About the only similarity between these two communities, is a ‘desert-like’ terrain, and even that isn’t quite the same. Before I departed ‘Vegas’ in New Mexico, I did ‘gamble’. $3 for a Powerball ticket through a vending machine inside Walmart. Did my ‘Luck’ change from my ‘Luck in Southern Nevada? I’ll tell you later.
That purchase along with Squirty’s favorite breakfast burritos, a tankard of coffee, and a full tank of gas for the Beast, and we hit the road again. Our destination eventually would be Espanola. We weren’t too far down I-25 before I saw a sign to take the next exit for Valanzuela State Park. This was one of the State Parks I had logged as a possible for me to stay at next month, so I decided to exit, and check it out.
Thankfully, there was a warning sign before I committed to taking that little road too far, and a turnout big enough to make a U-Turn. It said that the next 29 miles would have narrow, tight switchbacks… And I’ve already learned that lesson. No Thanks. We were back on the Interstate in less than 5 minutes.
Not long after that, another sign caught my attention. This one was for a National Historical Park run by The National Park Service.
I exited, and drove the short four miles down the excellent road, pulled into the lot that did have some construction workers trying to improve the parking area and there were a number of other ‘visitors’ already there. The facility was nice, staffed by several Rangers, who were getting set to conduct a guided tour of the grounds, something I opted not to do. Squirty wouldn’t have been social able for the others to enjoy. I did check out the center for a few minutes though.
Leaving the parking area, the sign made it clear I couldn’t go back the way I came, as that would take me to I-25 North, and I would have to go the other direction to hit I-25 South, toward Sante Fe and Espanola. The road was quite scenic and a lot longer than the 4 miles to the Park.
We eventually hit Sante Fe, and it was a much larger city than what I remembered from my time in the 70s. Congested, traffic, and a much more developed city. I must say, the roads were in pretty good shape and I didn’t get lost or take the wrong turn at the wrong time.
Espanola came into view, and we found our Walmart destination for that night. We set up right where they said to, and needed to get the generator fired up as it was in the 90s and Lil Red was an oven inside.
Got some work done before dinner, and took Squirty for several walks, although, there were no ‘grassy knolls’ to do her thing… nothing but colored pebbles in all the usual places where grass would be. She’s learning to ‘improvise’. Not happy about it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
It wasn’t a peaceful night later though. Seems the Walmart parking lot is a popular place to rev up engines, cars, trucks, motorcycles, didn’t matter, and it carried on well past when they closed the doors.
I took the occasion to check my phone to see if my bank would be getting a huge deposit thanks to the Powerball ticket purchased earlier.
Well… let’s just say, my ‘gamblin’ luck’ hasn’t changed. What was spent in ‘Vegas’ stayed in ‘Vegas’. and there will be no shiny new Rig anytime soon.
