Day 56-August 13, 2012-To Albuquerque, NM
Drove 316 miles in 6 hours today which was an easy ride because it was all on I-40. We lost an hour when we crossed into New Mexico and Mountain Time but we still got to the campground by 4:30.
Went through lots of different landscape in those six hours from flat plateau and sand through the beautiful Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, both of which have flat pinkish mountains, passed the Red Rock area of Arizona into New Mexico and the sandstone cliffs where Navajo Indians still live and boulders look like they’re about to topple on you, through more lava in Grants, NM, known for having the biggest uranium reserve in the world that was mined in the 50’s, and then into Albuquerque (aka ABQ) where we have miles of flat plateau and sand again (but with more vegetation this time, now we have junipers, sagebrush, some cottonwood trees and Ponderosa Pines on the mountain tops) with the Sandia Mountains in the distance. Sandia in Spanish means “watermelon” and they say at sunset these mountains look like watermelon because the sunset turns them pink with the junipers the seeds and the pines on top the rind. Some imagination involved, I’m sure.
We also went through a lot of different weather. It was warm when we started, went up to 91, then plummeted to 56 during a hail and lightning storm in Gallup, NM, then back up to 90 when we stopped.
While we were setting up a wind/sand storm came up and we had to run into the RV to avoid getting pelted with sand, which hurts by the way. The ladies in the RV office say it’s “free dermabrasion” and , they’re right, I won’t have to shave my legs for a while after getting hit with all that sand. The RV was rocking and everything that’s not tied down is blowing all over. A little too late we realized the windows in the truck were down an inch (again) so the inside is a beach again. This lasted about an hour, just wind and sand, no rain or hail, then just blustery all night. Watched some birds clinging for dear life to the branches in the wind, even hummingbirds, lots of them here. Didn’t know what they ate since there’s not one flower or petal around (just desert again) but we saw a few feeders hanging from permanent RVs and the office building when we took a walk around after dinner and they were buzzing with birds.
This campground is right on Route 66 and they have a lot of old RVs from the 50’s, cars too. They’ve refurbished them with vintage furnishings and they rent them out like a hotel room, it’s pretty interesting, the whole campground has a 50’s theme, even the laundry room has a vintage wringer washer and mangle iron and the rec room has a vintage TV, chairs and furnishings. Kind of creepy, too, I remember some of this stuff.
Harry vacuumed the truck and got most of the sand out. We made a mistake by starting laundry too late….it closed at 10PM and we still had damp clothes. Had to hang everything in the RV. Better than hanging them outside and getting them all sandy. With the AC on, they should be dry by morning. After 11 now, beddy bye. But wait, it’s really only 10, why are we tired? Oh, no dreaded jet lag.