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Welcome to New Mexico

14 05 2023

Welcome to New Mexico

After 6 nights and almost 900 miles, we’ve finally departed Texas – it’s a big state!

We’re meeting friends at Conchas Lake State Park just north of Tucumcari, NM. Here, we’ll be 3 nights in site B-19, a nice private back-in site with lake views in the Bell Point campground. As has been common all across the west, and especially at this time of year, the water level at Conchas appears to be down around 20 feet since our last visit. However, after our departure, the lake saw over 12 feet of elevation gain in just 1 week as winter runoff and the monsoons started.

Lake Conchas State Park, New Mexico

Between Covid and low water levels the marina and other local business have all closed. The nearest restaurants are back in Tucumcari, which is about 40 minutes away. However, these cliff side campsites provide great views of the lake, sunrises, sunsets and are peacefully quiet this time of year. And, with a nearby T-Mobile tower, our internet access provides work and streaming speeds.

Santa Fe Skies RV Park, Santa Fe, New Mexico

From Conchas, we’re headed to Santa Fe, and one of our favorite RV parks, Santa Fe Skies. The park provides about 100 sites south of town with great night lights views out over Santa Fe. We’re parked in site W3, a long, level pull through right next to the office. Friends are backed in next to the doggie park in Yucca #5.

Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen, Santa Fe, New Mexico

While in Santa Fe we nearly always enjoy the festive atmosphere of the farmers market and of course the cold brews at the Second Street Brewery in the Railyard. This trip we also found two new restaurants. We loved Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen on Cordova Road known for their homestyle Mexican food and over 100 varieties of margaritas. And, enjoyed our visit to La Boca, an excellent Spanish tapas restaurant just off the main plaza in old town.

2023 Spring Road Trip

After 2 nights in Santa Fe, we’re headed home from the 2023 Spring Road Trip adventure. We’ve traveled over 4000 miles and spent 103 nights in 25 different parks and RV resorts. During a trip “timeout”, we traveled to South America, over 10,000 air miles and cruised nearly 4000 nautical miles on our voyage around Cape Horn, from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Puerto Valparaiso, Chile. We’ll be home for about 2 weeks before departing for the Montana Owners Rally in Heber City, UT. More from Utah!

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Tags: lake conchas, mexican food, santa fe, santa fe skies
Categories : Spring Road Trip 2023

Back Home!

11 05 2020

After departing Van Horn we were back at Boot Hill RV in Alamogordo for 4 nights. It was just about 8 weeks since we were last at Boot Hill – how the world has changed in those 8 weeks! From Alamogordo we’re headed home, after 1 quick overnight in Santa Fe.

It’s been over 4 years since we were last at Santa Fe Skies. Continued upgrades along with the growth of shrubs and trees is turning this into a very nice park. We’re in site “Daylilly 7”, one of the back-in sites that provides views to the west and north across the city of Santa Fe. Santa Fe Skies has done one of the best job of pandemic changes. From their website we first placed a reservation request. The response from this request was a confirmation along with an optional “Cancel my Reservation” link. On the morning of our arrival, an Online Payment email with a “Pay Now” link was received. Once paid, we received an Online Check-in email complete with site assignment, directions to the park, a park map and the “handy handout” with pertinent information such as WiFi password, park rules and local restaurants.

Santa Fe Skies RV Park, Santa Fe, NM

Speaking of WiFi – back in 2010 this park provided stream-able WiFi – a huge accomplishment 10 years ago! Then, just 4 years ago the same WiFi system barely provided browsing connections. Their website notes major upgrades since our last visit. While the signal is a bit weak along this side of the park, once connected we noted stream-able speeds again. And, there’s now an option to have a hardwired connection in Daylilly sites 1-10 and Yucca 5-14.

Santa Fe Skies, Santa Fe, NM

After the quick overnight in Santa Fe, we’re on the final leg of this 100 night trip. We’ve traveled nearly 4000 miles and stayed in 27 campgrounds, RV parks and even a beautiful driveway. We’ve had great times at spring baseball games in Phoenix, explored over the border in Mexico, spent wonderful time with friends & family, and then, on the second half of the trip, learned how to fold no-sew masks, create a bleach sanitizing solution and have been virtually locked-down in near total isolation on South Padre Island. Truly a trip of contrasts! Our “home county”, Huerfano, is still tightly locked down – so no travel plans at this point until things ease up a bit. Stay safe, wash your hands and be healthy!

