New Mexico Road Trip - Traveling to New Mexico

Home to Tehachapi, CA

Sunday, October 13, 2024

As we usually do on the first day of a trip to the Southwest, we are taking the short drive from our home in Atascadero to the town of Tehachapi in the Tehachapi Mountains on CA Highway 58 for our first night on the road.  This tradition of driving to Tehachapi the first day started out as a quick getaway on a Friday afternoon when we were working, but even though we’re no longer working, we still do it.

From our home to Tehachapi.

Since it’s only a three-hour drive, we didn’t leave until around one and were in Tehachapi by four.  The main attraction for us in Tehachapi is the Red House BBQ that serves excellent barbeque ribs.  Since we had eaten a small early lunch, we were ready for dinner by the time we got there and as soon as we got settled into our hotel we headed off to the Red House.

We were surprised to find some sort of festival going on in the downtown area and were worried that the restaurant might be crowded, but it was still early and not too busy when we arrived.  They had changed their format a bit, but the barbecued pork ribs were still wonderful, and we had a very satisfying dinner.  That was the end of our activities for the day, and we returned to the hotel and relaxed until bedtime.

Pork Ribs, Potato Salad and Cornbread, very tasty.

Tehachapi to Laughlin, NV

Monday, October 14, 2024

Today we have a five-hour drive to our next stop, the town of Laughlin that is located in the tip of the wedge of Nevada located between California and Arizona on the Colorado River.  We are staying at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino and had originally planned on staying only one day, but when we found out the Red House was closed on Mondays, we left a day early so we could enjoy some of our favorite BBQ and added an extra day in Laughlin.  Because we gamble mostly at Caesar’s properties (Harrah’s), our room was comped so we are not adding any additional expense to the trip, but Val and I might spend a little more of our gambling money.

Today we are traveling from Tehachapi to Laughlin, Nevada

 
We arrived in Laughlin around two and our room wasn’t available yet, so we gambled a bit until our room was ready.  Harrah’s is located right on the Colorado River, and we had requested a river view room and were very disappointed to see that the river view was just out the corner of our window, the main view from our room is another tower of the hotel.  Also, the room was very, very basic and pretty stark.  In past visits we have actually been given a suite, but it has been a while, so I guess we don’t rate anymore.  Oh well, not a big deal and the room is free.

We relaxed a bit and then went down to have dinner at Guy Fieri’s El Burro Borracho Restaurant and that was another disappointment.  We had eaten there several times after it first opened and it was very good, but tonight it was pretty mediocre.  Not terrible, just not what we expected.  We spent the rest of the evening losing money in the casino until we finally called it a night.

I guess I have complained a bit about our first day, and it was disappointing, but our expectations were probably too high as we haven’t been here in quite a while, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Laughlin

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

We slept in and had a leisurely morning.  I went down to Starbucks to get Val her morning tea and decided rather than eat breakfast we would just eat a snack in our room.  I got myself some orange juice and a couple of pieces of banana bread for us and that was our breakfast.

There is a water-taxi that runs along the Colorado River in Lauglin and stops at all the casinos and hotels that have docks.  Harrah’s is the only casino that actually has a beach on the river and it’s very nice.  Their pool overlooks the Colorado River so they really take advantage of the location.

On our way to the water taxi dock.

Harrah's is right on the river and has a nice beach.  They also rent jet skies.

We timed it just right, the water taxi is waiting.

We went down to the water taxi dock around eleven and it was already pretty warm, but not as hot as it gets during the summer.  We timed it just and the water taxi arrived, and we took it all the way down to the furthest casino where we lost a few dollars and started working our way back.  There is a riverwalk that connects many of the hotels so rather than waiting for the water taxi at each place, we just walked from one casino to the other on the river walk.

We're out on the Colorado.  That's Bullhead City, Arizona across the river.

The river walk.

When we reached the last hotel on the riverwalk we decided to walk across the street to check out the Tropicana that was now owned by Caesar’s.  It was quite a bit longer walk than we had anticipated, and the temperatures had reached the mid 90’s so by the time we got there we were questioning our decision.  We did a little gambling and decided to have lunch which didn’t turn out very well.  We sat down and gave them our order and then waited and waited and waited and began to notice that people who had come in after us were already eating.  The waitress kept telling us our food would be coming soon and finally after almost an hour we got it.  The food was OK, but you should never have to wait that long.  We had wanted to check out the Tropicana to see if we might want to stay there on a future trip, but after our lunch experience and a few other things we didn’t care for we decided that wasn’t going to happen.

It was a long walk to get to back to Harrah’s so we decided to take a taxi, but Laughlin is a very small town and there were no taxis in sight.  We made the long trek back and caught the water taxi to take us back to Harrah’s.  The water taxi is very nice and besides being handy to get places, it is just nice to cruise along the river.

Here comes the water taxi to pick us up.

It was a nice ride back to Harrah's, the water taxi is very handy and it's fun to be out on the river.

It was late afternoon by the time we got back so we relaxed in our room for a while and then went down to do a little more gambling and have something to eat for dinner.  Our gambling was much better tonight and although we didn’t really win anything substantial, we did keep winning enough to keep playing and we both ended up the evening with some money left over.  We decided to eat dinner in the coffee shop and had a decent dinner and after a little more gambling, we called it a night.

Despite my complaining, we did have a good time in Laughlin and if convenient on other trips to the Southwest, we will stay here again.  Tomorrow, we continue our drive east.

Laughlin to Gallup, NM

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

We spent most of our day on Interstate 40 driving across Arizona.  From Laughlin we crossed the bridge across the Colorado River into Arizona and took the short cutoff drive to Kingman where we got on I40.  It was a pretty dull drive but we decided to listen to a Tony Hillerman Navajo mystery audiobook that we both had heard quite a few years ago, but had forgotten what it was about (one benefit of old age). We're fans of Tony Hillerman and his books so it kept us entertained the whole way.  His books take place mostly on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico so it seemed fitting as we'll be driving through the areas talked about in the book.  We did hit a construction zone where we had stop and go driving for a half hour and just before the New Mexico border we ran into some big dark clouds and it actually started to rain a little, but nothing too hard.

The last leg on the interstate. We traveled from Laughlin to Gallup, New Mexico.

With the added time of going through the construction zone and the rain it was a six hour drive and when you add the hour we lost with a time zone change entering New Mexico, we didn’t get into Gallup until 4:30.  We were surprised at how cold it was as it always seems like it is hot in Gallup, but it is on the Colorado Plateau and sits at an altitude of 6,600 feet so I guess the cold weather in late fall is not really a surprise.

We rested a bit and then decided to have an early dinner as we had only had a snack for lunch.  There was a Denny’s next to the hotel, and even though Denny’s is not a favorite of ours, we opted for convenience and went to Denny’s.  After dinner we returned to our room and spent some time looking at our route options for getting to Chama, NM tomorrow.  I decided to update the blog and then joined Val and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow our trip really begins, and we get off the interstate and head for Chama in Northern New Mexico where our quest will begin.