Evening Campers!
It's Silver Cliche' again writing to you tonight from the high desert
(not “high dessert”… that's only available in Colorado and a
few other places without a prescription) between Albuquerque and
Santa Fe.
We awoke early this
morning… before the chickens as an old colleague of mine used to
say… at Santa Rosa Lake 2 hours east of Albuquerque. We felt
comfortable there and had a good night. It was quiet and perhaps best
of all we had an entire state – and the largest of the lower 48 for
good measure – between us and Louisiana. I've finally got the sting
from Steamboat Bill's gumbo out of my mouth after 5 or 6 days.
We decided to hit
the road early (by our standards) and agreed to have all 8 wheels
rolling at 9:00. I must have been ready because by 8:50 the truck and
trailer were ready, garbage deposited in the cans, dogs walked and in
the truck, next stop set on the GPS and I was waiting for Mrs. C' to
finish making herself beautiful for the day (getting beautiful
doesn't require much extra effort for her, so it shouldn't take long)
and I could unplug from shore power and toss the power cord in the
locker and roll. We left on time, tanked up the truck for the day in
the town of Santa Rosa Lake near the campground and were off to I-40.
Speaking of tanking
up, have I told you that gas isn't the same everywhere in the
country? I didn't know that until we started filling in the outline
map of the US with states we've been to. As one moves west, the
gasoline offerings change. In the east, essential every gas station
sells three grades of gas. An 87 octane which most cars use, an 89
octane for people who feel they have deferred too much maintenance
and think somehow that feeding their car better gas now will make up
for those past sins, and a 91 octane for people who spent money on a
Lexus or BMW with a high compression ratio engine that knocks if
bourgeois gas is fed through it's garden hose sized fuel line. (In
the spirit of full disclosure, I bought and drove one of those cars
for many years. The feeling of smug superiority when passing 87
octane burners was worth every penny at that age. I got that out of
my system and I am even more pleased to be looking at the cheapest
price when I fill the trusty Tundra). So, that 87, 89, 91 slate of
offerings changes somewhere about Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas. Here in New
Mexico the slate is 86, 88 and I didn't notice. Seeing as how my
truck needs 87, I'm now forced to step up to 88. From prior travels,
I know that in Colorado, Wyoming and nearby states the entry gas is
generally an even lower octane like 85. I'm not sure what runs well
on 85. Maybe a moped or a lawnmower.
Back to I-40. We hit
the interstate at about 4,400 feet above sea level. Given what I'm
about to tell you, I wish I had made careful note. That's high, for
Floridians (it's more than 11 Florida's stacked one on top of another
vertically). We've been higher in the east for example 4,500 feet in
southern Virginia or 6,000+ in the Great Smokey National Forest, but
over 4,000 is high for us. In the first 10 minutes we climbed to over
6,000 feet. At two points between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque we were
over 7,000 feet. That's still 4,013 below our high with the truck
pulling the Airstream (the Eisenhower Tunnel – known as “the Ike”
– on I-70 west of Denver which is also the highest point in the US
interstate system) but it was high enough for serious ear popping and
a slight shortness of breath. As we closed in on Albuquerque I
pointed to the north and said to Mrs. C' “Look, SNOW!”. Sure
enough, on the highest peaks north near Taos we could see the
unmistakable caps of snow. We went to great lengths and greater
expense to retire and live full time in Florida to avoid snow… but
to see if from a distance in 74 degree weather and shirtsleeves was
just fine with us.
In under 2 hours we
descended into Albuquerque. We were low on provisions, so we stopped
at America's second favorite food store – Trader Joe's. It used to
be America's favorite food store, but was passed recently by (get
ready you readers in Western New York) Wegmans! Anyway both of those
chains are favs of ours when we can get to them. We gladly stocked up
on needed supplied at TJ's. Mrs. C' need some home décor items (or
perhaps better called trailer décor items), so we found a suitable
store and I stayed with the dogs while she kept her retail skills
sharp. Then one last hop for the day.
Our campground
tonight is on Cochiti Lake between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It's
near and east of Los Alamos for those of you familiar with the area
or with the history of the US atomic weapons program. Here are two
panoramas. The first from right next to the trailer and the second
from down the hill about 100' or so:
Here's a shot I
posted on AirForums (the site for Airstream owners and aficionados
online which includes a running exchange called “View from your
Airstream door”). I posted this photo there this evening:
That black stripe in
the pics is the dam itself. We spend a lot of time it seems in dam
campgrounds (sorry… that never gets old for me). The Cochiti dam
took 8 years to build. It stops up the Rio Grande River and is the
11th largest earth filled dam in the world. In other
words, the dam itself is made of “earth”, not concrete. We drove
along the dam on the downstream side. It is amazingly high and
impressively long. Here's a link to Google maps. Zoom out to see the
size if you need to, but that dark, knife edge thing is the dam. If
you zoom out far enough, Google will show you to the north and on the
east side of the lake (that's up and right of the dam for those of
you in Louisiana) a place called Tetilla Peaks Recreation Area.
That's where we are camping.
The wind was blowing
30 with gusts to 40 when we made camp. The trailer was shaking like a
Amtrak train car. It was in the low 80's but the sun beating on the
trailer combined with the wind was like being in a wind blown oven…
quite strange. Eventually the wind died down, the sun got lower in
the sky and we had dinner acquired at TJ's today. After dinner I made
shortcakes (of course we have a real oven… what do you think we
are, barbarians?) which carried strawberries and whipped cream in a
delicious blend. I'll say good night with a shot of that creation sitting on the coffee table between the two recliners illuminated by the setting New Mexican sun (I think that's too much description... even for me).
We are here for
three nights. Tomorrow it's back to ABQ to visit my brother and his
wife. Sunday it's north to explore Santa Fe. Monday we'll pull up
stakes and head to Colorado for some dessert and a visit with Mrs.
C's niece and her family.
Until tomorrow…
SC'
No comments:
Post a Comment