Two Familiar Stops in New Mexico

We left the Arizona  Desert with its many beautiful cacti and spring flowers and headed to the higher desert of New Mexico. Our first stop was a few day stay at City of Rocks State Park, where we have stayed several times. City of Rocks State Park includes unusual rock formations set in a rather flat part of New Mexico near Deming. We got a spot that are butted up next to some of the rocks.

There are 64 sites with a small number of sites with hooks grouped together and the rest set among the rocks. A lot of people come for the day to climb among the rocks or even to do some rock climbing though it was pretty quite when we were there. A fun place to spend some time.

Then we were on to one of our fav spots to stay, Santa Fe. We love this town and even though of buying a small condo near the Plaza area at one time. Anyway, it is a great place to visit with lots to do. We stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park, where we have stayed several times. It is just south of Santa Fe and is on a hill with views of the Sangre de /Cristo Mountains and the Rio Grande Valley.I had read in someone else's blog that they had recently stayed here and talked about the spots in the back area which have the best views. Those had been filled when we were here during the busy summer season but we were able to get one of the nicest spot, a pull thru with no obstructed view.

It is an interesting resort with much of its electricity coming from a large array of solar panels right in the park. They also a number of art sculptures throughout the park, fitting for the artsy town of Santa Fe.  Below are just a few of them.

Joe was still recovering from his stomach virus the first few days, antsy to be well enough to sample some of Santa Fe's many excellent restaurants.
One day we took a drive up to Hyde Memorial State Park. It is really for smaller vehicles than our Beast but it was a nice drive. If you continue up the hill it ends at a Ski Resort. It was a nice drive.

Love the southwestern houses that just blend into the scenery. We had a lot of weather most of the time we were here. Lots of wind, thunder, lightning, rain. We went to the Saturday Farmers Market. It was cold and we even got a few small snow flakes. The vendors were shutting up early as it looked like it could rain but we purchased some spinach and a couple of types of potatoes including purple fingerlings. from the part of the Market that is indoors. When Joe felt better, one of the first restaurant trips was to Harry's Roadhouse, a popular restaurant that was on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. We have been here a number of times and Joe always get their turkey meatloaf.
We did get a nice day and were able to go walk around the Plaza area. Joe wanted to get a hat but I was the one who ended up getting one. Didn't get a picture of me in it but will probably get one one of these days. I also got some sandals and a new chain for my Spirit Bear turquoise pendent I got in Vail years ago. We had lunch that day at the Blue Corn Cafe, where we have eaten before. Joe, who loves loves hot spicy food had a green chile stew that he admitted was pretty darn hot. I had green chile mac and cheese with chicken. Yummy!! It is also a brewery and Joe had a flight of beers. I tasted a few when not sipping on my margarita. Another day we went to El Farol, Santa Fe's oldest restaurant. It is known for their tapas and during the evening they have flamingo dancers performing. We just went for lunch. It was a little chilly or we would have loved to sit out on their patio. More good food. Our favorite was flash  fried avocado with a lime yogurt sauce. We also had a cheese plate with four different cheeses
( IDIAZABAL lightly smoked sheep milk served with sliced pear

CABRALES Spanish blue cheese with marcona almonds & honey

QUESO de CABRA baked Spanish goat cheese served with roasted garlic & Jamon Serrano

MANCHEGO Spanish sheep milk cheese with membrillo

 We also had chorizo with fig aioli and also  an empanada with salmon.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the Plaza area as we have a lot from previous trips. Below are some pictures from one of our trips from several years ago.

We spent a lot of time just relaxing in the motor home with the inclement weather. There is lots to do here. Last year when we were here we drove the Turquoise Trail, which is a scenic drive south towards Albuquerque .Other past trips included a day trip to Taos and also to the area between Santa Fe and Santa Fe,where Georgia O"Keeffe lived and painted many of  her famous landscapes of this beautiful area.  We also went to a number of the many museums in town, including Georgia O'Keeffe's and also on what is called  Museum Hill.where we went to the Folk Art Museum and a few others. Of course, there are many Art Galleries and other interesting shops.
While hanging around the RV Park, we took a few walks around the 3/4 mile loop around the park.

Behind this are the garbage containers.

We love this place and kept adding days to our stay which ended up about 10 days. But, we are onto another state. We head north to Colorado.
Oh and the Ducks won the Ducks Calgary series 4 games to 1. They are onto the Western Conference Final, the first time since 2007 when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. GO Ducks!!!!!

Turquoise Trail and More Santa Fe before heading back to Jojoba

We are back at Jojoba in sunny Southern /California. However, we had a couple of more days in beautiful Santa Fe. We decided to take a drive on the Turquoise Trail which is the back road from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. It is a National Scenic Byway and is about 50 miles long. Nice blue skies and a lovely day in the Southwest.

We drove through a few small towns. More on that later. We drove as far as the Sandia Crest which is a higher elevation with a Ski Resort. There is a tram that you can take in the summer but it was closed for repair I found out later. The southwestern look of Adobe houses which often have bright blue trim and doors is followed here with the blue ski lifts.

We turned around and headed back with a stop in the eclectic  town of Madrid. It has a rich history from the early 1800's with the discovery of coal, to a mining town to an artist community. In its hey days it was famous for its Fourth of July parades, Christmas lightning and displays and minor league baseball with the first lighted stadium in the country.  With the decline in coal production it became a ghost town. Then in the early 70's, artists and craftspeople and hippies arrived. There are still a number of art galleries in town as well as several good restaurants.

We ate at the Hollar, which is a great restaurant whose food is a fusion of southwestern and southern food. Also very dog friendly. We sat outside and our waitress brought Savannah a dog bowl of water and a dog biscuit. Savannah enjoyed her biscuit and we certainly enjoyed our food. I had a very southern dish of fried green tomatoes over smoked gouda  cheesey grits with grilled asparagus spears on top. Sooo good. Joe had a pulled pork burrito that was also good.  There were a number of other interesting items on the menu. We would definitely come back here when back in Santa Fe.

Loved the hanging shoes.

Another nice day. We drove back into Santa Fe on Saturday. Being the Labor Day weekend, it was very busy. There was arts and crafts market in the square along with the usual Native Americans selling their jewelry. We ate at the Shed with its standard southwestern and mexican food. We had eaten here before. It was good but we thought the Hollar was much more creative.

We had a good time in Santa Fe as we usually do. We had about 12 hours or so to get back to So Cal. We stopped at a state park near Winslow, Arizona for an one night stay. We had stayed there once before in our travels. As it was Monday, there weren't a lot of people there. However, we were all set up and just relaxing when a man knocked on our door and said this was there site. We had filled out a self reservation form and put it in the box for the payment. He said they had reservations though there wasn't a tag showing the site was reserved. We packed up and when up to the visitor center as we were afraid to just pick a different site. Well, it turned out the ranger had just given the couple the site as he didn't know we had already paid for that particular site. It hadn't been reserved and they could have just gone back to the ranger and said there was someone already there and he would have given them another site. Oh well, lesson learned. We got another site that was just as good. We got up early and made the long drive back to Jojoba, listening to an audio book that always makes the trip go faster it seems.
We got back to Jojoba in the late afternoon and hadn't even gotten set up when our neighbors Sam and Alice invited us over for a drink or two, which we did. They have a cute little dog, Teddy and just got another named Rusty. Savannah was happy to see her boyfriend Teddy and to make a new friend, Rusty. We had an enjoyable evening talking to Sam and Alice. We love traveling but it is nice to be back in Jojoba for a spell with its great people and lots of fun things to do. Then there is our great view of the Mountains from our site. Nice to be home.