2015 Trip – Amarillo, TX to Albuquerque, NM

Sun. 7/5… (Amarillo, TX)  Today was a do nothing day.  The park pretty much emptied out as folks headed on their travels or probably back home and to work tomorrow.  We did decide to go back to the Big Texan to try their breakfast buffet.  It was ok, not as good as I remember it from times before.  Their cook-to-order omelettes were really good though. We drove back home and did some laundry and watched some of our programs we had taped.  Later Janie fixed dinner and we sat out for a while.  Tomorrow we only have a short drive to our next stop.

 

Mon. 7/6…  (Tucumcari, NM) Ok, we are officially out of Texas!  The drive today was 113 miles, and very mild weather and good roads on I40.  We’ve traveled I40 many times so we know how bad this interstate highway is when it comes to the road itself, but in Texas it was very well maintained and in New Mexico so far so good.  We are now at Cactus RV Park on Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM.  This is a very old park, complete with really old motel rooms next door, that I’m guessing are shut down but we haven’t checked.  But the park is clean, level, easy in and out and I’d stay here again when we are in this area. 

 

 

Bailey liked this park.  It was very relaxing!

 

 

 

Now the town itself doesn’t have all that much to offer.  They have a few museums but they are closed on Sundays and Mondays.  We stopped for lunch at Del’s Restaurant in town on Route 66.  I would rate this high as well.  Again, it’s an old steakhouse that probably was pretty fancy when new and had the tourist traffic before I40 but now it’s just a normal American/Mexican restaurant that we might just go back to for dinner.  We stopped at the Big K-Mart, which is the only major store around here, and bought a few things.  As I was checking out, I noticed my credit/debit card was missing.  I knew where I left it immediately so I called the Big Texan and they had it!  Pheeww!  They were very nice and the manager offered to mail it to the house. There’s no activity on it as of yesterday and I think I’m good but I’ll be watching just in case.  After returning home we lounged around and planned dinner. We went back to town but this time chose Rockin Y’s Roadhouse.  They have $5.00 burger night and the locals told us this is where they eat.  Well, they were all there even though we had to dodge the huge raindrops as we made our way in.  This was also a good place to eat and we would go back again. We ended the evening back at our rig watching the rerun of America’s Funniest Videos.  I had been taping these since we missed the original showing of the Thanksgiving show that we went to see.  This was that night!  We saw all nine of us (GG & Gary, Donna, Lydia & Terry, Janie & Rick, and Gary & Jayne).  I think we all looked good and we had great seats with a lot of airtime!  After they left I had a bit of time to play with my spreadsheet and calculated that of the 5,063 miles we will travel on this trip,1,550 were in the state of Texas!       

Tues. 7/7… (Albuquerque, NM) This morning we took off and left beautiful downtown Tucumcari behind and drove 181 miles and are now at the Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post, just outside of Albuquerque, NM. 

 

They have set up a little vignette of period rv's which have been featured on travel shows.  Here's one...

 

 

We are here for three days. A quick report on the roads – not too bad. It seems that they have worked on the westbound road a bit so we’re hoping it continues as we continue westward.  We have been to this park before (it’s a Passport America park and we used it enroute on many trips to Branson) and Janie and Rick liked it as soon as they parked. We ate lunch in and then drove literally next door to Camping World. We picked up some things we needed and some we didn’t. We went home and hung around the rigs watching the weather.  There were huge dark rainy clouds to the north of us so we set out for Old Town for dinner at La Placita. This has always been a required stop for us and we were happy to take Rick & Janie.  It was as good as always and they enjoyed it as well.  The best sopapillas! Janie has a friend who frequents this area and has given her the name of her favorite restaurant which we will try as well.  Later we kicked back and planned our day tomorrow.  We are driving up to Santa Fe for the day.    

 

Wed. 7/8… (Albuquerque, NM)  We didn’t decide on a time to leave for Santa Fe this morning so we slept in and had breakfast and kicked back and left a little after 10:00am.  We got stuck on I40 for about 20 minutes due to a traffic accident.  Once I got off the freeway and worked my way around it we were off and made good time in driving the 50 miles into the city. Santa Fe architecture has never been my favorite but the town has a certain charm and also historical influence to New Mexico culture.  We found the old town square and the churches with no problem and parked and walked around.  The girls visited the street merchants selling jewelry. Janie bought quite a bit of stuff.  Lydia only found a couple of items.

 

We visited many shops in the square and found some interesting things, including a Lucchese Boot shop.  I managed to pick up the most expensive pair of boots in the store – only $7,750!  I put them down very carefully and walked away!  We decided we needed a bite to eat and ducked in to The Famous Plaza Café.  Their menu was a little pricey but we split a chicken sandwich and fries so it was ok.  Plus we had room for coconut cream pie! Both were very good. It also was good we stopped when we did. A pretty good rainstorm passed and dumped pea sized hail which we got to watch from under cover! 

 

The ride home was uneventful, unless you count stopping at another Walmart.  We needed water and a few other things.  Later we went over to Janie’s for dinner.  She wanted to clean out her leftover pasta sauce and such so we enjoyed that.