Category: grandwesternloop
Nomadiversary Number Three

Nomadiversary Number Three

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Hey Guys!! It’s that time again! Today is our three year nomadiversary!! Three years!! It’s hard to believe we’ve been on this nomadic adventure since 2015. We’ve had quite the year. I thought I’d take you through the highlights and some lowlights of our year.

We started our third year out in Michigan and found out how awesome Michigan really is. None of us were ready to leave and all of us have spoken often of returning. We went in the wrong season…it was bitterly cold for most of our visit, but that didn’t deter us from enjoying the sights and foodies.

Kentucky will always hold a special place in our hearts. We loved the rolling hills of horse pastures, the many distilleries, and the bourbon balls. If I’m being totally honest, I might have a slight obsession with bourbon balls. One of our favorite distilleries to visit is the Woodford Reserve Distillery. The setting, the tour, the chocolate… It has the trifecta of tours!

Tennessee is another state that had a good vibe for us. Nicholas was a willing mural model while we hunted down the many murals that can be found in Nashville.

We also found the foodie scene to be filled with ah-mazing foodies. We still dream of Pepperfire Chicken’s Nashville Hot Chicken.

When in Memphis…you eat BBQ, BBQ, and more BBQ! And that’s exactly what we did! We had BBQ for every meal we could and still don’t feel like we got a sampling of everything the area has to offer.

We have mixed feelings about Memphis. On one hand you’ve got Elvis, Beal St., and BBQ, but on the other hand…we saw so much poverty and homelessness and rough rundown neighborhoods. We weren’t as at ease in Memphis. That kind of takes away some of the sparkle from the experience. We’re glad we went! But, I’m not sure we’ll go back.

Oh, Arkansas…we learned all about chigger nests while we were hiking through Hot Springs National Park. Well, let me clarify that statement…the boys learned all about chigger nests…Jerl and I already knew about them. Somehow, Jerl was the only one unscathed by the massive amount of chiggers we found. The rest of us spent weeks itching all over. Weeks…

We also learned all about the Little Rock Nine and what they went through. If you ever get the chance to visit this National Historic Site, do. It will change you.

I can’t do a review of our third year without mentioning the eclipse! This is an experience we will all be talking about the rest of our lives. We couldn’t have picked a better place to experience this eclipse. The place, the people…and the weather all made it the awesome memory we hold in our hearts.

We found one of our favorite places in Texas this year. Palo Duro State Park just south of Amarillo will take your breath away! We spent several days exploring as much as we could of the “Grand Canyon of Texas” and still didn’t see everything we wanted to.

We got to hike up to the top of Texas on Thanksgiving Day while visiting Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This NPS unit is out in the middle of nowhere and took us over an hour to drive there, but it was worth it. It was a Thanksgiving we will never forget!

We’d been to New Mexico before. We spent several weeks exploring New Mexico back in 2015, but we found new places to explore. Carlsbad Caverns National Park was a pleasant surprise for us. Not only did we thoroughly enjoy Carlsbad, NM…we also loved Carlsbad Caverns NP! If you go prepare to spend the entire day and don’t dismiss the hiking trails above ground.

Sitting Bull Falls National Recreation Area was definitely worth the drive. The falls themselves aren’t really anything to write home about, but the area around the falls was so fun to explore. We spent quite a bit of time picking our way around the pools and rocks at the base of the falls.

New Mexico is on our top five list of states. If I’m being honest, it’s probably in the second spot just behind Alaska. We learned that not all forts have high walls while visiting Fort Union National Monument. That was new for us. All of the other forts we’ve ever visited have been enclosed in high defensible walls so it was very interesting to learn about Fort Union and the role it’s had over the years. We also got to walk on part of the Santa Fe Trail there!

Arizona taught us that we can’t get enough of those red rocks. We could easily spend a season exploring all of the trails in and around Sedona, AZ. It’s something we’re seriously considering…to spend an entire season or two in the Sedona area.

Arizona is also on our top five. The sunsets there are epic. I have to many sunset pics from Arizona and they’re all just as amazing as the one above.

I can’t talk about Arizona and leave out Lost Dutchman State Park. We were able to stay there back in 2015 and again in 2017 during our third year of nomadic travel. Both times have left us wanting more.

While we won’t get to officially add California to our map until June, we’ve been in California for a solid month now. We’ve experienced an earthquake and survived the Santa Ana Winds in an RV. We learned quite a bit about some of the different kinds of palm trees and yuccas while in the Desert Hot Springs area.

We learned about being flexible with our schedule this year. Jerl had to have two eye surgeries and our home-on-wheels needed a new engine so our plans changed quite a bit over our third year.

We didn’t travel as much as we wanted to during our third year, but it is what it is. Life happens and all you can do is make the best of it. We ended up driveway camping at my (Jennie’s) parent’s house for 25 weeks this year, which means we only traveled 27 weeks in total. I feel like we still got quite a bit of exploring done though.

Annnddd…our toad decided to take a joy ride and race us down the highway. We learned sooo much from that experience. We now lock any pin that could be tampered with/bounce loose/fall out. We do not want to have to experience this lesson again. It was nerve-wracking enough the first (and hopefully only) time.

Life is about the little things…all of the little moments that make up the journey. The biggest lesson we learned this year is that life on the road isn’t always easy. It’s not always fun and games and exploring, but like any lifestyle…you have to decide if it’s worth it. For us, right now, it’s still worth it. We still enjoy living in our home-on-wheels and traveling the country like the crazy nomad family that we are.

Thanks for being apart of our journey!

See y’all down the road!

Mad Dash To Missouri

Mad Dash To Missouri

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Hey Guys!! Are you ready for more of the story?

