything today, so we just spent
the rest of the day in the coach.
Tuesday, April 28th, we went
out after lunch and did laundry. After laundry we did one geocache,
just so we would have somewhere to visit all our travel bugs in
Gallup, and then went to Home Depot to get some light bulbs for one
of our fluorescent lights. We then went back to the coach for the
rest of the night. Wednesday was another travel day. We left Gallup
around 10:30 or so and got back on Interstate 10 heading east to
Albuquerque, New Mexico, about 140 miles. We made a fuel stop about
20 miles out of Gallup, but the rest of the trip was uneventful and
we arrived at the Enchanted Trails RV park on the west edge of
Albuquerque about 1:00. We have stayed in this park before and they
have a couple of their sites setup as kind of an RV museum with some
nice old restored late 40's cars and some vintage trailers that are
also restored. We decided to stay in the rest of the day and we just
got some chores done and relaxed.
Thursday, April 30th, we
left the RV park about 11:30 and went out to do some exploring in
Albuquerque. We first went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant called
Sophie's Place. This was a restaurant that was featured in the Food
Network program, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We watch the show and
like to visit some of the featured restaurants from time to time.
This one was a little bit of a disappointment. It was a pretty dumpy
taquaria that didn't even have a sign outside. It did appear to be
pretty popular with the locals and there were a lot of shirt and tie
types in there for lunch. The feature dish on Triple D had been duck
enchiladas, but nothing on the menu about those. Jackie had fish
tacos and I had carne asada. The meals came with beans, rice and a
little salad, but you had to pay extra for chips and salsa.
Everything was OK, but a little bland, especially for New Mexican
cuisine which tends to the hot side normally. I will say you get a
lot and everything is freshly made, including the chips.
After lunch we did some geocaching. We
had a good afternoon, getting eleven new finds with no DNFs. We
ended up in Old Town and we spent an hour or so walking around
shopping and sightseeing. As many times as we have been to
Albuquerque we never went to Old Town before. It was very nice and
reminded me of the Old Town area of Sante Fe. After our great
afternoon we went back to the RV park and relaxed for the rest of the
evening.
Friday, May 1st, Happy May
Day. We left the coach after lunch to run some errands. Jackie had
cleaned out her shirt closet the other day, so we first went to the
Goodwill store and dropped off a bag of shirts. We then went to
Costco to buy some vodka. We still have a couple bottles in stock,
but Jackie brought to my attention that we should check the liquor
laws for the next couple states to see if spirits can be bought at
the grocery store. As it turns out, Colorado and Wyoming, the next
two states on our travels, both have very restrictive liquor laws,
which always means higher prices. New Mexico is very permissive, but
the next permissive state we go to is North Dakota and that's a month
away. So, we bought a six pack of vodka at Costco, which will
certainly hold us until the next permissive state.
After Costco we did a quick run to the
Post Office and then did a couple of geocaches. We had three new
finds and one DNF. We then went to Walmart before heading back to
the coach. About 5:00 the winds came up and it looked like we might
get a storm, but nothing came around and we had a quiet night
watching TV.
Saturday, May 2nd, our next
travel day. We were packed up and pulling out of the Enchanted
Trails RV park about 10:30. We were traveling about 125 miles north
to the little town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. We have stayed here
several times before because it is a convenient stop between
Albuquerque and points north in Colorado. The trip went OK except
that it was a long grade out of Sante Fe and the coach was getting a
little hot until I slowed down some. We made it to the KOA
campground in Las Vegas just before 1:00 and quickly got checked in,
parked and setup for our two day stay here. We are at about 6,200
feet, so I don't see us doing a whole lot while we are here.
Sunday, May 3rd, we went out
after lunch to do some exploring of Las Vegas and a little
geocaching. We spent a couple of hours driving around town, checking
neighborhoods and enjoying the sightseeing. We also picked up three
geocaches, two of which were cemetery caches, although they were on
the edges, not inside. This is a very Hispanic area and that culture
is really into decorating grave sites. We spent half an hour driving
around inside one of the cemeteries checking out all the fencing,
lighting and flowers that are on many of the graves. After our tour
of town we stopped at Walmart for some supplies and picked up some
chicken from the Colonel for dinner and then headed home for the rest
of the night.
