onward to Albuquerque

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Roswell to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sunny

214.1 miles

I’m really embarrassed – a month has passed since the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque – I’ve covered a lot of miles, had a bunch of fun adventures, several problems with the coach and made lots of excuses about not keeping up with the blog. Plus we’ve had an election and traumas have struck our nation. Lots of excuses!

So – here we go – on with the adventures!

Left Roswell on a lovely morning, and headed north over flat, dry and barren lands. There were a few fields of bright green crops, so there must be water here somewhere! Fifty miles passed and all I saw living were a few cows. Picked up one typical small town radio station – from rock to big bands to folk music to heavy metal to country, one after the other – kind of fun to listen to!

Nevada’s Hwy 50 claims to be the loneliest road in America – I think this one is a close 2nd! I feel like I’m in a time warp – I look at my GPS map and it doesn’t appear to have changed at all in 80 miles! I’m frozen on a NNW angle on the screen and it hasn’t moved! I laughed at myself when I realized I was excited to see a change in fencing material – I was out of the time warp!! Then I spotted a windmill! Life must exist here somewhere!

Passed thru the little town of Vaughn (population about 500 and shrinking) – it has a classic old-fashioned cowboy movie train station! And then I discovered why – several rail lines meet and cross just outside of town. Started seeing MAJOR train traffic, including two trains of what appeared to be about 200 cars each, loaded with 16-wheel truck trailers. Hundreds of truck trailers on the railroad instead of on our highways!

Climbed steadily up to 6800 feet, and clouds appeared on the far horizon. Started to see a few green shrubs, finally – manzanita maybe?? Didn’t last long though – headed west and started losing altitude and greenery! But there were a few more signs of life – including a shop advertising “wagon wheel tire repair”!

You know you’re approaching a city when the billboards start multiplying and cloning themselves! And one Holiday Inn Express whose welcome sign was forecasting heavy showers!

They were right – I arrived at the American RV Park (after sitting at the highway exit that is one of the worst designed I’ve ever seen, waiting for about a half hour for a multi-car accident to be cleared) and got hooked up just in time – the skies opened up!


American RV Park
13500 Central Ave SW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
505-831-3545
www.AmericanRVPark.com