It took us three days to drive the 1,400 miles or so to get back to Missouri. We were in sunny and warm Arizona when we started out. We said goodbye to Lost Dutchman State Park early Friday and took off for Las Cruces, NM. Now, there are three ways to get from Phoenix to Las Cruces. One path goes up and over and takes you up the steep Colorado Plateau, one path takes you straight east through Globe, NM and some steep grade mountain passes and the other path takes you down to Tucson and then over.

We chose the down and around route to avoid the steep grades since our engine was acting up. We ended up at the Hacienda RV Resort the first night after a fairly uneventful day. We’ve stayed at…I don’t know…close to 100 RV parks and this was the first one to give us treats for our cats! I thought it was super cute and the cats appreciated the treat. I don’t know how the RV park is other than the treats. We got in right before they closed and we left before anyone was in the office the next day.

We started out even earlier on day two. We had a long day ahead of us and there would be some elevation gain that would slow us down. Our route took us through El Paso. You’re looking at Mexico in the picture above on the left. We’ve heard a lot of…not so great…things about El Paso. We didn’t stop. We just drove on through. It’s a big city and took forever to get through, but we made it with no issues. The engine was behaving.

We got to our RV Park in Abilene pretty late that night. It was so dark on the road we weren’t really sure we were in the right spot at first. Thank goodness the office had the forethought to put us in an easy in and out spot. It was dark when we got there and dark when we left.

We woke up to ice on day three. We’ve driven in a blizzard, we’ve driven in wind storms, and torrential rain…but, Guys…driving on a sheet of ice was a whole new ball game.

We crept along at around 20mph and noticed our windshield wipers were freezing up so we thought we’d be smart…and safe…and stop at a gas station to recoup and fix a few things. We didn’t know we were driving onto a thick sheet of ice until it was too late. Our only course of action was to go with it and try not to run into anything. We slid past the gas tanks with the cars…we slid past the propane fill up…and somehow we got stopped without hitting anything. I think Jerl and I were in shock at this point and  sat wondering how the heck we were going to get out of the ice covered parking lot. The only out we had a chance at making it to was the one in the pic above and we watched car after car slip and slide up and down it. My (Jennie’s) dad had the idea to use cat litter to get enough traction to get out. Luckily, the gas station had one bag of it left. It worked and we made it out of the parking lot an hour and a few heart-attacks later.

It took us four hours to go 90 miles that morning.

We made it though. It took us 15 hours that third day to make it to Missouri, but we made it safely. It was the most stressful day of driving we’ve had in the three years we’ve been nomads…I’m getting all stressed out again just thinking about that day.

I’ll leave y’all here and next week I’ll give you all the updates and the plans for the rest of the year!

See y’all down the road!

#itsnotallfunandgames

Phoenix Fiasco

Phoenix Fiasco

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Hey Guys! Let’s see…where did I leave you hanging?

Let’s recap just a bit… It was Tuesday and we were in one of our favorite RV parks in the Sedona area soaking up that awesome Sedona vibe, trying to figure out what was wrong with the engine of our home-on-wheels when a dealership in Phoenix called us back. If we got there that day they could get us in. Well, sweet chickens! Let’s get going! We let the office know of our early departure (no refund…we were paid up to Saturday) and we took off trying to get to Phoenix before the RV guy at the dealership left for the day.

We made it to the dealership where the RV guy listened to our engine and proclaimed he didn’t really know what was wrong with it, but that we were going to need a brand new engine. Hmmm…what? Oh, and they couldn’t even start working us in until after the first of the year. And, the RV guy made it seem like our engine was on it’s last leg. This was very new news to us since the other two dealerships we’d had it at couldn’t really find anything wrong and told us it wouldn’t hurt to keep driving.

It was Dec 19th (a Tuesday) in southern Arizona and our reservations at Lost Dutchman State Park didn’t start until that Saturday the 23rd. Well, what the hay-diddly were we going to do? Have y’all ever tried to get last minute reservations in the middle of the winter in southern Arizona? It’s nearly impossible if you’re not 55+ and you have kiddos. We called over to Lost Dutchman SP and miraculously found spots for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, you can’t reserve a spot for the same day…it’s first come…but we were told there were six available spots if we could get there. We didn’t really have a choice…we didn’t feel safe sitting in the dealership parking lot.

We chanced it. Worst case scenario we would have to dry camp for a night in one of our favorite state parks. It took us close to 2 hours to go the 46 miles from the dealership to Lost Dutchman SP.

When we got there the park office was already closed and it was getting dark. Luckily, we’d been there before and we knew our way around. Arizona gave us a pretty spectacular sunset as we were searching for a spot for the night.

We woke up in our favorite spot in Lost Dutchman. It was such a welcome sight! We’d been able to make reservations for the rest of the week until our original reservations would kick in, but we were going to have to move pretty much daily. It was going to be a week of site hopping. But, hey…at least we had a place! It could definitely have been worse. We headed up to the Ranger’s station to try and figure out what we were going to do for the three days that we needed to gap from when our reservations would run out and we could get into the dealership to get the work done. Guys, these Rangers and Volunteers were amazing. They bent over backwards trying to figure something…anything out for us and it worked. They pieced together places so that we would have someplace to stay through the end of the year.

We spent the first week spot hopping. It became a routine to get up and start watching for the people in our new spot to leave so we could move. Most days we were just a few spots over.

Let’s be totally honest here, there are no bad views at Lost Dutchman State Park. I mean, look at that view? How could anyone be in a bad mood with that view out their window? Plus the weather was ah-mazing! It was mid 70s during the day and low 50s at night. I could think of worse places to unexpectedly be stuck.

And…all of the moving made utilizing the dump station easier. The only downside to Lost Dutchman SP is that there aren’t any full hookup sites. But, geez, with those views…who cares.

