The morning started with a visit to a Hobby Lobby and a Tandy Leather store before we visited El Rancho de las Golondrinas – the ranch of the swallows – now a living museum with buildings dating back to the 1700s. It was a stopping point along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road of the interior from Mexico City to New Mexico.

This ranch was a fort at one time and the residents lived and worked in rooms around the internal plaza.

In addition to the ranch buildings, a number of buildings from other locations were transported or rebuilt in a small village on the grounds. While walking to the village area we came across a bull snake. Not poisonous but an impressive 5 ft or so in length.

In the village we visited a blacksmith’s shop, a governor’s house, a mill and a chapel along with a pen housing goats.

We needed to be in Chama this evening so that we could ride the steam train tomorrow morning. We left in good time but encountered a bit of a delay when we picked up a bolt in the rear right tire at 4:30pm. The air was escaping the tire quickly, but our trusty new GPS located a tire shop 2kms down the road and they were able to fix the tire right away for $15. Thirty minutes later we were on the road and arrived Rio Chama RV Park. This campground is a short walk from the train station and is train themed.

We decided to walk to the train station to orient ourselves and had a great dinner and a beer on the patio at a restaurant in town.

After breakfast outside we we packed and moved across the street to our new campsite at Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Resort. We left Pepsi in the van for the day and walked to the bus stop to take the city bus #2 to downtown Santa Fe. We were let off early because the center part of the city was closed to most traffic because of a major native arts and crafts festival taking place this weekend.

Our walk to the famous plaza gave a good impression of Santa Fe as cultural and sophisticated city. We saw the Lensic performing arts centre and found a plaque that Billy the Kid was jailed for the last time in Santa Fe’s Cornell building. We walked by the original trading post from 1603 and were intrigued by the stores with beautiful pottery from different native tribes.

We enjoyed the surreal sound of a street musician who used a Swiss handpan instrument which almost sounded a string instrument.

Santa Fe has very elegant and super expensive stores that can be found in modern mall-like settings but also along the street and around the plaza.

Window shopping made us very hungry and we stopped for lunch at the La Fonda on the Plaza hotel and restaurant.

After lunch we explored a photography gallery in the hotel which sold well known photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Edouard Boubat among others.

Back on the street we visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which contains the oldest Madonna in New Mexico.

Next stop was the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and here we learned about Georgia’s life and art.

Our last stop for the day was in the Railyard district where we not only saw the Rail Runner train but also a number of native art booths that were set up for the weekend Indigenous Fine Art Market.

Many of the booths were already closed, but we were able to see a native fashion show.

Filled with lots of great impressions but very tired we took the city bus back to our campground and had a swim before going to bed.

The morning started with a scramble to check what the insurance would cover and a search for a place that could fix our lock. It turns out that we will have to file a claim against our home insurance because most of the items stolen are not permanent items in the RV. Only the GPS would qualify as would the repair of the lock itself.

We ended up taking the van to a Ace Auto Parts, a repair place that our friend Robert had recommended. They looked at it and told us they could fix it if we picked up the handle assembly from a Chevrolet dealer in town. The first dealer didn’t have it in stock, but found another dealer nearby that had the one and only assembly in Albuquerque. We drove to that dealer, told them the story and they graciously sold it to us at a discount. Back at Ace Auto Parts, the door trim was quickly removed, the part installed and the door trim put back and we were on our way.

We really missed our GPS unit as the one built into the radio on the van is definitely sub-standard. BestBuy came to the rescue and we bought a new Garmin unit. Happy again, we decided to continue our trip rather than head straight home.

We took the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. Along the way we saw remnants of some mining and some hip and artsy small towns.

In Santa Fe we found an interesting campground which combines RV sites with a 55+ community. You must be 21+ to stay at the campground. They have a great pool which was a wonderful way to relax after all the stress of the last two days.

The American RV Park provides a free continental breakfast and we definitely did not miss this opportunity.

We made it a very leisurely morning, taking care of some business and having a snooze before we headed off to see Albuquerque’s Old Town. There are a number of craft shops, galleries and boutiques here.

At the Plaza, we saw vendors and buildings in Pueblo style.

Another highlight was the San Felipi de Neri church, the oldest church in Albuquerque.

We had to take turns seeing the church because Pepsi wasn’t allowed in.

Time for a cold drink and some ice cream. We sat on the patio and struck up a conversation with two women who were also enjoying their ice cream and cold drinks.

Even Pepsi enjoyed a cold ice water and looked quite content.

The two women suggested we should not miss a photography gallery on the second floor. It turned out to be a photo collective of several artists who share a lovely space and we remembered the wonderful studio space we shared with some Studio 12 members in Hamilton and the Art Crawl shows we put on.

When we arrived back at the van we discovered that someone had broken into it and stolen our GPS, Ruth’s iPhone, Martin’s iPad and two of our cameras. The police arrived in good time and we filed a report. The police officer really took his time to help us and Martin searched for the serial numbers of the stolen items. With the side door lock punched out, we were a little worried we’d have another break-in so the police officer promised us that one of his colleagues would patrol the area we would be in and keep an eye on it.

We went out for dinner with our friend Robert and left Pepsi and the remaining valuables in his shop while we were gone.

We woke up to beautiful morning light at our campsite.

We got up, had breakfast and drove into a town that had transformed itself from an almost ghost town on Sunday night into an active commercial centre.

We didn’t make it far in Gallup. We parked at the visitor centre and walked across the street to First American Traders. This is a native arts and crafts store, both retail and wholesale.

We agonized for about two hours over a selection of pottery from different native tribes. Now we have problems using the bathroom in the van because there is a huge box wedged under the sink.

We needed to get some more cash and looked for an ATM. We’ve found that in the U.S. ATM machines are generally drive-through units and one needs to line up with the cars to use them.

Our next stop was Earl’s Family Restaurant. We had discovered this restaurant on our Route 66 trip in 2013 and wanted to visit again. One unique feature of this restaurant is that it allows native vendors to sell wares table to table that they or a close family member have made.

Now we booted it on I-40 to Albuquerque to meet-up with our neon sign making friend. We caught up on the last two years, had proscuitto sandwiches and then headed out to a New Mexican restaurant for delicious enchiladas with green sauce. It was a fun night.

We spent the night at the American RV Park on the west end of Albuquerque.

Note: Map track is approximate as GPS unit was lost. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post.