Cold, Snowy Albuquerque

From Santa Fe, we drove south down (Scenic) Highway 14 to Hidden Valley RV Resort, in the hills/mountains east of Tijaras  (east of Albaquerque along I-40) to stay off the road for 11 days during the holiday crazies. The particular site we were put in has very little gravel & trees on the south which prevent the sun melting the snow pack in that one site. So getting set up on snow that first day was unsettling. Then...it warmed up & melted the snow on our site so we had lots of mud right at our door. Between our four feet & Kira's four feet, the mud was maddening. A couple of days layer at least it froze so the mud stopped being an issue. Little did I know our situation was going to get worse tho. We did have a quiet, cozy Christmas Day, eating crockpot lasagna.

We awoke the day after Christmas to -1° outside & 4" of snow on the now very frozen mud. Yikes, this was totally unexpected for us. And then it snowed another inch before noon. Although we we warm enough with full sun shining in our windows, we hadn't thought to fill up our fresh water tank back during the warm, muddy days, so WE RAN OUT OF FRESH WATER. Have you ever scooped up snow to melt in the toilet to be able to flush? It does work at least, just slowly. The worst part tho was trudging to the bathroom building to get water just to make coffee - for three days. Now Kira was in dog-heaven with the fluffy snow, but me not so much.

Finally when another cold blast & snow were predicted Monday before New Years, we decided to head SOUTH, right to the border. Although this was a Coast to Coast campground, they still charged an extra $3/day + tax (for something, I never figured out what), we left three days early!!! Oh, I got laundry done also, but one washer ate my $1.25, & since we left before the office opened, we lost that money too. However, it was SO good to be out of the cold & snow. It was good to see the snow & ice melting off the trailer as we got farther south.

Oh, we took a drive north on Highway 14, then west up to Sandia Peak, the tallest mountain east of Albuquerque. Saw glimpses of the desert below as we climbed, but there are lots of tall pine trees in the way. I was looking forward to viewing Albuquerque to the west of that peak, but about a mile from the top, we got into dense fog, or a low cloud. Couldn't see squat, so we went home. We also made a Walmart run in Albuquerque & drove around their old plaza. Probably a pretty light show at night, but we didn't want to drive back down there in the cold & nighttime traffic. Santa Fe & Taos was enough Christmas cheer. So we ended 2014 in much warmer weather.