Continuing on into New Mexico

It took us a bit of doing to finally get out of Colorado (don’t ask…) and get into New Mexico. We were headed to Santa Fe and then on to White Sands National Park. Our initial impression of NM was of great beauty, but also of some “looseness” in terms of COVID precautions. Not many masks in evidence, and everything up and running commercially. I am sure that the retailers were very grateful for the business, even though COVID was growing. Being the older folks that we were, we stayed masked and hand sanitized, eating in the van as much as possible and stopping mostly for gas.

With a late get away out of Colorado, we only got about 80 miles into NM and had to stop for the night at a rest stop near Wagon Mound, NM. Due to the pandemic, only New Mexico people could camp in NM state parks. Luckily the rest areas were open to all for overnight stops. This was just the opposite of Colorado. The sleeping was good, as was the view of the mountains in the distance.

The next morning we took a quick tour of the rest stop and the rest rooms. The rest stop was built in 1970, and it looked every bit of its 50 years. But it was also pretty interesting architecturally, not the rather spartan look of modern rest areas. And, as befitting its location near the city of Wagon Mound, the rest area had a wagon wheel on display. Just like the buildings, the wheel had seen better days. One could envision it having been discarded by early settlers, like a flat tire.

We moved on to Santa Fe. I had visited Santa Fe a couple of years ago for a work meeting, and had been thoroughly enchanted with the city. (it is the Land of Enchantment, right?) The shops, the museums, the tourists made for a great atmosphere I really enjoyed. I was excited to show it all to my wife.

Unfortunately, COVID got to Santa Fe before we did. Many of the shops and museums were closed down or had reduced hours. The tourists were wisely not in evidence, and everything was greatly subdued. Not the neat atmosphere I had experienced. Oh, well…we would have to come back some other time.

We did find a nice area on the outskirts of town, something of a minor industrial area that had built up shops and eateries. We stopped in at an eclectic coffee shop and had coffee and a bite, sitting outside.

After our coffee, we strolled across the street to a pottery shop. My wife couldn’t resist buying a nice ceramic pot, definitely not compatible with van life. After that, with the day winding down, we headed on south, undecided if we would be back to following day. We shut down for the night at another rest area, this one just south of Santa Fe. The next day, we decided to push on south to White Sands National Park. On the way, we stopped in Bernalillo for a quick burger at a take out place. We were able to eat outside at one of their sidewalk tables, allowing us to get out of the van for a bit. It was good that we did, as we were totally entertained by a road runner that strolled up and demanded food from us. It seemed to like French fries. We looked for a coyote lurking somewhere, but to no avail. Beep, beep.

By this time, we were really needing a shower, so we reserved a site at an RV park outside of Alamogordo. Headed south, we drove through the Valley of Fires National Recreation Area. The Valley totally lived up to its name.

We reluctantly pushed on to the RV park…showering awaited us. This was our first private RV park camping, and our site was pretty much just a parking spot on the side of the headquarters building. However, it was right next to the showers. All cleaned up, we slept great. Our stay at the park was quick but cleansing, well worth the not-too-bad price.

The next morning, a wonder awaited us. Just across the street was the world’s largest pistachio!

The Pistachio Tree Ranch was an interesting experience. We had not seen pistachios growing, let alone rows and rows of the trees. The gift shop had all things pistachio, prepared any way you could think of. We got several gift bags of nuts as well as several flavored types. Most of them never saw the east coast…

Next: On to White Sands and a Big Left Turn