The Last Summer on the Road Part 5

 On the road again, we traveled east to Carrizozo then south for a month’s stay in Alamogordo.  Here, the Sacramento Mountains dominate the town and tower 5000’ above, with Sierra Blanca, a 12,000’ peak in the distance. 

This was my first station in the Air Force, and for a boy from Cleveland, Ohio this was an eye-opening experience.  The first (and only) time I walked into a local bar wearing my high-collar shirt, tailor-made slacks and wing-tip shoes, it was like a scene from an old western where the piano player stops and everyone gets quiet….real quiet.  The next day I was shopping for jeans and boots.

 Over the years Brenda and I have visited here often and for a while considered making it our home, but the limited housing, shopping, and medical facilities overruled that idea.  But the Sacramento Mountains will always be special; we’ve made many memories exploring the historical sites and back roads. 

 The mountains here contain both surprises and history.  The town of Lincoln maintains the appearance of the 1880s, and the courthouse where Billy the Kid shot two guards and made his escape looks like it hasn’t aged a bit.  The stairwell still has the bullet holes from that day, and you can stand at the window and look down in the same spot that Billy did when he shot the second deputy.  Although Lincoln is on the other side of the mountains, it is worth the trip.

 

Historic Lincoln County Courthouse

Bullet Holes in Stairway Wall

Window from Where Billy the Kid Shot the Deputy Returning from Lunch

Fort Stanton was built in 1855 to serve as a base of operations against the Mescalero Apaches.  Located at 6200’ the fort has an extensive history and many of the buildings are still in use today.  In 1899 it was converted to the country’s first federal tuberculosis sanatorium. 

The surprise is the huge anchor sitting at the entrance of the Fort cemetery.  Because of the altitude and low humidity, the fort was designated as the Merchant Marine sanatorium for the Coast Guard, Navy, and Merchant Marines.  Today the fort stands mostly intact with an informative visitor center.

 

Fort Stanton Officer Quarters

Fort Stanton Tuberculosis Patients

There’s so much to see here; Ruidoso and Cloudcroft are
small towns that are worth a visit.  Sunspot solar observatory, now closed to the public, has a large telescope that can be seen from Alamogordo.  The drive to Apache Ski area on the slopes of Sierra Blanca provide great views of the area and White Sands National Monument in the distance.

 

Alamogordo hasn’t grown all that much since I was stationed here in the late 60s, although the bars have become more

upscale.  When my mother visited me back then, she said she wanted to see a real cowboy bar, so I took her to Buck’s Buckaroo, complete with sawdust on the floors, shuffleboard tables, and a bandstand surrounded by chicken wire.  After a while, my mother had to visit the lady’s room, and when she returned her eyes were as big as dinner plates.  When I asked what was wrong, she said “Oh my God, there’s a CONDUM MACHINE IN THE WOMEN’S BATHROOM!”  Remember, this was 1968, and for a woman from Cleveland, Ohio that was scandalous!  

There is so much to see here.  In the little town of Capitan, you can visit the actual gravesite of Smokey the Bear.  In nearby Three Rivers, there is an  extensive area of petroglyphs and a historic chapel.  A day trip can take you to Roswell and the International UFO Museum and Research Center and not far down the road is White Sands National Monument.  

 

3 Rivers Petroglphs

Mescalero Chapel

Really Authentic Alien Autopsy

White Sands National Monument

White Sands at Twilight

We left Alamogordo with a bit of sadness and traveled the short drive to Las Cruces, the second-largest city in New Mexico.  It’s a great town, with plenty of shopping and activities.  But our first stop whenever we visit is the historic

village of Mesilla and La Posta de Mesilla, a historic restaurant that began in 1939 in a building that was an 18^th century stagecoach station.  I first visited here in 1968 while stationed at Alamogordo, and we can’t visit the area without a trip here for the Chili Rellenos and traditional pancake-style enchiladas.  In Alamogordo in the late 60s, enchiladas were almost always served pancake-style, usually with an over-easy egg on top.  The difference is taste is amazing, and whenever I can find them, I order them with red chili and an egg on top.

 

La Posta

Inside La Posta

Hatch is well known as the green chili capital of the world, and everything in this small town revolves around the sale of green or red chili and chili products.  Sparky’s restaurant is in the center of town, and we’ve never visited without seeing a long line of hungry customers.  Although they serve a variety of burgers and sandwiches, the go-to menu item is the green chili cheeseburger, a 7oz burger that is in a class by itself.  If you’re ever in the area, do yourself a favor and visit this place.

Red Chilies, Chilies, and More Chilies

Sparky's - Home of the Best Green Chili Cheeseburger in the World!

 Next stop - Deming NM!

The Last Summer on the Road, Part 4

Back in Challis, we headed south out of the valley, through Twin Falls, and into Northern Nevada for a visit to Ely, a town we’ve visited twice before in hopes of visiting the Great Basin National Park and Wheeler Peak.  Our previous visits were frustrating; in spite of the weather forecasts, the entire mountain was hidden by the clouds – but this time the mountain seemed clear.  

