Tuesday – Day 30 – Up at 8, had a quick breakfast, headed to dump station then on the road by 10am. OMG what a bumpy road! 11:20am and still a whole lot of nothing. We drove through Santa Fe where all the houses are all brown adobe style, even the stores. 12:15pm we arrived in Albuquerque at the Balloon Museum. 🎈This is where the balloon festival is every year in September. That is a bucket list for us and we are here to explore the museum and grounds! I’m so excited! We toured the exhibits, movies, and learned so much from the staff regarding balloons and the festival. Off to our next adventure…Petroglyph National Park. 82* now…we toured the exhibits, watched the park movie, talked with the ranger, took the trail and earned our Jr. Ranger Badge. On our way to our next campground we took Route 66 and boy, there are a lot of freight trains around. 4pm we arrived at Grants KOA Journey. Checked in and we were greeted with warm chocolate cookies. 🍪 Yummy! Inside the campground was a 🌋 Lava pit and lots of dust and dirt! We have full hook ups and we have a ton of laundry to do. Glad they have a big laundry room. All set up and started laundry….5 loads later =$19.50 We had drinks while doing laundry then when we were all done, made the bed, had dinner and the evening has turned windy & cold so put the heater on. Traveled 188 miles today!
Wednesday, May 1st – 🥶Brrr it got down to 38* last night! 8am and it’s 50* Dressed and ready for an adventurous day. Walked up to the office for a free breakfast….coffee, tea,☕ pancakes, 🥣 oatmeal and more…YUMMY! I didn’t have to cook or do dishes. 67* now at 10:45am and we’re off on Route 66 to El Malpais. Toured the visitor center, the exhibits and got our Jr. Ranger & Wildfire Books and completed them for our badges. We headed out to do the driving section of the park. First stop was Sandstone Bluffs overlook & took a hike there…climbing over boulders to see massive lava area. Incredible scenery everywhere. We then hiked to Laventana Natural Arch. Next stop was to 🌋 Lava Falls area where we did the trail. We followed the Cairn markers to Lava Pits and carefully stepping over or around the large cracks in the ground. We had to be very careful where we were climbing! 4pm we were on the road back and stopped at a Phillips 66 to top off the tank. ⛽$3.62/gallon – 48.229 gallons = $175.88. Continued down Route 66 and stopped at Junkyard Brewery. What an amazing place. The owner bought the junkyard in 2016. Kept the outside looking like a junkyard but as you enter the parts & office building there was a flatbed truck that was the bar! Tables throughout were old hoods & tailgates and seats were from cars and trucks. Then the next room was a game room but shelves of old parts, radios etc. We split a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and Tim tried the Junkyard Lager & Rack & Pinon Beers! Next we found the drive thru sign that said welcome to Grants then we were off to Wal-Mart for produce. When we got back to the campground our LP tanks had been filled by KOA. We had a few projects to work on then enjoyed our 🌮🌮Taco dinner. Traveled 88 miles today.
Thursday, May 2nd – Today is travel day! Headed to El Morro National Monument where we toured the visitor center exhibits, took the hike and earned another Jr. Ranger badge! Unfortunately we got a phone call ☎ that needed attention and we drove to the town of Gallup to gather ourselves. We found USA RV Park on route 66. We talked to the owners about possibly leaving the truck & Airstream while we fly home. Spoke with our dear friend Matt who works for Southwest Airlines ✈and he could get us a discount and flights out of Albuquerque tomorrow. We regrouped, got our emotions together and now had a plan.
Friday, May 3rd & 4th – Up early, duffle bags packed and we drove 3 ½ hours to Albuquerque and on the way called an RV park near the airport to get weekly rates. We arrived at Enchanted Trails RV Park, checked in and the owners couldn’t have been nicer once we explained our situation that our son was in the hospital. We set the trailer up, ring camera on the table facing the door, light left on, and truck parked off to the side to make it look like we were there! Walked up to the front where we got our 🚗 UBER and off to the airport we went. We traveled 238 miles today. Our Uber driver was a lovely indigenous girl from New Mexico; She said she still lives on the Adobe Reservation. 1:20pm our friend Matt met us at the airport who learned our flight would be 1 ½ hours late, so he helped Tim get us on another flight that was boarding NOW! No time to visit with Matt because our flight was boarding. It was only a 40 minute flight but wow…as the flight attendant was doing the safety briefing he asked if we were traveling for a fun destination and unfortunately I couldn’t stop the tears and I told him why and from that moment his eyes never left mine as he continued explain the O2 masks! He then asked if I liked Vodka and I said yes and Tim said Jack. 🍸🍸 A few minutes later he appeared with 2 coffee cups saying “Here you go ma’am, here is the water you asked for” then whispered don’t drink it till we’re in the air! As we were taxiing out I took a sip and he gave us each a double with a wave of cranberry juice! 😲 OMG I was feeling no pain as we arrived in Denver! Called home for updates, found a McDonald’s in Denver airport for our 🥤 diet cokes…had dinner and boarded our next plane at 5:15pm for Ft Lauderdale. Our flight got in at 11:20pm due to storms. 🌩 My girlfriend Beth picked us up and we got home to our house at 1:35am and everyone was sleeping. Showered and in bed at 2am and at the hospital at 6am.
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