Paliasades RV Park, Albuquerque, NM

As we continued north on the interstate, the weather was clear but cool. We wanted to stop off in Albuquerque to sightsee, but the downtown area was nearly deserted. We realized it was Saturday, and headed back to the interstate towards Santa Fe. Lei called the local weather service, since we had heard the night time low temperature might be in the thirties. As Howard tried to navigate the highway interchange, Lei told him to just get off, GET OFF!! The Santa Fe area was expecting a freeze overnight, not the kind of weather we wanted to drive into!
In one of the visitor magazines we found a private RV park, and headed west out of town for the hills. The park had a few short stay spaces in the front, while the rest of the park behind the main building was full of long term RV types. This is the image a lot of folks have for RV parks: dirty old RVs, tires flat, lots of junk around, with beat old cars and trucks. The office was pretty ratty, with a young guy working the desk and smoking continuously. We paid for a space and parked the rig in one of the spaces in the front, near the road but out of sight of the broken down mess in the back.
We drove back down into town to see if anything caught our interest, but most everything was shut down for the weekend. We found a supermarket on the way back, and spent the afternoon doing laundry at the RV park. The night time temperature was going to be near forty degrees, so we bundled up and slept with the little space heater on.

Isleta Indian Casino & RV Park, NM

The drive north on the interstate to Albuquerque follows the Rio Grande as it heads south to Texas. This is the southern part of the Rockies, with a few mountain peaks on each side of the highway at eight or nine thousand feet elevation. The hills are covered with scrub and grasses, no trees except for in the mountains. The sky began to turn grey, and as the wind picked up, Howard began to have difficulty controlling the rig. In a crosswind, the trailer is just a big, 29 foot sail. The truckers just kept on going, but after forty minutes of battling the wind gusts, we decided to pull over and wait out the weather. There just happened to be an Indian casino up ahead, so we pulled in and decided to spend a couple hours waiting out the wind storm. We parked near a couple of other RVs and truckers in a fairly deserted parking lot. By the time we headed for the door of the casino, a cold, blowing rain had begun. We took a walk around inside and Howard decided to go back to the rig and read, while Lei stayed to check out the slot machines. When Lei got back to the rig, the wind and rain had not let up, so we debated whether to stay in the parking lot with no hook ups, or try to make it to Albuquerque. Instead, we found a campground operated by the Isleta Reservation, just down the hill. We paid for a spot at the gate and drove around the campground a few times looking for a not too muddy site. There were a few other campers there, locals with old rigs and tents, and all the sites were fairly far apart, with a few tall but scraggly trees. By nightfall, all the sites were occupied, and the wind and rain continued.
We slept all bundled up and managed to ignore the train that went by early in the morning. The little space heater served us well that night, and in the morning it was still drizzling and about fifty degrees. It was Good Friday, and some of the families hid eggs in the grass for their kids. We hung around until noon when the ran let up, then packed up and headed for Santa Fe.

Truth or Consequences

Before we left the park to go explore the town, we asked the park ranger for his recommendation on a good Mexican restaurant, and he told us about a small place in town that all the local folks go to. We headed out north from the park for the town, called Truth or Consequences. It was a sleepy little town, and we drove through twice before we found the little town museum. There was a design competition going on to construct a gateway type marker for the area, and the models were in the museum for the locals to vote on. There were a few fifties kind of exhibits on the Wild West and Indian notable people of the area. There was a large room dedicated to some guy named Edwards, which vaguely sounded familiar. It turns out this man had been the host of the most widely watched game show of the fifties and early sixties, called "Truth or Consequences". Several years into the fifteen year run of the show, there was a search for a town that would change its name to Truth or Consequences, and this little town in New Mexico took up the challenge. Every year since that day Edwards came back to the town for a birthday party. He would bring the press and some Hollywood types, and this went on until the show went off the air. The town went back to being a sleepy little stop along the interstate.
We went back to the rig to get cleaned up for dinner and grab some beers, then went back to town for our Mexican dinner. The ranger was right about this restaurant, it was a friendly little place that had the best Mexican food. The salsa was freshly made by the waitresses, who took turns every day. Everything was wonderful, and in typical small town style, the restaurant closed at eight o’clock.

