Travel Diary: 2023 Tour through New Mexico - Part 1

After more than a year, we’re finally getting around to continuing our blog! And, this is one I’ve kinda been struggling to put together. It’s taken some time for me to wanna revisit the breakdown of our VW Vanagon camper. It was an upsetting experience, to say the least. This multi-part blog entry chronicles our August 2023 road trip from our home in Louisville, Kentucky to New Mexico. Although our van broke down along the way, we still made THE MOST of our experience by renting a Toyota RAV4 for the week.

The trip began on a sweltering hot summer day—Friday, August 25, 2023. As usual, Becky & I left immediately after our work day and drove west a far as we could. We stopped to sleep for the evening at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Independence, Missouri, almost 11 hours from home. It was an extremely hot drive, averaging 95 F temps most of the way. We knew it would be a toasty sleep, so we had packed our Dyson fan from home and powered it with our Bluetti EB3A portable power station. The fan ran all night long and actually kept us VERY cool!

Adding yet another Cracker Barrel to our ever-growing list of boondocking spots.

The next day we woke early and hit the road immediately. Halfway through our day, we began to notice our van didn’t seem to have its usual power. We attributed that to the strong headwinds we were driving through in the Oklahoma panhandle. We had actually encountered the same winds during our last trip to New Mexico. As the afternoon went on, however, we also noticed some engine misfiring and an occasional knocking sound from the engine area accelerating onto the highway. She wouldn’t even accelerate past 55 mph at times. Something wasn’t right.

Our first stop in New Mexico was originally planned to be Capulin Volcano National Monument. With the van acting up, we decided it would be best to stop closer to a city in case we needed help. We set our sights on the historic artist colony of Taos. On the way, the van started driving even worse. The engine was now stalling at stops, too. We stopped in the town of Eagle Nest to give the van a break. While we were there, I decided to throw a Hail Mary and swap in a spare fuel pump we had onboard. Unfortunately, my work was in vain. There was no change in the van’s performance.

Las Petacas Campground in Carson National Forest.

After a break, we pressed on, eventually stopping just outside of Taos at Las Petacas Campground in Carson National Forest. It was only $14/night, and it was located right off the highway. A perfect spot to rest. Below is a quick tour of the place.

We woke up early on Sunday and made a little breakfast before driving into Taos to play tourist. How was the van running after sitting all night? Shitty. Same as before. We decided to drive her into town and see the sights in Taos before seriously thinking what we needed to do about the van. We wanted to have a little fun before facing a harsh reality.

We first paid a visit to San Francisco de Asís Mission Church, an 18th-century parish that is still active today. Fun fact: Every summer, the church & community re-plaster the church in adobe from top-to-bottom to keep it resilient to the elements.

Our first FUN stop of the road trip was San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Taos.

After parking the van at the church, we smelled fuel and noticed it was dripping on the ground. After a little tour of the church, we limped the van into a nearby O’Reilly Auto Parts. I crawled underneath and found a leaking rubber fuel hose. I bought a new section of hose and popped it on. Did it remedy our running problem? Nope, but at least we stopped the fuel leak.

Vanagon Life: always be ready for an impromptu repair! This time, it was a leaky fuel hose.

We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the Taos plaza admiring the adobe architecture. The village is filled with art galleries and shops. Not far from the plaza is the former home of Kit Carson, all-around American Frontier badass. If you're not familiar, look him up.

A cool sign at the Taos Inn.

Former home of Kit Carson, American bad ass and frontiersman.

World-famous New Mexico chile peppers.

We wrapped up the day with an authentic New Mexican meal at Michael's Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery. This included the best sopapillas we've ever had!

We returned to the van after some good times in Taos to face a harsh reality. We had to find a reliable auto shop to check out the van. Luckily, we found a shop called F.A.S.T. in nearby Santa Fe thanks to the Van Alert smartphone app. We had planned on visiting Santa Fe anyway, however, that was supposed be later in the week. The shop was closed on Sunday, so we decided to drive an hour south toward Santa Fe to find camp for the night before calling the shop first thing on Monday morning.

-Andrew

Part 2 coming very soon!