Monday,
November 20, 2012
I need to
make a slight correction. I wrote in my
last post that we stayed in Santa Rosa the third night, actually we didn’t. That is one of the problems with writing
nearly two months later about a trip.
Once we returned to the camper we had lunch and moved on to Albuquerque,
NM to camp for night #3 and #4 at the EnchantedTrails Campground on the western side of Albuquerque.
The
following posts are going to be a little longer than usual because there is so
much to see and do in the Albuquerque area.
We have
stayed at this campground twice before and have always had a good level site,
clean restrooms, and the lovely ladies who run the campground are a
delight. It also doesn’t hurt that their
rates fall well within our shoestring budget.
A 30 amp campsite, which is what we use, is listed as $30 per night, but
they offer various discounts that bring it down to even lower. I believe we paid $26 per night, but I can’t
swear to it.
We had drove
straight through from Santa Rosa, drinking lots of water as we did. So I had to make a “mad dash” while Gary
checked us in.
Once again
our campsite was very close to the registration area, which has a small gift
shop, a swimming pool and pool table at it.
The site was level and clean, as well as well lit at night for easy maneuvering
around the camper after dark. This was
handy as we pulled in just before dark and it took a bit to set-up for the
planned two day stay.
One of the
things I love about this campground is the old cars and campers that are part
of the permanent set-up. Although the
owners do take at least one of the duos out at least once a year for a
rally.
Located on
Route 66 seeing these campers and cars of the by gone era is a delight and
reminds me of my childhood when both were of the norm to see.
If you are
traveling through and would like to visit this campground overnight, but do not
have a camper this may be just perfect for you as they rent the campers out by
the night to many a weary traveler while
you stay at the Enchanted Trails.
That first
night we decided to just hang around camp and then the next day go to Camping World
(which is next door to the campground) to just look around and drool at all the
things we might purchase for the camper once we are debt free, then over to Old Town
and maybe out to the Three Sisters Volcanos at the Petroglyph National Monument We had already decided we would not go
to Rinconada Canyon Petroglyphs
part of the the Petroglyph National Park or
the Kuana Pueblo at the Cornado State Monument
because we visited both of those while in
Albuquerque in 2008. Both were very
interesting to visit so I will include info and photos about them in the blog
posts that follow.
Day 4 dawned
with us moving slowly and staying the camper until around 10:00 a.m. tidying up
and just enjoying the luxury of moving slow.
When we
finally headed out for the day we went straight to Campingworld to oooh and
ahhh over all the neat accessories they had.
I particularly liked the electric scooter
that would fold up and attach to the fifth wheel while we traveled. But right now it’s not in the budget so we
laughed about how cute it was and how handy it would be to have in the future,
but not right now. I also joked that if I had one I’d need a little pink
bicycle bell on it to warn folks I was coming.
We’d had a
minor Murphy problem in the camper that was causing a spray nozzle in the
camper bathroom to leak when the toilet was flushed so we looked around for a
replacement nozzle, discovering it was a “parts department” part rather than a
over the counter part in the store.
Generally when they say you “must get it in the parts department”
instead of the general plumbing department dollar signs appear.
Once told
where it was located we discussed the true need for the part and what could be
substituted for it. We opted to go to
Wal-Mart and check for the availability of it there before purchasing it at
Camping World.
We left the
store without purchasing a thing—thus staying on or below our $500 extra
expenditure budget and headed on toward Old Town
Old Town is a historic district in Albuquerque that is mainly an
artisian area now. We spent most of a day there in November 2008 and really loved visiting the museums and
shops of the area, then finished up the day eating at one of the numerous
restaurants before heading back to the camper once all the Christmas lights had
been turned on. This had been our plan
once again.
However, in 2008 the parking was free, now the only free
parking had a 2 hour limit and on the
outer edge of the area near the Felipe de Neri Church
the rest of the parking was a bit of a walk from the actual center of Old Town
plus it cost $3-$8 to park. With the $3
parking being the furthest out, and quite frankly the less secure or well
maintained lots. Despite this they were
completely full as were the $5 lots.
Only the $8 lots remained with a few parking vacancies and they were still a several block hike to
get into Old Town proper.
As we drove slowly through the area we saw that many of
the boutiques had changed strictly over to clothing rather than a large range
of crafts as it had been before. Neither of us is a clothes shopper. There
were also fewer restaurants. This combined
with the cold north wind that was blowing quickly dulled our enthusiasm for
visiting the area, that and it irks me to have to pay to shop. Which is basically what paying for parking
is. We were also in the big dually truck
and many of the pay parking lots were down narrow one way alleys into tight
parking lots that would have been hard to negotiate without banging up the
truck. We also noticed that other than
the big decorated tree there were little to no Christmas decorations up.
So we drove through a couple of times looking for any
shops I might want to pop out and look at while dh rotated the blocks and found
none. We discussed visiting the Felipe de Neri Church again as we had in 2008, but by then I was pretty disgruntled about the
unavailability of easy to navigate parking and the fees I suggested we just
look at our photos from the previous trip and move on to a new activity.
Let me add at this point that the Old Town is definitely
worth at least one visit if you are in the area. I just simply was not in the mood to deal
with the crowds and such that day. I
have included photos of the church and the Old Town area from 2008 for your
pleasure and to remind me of how pretty the area really is.
From there we went to the Wal-Mart just off of I-40 in
Albuquerque to purchase a few perishable groceries we were running low on and
to look for the plumbing fixture we needed.
We found both with ease and the nozzle there was less than $3, we were
definitely glad we waited on the purchase.
Over the years we have found that many a home type fixture can be used in a camper at a much cheaper price than purchasing a similar item at a camper parts store. This item happened to be an exact duplicate which allowed the replacement to be an under five minute job.
I noticed while we were there that this particular
Wal-Mart has a vision center in it.
Since my glasses were all cattywampas from being bumped earlier in the
trip I popped in there to get a free adjustment too. The young lady fixed the problem in less than
five minutes and had my glasses fitting better than this pair had ever fit
before.
Then it was straight back to the camper for lunch. As we traveled there I admired the “artwork” on
the overpasses and sound barriers once again as I had in 2008. While these are now common place in many a
big city in 2008 they were a novelty to us and we took several photos.
A quick lunch after putting up the groceries and doing
the nozzle repair then it was time to head out again. See “Part #2” for our further adventures in
Albuquerque, NM.
Jan who loves visiting Albuquerque when she is away from
OK
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