After a chilly-willy start to the day in Albuquerque where temperatures dropped into the 30's, we made the leisurely migration to Santa Fe with Mom and Dad's friends, Jim and Charlene. Santa Fe is at an elevation of 7000 feet so we are now some high elevation spuds! We're staying at Trailer Ranch RV Park and 55+ community (even though the folks aren't yet AARP-eligible). The Tribe's parents recommended it, and Aunt Ginger and Uncle Richard were spot on with how friendly and convenient this park is.
Now you'd think a leisurely afternoon with not much planned wouldn't leave us with anything to blog about, we certainly thought so, but today has been a banner day for the spuds who RV.
First, Mom noticed one of the vehicles parked here at "the Ranch" said it was a mobile RV parts and repair business. It looked like it had been in business for quite a while, so she was very hopeful they'd have a part the folks really needed.
It's a pretty critical part - it attaches the waste hose to the coach and one of the attachment hooks had broken so Dad had to hold the coupling in place to dump the tanks. Amazingly enough, the guy had one! It saved the folks the cost of shipping and made them really happy after trying just about every RV parts place in Albuquerque with no luck. I'm not sure why they would just not join us at the dog walk to do their bizness, guess they have shy bladders or something.
But the best part is that after stashing the precious Thetford hose adapter for installation later that afternoon, they went to the local supermarket and Mom found marranitos!!! These are Ree's favorite cookies - Mexican ginger flavored cookies shaped like little piggies!
If this is what they can score just a few hours after arriving in Santa Fe, imagine what they'll find during the rest of the stay!
Well, the folks finally gave in and took in the sites here in Albuquerque before we leave for Santa Fe.
It all started when Dad discovered there was a High Country Gardens store right here in "Alb". We get their catalog - all kinds of native, xeric, and southwestern flora, basically filled with all the things we like to do our bizness on. Turns out the store was near "Old Town", which several members of the RV club had already been to and helped the local economy. The HCG store and its neighbor Jackalope had all kinds of cool garden stuff.
Old Town may or may not (we haven't researched it) be authentic old adobe pueblo buildings. Mom said it certainly was quaint. There were lots of stores selling Mexican art, Indian art and pottery, touristy T-shirts, and stuff like that. Dad saw some beautiful turned wood pieces by a Texas artist/woodworker in one shop. It gave him something to aspire to once he gets his lathe going. Their favorite stop was a gallery that specialized in art glass, which the folks really love. They saw a number of cool sculptural vases and some candle sticks that they said they "would have jumped all over had the market not tanked last week". Mom is holding out hope that the market, whatever that is, recovers as fast as it went down, because we'll still be close enough to go back and get those pieces.
All we care is that it doesn't cut into our Fromm budget.
On the way back, they saw a sign for the National Petroglyph Monument and detoured themselves to see what it was. Apparently there are volcanic remnants here in Albuquerque and ages ago the natives scribed all kinds of figures into these rocks. They went on a short hour or two hike to see these petroglyphs
,
sometimes sadly noting the modern-day petroglyph (graffiti) scratched alongside the real artifacts. So sad to see the lack of respect for cultural history. Now the good news is that this time they brought us something tasty back. Seems there was a local woman baking bread in adobe ovens just outside the parks visitor center and they bought a hot, still-crackling large round loaf of fresh bread. It wasn't exactly intact by the time they got back, but there was (and still is) plenty to share with us.
Pass the butter!
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What was cooked yesterday
Walnut-Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries
This is the break and bake recipe we made summer 2008 using blueberries instead of cranberries. Divided into 8 portions, each portion into 4 cookies.
3 cups walnuts (or pecans)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (or half butter, half shortening)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup dried cranberries (or dried blueberries)
1. Preheat oven to 350°. To toast nuts, spread evenly on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned and fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Coarsely chop and set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and oats; add to sugar mixture and stir well to combine. Stir in dried berries and toasted nuts.
To bake entire batch, drop spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheets and bake at the time and temp listed below. To make "break and bake, divide into 8 equal portions, flatten, and mark through the dough into 4 pieces. Wrap in plastic and freeze.
To bake, remove a packet from freezer, separate into the 4 cookies onto a cookie sheet or the infamous pizza pan and bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes.