It was the week before Christmas so we put engine issues on the side burner and started on our Christmas traditions. One of our traditions is to have tamales for our Christmas dinner. Some years it’s a challenge to find tamales, but this year we hit the jackpot! We ended up at a place called Old El Paso Tamales and Guys…they were soooo good!

We were able to sneak in a visit to a National Monument while we were in the Phoenix area. Casa Grande National Monument is preserving what remains of an ancient Hohokam (ho ho KAHM) farming village. Casa Grande (“Great House”) is one of the most prominent examples of the Ancestral People’s society.

In 1932 a steel and concrete canopy was built to protect Casa Grande from the harsh Arizona environment. At one time this Great House was four stories high and sixty feet long. This site is the largest known structure left by the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. The builders of this Great House were very in tune with the sky. The walls face the four cardinal points of the compass and there are holes in the walls that align with the sun/moon at different times of the day/year. It took 3,000 tons of a concrete like mixture of sand, clay, and limestone to complete Casa Grande in 1350. We learned a lot at this National Monument and met another traveling family from Hawaii! Meeting other travel families is always fun!

We made it back to Burger House in Miami, AZ!! We drove 45 mins one way just to eat a Green Mix Burro Enchilada Style. I got one to eat there and one to take home. Yum!! If it’s possible my take home burro was even better!

Meanwhile, Arizona was showing off with all of the gorgeous sunsets.

We made it through our week of musical spots and settled into our original reservation spot. It was really nice to be able to stay put for longer than two days. Between all of the moving around, Christmas prep, and Casa Grande we only made it out to the trails once.

We hiked a portion of the Siphon Draw Trail one afternoon. I really enjoy this trail, but can’t work up the nerve to go all the way to the top of it. We’ve heard it takes about six hours to go all the way to the top and back. Now, y’all know we don’t shy away from a hiking challenge…the Guadalupe Peak and Harding Ice Field hikes are proof of that…but this trail has tons of loose gravel once it reaches a certain point. It’s at this point that I turn around. I stood there…at my turn around point…and watched countless people slip and slide and fall and I totally chickened out. Again. It’s hard enough to hike on loose rock as it is, but I’m carrying my camera in one hand so that only leaves me one hand to balance, catch myself, and climb. I’m looking into a solution to this. I’m determined to reach the top of Siphon Draw one day.

Until then, I’ll just soak up the views and the sun as much as I can! I’m always amazed at how green the Sonoran desert is. One day I’ll make it to the Sonoran desert during the spring so I can see all of the cactus flowers! I’ve heard it’s spectacular!

Let’s talk foodies! We ate at a few new places, the two worth mentioning are both called Taquitos Jalisco. No joke. We were at an office store getting my calendar printed out and asked someone where some good Mexican food could be found. She pointed us to Taquitos Jalisco. Problem was…there were two and we weren’t really sure which one she meant. So, of course, we had to try both! Guys, both places were so good! Very different from one another, but both very good! We will definitely hit both again next time we get back to the area!

Y’all might remember that Jerl had to have eye surgery back in late September 2017. Well, it was time for another post-op eye check and we coordinated with his eye doc (Dr. Benedett) to find someone to do the exam in the Phoenix area. We love Dr. Benedett, by-the-way.  December 28th we headed to Jerl’s check-up and found out that his retina was re-detaching. We didn’t really go into panic mode until the young doctor we were seeing started giving us conflicting information. That worried us. A lot. He couldn’t even tell us if Jerl would be under general anesthesia or local anesthesia during the process.

We spent the afternoon talking about all of our options. There weren’t really that many. I jumped online and tried to find an RV park that we would be able to stay at for 2 months in the Phoenix area and guess what…nadda. As good as the Ranger’s at Lost Dutchman are, there were no available spots. Not even for one night after our reservations ended. For several reasons we decided to chance a 1,425 mile dash back to Missouri on an engine that was acting up and through winter weather to get back to Dr. Benedett. Yup, he’s that good.

In the next post I’ll fill y’all in about our mad dash to Missouri and give you an update on Jerl’s eye and the RV engine.

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

Sedona Take Two

Sedona Take Two

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Hey Guys!! From Santa Fe we headed to the Sedona, AZ area where we were supposed to spend two glorious weeks hiking, hiking, and hiking some more. It didn’t quite work out that way…well, I’ll explain all of that later.

Excuse the poor quality of the top picture. Between the dirty windshield and the sun right in my face…this is as good as I could get from my phone. So! When you go to Sedona from the north you have to make your way down from the Colorado Plateau that northern Arizona sits on. This makes for a hair raising…sometimes white knuckled, puckery trip as you make your way down 18 full miles of lots and lots of down. It’s not a steep grade. I don’t think it ever goes above 7%…it’s just that it’s 18 miles of it and you have to watch out that you don’t burn up your breaks before you get down to the bottom. Fortunately for those whose breaks don’t hold up, the builders of this road put in several runaway truck ramps along with just as many pull-offs so over heated breaks can cool off before continuing on. You have to be smart when driving a big rig down this portion of the highway and if it’s your first time, I would suggest you do it during the daylight hours.

Don’t worry though, we made it to our RV park and into our spot with no troubles! One of our favorite things about our life is all the people we get to meet. We met a couple from Montana (one of our neighbors) who quickly became friends. It’s always fun to meet back up with friends we make in our travels.

We spent most of Sunday going to Jerome. Jerome has some amazing views from it’s perch on the side of Cleopatra Hill where it overlooks the Verde Valley. Originally a copper mining town, Jerome has faced some pretty big disasters and today is said to be very haunted with a local myth about lost gold in the nearby Sycamore Canyon. There are still remnants of Jerome’s colorful past scattered throughout town. Apparently, it was a really rough and dangerous place to live at one time.

