Scubabunny & The Captain

The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is actually 3 different sites of Spanish missions. The missions were constructed between 1622 and 1635. Native American communities of Tina and Tompiro language-speaking Puebloans inhabited this area and then the 17th century Franciscans came along, bringing Catholicism with them. Between general discord and drought, all 3 of the missions failed and were abandoned by their inhabitants by the late 1670's. What remains...is what you see below. One of the sites has been particularly well preserved, thanks to a local farming family that recognized the historical value in the ruins. In case you were wondering, what creatures live in the desert....this was the tarantula that Gavin saved me from stepping on. It was early. I neeeded more coffee, clearly. He's not small. Petroglyphs ..lots of them. Three Rivers Petroglyphs site..south of Carrizozo. Go there for more petroglyphs than you can poke a stick at. No joke. I...

When Gavin first mentioned this park and I saw where it was and description of the road in there, my first thought was "oh, hell no!" As terrifying as the road conditions sound, this park is 100% worth the white-knuckle, bone-rattling drive in, it is that amazing. The drive starts on paved road, then goes to unpaved but maintained county road, to 4 miles of unmaintained sheer chaos of ruts & bumps strong enough to pop the screws out of the hinge of one of our cupboard doors. That's some impressive bumps, I would say. Once you navigate the road of chaos, you arrive to a perfectly paved park entrance road & paved roads throughout the park. I think the point of leaving the last 4 miles unpaved & unmaintained, must be to limit the number of visitors to the site. Back to the park: The park exists because of massive buildings, built by the ancestral Pueblo peoples between 850 and 1250 A.D. The buildings are a testament to their organizational and engineering abili...

We took a half a day and drove out to Taos. Here's where it would have been nice to have had just one more day. There is a loop road that goes north from Taos that sounds beautiful, but we just didn't have enough time with all the other things we still wanted to see and do on this trip. The one thing that had been recommended to us and that we really wanted to see while we were in New Mexico was a working pueblo. A New Mexican pueblo is a sacred village that still looks as it did when the inhabitant's ancestors were living there. Most pueblos have no electricity or running water. Taos Pueblo is no exception. The creek running through the village is their water source and we saw locals collecting mud to do home repairs. The buildings are constructed purely of adobe with wood timbers supporting roofs. The newer additions include windows and doors. Taos Pueblo is home to about 150 Taos Indians and, unlike some pueblos, they are open to the public most days of the year, for...

So, we stayed in an RV park on the outskirts of Santa Fe, towards the Albuquerque side of town. Sadly, there are no RV parks right in old Santa Fe, surprising, right?! We did get into the old part of town and also to their Saturday farmers market at the Railyards. We both love photography, but neither of us are diehard art lovers, so we didn't spend much time browsing the hundreds of art galleries and shops in town. I did get to the Georgia O'Keefe museum, which I highly recommend. Again, I'm not a giant art lover, but this was a great museum and very informative on her life and career. We didn't make it to Ghost Ranch (Georgia's home), but we did get to Abiquiu and hiked out to Plaza Blanca, on the recommendation of my friend Boots; thanks for that tip! It's off a dirt road that looks like you shouldn't be on it, but does in fact lead to a very cool canyon walk, with awesome white rocks; not the typical red rocks of this area. It was refreshingly cool in...

Los Alamos is a place we had both heard of, but really didn't know much about. The short version, for those that don't know, is that the town exists purely because of the Manhattan Project, the goal being the creation of an atomic weapon. The town sits atop several mesas, making it isolated and easily protected. Before 1943 the only residents of the area were ranchers and a private outdoorsy elite boarding school for young men. The US government mandatorily took over the entire area and built Los Alamos into the science-y town, that it still is today. The median income of the state of New Mexico is around $43,000/year; the median income of Los Alamos is >$100,000. That should tell you what kind of business is going on in this town. The % of residents with college degrees is off the charts. There isn't much to see of the original Los Alamos site from the 1940's, however a new National Monument is working on restoring some of the remaining structures of the site for t...

After our early morning Balloon Fiesta escapade, we decided to take a short detour drive back to our Santa Fe campsite. Yeah, turns out it wasn't as short a detour as we thought it would be. We headed north out of Albuquerque through Beranillo and up to Jemez Springs and on to the Los Alamos area. It's a pretty drive up State Highway 4, with some red rocks and high desert landscape, but I wouldn't go out of my way to drive it again. The two highlights on this road, which isn't saying much, are the Gilman Tunnels and Jémez Historic Site. Gilman Tunnels are just south of Jémez Springs are 4 miles west on Highway 485. The tunnels were blasted to make way for the railway that used to haul lumber, but has been in disuse since the 1920's and you can now drive through the tunnels, there are no existing railway lines anymore. Apparently the tunnels were also in the move 3.10 To Yuma; clearly we'll have to watch that one again. Jémez Historic Site is just north of th...

When we first started talking about where to go for our fall camping trip, I said I wanted to go to White Sands National Monument, in southern New Mexico (more to come on this). These plans evolved into Gav driving to New Mexico, while I worked my last stretch of shifts, and me flying into Albuquerque. Starting my search for RV parks, I kept coming across inflated prices, secondary to this thing called "Balloon Fiesta." We're going to go ahead and call it "Better Than Disneyland". Turns out, Balloon Fiesta is the biggest hot air ballooning events in the world. Yup, 550 ballooon big, people. If you've ever seen a photo of lots of balloons in one place, it's probably taken at this event. The Fiesta takes place over 9 days in Albuquerque, which has near perfect ballooning weather. It's been happening since 1972 and you need to attend this event at least once in your lifetime. There are 2 sessions (most days), an early morning and evening. The evening ...

After 7 1/2 years....I figured maybe it was time to revive the blog. Not everyone in our life is on Facebook and sometimes you want to know a little bit more info than just a pic on Facebook gives you. Now that we have our caravan, Mr Armstrong, and we are traveling to new and interesting (and sometimes old and interesting) places, this might be the best time to get back into the blog. So, stay tuned.... I'm going to get busy here, catching you up on our latest trip to New Mexico.