Truth or

Before we left the park to go explore the town, we asked the park ranger for his recommendation on a good Mexican restaurant, and he told us about a small place in town that all the local folks go to. We headed out north from the park for the town, called Truth or Consequences. It was a sleepy little town, and we drove through twice before we found the little town museum. There was a design competition going on to construct a gateway type marker for the area, and the models were in the museum for the locals to vote on. There were a few fifties kind of exhibits on the Wild West and Indian notable people of the area. There was a large room dedicated to some guy named Edwards, which vaguely sounded familiar. It turns out this man had been the host of the most widely watched game show of the fifties and early sixties, called "Truth or Consequences". Several years into the fifteen year run of the show, there was a search for a town that would change its name to Truth or Consequences, and this little town in New Mexico took up the challenge. Every year since that day Edwards came back to the town for a birthday party. He would bring the press and some Hollywood types, and this went on until the show went off the air. The town went back to being a sleepy little stop along the interstate.
We went back to the rig to get cleaned up for dinner and grab some beers, then went back to town for our Mexican dinner. The ranger was right about this restaurant, it was a friendly little place that had the best Mexican food. The salsa was freshly made by the waitresses, who took turns every day. Everything was wonderful, and in typical small town style, the restaurant closed at eight o’clock.

Before we left the park to go explore the town, we asked the park ranger for his recommendation on a good Mexican restaurant, and he told us about a small place in town that all the local folks go to. We headed out north from the park for the town, called Truth or Consequences. It was a sleepy little town, and we drove through twice before we found the little town museum. There was a design competition going on to construct a gateway type marker for the area, and the models were in the museum for the locals to vote on. There were a few fifties kind of exhibits on the Wild West and Indian notable people of the area. There was a large room dedicated to some guy named Edwards, which vaguely sounded familiar. It turns out this man had been the host of the most widely watched game show of the fifties and early sixties, called "Truth or Consequences". Several years into the fifteen year run of the show, there was a search for a town that would change its name to Truth or Consequences, and this little town in New Mexico took up the challenge. Every year since that day Edwards came back to the town for a birthday party. He would bring the press and some Hollywood types, and this went on until the show went off the air. The town went back to being a sleepy little stop along the interstate.
We went back to the rig to get cleaned up for dinner and grab some beers, then went back to town for our Mexican dinner. The ranger was right about this restaurant, it was a friendly little place that had the best Mexican food. The salsa was freshly made by the waitresses, who took turns every day. Everything was wonderful, and in typical small town style, the restaurant closed at eight o’clock.

Truth or Consequences

Before we left the park to go explore the town, we asked the park ranger for his recommendation on a good Mexican restaurant, and he told us about a small place in town that all the local folks go to. We headed out north from the park for the town, called Truth or Consequences. It was a sleepy little town, and we drove through twice before we found the little town museum. There was a design competition going on to construct a gateway type marker for the area, and the models were in the museum for the locals to vote on. There were a few fifties kind of exhibits on the Wild West and Indian notable people of the area. There was a large room dedicated to some guy named Edwards, which vaguely sounded familiar. It turns out this man had been the host of the most widely watched game show of the fifties and early sixties, called “Truth or Consequences”. Several years into the fifteen year run of the show, there was a search for a town that would change its name to Truth or Consequences, and this little town in New Mexico took up the challenge. Every year since that day Edwards came back to the town for a birthday party. He would bring the press and some Hollywood types, and this went on until the show went off the air. The town went back to being a sleepy little stop along the interstate.
We went back to the rig to get cleaned up for dinner and grab some beers, then went back to town for our Mexican dinner. The ranger was right about this restaurant, it was a friendly little place that had the best Mexican food. The salsa was freshly made by the waitresses, who took turns every day. Everything was wonderful, and in typical small town style, the restaurant closed at eight o’clock.

Cabalos Lake State Park, NM

Another lake created by a dam for water supply and recreation. We had already put in enough hours of driving, so we stopped to talk to the camp host about the best place to park. He didn’t believe our truck was from Hawaii until he saw the matching front and back license plates. He then got into telling us his parents had lived in Kona for many years, but he never liked it because he missed the change of the seasons. He pointed us towards the unreserved portion of the campground, and we cruised through the rest of the parking spots before finding a site near the bath house. We parked in a pull through that had a nice picnic table with its own pavilion. The campsites were all on gravel, very level and easy to pull into. There were only a few other campers around, even though the camp host had said the park would be full for the weekend. We got set up and took a walk on one of the trails in the park. There were no large trees, just a lot of scrub bushes, all about a foot tall. We walked down to the of the lake, which was noticeably below the normal waterline. We found out later that there are several lakes in a string running north to south that were all low due to a light winter snow season. All the towns and farmers downstream rely on the snow melt from the Rockies for water, so when there’s only a little snow, the lakes are drawn down to continue to supply the surrounding population. The night was too cold to try a campfire, so we stayed in and slept with the little space heater turned on High.
When we woke up the next morning, we decided to stay on another day and enjoy the park, maybe walk another trail, and check out the nearby town. There were still only a few other campers around, so Howard gave the rig a quick wash down, even though the park requested all campers to conserve water. It took less than ten minutes, and was only to rinse off some of the road dust we had accumulated since we started in Eugene.