We went for the views…and the burgers. The first time we were in the Sedona area we drove up to Jerome in hopes of eating at The Haunted Hamburger, but we couldn’t find a single place to park. Anywhere! So, we turned around and headed on. This time, we got there earlier and found a spot not too far from our destination. To be totally honest, we weren’t overly impressed with the burgers here. They were just kind of ok for us and the prices…we don’t mind paying for a good meal, but if I’m paying $15 for a burger…it had better be one of the best burgers I’ve ever had in my life! The view from our table was awesome though! And…according to their story, the place really is haunted! We didn’t have any paranormal experiences while we were there, but it made for some fun conversation while we waited for our food.

The boys have been talking about Bell Rock since we were there back in 2015. It’s a fun place to do some rock scrambling and see how far up the rock formation you can make it. Personally, I like to go up part way then find a spot to sit and relax and just take in the epic view of all of those red rocks.

One of the reasons we have the tow vehicle we have is so we can venture down roads like the one in the picture above. We really loved the Devil’s Bridge hike the first time we were in the area and decided to tackle it again. The hardest part about this hike (and possibly the best part for Jerl since he gets to do some 4x4ing) is getting to the official trail head. For those that don’t have the right kind of vehicle, there’s a parking lot you can park in that adds about 2 miles to your hike.

The trail isn’t one of those smooth, flat, well maintained trails…it’s very much a wilderness type of trail where you have to watch where you’re walking. There’s quite a bit of up with this trail, but none of it is terribly hard. There are a few places that can be a challenge for people with short legs.

Devil’s Bridge is a great TAB (there and back) trail that ends up being around a mile and a half if you can drive to the official trail head. It’s a popular trail so be prepared to share the trail and take turns at the bridge for pictures.

The only other trail we had time for was the West Fork Oak Creek Trail. This is another TAB trail and runs about 4 miles one way. Oh, and you cross Oak Creek 13 times…one way…so that makes 26 chances to fall into the creek. The boys were thrilled at the prospect of “accidentally” falling in. Ha! At the beginning of the trail you can explore a few old structures left over from days gone by when there was a small log cabin back in the 1860s which later became Mayhew Lodge in the 1920s.

All four of the boys had to smell the ponderosa trees. A ponderosa is a type of pine tree and if you’ve never stopped to smell one…well, you’re definitely missing out. We’ve smelled vanilla, butterscotch, toasted marshmallow…it mainly depends on the age of the tree and the smell can even change a bit with the season. Try it next time you see one!

The morning we hiked the West Fork trail it was a chilly 30° and the creek was mostly frozen over so we had to plan out our creek crossings. The ice made the rocks especially treacherous so we took our time at each crossing.

For the most part, this trail was super easy! The only challenge to this trail were the creek crossings…and I’ll be honest, even those weren’t bad. West Fork Oak Creek Trail ended up being one of our favorite trails in the area. We’ve already talked about going back during warmer weather to hike it again. And if you’re wondering, only a couple of us fell in the creek…a few times…you’re going to have to guess who it was though. I’m not telling.

Let’s talk foodies! We found Hog Wild BBQ during our 2015 trip to the area. Places like this are why it’s so hard to pay the high price for an ok burger. (Top right picture) This was an awesome burger for half the price. Juanita’s Taqueria was a recommendation from someone who worked in the RV park. This place has the best shredded beef tacos we’ve ever had. (bottom left picture) We had plans to eat there again before we left the area, but a monkey wrench was thrown into our plans.

We started having engine troubles when we left Amarillo. We’d had our home-on-wheels to two different Ford dealerships and none of the techs could tell us really what was wrong, only that they weren’t big enough to work on an RV and to check with a different dealership. While we were in Sedona we ended up at a dealership in Cottonwood which led us to contacting a dealership in Phoenix. The dealership in Phoenix told us they were pretty busy and that it would be a week before we could get in…which was cool because we had about a week left in the Sedona area before heading to the Phoenix area for our next stop anyway.

Ready for the monkey wrench? The Phoenix dealership ended up calling us on Tuesday telling us if we could get our RV there that day they could get us in. Now, I should mention here that we’d been hearing horror stories of how long it can take to get stuff done at these dealerships… so we jumped at the chance to get our process going. We left the Sedona area (without a refund for the week we’d already paid for at the RV park) and headed to Phoenix. Guys, when we got there…the techs spent 20 minutes (maybe) guessing and then told us they couldn’t get us in until after the first of the year. That would be two weeks from then. So…we were stuck in southern Arizona during the winter snowbird rush without reservations.

I hate to leave you with a cliffhanger, but you’ll have to wait until the next post to see what happens since we’re into the Phoenix area post now.

I’ll leave you with this video of our Sedona adventures!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

New Mexico Foodies

New Mexico Foodies

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Hey Guys! I know what you’re thinking…a whole post just for foodies? But, y’all know we love our foodies! Our explorations are just as much about the foodies as they are the views, National & State Parks, and the hiking. Every new area has it’s specialty…certain things that you can only get there or that were started there.

For New Mexico, there are several foodies that you’ll want to seek out while visiting! New Mexican foodies aren’t really Mex, but they aren’t quite Tex either. They’re this happy little medium that usually looks like a plate of goop…but tastes very much like magic! There are six foodies that most people will agree are the quintessential New Mexican foodies, so let’s go through those first.

Before we jump into the foodies…let’s get one thing out of the way. In New Mexico…chilies reign supreme. In the grocery stores you’ll find them in these handy little tubs that are good for one meal. You can get them hot, medium, or mild. Fire roasted or not. Chopped, diced, or pureed. You definitely have options. My favorite (and the most cost effective) way is to get big 5 lb. bags of frozen chopped chilies then divvy them up into smaller one pound bags that I can pull from the freezer and throw into anything.

The most important question you’ll be asked in a New Mexican restaurant is if you want red or green. Until you’ve found your favorite, I’d suggest Christmas style. Half red and half green!