Located on the eastern end of the “loneliest Highway in
America”, Ely is the county seat of White Pine County…..because it’s the only city in White Pine County.  It’s another of the mining towns that lost much of the population after the copper price crashed, although mining has seen a revival in recent years.  We were surprised to learn that since the smelter had been demolished years ago, the ore that is mined here is shipped by train to Seattle and then by ship to Japan for processing.  That just doesn’t seem cost effective.

We’ve always wanted to visit Wheeler Peak, which at just over 13,000, feet towers above the surrounding desert.  Entering Great Basin National Park park, we passed through sagebrush-covered rolling hills, climbing through scrub pine and finally into spruce, then white fir and Douglas fir.  The paved road winds through the forest before ending at a viewpoint at 10,000 feet.  From there, the view of Wheeler Peak is stunning, resembling the Half Dome of Yosemite National Park.  Unlike other high mountains, Wheeler Peak summit can be reached by hiking without climbing equipment via a 4-mile trail to the top.  We decided to limit our hiking from the car to a nicely shaded picnic table where we enjoyed the view and the cool breeze.

Leaving Ely we traveled south, and then turned east into Utah.  We turned south without stopping at the unbearably hot but achingly beautiful rock formations of Moab , which we’ve visited before.  Continuing south, we turned east again for a couple of nights at a casino RV park near Cortez, CO.  Mesa Verde National Park is nearby, a large park with amazing cliff dwellings that we visited in 2007.  Some images from that visit: 

 

From Cortez the road south took us into New Mexico and
through Shiprock , then south to the town of Gallup.  Gallup is a dusty, economically depressed town with a median family income is less than $40K/year. 

There is an interesting history here since it sits on what was Route 66, and driving down the main road through town you can still pick out the old 50s-style motels.  The Native American influence is evident throughout the town, as almost half the population is of the Navajo tribe.  We spent a week resting up and visiting the local sites and we can honestly recommend a one-night stay on the way to somewhere else.

 Leaving Gallup and traveling east on I-40, we passed the Acoma Pueblo, known as “Sky City”.  Located on top of a 367’ mesa, it is one of the oldest continually inhabited communities in the U.S., dating back to 1150 A.D.  We’ve tried to visit the interpretive center for more information, but COVID decimated the Native American population and both the center and tours were still closed.

 

We’ve been on the lookout for a place to settle down, and so we checked into the RV park on Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque for a month.  We’ve visited here before, but not for an extended stay, and this time we had an opportunity to learn about the town, the neighborhoods, and the medical centers.  What we found was discouraging.  Albuquerque has a high rate of violent crime, currently ranking 14^th in the nation, and a significant property crime problem.  Over and over, we saw homes in all neighborhoods with bars on windows and doors.  We also had the need to visit a few of the medical facilities, and weren’t impressed; the attitude of many of the staff was impersonal and gave the impression that they weren’t happy with their work.  So we crossed Albuquerque off our list, and headed south along the interstate. 

 

Our next stop was Socorro, a small town along New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley.  There isn’t much to see in Socorro, but a drive west of 50 miles takes you to the Plains of San Augustin and the Very Large Array (VLA).  This is a special place for us – a place where 28 radio telescopes, each one 82 feet in diameter, create a surreal view.  Each time we visit, the antennae are in a different configuration, stretching in lines off into the distance. 
You may recognize one of the antennae from an opening scene from the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster.  What they do and how they are repositioned is interesting and details can be found here: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

 

Next, we traveled south down the interstate before turning east for our next and one of our favorite stops, Alamogordo, NM. 

 

 

The Last Summer on the Road, Part 1

 

After 20 years of travel in our motor home, we've realized our ability to continue this lifestyle is becoming more difficult as we get older.  We've settled in beautiful Oro Valley, just north of Tucson - so here's the story of our final summer of travel:

Our summer travels of 2025 began on the Oregon Coast, where we spent the previous summer volunteering for US Fish & Wildlife at Harris Beach State Park.  After finishing our annual medical appointments we left to spend a few days in Spokane where we celebrated Brenda’s birthday with good friends Ed and Dianna.  They are two of the many friends we made while volunteering at Farragut State Park across the border in Idaho. 
On our first summer their RV was parked across from ours, and each day I noticed a beautiful blond staring lovingly at me through their bedroom window.  My blond admirer turned out to be one of two beautiful standard poodles that Ed and Dianne owned, a slight blow to my ego.  During our three summers at Farragut, we were the park’s “program hosts”.  We led school hikes, put on evening programs, and conducted Junior Ranger classes on the weekends.  Three nights a week we entertained campers at the park amphitheater with nature films, interactive programs, and everyone’s favorite, “Bill Nye the Science Guy” videos.  We left Farragut with many fond memories of the staff, fellow volunteers, and the children that participated in our programs.

Farragut Volunteers

Learn About the Moose....Be the Moose!

