Post by dong on Nov 30, 2020 12:59:48 GMT -5
So as discussed above, went to New Mexico last week. Packed up and drove to La Junta, Colorado on Tuesday. Took us about 13 hours or so with stops and whatnot for the kids and food. Hotel was fine. Comfort Inn maybe? Something like that. Checked in online so literally didn't see another person at the hotel.
Got up Wednesday morning. Kids were all excited because they thought we were in the mountains. We weren't. Didn't look like anything was around. Drove out of town and went about 5 miles and then boom, in the Rockies. Pretty cool, kids were pumped to see mountains and whatnot, taking pics with their tablets. The drive down to NM was incredible. Literally stretches of 20-30 miles where you didn't see a single building, just wide open spaces, mesas, etc. Highly recommend.
Arrived in Las Vegas, NM, around noon, and met up with my SIL who was going to guide us to their place. We knew that they lived "in a canyon" but didn't fully appreciate what that entailed. Followed her for about 2 miles and then got to the top of a hill and then, the road turned 90 degrees to the right because there was about a 400 foot high cliff. Drove down the cliff face and then entered the valley. Apparently it's a huge cattle ranch but my BIL is renting one of the old cattlehands houses. Very cool, surrounded again by mesas and mountains.
They have an RV so that's where my family set up shop for the weekend. Zero cell phone signal because of the remoteness but the cattle ranch is wired for fiber optic internet and he had all of the buildings on the network so that was nice. Overall, kids just played outside the whole time and we relaxed. Read some books, watched some football, ate some good food, had a couple beers.
Packed up Friday night around supper and hit the road. Drove overnight. We were in New Mexico at sundown and back in Iowa by sunrise. Kids slept pretty good in the car. Didn't do anything else the rest of the weekend except I got out on the roof and put up our outdoor Christmas lights yesterday.
Overall, good trip, kids had a blast, would do again. In non pandemic times we would probably stay a bit longer and venture out more but this suited us pretty well.
Got up Wednesday morning. Kids were all excited because they thought we were in the mountains. We weren't. Didn't look like anything was around. Drove out of town and went about 5 miles and then boom, in the Rockies. Pretty cool, kids were pumped to see mountains and whatnot, taking pics with their tablets. The drive down to NM was incredible. Literally stretches of 20-30 miles where you didn't see a single building, just wide open spaces, mesas, etc. Highly recommend.
Arrived in Las Vegas, NM, around noon, and met up with my SIL who was going to guide us to their place. We knew that they lived "in a canyon" but didn't fully appreciate what that entailed. Followed her for about 2 miles and then got to the top of a hill and then, the road turned 90 degrees to the right because there was about a 400 foot high cliff. Drove down the cliff face and then entered the valley. Apparently it's a huge cattle ranch but my BIL is renting one of the old cattlehands houses. Very cool, surrounded again by mesas and mountains.
They have an RV so that's where my family set up shop for the weekend. Zero cell phone signal because of the remoteness but the cattle ranch is wired for fiber optic internet and he had all of the buildings on the network so that was nice. Overall, kids just played outside the whole time and we relaxed. Read some books, watched some football, ate some good food, had a couple beers.
Packed up Friday night around supper and hit the road. Drove overnight. We were in New Mexico at sundown and back in Iowa by sunrise. Kids slept pretty good in the car. Didn't do anything else the rest of the weekend except I got out on the roof and put up our outdoor Christmas lights yesterday.
Overall, good trip, kids had a blast, would do again. In non pandemic times we would probably stay a bit longer and venture out more but this suited us pretty well.