On to the Foodies! I’ll start with the Green Chile Cheeseburger. You can easily find these all over New Mexico, but not all burgers are created equal. Any green chili cheeseburger we’ve had comes with a mound of green chilies and is covered in a white cheese. The easiest place to find them would be at a Blake’s Lotaburger. Blake’s is a fast-food place. Think Dairy Queen with a New Mexican twist. And while Blake’s isn’t our favorite, it’s where the locals go for a quick burger. After two tours through New Mexico we’ve found two places that we feel have the best all around green chili cheeseburger. We found Rockin BZ Burgers in Alamogordo our first time through NM and dreamed about them for two years before we could get back there. Rockin BZ still number one for us, but a close (and we mean a very close) second is Church Street Grill in Carlsbad. With these two places you’ll get the whole package. The chilies are hot, but not melt-your-face-off, the meat is good quality, the cheese has a nice mild flavor, and the buns hold up nicely. And then you’ve got a decent selection of really good sides.

Green Chile Stew is a New Mexican staple food. Every restaurant will have their own little twist on this dish, but they don’t usually stray too far from the simple dish of green chilies, pork, garlic, onions, and potatoes in a broth. It’s one of our favorite things to make at home so we don’t usually order it out. We’re kind of partial to our own recipe after two years of tweaking and getting it just right for our taste buds. I should say though…anytime we’ve ordered it out, the green chili stew is loaded with flavor and the meat is so tender it falls apart in your mouth!

Sopapillas are fried pockets of light airy dough! In New Mexico they’re served with the meal. You can eat them the way you’d eat a roll or save them for the end of the meal and have them with honey. Actually, if you get into some big time heat with your meal, this is a great way to help cut the heat.

One of my favorite ways to get a sopapilla is stuffed. It’s hard to see under that pile of cheese and chili sauce, but there’s a great big sopapilla on that plate stuffed with pork and green chilies, and more cheese. We’ve had some really good stuffed sopapillas! The Sopapilla Factory in Santa Fe and Sadie’s of New Mexico in Albuquerque are two of our favorites!

Breakfast Burritos are a staple in New Mexico. Pretty much every restaurant that sells breakfast has a breakfast burrito on the menu and we’ve never had one we didn’t like. The biggest decision you’ll have to make is if you want it dry or covered. Covered comes with the chili sauce of your choice (red or green) and cheese. Dry is…well, just like it sounds…more of a pick-it-up type of burrito. It’s rumored that the breakfast burrito started at a restaurant called Tia Sophias in Santa Fe back in the 70s. We’ve never had one there, but we have had lunch there and we highly recommend it for an authentic New Mexican meal!

Stacked Enchiladas are exactly what they sound like! Instead of rolled individually, the enchiladas are stacked on top of each other…kind of like an enchilada casserole. I was reluctant to try these. To me enchiladas are rolled up, sitting side by side, little tubes of awesome. But, I wanted the full New Mexican Foodie experience…so I broke down and tried them. And then I ordered them every chance I got. Yup, I’m a fan. My two favorite places to get this magical enchilada casserole-esque dish is at Casa De Suenos in Tularosa and at  Rancho De Chimayo in Chimayo. In forty-three states, I’ve only seen stacked enchiladas in New Mexico. Maybe I missed them somewhere? I don’t know, but I highly recommend giving them a chance!

Navajo Tacos are probably my favorite New Mexican foodie. I know, I know…it’s just a taco…but, y’all, it’s soooo much more than just a taco! First of all, it’s made on Navajo Indian fry bread. It’s the fry bread that totally makes this taco so amazing. Indian fry bread is similar to the sopapilla in that it’s a light airy bread, but that’s really where the similarity ends. Indian fry tends to have more of a chew and the outside is crisper! It really is perfection! There are variations to this, but usually you’ll find a Navajo Taco with ground beef, beans, green chili sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. My absolute favorite is from Twisters in Albuquerque, but the Sopapilla Factory in Santa Fe is a very close second!

So, those are your six main New Mexican Foodies, but they’re definitely not the only New Mexican Foodies!

They’re called rolled tacos…but they’re basically taquitos. A corn tortilla stuffed with a meat and then rolled and deep fried! Usually served with something to dip them in. This New Mexican Foodie is Nicholas’ favorite.

Sometimes you’ll find something special on the menu. It’s a burger, wrapped in a flour tortilla, and then deep fried. It’s the ultimate New Mexican hamburger! We’ve seen them dry (where you pick them up) and covered (fork and knife type of meal). You can’t go wrong either way!

In the more authentic restaurants, you’ll find your meal comes with a side of posole. You can see it in the picture above…it’s the white stuff. So, what the heck is posole? Well, posole is a traditional New Mexican stew made of hominy, pork, and spices. It’s usually very savory and filling. Any posole I’ve had has a bit of a kick to it and the hominy still has just the tiniest bit of chew left. It’s surprisingly good (I’m not usually a fan of hominy)!

If you’re in New Mexico…you have to try some biscochito cookies! They’re kind of cross between a shortbread cookie and a butter cookie spiced with cinnamon and anise.  They’re crispy and sweet and they are a really good way to help cut the heat of some of the food when you’re done with your spicy meal! And, if you need another excuse to try them…biscochitos are the New Mexican state cookie!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the spices and tortillarias in a post about New Mexican Foodies! There is a brand of spices called Chimayo Traditions that I absolutely love! They’ve got some great mixes with recipes on the back like the one in the pic above, but they’ve also got my favorite chile powder! I stock up and horde it to make it stretch out. If you’ve found this brand somewhere besides New Mexico…please tell me where! We can eat ourselves silly on fresh tortillas and chips from the tortillarias! We always take the opportunity to have some with our favorite home cooked meals!

