Today, we drove from Pueblo CO to Cheyenne WY, checking in at the Warren AFB Family Camp. We’ll stay here a few days. We’ll visit our “bonus” daughter, Heather Smith, and her family. Haven’t seen her in the flesh since 1999, though of course we’ve kept in touch.

The trip here from Pueblo was mostly unremarkable, performed on I-25 in a straight shot north. The leg between Colorado Springs (passing the US Air Force Academy) and Loveland was extremely busy with traffic and construction. CDOT is putting in express lanes most of the way, and we joined lots of folks heading into Denver for a Broncos game. Please forgive the photo artifacts; bugs keep suiciding on our windshield!

Family camp is pretty nice, as has been all of the FamCamps. USAF takes care of people! Altitude sickness symptoms are all gone.

The night of 9/23-24, Jim struggled to breathe well in the thin air.  Finally, at 4am, Jim woke Deb so he could get off the mountain.  We crawled down the mountain in the dark past Eagle Nest to Cimarron, where we refueled in the dark. The road straightened out and we stopped for breakfast in Raton NM.  Miraculously, symptoms disappeared when we got to 7000 ft elevation.  It probably was better that we couldn’t see past the edge of guard rails when descending at very slow speeds.

We stopped for rest just over the border in Colorado and napped for an hour. Because of our very early start, we were ahead of the check-in time for the next campground, so we killed time in Pueblo. We bought books and mags and Barnes & Noble and longer screws to re-secure the microwave in its cabinet (it vibrated loose on rough road). We paid for early access to our campsite, and rested more. Scampi for dinner, then early to bed.

On Friday, 9/23, we left Kirtland AFB to head north. After passing near Sante Fe, we visited San Ildefonso Pueblo (Tewa language Native American tribe). Jim had been there in 1976 when visiting friends from Texas. He bought a JD Roybal corn dancer painting that he treasures. The pueblo and others are nearly closed due to COVID, as Native Americans are hit very hard by the virus. We wore masks and had our vaccination papers checked. We opted not to pay a fee to take pictures, but you can see those from others by clicking here. We walked around a bit and visited the museum, but the most important thing we did was buy a piece of pottery. It’s a lovely clay bowl, made in the traditional coil process (no potters wheel), glazed with blue-green copper oxide. The Pueblo sits very close to the Rio Grande river.

Leaving San Ildefonso, we drove to the southern outskirts of Taos for lunch. Along the way, we drove through the Rio Grande gorge and learned the river is the 3rd longest in the USA.

After that, we followed an incredibly twisty US-64 up thousands of feet to Angel Fire NM. There, in a wide valley at 8400 feet elevation, we felt the first twinges of altitude sickness that we haven’t felt since visiting Cuzco and Macchu Picchu in 1984.

We were lucky that the AC unit for the motorhome arrived yesterday, and the wonderful folks from Tally Ho RV repair installed it. Jim helped step-and-fetch and enjoyed learning how the replacement was done.

We’re staying an additional day at Kirtland AFB to get some stuff done on the computer, including submitting the payment claim for the AC unit to our warranty service. We’ll do laundry again, since the machines are nearby, and we made reservations through next Wednesday.

Tomorrow, we head north. We’ll stop at San Ildefonso pueblo, where Jim bought a squash dancer painting in 1978, then over a couple of days to Cheyenne, where our “bonus” daughter Heather lives with her family.

Today, Monday, 9/19, we left Homolovi SP and headed east, with the ultimate destination being the family camp at Kirtland AFB. Along the way, we detoured to the Petrified Forest NP and drove through a bit of the Painted Desert. The road through this joint park is like a washboard, so the Goose was bucking up and down all 27 miles. I think the Goose needs stronger front shocks.

We were surprised by all the color in the petrified wood. The trees, which fell when dinosaurs roamed, were covered with silt, then volcanic ash. They absorbed a lot of minerals, which explains the colors.

