Traveling West Days 7-10

10/27/14 - Day #8  - Notes from Enchanted Trails
Our neighbors from California hooked up and departed this AM. Before they left we chatted and he recommended a few spots for us to try - in Deming. Low-Hi RV Park, and if we liked Southern Col, we would love southern Utah, especially traveling along RT 12 - Bryce Canyon. They were from Lake Tahoe area of California and were headed to Carlsbad, NM and then back to CA.

Experimented with wi-fi signals and eventually set up our Pepwave Surf on the Go router in the Airstream. Worked great at grabbing the signal and broadcasting it inside our Airstream.

Watched a number of our neighbors in the park hook up / load up and leave. In the PM watched a new crowd arrive.

RV Park is situated on ridge overlooking Albuquerque, so interesting watching jets(mostly SW) on final approach to airport. Also jets from Kirtland AFB.

View from campground- over Camping World towards Albuquerque

Early morning clouds giving way to clear blue sky with temps in the70's. Looks like it is 57 in Brattleboro. I'll take NM.

Saw a couple traveling with a St Bernard in their RV. Yes, it was a big motorhome.

After a nice lunch took a walk over to Camping World and bought another $108 of stuff. So much for the money we saved suspending Direct TV service.

PM we both surveyed Airstream and decided we could do a whole lot better job of packing and storing. So we got to it. We both think the trailer "proper" will be more "livable" now.

Afternoon temps got in to the 80's

A guy out walking his dog asked Mary " Are you really from VT?" He was from Delaware.

10/28/14  Day #9  Up early doing our internet "thing" and heating up the trailer. Nights definitely starting to get cool. At about 9:30 Mary and I left Molly in charge of the trailer and headed to Albuquerque and visited the Botanical Gardens. For Mary it was a real treat.

Beautiful, well kept

We actually saw some Monarch's here

The ducks and geese like the place too

We spent 2 hours here and then left to head to our next stop: Gas, followed by lunch followed by Walmart.  Interesting experience when getting gas. Had a gentleman approach me and ask what brought us west, especially to Albuquerque. After I explained, he said he had ties back east - he had been stationed in the Air Force at Limestone AFB in Maine. He said that he hoped we had an enjoyable trip, thanked us for coming to his area, and then asked if there was anything he could do to make our trip more enjoyable. I asked him for directions out of the gas station and over to the Sonic across the street - where we would have lunch. We shook hands, and departed. What a nice man. After the trip to Walmart, we headed back - but not before one more stop at CampingWorld for some more "organizers".  Another $30.

In the afternoon Mary took advantage of the nice laundry facilities at the park to do a load of wash. I got on the internet to see about the AT & T 30 gb shared data plan. Good thing that I did- it expired in 3 days. Anyways, I knew that we needed to do something about internet options while on the road: relying on campground wi-fi is not a good thing, nor is it dependable. To make a long story short, I did get it done over the internet, however I still needed to get a Unite Pro Mobile Hot Spot, get it added to our plan and get it activated. This required a visit to an AT & T store. I found one in Albuquerque and made arrangements(directions to) visit and get this done. So off I was on I 40 east to Juan Tabo Blvd and then to shopping plaza on Menaul, looking for a guy named Danny. I found him and he got us fixed right up. Quite a process. All in all it took about 15 minutes. Danny definitely knew what he was doing. I was impressed with his computer skills. In conversation he mentioned that he was from the northwest part of the state - Farmington. He also looked to be Native American. I was more impressed and even more thankful. The plan ended up costing us less than if we had been able to get the Millenicom plan. Brought it back to the trailer and tested it, finding that it worked perfectly. We were now good to go.

Mid afternoon we had new neighbors pull in next to us. I got to talking with the guy and found out that contrary to us snowbirds, they were from Yuma, AZ and were on their way home for the winter after having spent the summer traveling. They had actually traveled to the Black Hills, NY State, VT, NH, Wells, ME, Boston, south to Virginia Beach, Memphis, and then west to Oklahoma City to see a son. In all they had put on over 12,000 miles. I know that I missed a few places that he mentioned, but I did get the point. He said that the previous year they had gone to Alaska - another 12,000 mile trip.

Our portrait

We set up the iPhone to take a pic and when done and on the way back to the Airstream, the woman in the camper to the right came over to us and asked if we wanted her to take pic. She was from North Carolina. We said no, thanked her and chatted for a while. Such nice people we have met.


After a nice glass of wine, supper of chicken cooked on the grill, a little reading, we called it a night.

10/29/14 Day #10   Today we said goodby to Enchanted Trails RV Park and hit the road for Deming, NM.

Enchanted Trails RV Park

It has really been an enjoyable stay and I'm sure we will be back- especially at the Passport America rate of $12.50 a night for full hookup. At about 9:00 we hit the road. Days travel was to take us to I 40 East to Albuquerque where we would hook up with I 25 south. We would be traveling 257 miles to Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming.