Sept 12th to 16th - Santa Fe, Bernalillo NM

Sept 12th - Sat - Santa Fe
Good thing we did not get an early start to the Tesuque Pueblo Flea Market as vendors were still opening up at 10. The literature advertises 500 vendors at this flea market and call it a Moroccan type market including carpets, pottery and jewelry and with an expectation to haggle over prices. The season will be ending soon here so less than half of the vendor stalls were occupied but it was still interesting to wander through.
We stopped in at a casino in Espanola and had a good, late breakfast. We received a little gift package when we got a player’s card - don’t know what we will do with 2 nice desk clocks!
We stopped at a super WalMart for some groceries and then returned to the park to put them away. I talked Terry into checking out a store - Jackalope Mercado - that we had passed several times since we have been here. It turned out to be several shops with an assortment of goods and even Terry enjoyed exploring it.
A little windy but we barbequed for dinner.

Sept 13th - Sun - Santa Fe
Laundry today. We discovered a very unusual laundry here at the park. There are 2 washers and 2 dryers in the men’s and in the women’s restrooms. One washer was out of order in the women’s restroom and both washers in the men’s restroom were in use so we found a nearby laundromat and got it done. I made a nice breakfast for lunch when we returned.
I have been irritated with slow internet access on the computer lately and something trying to access the internet at random times. So I dug out a note about some anti-virus software from Microsoft and downloaded it. I ran a quick scan and no problems were found. So I decided to run a full scan. 2 hours and over a million files later, the software found one bad file which Norton had already quarantined. When I got on the internet later, I still had delays while a lot of files were downloading (who knows what they were) so don’t know what the next step is.
We made a trip to Trader Joe’s to buy some inexpensive wine, sat outside for a while, barbequed dinner and watched TV.

Sept 14th - Mon - to Bernalillo NM
Didn’t need to get an early start today as we only had about 45 miles to go. We were still plenty early and saw a casino so decided to stop. Terry got $5 free play and I got $3 - whoopee!! But I managed to turn my $3 into $20 and covered Terry’s losses. The bad thing is, they gave us another scratch ticket for more free play after 24 hours - but you can’t scratch it until you go there.
We are staying at the Coronado Campground where we stayed in April after the RV rally. Terry has had a toothache for a couple of days so I tried to find a dentist online- no luck. So we went for a drive and found one dental office nearby who could not fit him in. Terry is a real wimp when it comes to dentists so he said he would be OK. When we started driving, we went through a really heavy rain and hail storm. On the way back, we waded through puddles at WalMart and then came back to the RV park where residents were discussing the storm and skirting huge puddles. After dinner, we chatted with a neighbor who introduced us to another neighbor who could make a sign for us. We continued on our way and it took us over an hour to walk around the small park as we stopped and chatted with 2 more couples.

Sept 15th - Tues - Bernalillo
We visited Mike to work out details for the sign that he was going to paint for us and then left to go to the State Fair in Albuquerque. I remembered the correct freeway exit from our visit here in April so we had no problem finding the parking for the fair.
We walked and walked and walked. Started with a funnel cake for breakfast, checked out all the vendors giving their spiels and wandered through a few other buildings. Watched an aerial act including sway poles, motorcycle on a high wire and a rotating cage. We started in the grandstand but moved to some shade - it was hot! Stayed in shade again for a cute performing pig show. Tried Indian fry bread (taco & hamburger) for lunch (so-so), spent time in the arts building and called it a day at the fair.
But the day was not over so we continued south on I25 to the Isleta Casino. We each got a player’s card with $25 in free play but their computers were down so we could not use it right away. We played with our “allowance” but it was sometimes quite frustrating. Because of the computer problem, sometimes when you would try to cash out of a machine it would put up a message requiring manual payout. Then you would have to wait for an employee who would write down the info and then have to go get the money. Because this was happening all over the casino, you would have to wait a long time to get your money. Luckily it did not happen every time and, also luckily, I was winning a bit.
Finally the computers came up so we HAD to stay to play our $25 and wait for a cash drawing (didn’t win!). We did walk out winners this time. We stopped at McDonalds (at 10:15!) on the way back.
When we got back, our new sign was waiting on our doorstep. It is great! It will be attached to the ladder on the 5th wheel and says “Little House on the Chevy”.

Sept 16th - Wed - Bernalillo
Wonderful day today! I made jelly biscuits and shared with the couple who made our sign. Then we went to the casino that we visited on the trip here to see how much free play that we would get on the second of our scratch tickets. Didn’t take long for Terry to use his $10 and me to lose my $20.
From there we went slightly further north on I25 and turned east on Hwy 22 to reach Hwy 14 (Turquoise Trail). Hwy 22 included 11 miles of dirt road that was in good shape considering the rains lately. A few miles north on the Turquoise Trail took us to Madrid which is a fun little town with lots of shops lining the main street. I had picked out the store Weasel & Fitz from a brochure so we visited it first. It was the neatest shop featuring the works of several artists who recycle material for their incredibly imaginative artwork. Paintbrushes, chopsticks, silverware, coffee pots, army helmets, used tires and assorted kitchen utensils were all turned into wonderful art.
We wandered down the main street and stopped at several stores - one had the largest selection of silver and gem jewelry that I have seen in one small store and another had amazing huge light fixtures with blown glass shades. The recycled theme was seen in other stores.
Then we continued south on 14 and stopped for a good lunch in San Antonito. This is where the road forks to Sandia Peak which was our destination. A couple of miles from the junction, we stopped at an attraction called Tinkertown. It is a quirky “museum” that is the life work of a man who made a miniature town, mostly by carving and building everything from wood. It is housed in buildings that are made from bottles set in mortar - one side shows the flat bottoms and the other has the necks of all lengths. He also built a complete miniature circus with moving performers. Other miscellaneous collections are also housed in the museum as well as a gift shop with as many different items as the museum.
From there the road winds for 11 miles and climbs to a viewpoint at 10,748 feet. It was cold (50 degrees so luckily we had jackets in the truck) and windy. There was a storm moving in so pictures were not wonderful but the view was. You can see all of Albuquerque and a valley on the other side. We didn’t tarry long.
We had passed a sign for a different route back and decided to take it even though the map indicated another unpaved road. Even the warning sign for 8.5 miles of unimproved road did not stop us. We descended in fewer miles than we ascended so it was steep, very windy and very narrow - but fun and took us right into Bernalillo where we are staying.
The storm that we saw from the mountain top moved in so we retired for the evening.