Yield: Makes about 32-36 cookies
We don't want to hear any more complaints about getting the folks up at sunrise. The day (althought it looked like night) after we arrived here at American RV Park in Albuquerque, we heard the annoying beeping of the alarm clock at 4 AM. The folks and their friends had to get up in time to depart for the early morning balloon ascension, and you know how long it takes Mom to get ready.
From the photos Dad brought back , we could see it turned out to be a fantastic day, light winds and sunny skies, there were balloons everywhere you looked. There were lots of normal looking balloons, too, but the unusual shapes sometimes left you wondering "what the heck IS that?"
The folks returned late morning and hung out with us for the rest of the day, they seemed to be a bit lethargic after the early morning, not that we would let them nap. Mom made a batch of cranberry-pecan break and bake cookies - Ree could barely contain herself because the coach smelled like cinnamon the whole time. In the early evening they went back into Albuquerque to partake in some of the local New Mexican food and once again neglected to bring back a white box for us. We didn't even get a sopapilla! From the smell on their breath we could tell the food was spicy and - sniff, sniff - is that a margarita ?
The next day was spent visiting the Aquarium and Botanic garden. We reminded them the sun here in New Mexico is very bright even when it's not hot out, good thing they took the hint and put on sunblock and wore hats. The evening plan was to go back to the balloon park and see the evening glow, where the balloons stay tethered on the ground but are all inflated and lit by their burners. Unfortunately it was getting pretty breezy out so the folks being ever so analytical (read geeks) decided to pass since it seemed like there was a very good chance the even would be cancelled. There had also been a very sad balloon accident that morning that was possibly due to the wind, and they thought the festival organizers would probably err on the side of caution. Sure enough shortly after some of the other RVers left it was posted on the fest website that the evenings events were off. Well, except for the vendors. The professional shoppers in our group spent their evening looking at crafts and their partners took solace in things like corny dogs and smoked turkey legs. At least with the folks staying home, we got to have pizza crust. You just know they'd never bring us back fair food.
The next morning the wind was even stronger, a steady breeze of 25-30 miles and hour with big gusts that rocked the coach. Then the rain and thunder moved in and even some pea sized hail. We don't like when it hails since it's very loud in the coach so we all jumped on the couch to reassure the folks that everything was OK.
After the storms passed, Bentley helped Mom do some cooking,
Ree continued to work on her Mexican train strategery,
and Blue hung out on his binkey.The last couple of days we have been heading our way west to see the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We are taking the slow and easy route, not driving more than 4 hours a day, perfect for our little, I mean Ree's, bladder.
Our first stop was in Goodlett, Texas at an RV park called the Ole Cotton Gin RV Park, and if names don't give it away, it used to be an old cotton gin. This trip the folks thought they had us outsmarted, they crafted a foam cushion that fits in the skylight to keep the early morning sun from shinning in. Guess they though we would not need to get up and see the sunrise .... WRONG ... that first morning saw all of us at the dog walk watching the sun rise over the cotton fields. The folks countered this with going to the $1 pancake, blueberry muffins, country biscuits breakfast and bringing back nothing .... game on!Night two we stayed in Tucumcari, New Mexico, a neat little park just off of old Route 66. Unfortunately there were some grass burs, we call them goat heads, that we all got in to. They stick into our pads and hurt like the dickens! The area between Goodlett and Tucumcari is pretty much wide open spaces, covered with cotton fields, mesquite trees, an occasional green energy wind farm and in sharp contrast mile long coal trains going by every 20 minutes or so.
Today we arrived in Albuquerque and joined up with the rest of the RV club. We're staying at American RV Park. They have a dog walk area with incredible views to the east, and a view of a construction vehicle yard to the west. And some of those goat head weeds. But it's mostly sandy so it's easy to avoid the goat head prickers. Before dinner the folks visited the local Camping World which is just across the interstate. Then we all played dominoes, a game called "Mexican Train". Ree did her best to advise on strategy.Tomorrow morning the folks plan to venture in to the "fest" to watch the balloons in the morning. The plan is to get up at 4am ... Sweet!
Ree, Blue and Bentley