Spring Road Trip, 2020

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Categories : Spring Road Trip 2020

Santa Fe Skies RV Park

28 02 2016

Site I-4, Santa Fe Skies

Good Morning from Santa Fe, NM.
We’re parked at Santa Fe Skies RV Park, where we last visited in October on the way to Balloon Fiesta 2015. We first visited this park in 2010 when we were in the truck camper. The full review is here: SANTA FE SKIES

This park occupies a great location looking toward the north over Santa Fe. The evening lights and the city in the rising sunlight is beautiful. The grounds are still well-kept and the showers & restrooms immaculately clean. They also seem to have a interesting growing collection of antique engines and road equipment. But, the formerly wonderful WiFi has been reduced to a network that doesn’t support much of anything. I connected, tried a few browser pages and quickly disconnected. We’re not sure if we were just in a prime spot back behind the registration building, or if the network maintenance has fallen by the wayside. However, just as back in October, this visit offered no solution to the WiFi problems other than a cellular connection. However, this is just a quick overnight. Tomorrow we’ll continue south to Albuquerque where we’ll turn west along I-40. Our next stop will be western New Mexico as we head toward Phoenix – more from there!

Site I-4, Santa Fe Skies

Santa Fe Skies RV Park

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Tags: new mexico, santa fe, santa fe skies
Categories : Texas Roadtrip 2016

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

7 10 2015

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We’re enroute to Albuquerque for the world famous Balloon Fiesta! Our first stop is at the Alamosa KOA. Fairly typical for a KOA, our $37 buys us a fairly flat, gravel space with electric & water – and in this particular site, a bit of a privacy break with a tree and some sage brush on our slide-side. Facilities appear to work well, the nearby bathroom is clean but the shower house has a bit of a locker room smell – not particularly inviting.

Our second stop is to a familiar RV park, Santa Fe Skies. We first visited Santa Fe Skies in the truck camper back in 2010. Our “thumbs up” impressions sticks – this is a nice park, on the outskirts of Santa Fe, with great facilities. Our $50 here (we’re close enough to Albuquerque to feel the effects of Balloon Fiesta pricing) gets us a fairly long pull-through site (Aster #7), very tight with a huge coach to our curb site and fortunately no neighbors on our slide-site. The site had electric, water and sewer. Normal rates at this Good Sam park run about $35/night.

Santa Fe Skies RV Park

Arriving at Balloon Fiesta on Thursday morning for the 2^nd weekend, we find the Premium and Standard RV spaces very full. With 5 rigs in our group, it’s not immediately clear that we’ll even be able to park near each other. But, “Bob”, the friendly and more than accommodating organizer finds us a perfect spot in the last row of the standard (dry camping) area. With new, more stringent fire regulations being enforced, we’re unable to build the previously planned compound with our trailers encircling an open social space. But, after a bit of finagling of a couple of the trailers, we’ve built an acceptable space that will accommodate all 12 of us.

Our past few trips to Fiesta have brought some fairly miserable weather conditions and plenty of event cancellations. This year’s final weekend is a beautiful example of why Fiesta is held in Albuquerque in early October. With cool, clear morning skies and afternoon temps in the 80’s, we’re treated to Special Shapes and Mass Ascensions every morning of our visit. Only 2 Balloon Glows end up being cancelled due to winds. On Saturday, the Music Fest kicked off with performances by Two Way Crossing, Gloriana and The Band Perry. Splurging on “Premier Seating” for $50/seat, we enjoyed an enclosed seating area, a nearby bar and easy access to a huge line of porta potties. Well worth the extra $’s – especially on an afternoon when the temps were pushing into the low 80’s. After the concerts we hang around the Fiesta grounds, grabbing some dinner from the Midway and watching one of the largest Balloon Glows in Fiesta history.

On Sunday morning, after viewing the Farewell Mass Ascension from the RV lot, we are making preparations for watching the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Raiders. With lots of awnings, towel and blankets we manage to make a shady spot for all 12 of us to crowd around a much-too-small TV screen. After a tight game, but Denver finally squeaking by, we begin to wrap up Balloon Fiesta 2015, bidding good night and good bye to those that have early plane flights and therefore will be departing the Fiesta RV lot way before sunrise. It’s been a great 44^th Annual Fiesta – with good times had by all.

As it typical, we’ll stop on the way home – this time at another favorite southern Colorado State Park – Lathrup. Impressions of Lathrup are here: LATHRUP STATE PARK. This may well be our last trip of the 2015 RV season. After winterizing and storing the camper away for the winter – we’ll be back on the road next spring as we hit the road to escape the end of the winter weather…more then.