…OK, enough with the Captain’s Pity Party regarding the great boulder attack on his poor defenseless cargo door. The folks at Progressive Insurance have assured the Captain that all will be made like new once he remits funds sufficient to cover all costs of repair, plus new higher premiums as penance for his poor driving…I believe these discussions with the Insurance company reflect a new high water mark in your noble Captain’s considerable negotiating skills...
…Inasmuch as Taos really isn’t very much fun for the Captain, plans are made to depart for better quarters in the southern direction… Santa Fe is chosen as the best new stopping point. Santa Fe has really great RV Parks almost in the middle of town…man, this will be convenient!!!
…Alas, calls to all convenient spots in Santa Fe result in rejection… Now before you, Dear Reader, jump to the conclusion that we are being given the old “no vacancy” runaround due to the appearance of the Beast after the Tangle in Taos, the Beast’s newly rugged appearance had nothing to do with the availability of space...
…As it turns out, balloons are the problem…No, Christine, not your basic balloon which says "Happy Birthday”...
…No Rodney, not your balloon animal from the carnival...
…The balloons in question are in fact, HOT AIR BALLOONS!!!
...it seems that every year there is a FESTIVAL of Hot Air Balloons in Alberquerque that is so large it attracts over 750,000 visitors!!! They fill up the good RV spots a year in advance...
…No matter, we must trek southward…We WILL find lodging for the Beast and its inhabitants….We head south...
First we see this...
…Believe it or not, this is a GAS PUMP MUSEUM!!!
…A quick voice vote by the Crew made it clear that we would not stop to learn more of the intricacies of gasoline pumps today…Swallowing his deep disappointment, the Captain kept heading south...
…Soon we see an oasis, of sorts...
…This lovely Eden on the Desert is called the Roadrunner RV Resort… You will note the absence of large boulders, trees of any kind, grass of any kind, etc… The best description I can think of is to imagine your old hometown drive-in movie grounds. Remove the movie screen, park a few RVs around and, voila, you have the Roadrunner RV Resort.
…The Roadrunner DID have one excellent feature…it had VACANCY!!! We checked in and found that the electricity worked at least half of the time…Fortunately, the Beast’s generator will kick in automatically when the outside electricity becomes unreliable, as now…NO worries, the full inventory of puppies shall remain cool throughout the warm days...
…Upon getting established in our new barren neighborhood, we met our beautiful, charming neighbor, Renee and her sweet traveling companion, Lillie the dog. Renee is a travel-o-holic and is currently seeing the country in her renovated Shasta travel trailer which she named SHANTILLY…Renee is a real phenomenon, but rather than your Captain attempting to describe this fascinating lady, check out her blog at: LOVEDBYLILLIE.COM Trust me when I say that you’ll find her story fascinating!!!!
…As the faithful reader will recall, the Captain and Tenille..er, the Commodorable are currently full time residents aboard the Beast…Perhaps we need to scout the real estate possibilities hereabouts…I know, we will check out the Pueblo dwellings at Bandelier National Monument...
...Nina and Leslie entering the "Development"...
...Your Captain checking out the condo's view...Note that the neighbors appear to be awfully close...Also, carrying groceries up the convenient ladder MIGHT get a bit tedious...(Apparently, the Pueblo architects chose not to utilize Mr Otis' invention in this otherwise special 600 year old condo development)
...One can easily see the provision for a Samsung LED wide screen television here...
...Nina checking out a modest little 2 bedroom number...
...the Pueblo Valley...remote and fully protected from interruptions from door to door salespersons...
...Leslie crossing the creek at Pueblo Valley...
...And now the IRONY...This peaceful valley which once housed several thousand Pueblo tribesmen is a scant few miles from Los Alamos, the epicenter of atomic research which led to the first ATOMIC BOMBS during the waning months of World War II...
...Although not in our original plans, we decided to scoot over to Los Alamos to check out the place and to see if they could employ your Captain's near encyclopedic knowledge of all things ATOMIC to our nation's advantage...(You see, the Captain was among the first to experiment with the red hard candy called the Atomic Fireball)
...Those Manhatten Project guys were masters of the understatement...
