New Mexico Road Trip - Quest Fulfilled, My Final Thoughts

Quest fulfilled?  Technically, maybe not, but 31 out of 35 scenic drives completed exceeded our expectations and for us, it is, Quest Completed.  We drove 4700 miles from high in the mountains to the desert sands of White Sands National Park and explored a whole lot of New Mexico.  We had snow, rain, and warm sunny days; the weather was all over the place on this trip, but that’s what makes a trip interesting.  This was a wonderful trip, and Val and I both agreed, this was one of our very best road trips ever.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way, but what stuck in my mind the most were some of the unexpected places we found.  The solar observatory in Sunspot, the Very Large Array straight out of a science fiction movie, rediscovering the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge even though the birds hadn’t arrived yet, the Mogollon Ghost Town, and many more. 

We found some great, off the beaten path restaurants along the way like the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair or My Mom and Dad’s Restaurant in Chama to name a couple.  We found the food in New Mexico to be very good almost everywhere we went, but I did learn that when they say the food is mildly hot be careful, they do like their food spicy in New Mexico.  I do have one regret though, I wish I would have had one of the green chile cheeseburgers that New Mexico is famous for.  I was a little too wary of it being too spicy for me, but I should have had one anyway.  Oh well, I will next time we're in New Mexico.

It has been a while since we visited Santa Fe, and our five days there reminded us of why it’s one of our favorite places.  The city has a small-town flavor and the surrounding area has so many things to do you always wish you could stay longer.  We stayed in a great place right in the Old Town area with plenty of good restaurants within walking distance.

Val and I both turned seventy-six this year and we wondered whether we still could handle a long road trip, and the answer was a definite YES.  We had to pace ourselves a little differently, but we’re still healthy and still like to travel so it all worked out great.  We are looking forward to more road trips in the future.

Finally, what travels lie in our future?  We have a trip to Michigan in June for a family reunion that I may or may not blog about.  It all depends on whether we decide to add some other travel along with it or just go back for the reunion.  We also have a two-month long cruise called The Tales of the South Pacific scheduled for the fall that will go deep into the South Pacific.  I hope we can throw some short trips in along the way, but we’ll have to wait and see.  So that’s it for our New Mexico road trip and we’ll see you on down the road.