Cheers from The Land of Enchantment

Hello to all our friends and family!!! We have been on the road for roughly 2 1/2 months now. While we are having an absolute blast exploring, visiting family all over, and relaxing, once in a while a little bit of home-sickness swarms over us. But we definitely do NOT miss the New York winter weather we left behind!!! Have I said how much we miss all of you??😏

Anyway, back to the issue at hand....Our Blog!!

After my last post, we ran into a little snag with the truck, postponing our boon docking stop in northern Arizona. Unfortunately, while we were at Jacqueline and John's wedding last week, someone tried to break into the truck. Thankfully, they were unsuccessful, and the only damage was the lock on the door, which eventually messed up the vehicle's computer system (gotta love technology!!). There was a Dodge dealer near by, so we made an appointment to have it repaired the next day. That being said, we were unable to hit the road as planned. While we called around looking for a place to stay for the night (or maybe the next 2 nights), Uncle Tony and Aunt Lynn came to our rescue. We ended up parking the rig in their driveway, which was plenty big enough. Not only did we have a place to go, but we got to spend a few more wonderful days with Aunt Lynn, Uncle Tony, and Aunt Kathy (still in town for the wedding)...a very pleasant end to a fabulous visit in Gold Canyon, Arizona.

We got the truck back, all was fixed, and hit the road. We drove a couple hours to a remote spot outside of Payson, picked our "land" for the night and settled in. It was a beautiful area, not a single soul around, peaceful, quiet, absolutely wonderful. We were only staying for 1 night, but we wish we had planned to stay an extra night. I was keeping my eyes open to catch some wildlife roaming around in the hills the entire afternoon, and evening, nothing! Then, the next morning, after the sun came up, I saw it...a jack rabbit. Not what I was hoping for, but hey, I'll take it.

We left our campsite in the wilderness, and headed north east to Blue Water Lake State Park, just outside Thoreau, New Mexico. It was a usual day's drive-about 250 miles, roughly 5 hours (including our routine breaks). We had read great reviews about the campground there, and to make a long story short...it was pretty horrible. The area was beautiful, but the lake was mostly frozen, the grounds were not kept up as well as they should have been, and it was cold at 20 degrees. Though we were right down the road from a very tall cell tower, we had no cell service and no Internet. Ordinarily, this would not have been a big deal, but I had some schoolwork I needed to finish and submit, and needed to be closer to civilization. We decided it was best to cut the stop short and make our way east to Albuquerque bright and early the next morning.

Just over 2 hours on the road, we arrived at the KOA in Albuquerque, late Friday morning. We pulled in, set up camp, and decided after the night we had, we deserved a good authentic New Mexican breakfast. We checked out YELP (yup, our famous go-to) and headed to a local restaurant called Vick's Vittles. Let's just say, YELP did not steer us wrong! We sat, relaxed, and enjoyed our yummy breakfast of authentic local fare.

Saturday evening, we put on our fancy clothes and headed downtown to the Albuquerque Convention Center, where we were invited to a fancy, black-tie gala for a local organization. We had some delicious food, met some really lovely people, (some others we could have done without), and had a really good time. The highlight of the night, was a concert performed by Los Lobos (think LaBomba and Let's Go...)- it was an absolute blast!!! We even got to have a meet and greet with the guys from the band after the show...AWESOME!!!

Today, was tinkering, laundry, and schoolwork day, with a quick stop at a local Antique Mall, after another well deserved😉 and delicious breakfast at Weck's- also boasting authentic New Mexican food, with their motto being "Full Belly Tradition"....we definitely left with our bellies full!!
Tomorrow, is moving day, and visiting day. We are headed a few miles away to the Enchanted Hills Campground for another week, and Tony and Liz (our friends from Seattle) are flying in to visit and stay with us. We are so excited to see them and hang out for the next few days!!!

Until next time...
We love and miss you all,
Greg & Laura

Us in the beautiful wilderness-in the middle of nowhere

Not another single person around!!

Another view of the beautiful scenery

Gorgeous landscape 

The best part of the State Park Campground

Our fancy evening out

Couple guys from Los Lobos and US!!!

May not look so good- but these were absolutely DELISH!!

                                                      My typical ending....(too cold to photograph outside the camper😲)