Monday, May 4th, Star Wars
Day! (May the 4th be with you) Another travel day for
us. We packed up and left Las Vegas, New Mexico about 10:00 and
headed north on Interstate 25. After going over the 7,832 foot Raton
Pass we entered the State of Colorado. We only went about ten miles
into Colorado before exiting and stopping at the Cawthon RV Park in
Trinidad, Colorado. We had run into a little rain in northern New
Mexico, but it was just a very light drizzle when we checked into the
RV park. We got our spot and I no sooner got the utilities hooked up
and the coach leveled and the skies opened up. We heard a little
thunder and we had some small hail for about ten minutes. After that
it was just on and off rain for the rest of the day. About sunset it
cleared some and we had a little bit of blue sky and some sun, but
the forecast says the rain isn't over. Because of the weather, the
altitude and the fact that it was a travel day, we just stayed in the
rest of the day and listened to the rain on the coach. Thankfully,
still no leaks so we are dry inside. Before I got the leak in the
slide fixed a few months back we would have had to pull the kitchen
slide in for the rain and we would not have been able to have it out
for about a week now.
Tuesday, May 5th, Happy Cinco De Mayo.
We decided to celebrate Cinco De Mayo by having some Mexican food for
lunch. We went to a place about a mile from the park that we had
seen on the way in yesterday called El Rancho. The place had quite a
few cars outside, so we were hopeful. Inside was quite strange. It
was a very old, stone building and the inside looked like an old
nightclub, big dance floor, stage in the corner, and a bar. The
restaurant was way over in the far corner and very small. The rest
of the place looked abandoned. There were quite a few people in the
place, including one big party, so we thought it must be popular with
the locals. As it turned out, I don't know why. We both ordered a
combo lunch with an enchilada, a taco and a chili relleno. That is
kind of our “go to” dish in new restaurants. I had wanted a
burro, but the waitress told me the beef burro was ground beef, and I
don't care for ground beef burros. It turned out the taco was ground
beef also and very tasteless. The enchilada was OK, the chili
relleno was deep fried, very small, and the red sauce was very hot.
Jackie had the green sauce, which was even hotter. She couldn't eat
the enchilada. It turns out they smother mediocre food in super hot
sauce and hope no one notices. They didn't even have any chips and
salsa. They ran out – on Cinco De Mayo! Never be back to that
place again.
After lunch we went out to do some
exploration of Trinidad and some geocaching. It was sprinkling on
and off, but we still got four caches. One of the caches was located
near an old, abandoned coal mining town called Ludlow, about ten
miles north of Trinidad on Interstate 25. There is a monument there
commemorating the 1914 Ludlow Massacre. The Ludlow Massacre was an
attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron
Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners
and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Some two
dozen people, including women and children, were killed.
The massacre, the culmination of a bloody widespread strike
against Colorado coal mines, resulted in the violent deaths of at
least 26 people. Reported death tolls vary but, all include two
women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a
single tent in what was later called the “death pit.” The deaths
occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards
against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident
in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, lasting from September 1913
through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine
Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado.
The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller
family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky
Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company
(VAF). The picture is one that is on the memorial and shows the Colorado National Guard machine gun pit situated on a hill top overlooking the miner's camp.In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives and is often described as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States". The monument was erected by the union and was quite interesting to see. There were a number of plaques with the story of the strike and the massacre. We also drove around Trinidad for a while and got a couple of caches in town too. After caching we headed back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Wednesday, May 6th, we woke to cloudy skies, but no rain. This was another travel day and we were packed up and ready to go by a little after 10:00. We started north on Interstate 25 again, this time headed about 150 miles to Monument, Colorado. Monument is a small town at the north edge of Colorado Springs. The exit we take to get off the freeway is just a few miles north of Air Force Academy, which we visited when were last here in 2011. We got settled into the Monument Heights RV Resort pretty quickly. This is one of our Resorts of Distinction membership parks, so we stay here for free. We did have to pay $5 a day to get one of the 50 amp sites, but it was worth it. We are going to be here for a whole week, our longest stay since we left Camp Verde. We have nice site on a mesa that overlooks the surrounding hills and mountains. It would be really nice if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy. We had a bit of rain after we got checked in and setup, but not too much. It is supposed to be quite stormy for the next few days, so we are prepared to batten down the hatches.
It has been a couple weeks since we published, so this change of location marks a good spot to close this chapter of the blog. We will publish in another couple of weeks, so stay tuned. Until next time, remember that to create more positive results in your life, replace 'if only' with 'next time'. See you soon.