Karchner Caverns, AZ

We drove south on the interstate towards Tucson, being careful to avoid the part of the highway that ran directly through the city. We were fairly comfortable with driving for five or six hours to the next stop, the Karchner Caverns would be a good place to spend the night. The Karchner Caverns are underground caverns that the state acquired from the Karchner ranching family. The state park includes a nice visitor center and several different tours of the caverns. Although it was a weekday, there were vacationing families left over from spring break, as well as the usual RV campers.
We found a spot in the small campground without having to check in. There was no camp host or park ranger around, so we took a walk around the campground to explore and check out the bathhouse. We found that camping fees were on the honor system, just fill out a form, add your money and drop in the box. It was a beautiful campground on a hill, with the caverns underneath and behind us in the hill. We also checked out our fellow campers, looking at their rigs and toys. We still were not confident enough to walk up and strike up a conversation, so we just said hello as we walked around and turned in for the night.
The next morning we walked over to the visitor center to possibly take a tour of the caverns. There were great displays of the discovery and creation of the caverns and park, as well as the history of the area. The valley to the east of the hills was a river valley that produced much of the fruit and vegetables in this part of the state. We decided we didn’t want to pay to go on the tour of the caverns, and left the park before noon.

Sun City West and Passover

We had no idea where we would spend the night while in Phoenix. Howard was thinking we might stay at a Walmart, so we found one in the suburbs and stopped to talk it over. This really wasn't going to work, because we would have to unhook the trailer and drive away to spend the evening at cousin Jean's house. That meant leaving the trailer in an unfamiliar place, relying on whatever security the store had in the parking lot. So we went inside to borrow a yellow pages, looking for an RV park. We found one nearby, just on the edge of Sun City West, called to check on the price, and headed down the road to park the trailer.
Leon's RV Park is a small private park, with big spaces and a pool and community center. There were several RVs there that looked like snow birds, folks from the north who spent the winter in the warmer area in Arizona. They were obviously set up for a long stay, with outdoor furniture and plants outside their rig. We only had time to park and plug in before we left for Jean's house.
Sun City and Sun City West are planned communities, made up mostly of retirees and snow birds. The houses all look alike, built from the same four or five plans, multiplied by the thousands. Most of the developments are only for folks over 55 years of age. There are churches, temples, shopping malls and golf courses, but very few schools. In fact there are so many golf courses that there is a lane on the streets for golf carts, like a bike lane. And the golf carts have the right of way on those streets! We found that out when we nearly drove over two old guys in a golf cart going through an intersection.
Jean's house is large, with a large living room, dining room, reading room, a master and guest bedroom, and family room next to the kitchen. She had invited several friends over and squeezed us onto the end of the dining table for the seder. This group socialized together often, and had supported Jean while her husband was dying. And now Jean had a boyfriend, a widower she had met while on a cruise with these friends.
There was only one other Jewish person there, a woman who had actually gone to the Yeshiva. This is unheard of for Jewish women, where the Jewish men always take precedence on all things religious. Remember "Yentl", the Barbara Streisand movie where she dressed as a man to go the religious school? Women in the orthodox wing of the Jewish faith play no part in the religious services at the temple, and must sit separate from the men if they are even allowed in at all.
The Passover reading went fairly quickly, which was kind of a disappointment to us. The story of Passover has so much meaning for Jews, it is a reminder of the great sacrifice the ancestors made in the days of the phrase of Egypt.
Dinner was wonderful, it was nice to have a home-cooked meal, including matzoh ball soup!
Jean came over the next morning to see our new home and catch us up on her life since we had last seen her. It was a wonderful visit, too short due to the 11 o'clock check out time at the RV park. We said our good byes and headed down the road for New Mexico.