OK, Guys…that’s all I’ve got for you on New Mexican Foodies! Hopefully, I’ve inspired you to take a trip to New Mexico or try your hand at making something new at home. Get out there and try some new foodies!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

Santa Fe Area

Santa Fe Area

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Hey Guys! We spent one week in the Santa Fe area trying to hit everything we missed last time and revisit a few of our favorites.

The first thing we did was hit one of our very favorite pizza places. Back Road Pizza. We’ve been talking about this pizza since we discovered it two years ago! The New Mexican pizza is probably our all time favorite.

We also managed to hit three National Park Units! It’s amazing how many NPS Units are in this area!

The Pecos National Historical Park preserves two Pecos Pueblo ruins along with old church ruins. Most of the pueblo ruins looked like the pic above. Not much was left. Around 2/3 of the South Pueblo ruins remain in an unexcavated mound. I wanted to include a picture of this sign to give y’all an idea of what one of these pueblos used to look like. Pecos, at its peak, was a trading place for the Plains Apaches and would have been home to around 2,000 people.

We saw several Kivas. I think I saw that there are 20 kivas at the Pecos Pueblo. You can see the remains of one in the pic above. (top right picture) During the Fall of 1540, the Pecos’ lives would be changed forever when a Spanish expedition claimed the land for their king and demanded the Pecos become Christians. The first mission built was finished in 1625. It’s estimated that the builders used around 300,000 forty-pound adobe bricks to complete the 1625 mission. This first mission functioned for 55 years but burned during a rebellion in 1680. The Pecos people tied a certain number of knots in ropes and handed them out to everyone. Each day they would untie one knot. When the last knot was untied, the rebellion started. The second mission was finished in 1717. By 1821 Pecos was almost a ghost town and in 1838 the last inhabitants left the pueblo to join their relatives at the Jemez Pueblo eighty miles away.

Fort Union National Monument protects what’s left of the three forts once built here. When the US acquired the New Mexico Territory at the end of the Mexican-American War, Fort Union was built to guard and aid in the American expansion into the Southwest.

Fort Union was positioned where the Santa Fe Trail’s two main branches met. Some years over 3,000 wagons made a trip up or down the Santa Fe Trail’s 900 miles. For many, Fort Union was the end of a long 800 mile journey through the Great Plains under constant threat of attack. At Fort Union there was someone on watch at all hours for incoming riders/wagon trains on the trail. When riders or wagon trains were spotted Fort riders were sent out to get everything organized and into a single file line by the time they reached the Fort. So, what was a trail wide enough that it would allow up to four wagons to ride side by side ended up being a single file trail closer to Fort Union. Can you imagine having that job? Telling riders at the end of an 800 mile wagon ride that they need to slow down and get in single file line? I imagine they were met with some grumpy people.

Fort Union protected the Santa Fe trail and it’s travelers, aided in protecting against Native American attacks, and was a major supplier for the US Army. There were three forts built here from 1851-1891 each fort getting bigger and stronger than the one before it.  What once was the largest fort west of the Mississippi River is falling into ruins today. The NPS isn’t allowed to do anything but try to preserve what’s left. They’re trying their hardest to preserve this part of our history.

The grass has grown up over the trail. If there wasn’t a sign, you’d never know you were looking at one of the most important trials in US history. Can you imagine setting off on a 900 mile wagon journey across the Great Plains? Wagons could only cross in the summer or early fall when there was enough grass to feed the mules and oxen that pulled the wagons and they would only make around 8 to 10 miles a day. I’m not sure I’m cut out for that kind of travel. I feel like we’re crawling when we’re going 55 mph down the highway in our home-on-wheels!

The last NPS Unit we made it to in our week in the Santa Fe area was the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Valle Grande, in the picture above, was formed around one million years ago when a series of huge volcanic eruptions spewed a volume of material 500 times greater than the May 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. There’s a visitor center here and some trails, but we didn’t get to do much because it was cold and icy the day we went. I’d love to go back during the spring when it’s all green!

Valles Caldera looks like a big bear paw on a map. Can you see it?  (top picture) We heard some of the Natives in the area call it that. This area is gorgeous even with the forest healing from a big fire a few years back.

One of the neat things about this NPS Unit is due to all of the volcanic activity. There are tons of obsidian laying around! What you might not know (we didn’t) is that when obsidian reaches a certain temperature it turns into poofy obsidian. A what obsidian? Poofy. In the picture above, you can see a normal shiny, black piece of obsidian. Next to it is the poofy obsidian. Poofy obsidian is soooo light and airy! It was pretty neat to see and feel the difference. If you step on it, it poofs. If you hold it too tight, it poofs. Due to the large fire there are tons of poofy obsidian in the park now. If you visit this park, please don’t poof their obsidian.

We also stopped back by Bandelier National Monument to revisit it in hopes of seeing it without snow, but the main trail was closed due to maintenance…so, we hopped back in the car and drove on. The views in this area are pretty stellar!

New Mexico is one of our favorite states. The views, the hikes, the NPS Units, the foodies, and the vibe all speak to us. There are so many postcard worthy vistas in this gorgeous state!

I imagine we will go back to New Mexico again and again throughout the years!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

World of Zoo Alameda Zoo Park

World of Zoo Alameda Zoo Park

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To my fellow animal lovers I bring to you a post from Alamogordo, NM.

In New Mexico you can find the oldest zoo in the southwestern United States. Alameda Zoo is a real nice little zoo where the animals are happy.

They have nice kangaroos. A big enclosure for them where they can run and jump all they want… just as long as they don’t get out! Kangaroos can jump at least three times there height, that’s a LOT higher than I can jump!

The mule deer were pretty happy too! Some of the zoo keepers drove by and the mule deer started begging for food! They know who feeds them! Mule deer antlers can grow up to a 1/4 of an inch a day. That’s pretty fast.