...This is the Uranium 235 bomb LITTLE BOY which the Enola Gay (B-29 bomber) dropped over Hiroshima in August, 1945. It was over 10 feet in length and weighed over 8,000 pounds. It did the same damage as 2,000 B-29's fully loaded with conventional bombs would do...
...Little Boy was the "simple" and untested concept...
...A day later, Fat Boy was dropped over Nagasaki by the B-29 BOCK's CAR...This plutonium based bomb was far, far more powerful and easier to reproduce in quantity...It was tested thoroughly at Alamogordo, New Mexico before being placed in service...
...The center of the blast reached 10,850 degrees Fahrenheit!!! And stretched nearly two miles wide at that temperature!!!! People and things were actually reduced to VAPOR in some cases...
...Long story short...the Japanese decided to cease hostilities immediately and we've been cordial since...They send us Toyotas, Hondas, Nikons, Sonys...We send them bad Hollywood productions and vast sums of money in exchange...I believe they are winning the trade war...
...If you choose to build one of these (on a smaller scale, of course) to eradicate mosquitos in your yard for example, don't forget to include the Polonium-Beryllium Initiator. (I almost ALWAYS forget the little bugger, and my bombs just go pfffft...the mosquitos laugh and laugh, then bite my ankles...)
...Have you ever seen an abandoned SUSPENSION BRIDGE??? This one is over the Rio Grande and was used to transport supplies to the then TOP SECRET town of Los Alamos...
...The day following our Los Alamos visit, we drove the Jeep into Santa Fe (finally) and were positively shocked at the endless beauty of this town of 68,000. Leslie and Nina visited the Georgia O'Keefe museum and gallery.
...A Georgia O'Keefe...
...Apparently, Ms. O'Keefe was a pioneer in the use of hallucinogens, or had poor eye hand coordination... The Commodorable will no doubt place your humble Captain on double dungeon probation for this observation, but honest reporting requires courage sometimes...
...Your Captain went off in search of tequila distributors...
...Turns out that tequila can be found in abundance in every rounded Adobe corner...
...Unfortunately, beside every bar is a high end jewelry store on one side and a shop which sells Lucchese western boots on the other...The above pair which Leslie loved was $2,750. The good news...the price includes both left and right boots...Man, am I glad we live in flip flop country...
...one corner of Santa Fe's Central Plaza...
...At the St France's Hotel Lobby...
...Sunset in the old Bell Tower...(it's now a bar...)
...The Bell Tower...
...When we got back to the coach, we realized that there was going to be a full eclipse of the moon...Since we were stationed in the dark desert, your Captain took this picture...
...Impressive, eh??? Next, here is a photo taken the same evening by time lapse from a rooftop in Dallas...
...Yeah, I know it's not on a par with my shot, but I show you this one for purposes of contrast only...
...Now that the Santa Fe excitement is behind us, we must make our way to Texas which stands squarely in our path to our home in Florida...
...En route to El Paso, we pass this sign...
...Now, don't you even TRY to tell me that you wouldn't get off the Interstate to visit a town called Truth or Consequences...And let's face it, who could pass up a visit to the neighboring village of Elephant Butt???...We saw them both...
...Can you believe that even Truth or Consequences, New Mexico has a Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue??? We weren't there long enough to hear the gunfire generally so prominent on similarly named streets across the country...( see Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, etc.). Elephant Butt didn't have any memorial streets of consequence (no pun intended).
...Factoid: Truth or Consequences (population 6,411) is so named because they won a radio contest in 1950 on the radio game show of the same name...Before then, they were named Hot Springs for the natural springs so abundant in this spa oriented town
...Are any of you familiar with the Chihuahuan Desert??? I didn't think so. Since our loyal readers need to see all that our journey has to offer, posted herewith are photos from the Chihuahuan Desert...
...What are they lookin' at???...Oh yeah, this...
...The Jeep decided that we should stop and change his right rear tire...(Of course in the middle of a desert with a posted speed limit of 80 MPH). Does this stuff happen to you when you are hurrying, or is it just me???
...Never fear, the Captain has the Jeep reshod in record time...(NASCAR pit crews, envy the Captain's lightning speed...)
...As we near El Paso, we ponder what we will have for dinner on this fine Texas evening...
...The answer to this daily dilemma presents itself upon arrival in East El Paso...
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