We enjoyed a fairly pleasant journey from Grants to Santa Fe; the temps warmed up quickly and soon any evidence of the previous day's snow was gone except for what we could see in the distance on the mountain tops.

Coming into Albuquerque, NM

Crossing the Rio Grande!

Looking toward Santa Fe

Scene on 4/4/12--all the snow had melted away by the next day!

Only one incident marred the 4 hour trek--a semi passing us kicked up a road rock and chipped our windshield.  #$#%!&!$  Once we set up in the Santa Fe Skies RV park, Corky called SafeLite Glass Repair and was pleased to find that our insurance will cover the repair totally.  We will stop at their shop in Pueblo, CO on Friday on our way north to have the windshield repaired.

Here are a few pics of some of Santa Fe's attractions:

Plastic rosaries hang from the tree's branches

This stairway has no supports.  It was originally constructed without  railings.   The story goes that the chapel was built with no good access to choir loft; nuns prayed for someone to help them build stairs/ladder; a carpenter arrived and set to work building the spiral staircase, then disappeared without asking for payment for his craft or his materials--the nuns believe it was St. Joseph himself!

This National Historic Landmark is the Palace of the Governors--built in the 17th century!  It is one of the few original adobe structures in Santa Fe,  Native American artisans exhibit and sell their works of art beneath the Palace portal. 

Adobe bricks along the left side of this structure

This generations' old mud/straw house must be recoated every 3 to 5 years.  Updated on the inside, the owners have promised grandparents to maintain the original adobe exterior and to NEVER stucco over the adobe walls.   

St. Miguel's Mission, the oldest church in the USA, built in 1610

Sculpture greets visitors to Museum Hill

Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi

State Capitol building

We plan to head out tomorrow for Colorado, making a stop in Pueblo for glass repair (and to pick up government documents--remember those advertisements!   HA, HA).  Depending on how long it takes to complete the work, we'll probably continue to Colorado Springs for our overnight stay.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Don't forget to nuke your PEEPS!!  (Watch a PEEP Chick GROW into BIG BIRD--10 sec. in the microwave)  Simple pleasures!

Well, I think our traveling ghost is back!  Or our coach is trying to tell us that it DOES NOT LIKE COLD TEMPERATURES!!!!!   What happened you ask?  Nothing drastic, just annoying little occurrences.

We prefer to take our chances on places to overnight; we usually start an internet search for appropriate parks on the fly.  This was the case yesterday--I found several parks in Grants, NM, one of which had received lots of good reviews and was a 2011 KOA award winner.  Sounded like a safe bet.

The check-in process went smoothly although rather pricey, we were guided to our site (a nice long 80 footer), and we began to set up.  First issue:  the coach requires 50 amp electric service to run all our utilities safely; the KOA electric post would not provide 50 amp, the best we could get was 30 amp (which is usually adequate unless you are running A/C or electric heater, toaster, microwave, hair dryer).  So, okay, we'll use their dinner take-out service for dinner rather than running high-voltage appliances during the cooking process.

We order their pot roast dinner @ $11/each; it arrives on time, nice and hot, but very meager  portion for the price.  After we eat we settle into watching a little TV until bed time when Corky remembers that he needs to unhook our water supply because the temperatures were supposed to drop to 30 degrees and he did not want to freeze our water lines.  Chore done; off to bed.

But nooooooo! That's not to happen.  For some reason the breaker switch on the coach tripped.  Why???  We have no clue--the only appliances running were the TVs & computers (only pulling about 20 amps).  Reset breaker.    Back to bed.

But noooooo!  For the 1/2 hour or so, we battled the CO2 alarm that insisted on screeching every 5 minutes or so.  (This has happened before whenever I apply my fragrances--I'm rather insulted actually that an appliance voices its opinion on my aroma!)  Our first solution to that prolem was to set our little fan on the floor by the alarm to move the air around--didn't work!

Next solution: open the kitchen ceiling fan slightly and run both fans simultaneously.   That seemed to solve the problem except now we were drawing in COLD air from the ceiling fan and having to run our propane heater to stay comfy over night.  What's wrong with that picture!!!

So either the ghost is back or the coach is trying to tell us something!

We are going to try the KOA's complimentary continental breakfast this morning--it'll probably be COLD cereal!   Oh, I guess I'd better start wearing my rose colored glasses for a while.

Later.

We left Fort McDowell, AZ about 10 a.m. and headed north along Arizona SR 87 toward Payson; then northeast to Holbrook where we picked up I-40 east into New Mexico. We ended our day in Grants, New Mexico at a KOA.  We encountered just a bit of rain during the afternoon, however, we heard on the TV news reports that Albuquerque folks (just about 70 miles from Grants) woke to a few inches of wet snow this morning.  The forecast is for warmer temps tomorrow, so the roads should be clear for our trek through Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

I'll post some photos that will give you some idea of the change in landscape as we leave Arizona and move northward.

Sonoran desert Saguaro cacti are plentiful just north of Phoenix

The higher we climbed the vegetation changed as did the temps

We saw a little bit of snow hiding among the Pines

We crossed the state line into New Mexico

Power lines are such a blight on the landscape

The lava formations surrounded the KOA in Grants, NM

A beautiful sign of spring!

We plan to go to Santa Fe tomorrow and may stay for a couple of days to do a little touristing.  

Will tell you about that later.  Good night!

Winter is officially over now and it's time for us to leave the warm Arizona sunshine and head north; hopefully the northern winter's chill will have been replaced by spring's warm breezes by the time we get to Detroit Lakes.   Many of the Park's winter residents have already returned to their permanent homes.  On April 1 the Park was beginning to get that "ghost town look."

Not many coaches left in the Park

Before leaving though, we enjoyed a dinner with our RV friends from Wisconsin, Jan & Del Pigg.  Jan & Del are veteran RVers and have provided us with invaluable tips on the lifestyle, places to visit and appropriate campgrounds.  In addition, their mini poodle Rusty and our pooches Gus and Woody have become great pals, often romping together at one of the community's Bark Parks.    We look forward to seeing them again next year at Palm Creek.

Jan & Del Pigg with Rusty

We also spent our last Saturday afternoon with Steve, Kimm, Haley & Jenna.  After enjoying a scrumptious meal that Kimm prepared, we watched some of the semi-final NCAA games. During the afternoon, Haley honed some of her sharp shooting skills.  She's got quite the eagle eye!

And Jenna did a bit of flirting with her colorful butterfly mask!

We headed out on Monday April 2 making a stop at a Freightliner Service Center for an oil change on the coach.  The process went quite smoothly; we spent the service time at Steve's & Kimm's having lunch and watching a rather unusual movie, entitled "Inception" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  We were not impressed--lots of special effects; very strange plot.

Anyway, we were on our way north by 4 p.m.  Because we were making stops for service during the day, we drove our vehicles separately.  Here are a few pics of the coach that I took on our way to the Eagle View RV Park north of Phoenix.

Yikes!  Diesel fuel costs $4.45+ here!

View from our site at the Eagle View RV Park, Fort McDowell, AZ

Tomorrow we head for New Mexico--the evening weather forecasters say snow is coming!  Oh boy!

More later.