They have a Mexican grey wolf which just looks amazing!! This lone wolf is endangered. When their habitat is seen on a map, you can cover it with your pinky!

The antelope shared an enclosure with the peacocks. Did you know that antelopes are the second fastest land mammal?

We couldn’t get a very good pic of the emu, but one of them loved us. It kept following us around and yelled out when we left. I wanted to keep him but… he wouldn’t fit in the RV.

The coyote kept his distance. I think it was sleepy but who knows?

The porcupines were foraging for food, I do not want to fall onto one of those. That would be pretty painful!

In the monkey area, there was a baby monkey who followed us around. Luckily we didn’t get poop thrown at us! These are the same kind of monkey that’s on the movie Night At The Museum.

In the bird house there was this beautiful bird! I have no idea what kind of bird it is but just look at it! It looks kind of like a samurai bird to me. It walked up and all the quail ran away.

There were all kinds of birds in that bird house!

Some pretty ducks! This one looks pretty sleepy.

The ocelot wasn’t too happy. It looks like it was in an accident or something because it’s tail is smashed. A lot of the animals here are rescued.

The mountain lions were snoozing. Reminded me of our cats! They were having their siesta, but they kept a close eye on where everyone was. You could actually walk under their habitat! It was really neat!

There are a few bald eagles at this zoo. They were being all majestic.

A very sleepy owl.

These are some nice looking hawks to! They posed for us.

There’s a cute capybara. Did you know that capybara can hold their breath for five minuets! That’s at least four and a half minutes longer than I can hold my breath. We hadn’t seen a capybara in a zoo before so this was a first for us.

The tortoise was staying nice and warm under its light. It was pretty cold out the day we visited. This guy was HUGE!!

The lemur was being very active. Running up and down the branches. I don’t think he wanted his picture taken. I had to sneak up on him to get this shot!

“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beast soon happens to the man.”  I liked this quote from Chief Seattle a lot so I decided to share it with you.

I’m giving the Alameda Zoo a 5 star review based on the happy and healthy animals we saw! This was just a small county park and was different from the usual zoos we go to, but I really enjoyed it just as much some of the larger, better funded zoos we’ve been to.

See y’all at the zoo!

Written by Nicholas

Sand, Science, and Chilies

Sand, Science, and Chilies

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Hey Guys! We spent one jam packed week in the Alamogordo area of New Mexico. This was our second visit to the Alamogordo area and we still didn’t get through our entire to-see list!

The first thing we did when we got back to town was grab one of our absolute favorite burgers! Rockin’ BZ Burgers is still as good as we remembered them to be.

The second thing we did was revisit White Sands National Monument to get some sled time in!

Alex thought his sled was going a little slow so he waxed his sled up for some speed, then he found the tallest dune he could find! We expected a scene out of Christmas Vacation when Clark sprays his varnish on the bottom of his sled. It wasn’t quite that fast, but he did say he could tell a difference!

We did a Ranger guided sunset stroll one evening at White Sands. I love how bright white the sand looks next to the vivid blue the sky on a bright sunny day, but I have to admit…I’m kind of digging how soft everything looks in the late afternoon lighting.

And Guys, check out this sunset!

We finally made it to the New Mexico Museum of Space History! We tried to make it last time we were in Alamogordo, but we ran out of time. We learned about Ham, the worlds first Astrochimp who traveled into space in that little capsule you see in the above top picture. Nicholas had a good time dressing up in astronaut gear! :-}

There was a whole section on Star Trek. Beam me up Scotty!! There were some very cool exhibits! This one in the right picture was a rumble pad where you felt the power of a shuttle take off. It was a really cool exhibit!

We had way too much fun with the Whisper Dish! We all took turns whispering and listening to each other from across the Museum park. The nerd always comes out of us when we find an interactive museum! Our nerd hearts were very happy at this one.

We found an old train trestle while we were out exploring Cloudcroft. Check out the view we found! Can you find White Sands NP in the pic above? It’s there! Check the left side of the picture.

Oh! We found these really yummy and super huge biscochitos at a place called Rizo’s! They were fresh baked and so so good.

We never know what the grocery store is going to be like. The first time we visited Alamogordo we found Lowes and fell in love with it! We were all excited to go back to the tortillaria for some fresh made tortillas and to grab some roasted chilies from the produce section!

We had to stock up on our favorite treats before we left town. What’s not in the picture is the 10lbs of frozen green chilies we bought. We love green chilies!! The only other thing we had time for was hitting up the two pistachio farms to stock up on some tasties!

Alamogordo was one of our favorite places from our first loop back in 2015. When I added it to this loop I worried that it really wasn’t as great as we remember it to be. That burger wasn’t really that good. White Sands really wasn’t that fun. But Guys, it totally was! Alamogordo is definitely one of our favorite places and after two visits…we still have new things to do there!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

World of Zoo the Living Desert Museum and Zoo

World of Zoo the Living Desert Museum and Zoo

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To my fellow animal lovers, I bring you my second Zoo post, and this time it’s in Carlsbad, NM. Now, the Living Desert Museum and Zoo was really neat since all the animals were found within the state park. I’ve been to a LOT of zoos but I have never been to one that is also a state park… how cool is that?!

I liked the views from the zoo, it was pretty neat!

They’ve got two Mexican wolves, sadly they are really rare, but they look amazing!

They’ve got various birds like the golden eagle, which was watching us very closely.

The horned owls took quite a while to find and were very neat, can you find them?

The last bird I’m going to share is a blue jay, isn’t it so pretty?!

The prairie dogs were probably my favorite part of this zoo. It’s hilarious to see their little tails wag when they run! It looked like they just got some food too!

The javelina decided to say hello and came right up to the fence! It’s nose was working trying to sniff out some food.

