Traveling the Turquoise Trail from Santa Fe to Albuquerque
The Turquoise Trail is an old mining trail, complete with “Antelope Crossing” signs on the road. Over 100 movies have been filmed on just two private ranches out here. The area is so evocative of the ‘Ol West that you can just imagine shootouts and cattle rustlers and lawless men roaming these plains.
We pass by Madrid (pronounced MADrid) which is full of shops and art galleries, cafes, flea markets. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop, have to stay on schedule…boo hoo! We pass signs advertising Wagyu cattle ranches, a type of Japanese beef, known for being highly marbled and supposedly healthier for you with more mono-saturated fats to saturated fat ratio.
Wanting to be sure to see some of Historic Rte. 66, we followed signs and headed to Albuquerque, at one-point traveling over an unpaved, bumpy section at 15 MPH. Enough of that! We found a tunnel that the Tin Can barely fit through to take us back to the freeway. I had to jump out to check the clearance and snagged some broken pieces of brightly colored pottery laying on the ground under the tunnel. Scored a great souvenir!
Arrived at Holbrook AZ/Petrified Forest KOA by 3:30 pm. We were just in time to grab a cocktail and find the Kentucky Derby on the TV. “Justify”, the winner, went on to win the Triple Crown. The heat of the desert encouraged us to unfurl the canopy and cook our meal of chicken, rice and veggies on the grill. We ate on the picnic tables outside to escape the heat of the RV.
As the sun set, we explored the campground, taking photos at dusk and chatting with fellow campers, from young millennials to retirees. We met a retired couple from Buenos Aires in a Swiss camper who are making a loop of the USA, crossing multiple borders and ending up in Key West. They had ordered their camper from Europe and had it shipped to meet them when they first started out from Miami.
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