Oh the Heights We Will Go!

West Quest '23 - Days 6-7

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

As mentioned at the start of the last post, we arrived in Sandia Park, New Mexico on Friday the 30th of June for a two-night stay with my Naval Academy classmate Anne Hammond and her husband Bill.

Frieda and Anne shortly after we arrived Friday night.

Anne and Bill are planning to get their own RV later this year and some years ago, prepared their lot to with a parking spot. No hookups yet, but a very nice place to leave our rig during our visit.

Their home features an amazing vista of Santa Fe some 40 miles distant. Here’s how the city looked Friday night:

Anne is the ultimate tour guide host, ever-ready to ensure visitors enjoy the local sights and sounds. To that end, shortly after breakfast, she graciously drove us up to Sandia Crest. At 10,678 feet of elevation, it is the place to go for an amazing view for over 100 miles all around.

Albuquarque a mile below us in the distance

After our visit to Sandia Crest, we came home to pick up Bill and then head to Madrid, a former coal-mining — now artsy — town a few miles away.

It’s not every day you find a locomotive in a bar!

Overall, it was a wonderful couple of local sights to see before settling into a nice evening of relaxation.

Reagan keeping a watchful eye on things

This is the moon that night:

On Sunday, it was time to head toward Oracle, Arizona where we would arrive just in time to celebrate the last few hours of my Dad’s 94th birthday.

On the way to Oracle, we stopped for lunch in Hatch, New Mexico which calls itself the chili capital of the world.

We passed this interesting ghost town in Lordsburg, New Mexico:

Around 3:30 pm, we crossed into Arizona and I caught one of our better state line shots with the phone out the window at 75 mph:

As we did last year, we dropped Ollie off at the Davis Monthan Fam Camp since we will be staying with my Dad and Sandy and just need a place to park the trailer.

These guys will keep Ollie company while we are away for six days

And finally, here’s Dad and Sandy laughing at the best card ever for a 94th birthday:

Happy 94th Birthday Dad!