So while we were in Albuquerque we were able to go to to the New Mexico State Capital – Santa Fe and visit the State Capital. Even though the website for the State Capital said that you were able to do a self-guided tour on Saturdays, the place was locked up. First, Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the U.S., which was amazing to find out. It took more than half a century for New Mexico to achieve statehood which was on January 6, 1912 under President William Taft. Regardless of us (and all the other people pulling on the doors to to their self tour), we did take some pictures outside. The building is very clean and looks like brand new stucco. Unfortunately, we did not see inside.
So since we were in town we were able to visit many sites. This city is full of buildings that have been around for years and the city takes very good care of the area. It is a general “old time Main street” atmosphere.
We then walked through the rest of the town and were amazed at the statutes that were everywhere. This one is front of the Mountain Trails Fine Art Gallery. All of it is made from bronze even though it looks like the moccasins and cloth are from material.
Going into the store revealed many more outstanding pieces.
Then we drove up to the Sandia Crest which was very windy and cold. Most wore coats and hats but Mike, of course, was in shorts.
The campground we were staying the last two weeks in Albuquerque was at the Hidden Valley RV Resort. This park was about 30 minutes outside of ABQ and was not a top notch park. The park was set up strange also as you have RVs pulling behind another one and the water and electricity was on the opposite of where is should of been. This looked like it was run by a very young team because we never saw anyone older than 30 in the office. The place is full of weeds – also known as Goat Heads – so that made it difficult for Cocoa because we had to pull stickers out of her paws. We will not return to this site even though it was an RPI site – which means $10 a night plus an additional $3 for 50 amp electricity.
We left ABQ to go to Sedona, AZ next.
On the way to Sedona, we stopped at Winslow, Arizona. The fun about this is that this is a major tourist spot because Winslow was referenced in the popular 1972 song “Take It Easy” written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and performed by the Eagles. The city had suffered a loss of commerce when U.S. Route 66 as supplanted by I40, but the popularity of the song led to renewed attention for Winslow and a commercial renaissance.
We also toured the town and went to the La Posada hotel which was built in 1916. Not sure of why but we heard you have to make reservation four years in advance. Probably because former guests include the likes of Charles Lindbergh, Gene Autry, Howard Hughes, Jane Russell, John Wayne, Dorothy Lamour, James Cagney, Clark Gable, and a long list of presidents and foreign dignitaries. They even have a Howard Hughes room.
We then had to see the Totem pole carved by Peter Wolf Toth, a Hungarian Artist. Apparently he has carved something for every state all of Indians. This we found because our friends, Joanie and Dave, made a mention of it in their post. (Thanks!).
From there we went to the Meteor Crater. The world’s best preserved meteorite impact site on Earth. Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between an asteroid traveling 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago. This is incredible that this happened so long ago and it is still intact. Of course, we alway know there are many stories about how things occurred and there were many about this -to include a volcano. Ultimately, in 1960 it was confirmed that it was created by a meteor.
Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer, who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be the “best preserved meteorite crater on Earth”.
We arrived at the Verde Valley RV Resort in Cottonwood, AZ close to Sedona which was a Thousand Trails Site. First we found out that we had to call way in advance to be able to get a 50amp service – which of course we did not know. Second, as with all Thousand Trail sites, you have to hunt for your space which we did. Third, Lorraine always calls a head to find out how their cell phone service is and they said as long as we had Verizon we would be good. However, when we got their the ranger told us there was no cell service in their park. So with no cell service, we had to leave since Lorraine needs Cell/WiFi in order to work. So we headed to Phoenix with no reservations. However on our way to Phoenix we were able to see Sedona.
So now we will be in Phoenix for three weeks.
