Santa Fe and our 2nd month on the road.

One final selling point? The small picturesque town of Bayfield. Barely a mile from the campground has a Brewery with some nice beer. Visit the Bottom Shelf Brewery if you’re in town. The Oatmeal Stout is nice and the Red excellent.

So suddenly we are at the end of our second month on the road.

Funny but we can hardly remember the first one!

We left Durango and headed for Santa Fe where we had arranged to meet up with Scott and Suzanne. We bumped into Scott at a seminar during Escapades in Tucson. They were at about the same stage of planning that we were, they had a rig and were getting ready to sort out and sell the house. They beat us to it on the house sale and they have been zooming around visiting relatives etc. since.

We were all so excited about our adventures that we hardly stopped talking from early afternoon when we got together until after dinner at a local restaurant (and brewery of course). You don’t always have new people to talk to on the road and when you do it all comes pouring out. We found we have several things in common apart from the RV and it was a very pleasant evening.

On the way to Santa Fe we decided to stop in Chama NM at an RV park close to the scenic Railroad there. The park was OK and we had a very nice site on the river. Unlike the United Campground in Durango the train didn’t run right thru the campground. It ran directly across the river! 

Still the sound of a steam whistle is musical anytime you hear it (Except of course when you are trying to sleep). Unfortunately the weather turned bad and it rained hard most of the day and part of the following morning as we headed for Santa Fe. I discovered we have a leak in the roof over the bathroom so that’s another job when we have time. I did fix the cable TV connection and replace the sewer hose end connection however so I still deserve a gold star on my chart.

Our purpose for coming to Santa Fe was to meet up with Scott and Suzanne and we all stayed at the Ranchero Santa Fe RV Park. Quite a letdown after the last few parks. No streams, trains or Alpacas. Just gravel and very tight spaces, but talking to our new “old friends” has been good and taking pictures of the adobe buildings, markets and squares in Santa Fe has given me the urge to get settled somewhere and paint again.

Interior of the oldest house in the USA

While wandering the Plaza Santa Fe we found the Thunderbird Bar and Grille on a balcony overlooking the Plaza. 

Nice food and good beer. A couple at the next table asked us where we were from and we soon got into a great conversation with Ed and Joan who are long term RV’ers. More new friends! We swapped contact info and we’ll get together again before we leave the area.

It’s funny how you meet people. We were shopping and heard a very English voice explaining to his companion that people didn’t speak proper English here. I commented that we did, and we were immediately engrossed in a fascinating discussion with Roy and Ray about how we all got to the US, the things we missed and the things we loved about the US. We blocked the aisle in the market for a good half hour, then driving away they came alongside in their car and honked the horn! 

Waiting for Scott and Suzanne near the Rail Yards Plaza we got into conversation with Mike who was fascinated by our full time adventure and another half hour flew by.

In light of the election fever that's building in the US I have to relate this Rt 66 story. Apparently Rt 66 used to come right thru Santa Fe but in 1936 a group of Santa Fe citizens got together to oppose the current Governor in the forthcoming election. They did a great job and the Governor lost his seat. In revenge he rapidly set construction crews to work to bypass Santa Fe and build a shortcut around the city that knocked 90 miles off the route. Even when the new governor took power he was unable to stop the construction due to bad weather and by the time he could do anything the road was open and being used!

For you Western movie fans Santa Fe is where the Santa Fe and Old Pecos trails meet.