The black bear they have looked very sleepy. Not only was the bear sleepy,

but the grey fox found a patch of sun and decided to take a nap too! It looked very comfortable!

We must have come during nap time because the porcupine was sleeping too!

Although the mountain lions were not happy with us making an appearance and kept going back where we couldn’t see them,

the bobcats decided to pose for us! It looks like it’s smiling at us! Neat!

Walking around you could find some pretty flowers, you could also find some gypsum! We’ve been to some sand dunes made of gypsum, White Sands NP was awesome.

There is a nocturnal area where you can see some rattlesnakes, it gave me the heebee jeebees. I don’t like danger noodles.

Then you walk around the corner and BAM! Giant bat head! Kinda startled me it’s hidden until you round the corner!

They have a plant area which when you go inside, prepare to take off your jacket because it is warm in there! That area has some plants from all over the world!

It had barrel cactus, some neat trees and pretty flowers.

The tortoise was a fair size and was on the move.

The bison were just lazin’ around like bison do.

The mule deer weren’t doing much either, but look at those antlers!

The entrance had a neat little museum with a touch table and the coolest part of the museum, in my opinion, was the fact that it shows you what the area looked like a really, really long time ago! The area was under a sea!

Based on the variety of animals and how the animals were all happy and healthy, I give the Living Desert museum and zoo a 5 star review.

I’ll see y’all at the zoo!!

Written by Nicholas

The Top Of Texas

The Top Of Texas

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Hey Guys!! While we were in the Carlsbad, NM area we spent a couple of days at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.

The Guadalupe Mountains sit right on the New Mexico-Texas state line. We were so close, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to explore another Texas National Park Unit!

Our first day at Guadalupe Mountains NP we did two hikes and the boys completed the Junior Ranger program. We did the Pinery Trail which is a short trail to the ruins of an old stagecoach stop from the 1800s called the Butterfield stagecoach station. This was a super easy almost one mile paved trail.

The second trail we hiked was the Devil’s Hall Trail. This trail started off great with about a mile of constructed trail. We saw some really pretty fall colors on this trail! Just when we thought the Devil’s Hall trail was going to be easy peasy, the constructed trail ended and dumped us out at a wash and the “trail” followed the wash for about a mile or so. This was a difficult trail due to the fact that there wasn’t really a trail. There were several times where you could tell which direction you needed to go, but there wasn’t a definite way to get there. And there were a couple of time when we weren’t really sure if we were going the right way. The wash was littered with big boulders and slippery round rocks. So…the going was slow.

One of the things we learned while doing the Junior Ranger program here is what an Alligator Juniper looks like! The bark looks like gator hide! We had fun pointing out the different trees while we were picking our way down the wash.

At the end of the wash you get to a natural staircase that they call a “hiker’s staircase”. You can see Alex making his way up the staircase in the picture above. It was a little tricky to get up with a camera around my neck. I ended up having to hand the camera up then scale the “staircase” myself.

Once you make it to the natural staircase you’re almost there! I probably took way longer than necessary because I kept stopping to take pictures. Devil’s Hall turned out to be a short narrow canyon. We walked down it and explored the area for a little bit before turning around to traverse the wash again.

We decided to do a hike on Thanksgiving Day. We did the Guadalupe Peak Trail which is a strenuous trail that gains a total of 3,000 feet of elevation.

I try to do my homework when it comes to trails like this. Everything I saw said that if you can make it past the first 1,000 feet or first mile and a half then you won’t have any problem finishing the hike. What they failed to mention is that after that first mile you’ve worked so hard going almost straight up that your legs are shot for the rest of the hike. So, while the rest of the hike isn’t quite as hard…it feels just as hard because your legs are jello! And, I would like to point out…the entire hike is hard. Not just that first mile. Check out the switchbacks we hiked up in the pic above (top picture). Parts of this trail are on exposed cliffs where if you slip…you slide a loooong way down.

Now that I’ve warned you how strenuous and possibly dangerous this hike is…lets enjoy some of the views! Because lets be honest…the views are the whole reason to hike trails like this. This view was about half way up at the end of one of the many switch-backs. I stood there a good few minutes catching my breath and ogling the vista.

I thought this bridge was so neat the way it’s right on the edge of the cliff! Once I got across it and to the other side I got a better look at it and wowzers! It really is right on the edge of a very high cliff!!

Funny story…there was a part right toward the end of this trail where we couldn’t really tell which way we were supposed to go. The couple in front of us each went a different way. I chose to follow the girl and well…we didn’t exactly take the easy way. See those two hikers on top of that rock in the pic above? Yeah, that’s the way we took up to the top. Notice we’re on the trail on the way down. It was much easier! But wait!! I’ve left out the best part!!!

Welcome to the top of Texas, y’all!!

Not a bad place to have a Thanksgiving picnic! We were so hungry from all of our hard work that we promptly sat down on the most comfortable rocks we’d ever found and ate lunch before we actually looked around at the views. You’ve got to have priorities, you know. Food is very important. ;-P

We wolfed down our lunch in record time and then took in the awesome views at the highest peak in Texas! Things sure look different at 8,751 feet up. Oh, I know…there are mountains that would make this one look like a mole hill…but y’all…check out that view! We spent a good half hour or so eating lunch and taking in the views. We wrote our names in the log book and then started the looonng hike down!

It was faster going down than up and we made it back to our car and the most comfortable seats in the world! Some of us (I’m not telling who…it might have been me) started to worry that our legs weren’t going to make it the whole way down.

Do you remember those little pencil trolls that used to be so popular with the wild hair that went all over the place? That’s what this pretty reminds me of. Troll hair.

Well y’all, we made it to the top of Texas and survived the hike! I would say the Guadalupe Peak hike is rated as the second hardest hike we’ve done so far. The Harding Ice Field hike still holds first place.

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop