Chaco Culture Historical Park to Alburquerque NM

Saturday, June 9, 2012 

We had pancakes for breakfast with bacon!  That is pretty good for the middle of nowhere.  I use the precooked bacon when traveling – I know it is not very good for you but one slice every other day or so is not too bad.  When traveling be sure to buy complete pancake mix so all you have to add is water…but a gas flame does not cook as evenly as an electric skillet…but they were good anyway. 

Our campsite had ruins nearby

 We packed up and were off to explore Pueblo Bonito in the cool of the morning. Ben is studying the T doors so he had to search around for them and measure them and take some compass readings….always the engineer and scientist. It was really quite pleasant at 9AM – it was pretty hot yesterday afternoon from 2 PM until about 3:30!  This really was a remarkable complex of buildings built between 800 and 1100 AD.  I enjoyed getting some photos when the light was less harsh than yesterday.  There was an archeology dig going on near Pueblo Bonito but we were unable to determine who was digging – probably a university. 

View - note the careful construction

Then it was time to leave Chaco – we were dreading the 15-20 miles of bad road – and the road out to the east was slightly different in that it was almost all washboard…no mesas to climb with large bumpy rocks – just miles and miles of washboard road… we made it with no damage to speak of. We continued down 550 towards Albuquerque. Nothing was very outstanding about the ride.  

15-20 miles of  bad road Leaving Chaco

Our Campsite in Albuquerque

We finally got cell coverage back south of Cuba NM and Jane began searching for an RV park.  We remembered two things we wanted to do in Albuquerque – things we had done on a previous trip.  Visit a junky pottery store and eat at a great Indian restaurant. Having the computer and the log of our trip back in 2002 – we found the names of both and they still were in business today so – we found a campground. Rested a while and then with the aid of  GPS – found both Jackalope Pottery and Indian Kitchen. Luck was with us and they were in the same part of this huge city!

Jackalope Pottery was not so great but Ben did find one frog – not what he had hoped for but a Mexican frog.  The Indian Kitchen was in same location – in fact celebrating their 30^th anniversary this year.  Jane had great food – Marsala Sauce with Chicken, Pinon nuts, Veggies, and Strawberry Chutney. Ben had beef with Peanuts and his was a bit hot. Strange because they told us they were both “3’s”  - don’t think so!  We were also able to locate a grocery in the same area and stock up on a few chili products. 

Chicken, Veggies, Pinon Nuts and Strawberry Chutney

Indian Appetizers

 Back at camp we were challenged to pack up for the rest of the trip – our 1500 miles between here and home. Got to put away all the Arizona and Indian Country stuff and hunt out the Texas and Oklahoma books I packed away about a month ago!!