The Painted Desert is mostly red, of many hues, with white/ blue/ gray/ green thrown in. We were in a hurry, and we’ve seen lots of rocks by now, so we simply drove through.

We ate lunch at El Charritos in Gallup NM: very tasty. We continued on I-40 to Albuquerque, and passed through El Malpais, a lava field through which I-40 passes.

We had to detour nearly the entire circumference of Kirtland AFB to find the open security gate. The FamCamp is first-come, first-served, so we are glad there was an open pull-through spot. Otherwise, we would have dry-camped in overflow and hoped for a site tomorrow.

We’ll get the Goose’s AC diagnosed tomorrow, and hope it’s something simple like a starting capacitor for the compressor motor. We’ll probably stay at Kirtland for a few days to rest from the long drives and worry.

As we had previously decided, we stayed at Homolovi SP a second night. On Sunday, 9/18, we toured two of the four Homolovi tribal ruins. They have been excavated and restored, with some signs of treasure hunters destroying them in the search for goodies. One kiva has been restored for tourists to understand. Otherwise, there really aren’t any recognizable structures. These native Americans built these towns near the Little Colorado river to use its water for agriculture. The towns were abandoned about 1400 AD, when the tribes moved 60 miles north to the mesas where they still lived.

Then we went into Winslow for lunch, choosing to eat at the Turquoise Room in the La Posada hotel. While waiting for our table, we wandered around the galleries, looking at the art of the female co-owner, Tina Mion. We went into the sunken garden and outside to the gardens. The food was great, with excellent service.

Back to Homolovi SP, where we discovered the coach air conditioner of the Goose was not producing cold air. Jim went into the guts of the system and couldn’t discover anything wrong. For now, we’ll use our vent fans and put up with the heat, hoping cooler days are coming. When we get to Albuquerque tomorrow, we’ll seek a diagnosis.

Saturday, 9/17/22, our 39th anniversary!

We woke a little late, so scrambled to load our stuff back into the Goose from the hotel room. That includes the cases of wine we’ve collected, but couldn’t leave in the Goose due to Goose’s internal temperature without AC. Also, we don’t have suitcases, so all our clothing and other stuff were in shopping bags. Fueled the Goose and rental car and made the return to Avis. We’re feeling chary of the Goose’s engine, so crossed our fingers and started out. We traversed the Arizona Strip for the seventh time and climbed the mountains up to the Kaibab Camper Village outside of Grand Canyon NP. We arrived at noon, Arizona not keeping daylight savings time. We considered staying the night at the Village, as we did have a reservation. However, we thought we could make it to our next stop near Winslow AZ that day, so canceled the reservation and took off.

Driving down the mountain on US-89A was pretty hairy, but the scenery was gorgeous. The southern approach to the North Rim passes the Vermillion Cliffs, so called due to their color. We crossed the Colorado river at Marble Canyon, then a lot of up and down across valleys and rolling desert. We’ve seen several kinds of desert by now: brown grass; creosote bush and sage brush; Joshua trees; bare dirt/ minerals; grassy range land; and others. All depends on altitude and rainfall.

We rejoined US-89 at Bitter Springs and drove on. US-89/ 89A hold the rank of second roughest road we’ve been on, with that road in SC still leading. We climbed at Gray Mountain and at the San Francisco mountains north of Flagstaff. We joined I-40 and headed toward Winslow AZ. While traveling, Debbi arranged a camp spot at the Homolovi state park east of Winslow, where we already had a reservation for tomorrow night.

We stopped in Winslow long enough to stand on the corner, take a few pictures and look at the La Posada hotel, which was designed to house rail passengers and reportedly the most glamorous hotel on the Sante Fe railroad.

Driving a few more miles, we registered at Homolavi SP and decided to tour the ruins tomorrow. Some difficulty backing into an angled camp site, requiring one fly around to get the right angle. We are tired from the long day, and are glad to report that the Goose had no problems today. We are very glad to be married to each other and to still like each other after nearly four months in our 200 square feet!