Larry got up and turned on the TV to check out the local weather and road conditions. It didn't sound to good, but hey, we're from Colorado! This shouldn't slow us down. We decided to go ahead with our plans and try to make it to Santa Fe. Before we headed out, Larry decided to take Duchess to the far side of the property where there was an open field and let her run around for a little bit. They'd been gone awhile when I looked out the window and saw them heading back toward Jumbo.
When Larry got to the door he yelled at me to get a towel and hurry! I grabbed one and he told me to wipe Duchess off. I couldn't imagine what had happened. When he caught his breath enough, he explained that Duchess had run over a hill in the open field and had somehow fallen into some kind of cess pool and couldn't get out. In Larry's attempt to rescue her, he fell in as well, and they were both covered with a stinky mess! Larry climbed into Jumbo, stripped off his filthy clothes which we shoved into a garbage bag, put on some other clothes and headed over to the showers. In the meantime, all I could think of to do was wipe Duchess off with antiseptic wipes, which will have to do until we can get her a real bath! When Larry got back from his shower, feeling much cleaner, we decided that we should go on and head for Santa Fe. After all, we're from Colorado. What's a little snow? We left Russell's Truck Stop about 8:30 a.m. on made our way down some icy, snow-packed roads.
We stopped at Fort Union Rest area to stretch our legs and
let Duchess go potty. We were quite proud of ourselves for getting this far in
the nasty weather and were ready for the next leg of the journey. Our next stop
will be Las Vegas, NM for gas.
Larry didn’t think he needed to gas up yet, but I definitely
did, so once I had my tank filled we were back on our way through Las Vegas –
the other Las Vegas! There are a lot of beautiful old buildings in town, but we
were anxious to get on to Santa Fe, so were planning on driving straight
through town until Larry spotted a gas price that he couldn’t resist. We stopped and filled up Jumbo. Both of our
vehicles were filthy from the snowy, slushy drive, and the KLR will surely need
a bath when we come to the end of the trail!
The scenery between Las Vegas and Santa Fe was gorgeous. The
skies were blue and the roads were clear. I was thoroughly enjoying the drive
and got some good shots of Jumbo through my dirty front window…
We had originally planned on staying at an RV park while in
Santa Fe, but decided that the Wal-Mart on Cerillos Rd. would work just
fine. While I was doing my trip research
I had read that they allowed over-night RV, but when we arrived there we found
“No Overnight Parking” signs all over the parking lot. What to do now? We
figured the RV park was our only alternative, but Larry needed to run inside
Wal-Mart and get some window washer fluid
before we checked it out. I told him that I had noticed another Wal-Mart
right as we had exited the freeway, so we decided that I should drive back down
there while he did his shopping and see if by chance they allowed RV parking
for the night. By the time I got there we were in the middle of a mini-blizzard
– wind and a fair amount of snow. This wasn’t how I had envisioned my first day
in Santa Fe! I had imagined myself walking around town in my straw hat,
mustard-color capri pants and sandals. Instead I’ll be wearing hiking boots,
jeans and my snow-shoeing jacket. Oh, well…at least we’re here!
I noticed a few big trucks parked in one section of the
parking lot, so figured that it would be OK to park, but I thought I should go
inside to check. The young man said it was perfectly OK, as long as we stayed
in the far section where the trucks were. I was relieved to hear that, since
the outside of the RV park didn’t look all that great. I called Larry and when
he got here, we found a spot to park and decided that since the weather wasn’t
that great, we should postpone our sight-seeing until the next morning and find
a Laundromat to wash his nasty clothes. We went down Cerillos Rd. to La
Princessa Laundry and had a wonderful conversation with the proprietor, Pepe,
while our laundry was spinning around.
Once we had a basketful of clean clothes, we headed for
Trader Joe’s. Larry had never been to one, but I had told him so many stories
about my visits to the one in Everett, he wanted to check it out. We got some
dinner ingredients, and a bottle of “Two Buck Chuck,” Shiraz, which is now $2.99, but what a
deal! We did drive into the Plaza area
so I could get a feel of what we would be experiencing in the morning, and then
headed back to Jumbo. I drove over to Starbuck’s and sat in the parking lot to
update my blog a little.
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