From Spokane, we made the short trip along I-90 to the Silver Dollar Saloon and it’s free RV spots to meet and have dinner with Rob and Syd, who were volunteering for the Forest Service.  We met them while volunteering in Oregon at Humbug Mountain State Park.  There, we were Junior Ranger instructors and also taught campers about Seals and Sea Lions.  Teaching the kids was a true joy and we made many friends and explored the beautiful coast while in the area.

 

Learning About and Making Their Own Salamander

Then it was on to Missoula to celebrate Brenda’s 80^th birthday with our daughter Kim, our friends that we met at Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge 20 years ago, and friends Don and Betty who traveled from their summer home in Wyoming.  Kim had obtained a nice VRBO in the University District of Missoula, one of our favorite towns. 
We were joined at a local steakhouse by friends Deb and Bill, and Jim and Heidi, who we first met volunteering here, and had a memorable night celebrating both Brenda and Kim’s birthdays.  Kim put together a poster showing Brenda through the years, a great memento that hangs on our wall today.

It was a great celebration – we laughed, we told stories of our times together and once again made lifelong memories.

Had we not been lucky enough to have Lee Metcalf as our first volunteer location, it’s doubtful we would have continued to volunteer for the next 19 years.  The staff was welcoming, patient, and taught us to be “birders” and wildlife enthusiasts. 

We staffed the visitor center, led tours into the closed portion of the refuge, helped maintain the grounds, and I built displays and furniture.  Our time here gave us the inspiration to learn, explore, and share our knowledge of wildlife.

Lee Metcalf NWR in the Spring

Over the years, no trip through the area was complete without a stop in Missoula.  Our favorite event was “out to lunch” Wednesday, when venders and bands were set up along the river walk.  It was after one that we while walking back to our car we managed to make the front page of the Missoula Newspaper:

Saying goodbye, we traveled south down the Bitteroot Valley and into the Salmon River Valley.  Stay tuned for part 2 of our last summer on the road!

The Last Summer on the Road Part 2

 

Leaving Missoula, we traveled South down the Bitterroot Valley and made the seven mile climb over Lost Trail Pass into Idaho.  After a brief rest stop, we began the descent into the Salmon River Valley.  Slowly…..descending a six degree slope with hairpin turns and being pushed by over 34,000 pounds of metal can be harrowing.  At 30 MPH with the exhaust brake roaring we reached level ground and checked into Waters Edge RV Park, a nice park with sites backing up to the North Fork of the Salmon River.  This is a narrow and beautiful Valley, with mountains both east and west, and only small towns along the river.  The next day we backtracked to the tiny town of Gibbonsville and picked up a dirt road to the East.  We spent an hour or so climbing back out of the valley on multiple switchbacks through the forest until crossing back into Montana and the Big Hole Valley.  This is a beautiful place; a sparsely populated high valley (6000’) 20 miles wide and 75 miles long, home of some of the oldest cattle ranches in Montana. 

 

At the north end of the valley is the Big Hole Battlefield National Park.

In 1877 the Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, were attacked in the early morning in an attempt to stop their escape to Canada.  After many women and children were killed, the Nez Perce regrouped, captured the army’s howitzers, killed 29 soldiers, seriously wounded over 40, and held the soldiers in the forest while the women and children escaped.  The Nez Perce story is told in an informative visitor center and there are paths to the location of the Nez Perce village. 
In the lower parking lot next to the paths are shaded picnic tables – a good place to have lunch.

 

Back at our RV site, it was tempting to just stay there,
relax in a chair under the trees, and nap with the sound of the river right at your feet.  But there were places to explore, so:

 Sometimes we run across things we didn’t expect – like an Amish store we discovered on our travel to the Lewis & Clark Historic Trail. 

They had sandwiches on their home-made bread and local meats and cheese.  It was amusing to see that most of their merchandise came from the Walnut Creek Marketplace, a store we visited twice while in Sugarcreek, Ohio.  Stocked up with lunch, we headed up another dirt road into the Beaverhead range of the Bitterroot Mountains to intersect the route that Lewis and Clark took to cross the Continental Divide and enter what is now Idaho.  

 

Climbing from the valley into the forest, the dirt road
(which was in good condition) led us to the summit 2500’ above our starting point.  A horseshoe turn started us back down and to the Lemhi Pass marker, where there were information panels and picnic tables. 

After a windy lunch, we headed back down and after a little over an hour of travel, were back on the highway.  We never tire of visiting Lewis and Clark historic sites; their journey is simply beyond our ability to comprehend.  Imagine the struggle to reach the pass, only to look into the distance and see that there was an even higher mountain range in the distance.

Lewis and Clark Monument

Looking West from Lemhi Pass

Back on the valley floor, we stopped in Salmon for a visit to the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cutlural, and Education Center, a 71-acre park dedicated to the life of the Shoshone woman who was born in the area.  The centerpiece of the park is the beautiful bronze statue of Sacajawea holding her baby.

 

Next stop - Challis, the home of the Yankee fork.