Day 20 – 5110 miles … A New Mexico surprise

This morning I awoke in Milan, Ok … Milan, NM. The beautiful Petro truck stop, complete with restaurant and “curios”. It was a nice morning, very quiet, everyone asleep. I made a cup of coffee and moved to the pumps to fill up. Once done, I walked inside the truck stop, admired some CB radios and headed back to my rig. Another cup of coffee and in a very happy mood, headed back onto the highway.

As I ticked the miles away, I contemplated the difference in highway signs, odd to me … elk crossings in NM are different than elk crossings in AZ … I spent a few minutes trying to identify what the animal on the sign was … isn’t there a national standard for animal silhouettes? or is this part of the “figure out the sign” game done on purpose. I marveled at the mountains, which the night before where on the other side. I noticed that the train had moved to the other side as well … wondering where we had crossed it last night.

I thought to myself, how lucky I was that I wasn’t heading into the sun like the people on the other side, suckers … having to drive into the sunrise. Then I laughed out loud. For the last 20 miles I had been driving west … when I made the realization, the next exit was a further 15 miles away … total loss this morning … 70 miles … a good laugh and a loss of a good hour that I could have been sleeping, Oh well.

Our plan was to stop at a city park in Albuquerque for the kids to burn off energy, I also needed to do an oil change, and there was a facility that would do it in 45 minutes. I found the engine service place, then started driving to the old part of town to drop everyone off … when we drove past the Explora! Children’s Museum. I dropped them off there, as it was opening and headed back to get our oil changed. Within 15 minutes, I got a text from Michelle saying that the place was great and that I could take my time.

I finished the oil change ($72) and drove back to the museum … found a spot and headed inside. Now, we are somewhat of a connoisseur of museums and especially of interactive children's museums. We’ve visit almost all the ones we can and have seen them in many big and small cities and some in the UK and mainland Europe. This one, the one in Albuquerque, was easily amongst the best. Not the biggest, but great displays, all very interactive with an informative and attentive staff. The girls wandered throughout, doing many “experiments” … it was great, and they loved it.

They made a water filter, using different materials and tested their design. They made a stop motion animation, which was very nice. They assembled several bridge types. They played in an erosion pool, which is basically a table full of sand with water flowing through it … it was really nice to demonstrate how water would “cut” through the material … specially timely since we left the Grand Canyon the day before. We could have easily spent all day here, but unfortunately, the miles needed to be done and we had to make compromises … we headed for the old town and had a nice Mexican lunch.

Our 1 hr stop, had turned into 6 and we wouldn’t make Roswell until after nightfall … so we chose to head to Texas instead … opting to camp for the evening, rather than drive through. A couple of hundred miles later, we got off at Santa Rosa, NM on another stretch of Route 66. Our campground (mainly dirt) had a pool (was cold) and a restaurant with “famous” ribs … when I asked how “famous”, I was told that they made it onto the Food Network … wow, TV famous ribs, must try them.

We put some laundry in the machines and drove out to explore the town … this is the unfortunate part of our RV … if you want to go anywhere, you have to take the house. In the future, we will likely look to get a “Toad” … this is a vehicle you tow behind the RV … sailors have dinghies … RVers have toads. Santa Rosa, survived the Route 66 demise likely on 2 fronts … it is on I40 and it has a Scuba Diving center … yep, you can dive at 4000ft elevation in a desert.

The area has several “holes” that are filled (naturally) with water. Many of these form a cavern system about 80-120ft beneath the surface. We want to see the “star” attraction, the Blue Hole. It is 81ft deep, 60ft diameter at the top, bell  shaped and has over 80ft visibility … on a night dive, you can be on the bottom and see stars … so the local ad says. I can attest to the clarity of the water … it is also 61F all year long … yikes … that’s cold!

The local diver also told us that there are no naturally living creatures in the hole, although some locals have let there pets go … we did see a couple of “giant goldfish” (Koi), and were told that there is a piranha in there. I must have had the “yeah, really” look, so he added … “It’s a vegetarian”. Maybe this guy has a few too many bubbles up to … he should not hold his breath coming up. Next adventure trip … we will pack our dive gear, just in case.

Back to the site, completed the laundry, watched the girls swim, in 75F water and ordered a rack of ribs. The ribs were Ok, but the Food Network must have low standards … as they weren’t anything fabulous. Jaci helped me change the oil on the generator … then we watched some TV, all in bed by 1030P.