Travel Diary: 2023 Tour through New Mexico - Part 4
We came out of our morning meeting with the owner of F.A.S.T. Foreign Auto with the decision to leave our Vanagon at the shop. We all agreed that a new (used) engine was the best way to proceed. It wasn't really a tough decision to leave it there, though. Again, from the very first phone call, we knew this shop was the right place for her. They asked all the right questions and made us feel very comfortable. Not only were there a number of Vanagon's in their lot used for parts, but the owner actually drives a Club Joker Vanagon imported from Europe! Our van couldn’t have been in a better place.
Now, the next step was to rent a vehicle and transfer the necessities from the van. The adventure was still on! We were finishing our roadtrip, dammit! We ended up renting a Toyota RAV4 with all-wheel-drive (It ended up being a great vehicle to explore all the gravel & dirt roads). It was the perfect size to hold everything we needed to venture on with our Tour de New Mexico. As far as sleeping arrangements go, thankfully we had brought our backpacking tent with us. ALWAYS have a plan B, especially, if you're driving a Vanagon, lol.
Going from our very special Brakayla…
…to a not-so-special basic Toyota RAV4.
We picked up our rental at the Santa Fe Airport, and transferred all the necessities from the Vanagon to the RAV4. Apart from a cabinets to keep our things organized, the biggest thing we would end up missing from our rental vehicle was a refrigerator. Since it was early in our trip, we still had a fridge full of perishable food. Thankfully, we always keep an ICEMULE Cooler in the van for a backup. Once we got everything transferred, we dropped the van off at the shop and said goodbye. There were a few other things we would need to make our roadtrip more comfortable, so we paid a visit to REI before heading north from Santa Fe.
Thank the stars we always keep a collapsible cooler on hand!!
Our route took us through Santa Fe National Forest, up into the Jemez Mountains and back down into San Diego Canyon where we made camp. Along the way, we drove through the Los Alamos National Laboratory. That’s where the first atomic bomb was developed. The area is still highly restricted. We also had to drive through a gate and show ID just to get through town!
This big spot gave us plenty of space to get all of our gear organized.
We arrived at Vista Linda Campground ($10/night) in the early afternoon. This U.S. National Forest-run campground was right off the road tucked in at the bottom of San Diego Canyon. Our site was right on the Jemez River, which apparently is great for fishing if that's your thing. Getting to camp early gave us time to unload all of our gear/food & get it reorganized before dark. We also unpacked our tent for the first time in a VERY long time. IT NEEDED SOME AIRING OUT, OMG!! We have a very bad habit of putting gear away without cleaning it.
Back to our roots of tent-camping! Gotta love those MPOWERD Luci Site Lights!
Becky with a sad look on her face, missing Brakayla.
THE SUNSET! The colors of the sky during sunset there were indescribable, and quite impossible to really capture with a camera. We saw every possible shade of orange, yellow & red that evening. For a few minutes, the sun bouncing off the red rock of the canyon made the sky look as if it was on fire! We had never seen anything like it.
After watching a movie under the stars, we settled into our tent and enjoyed a peaceful night of sleep next to the river. We planned on FINALLY doing some real adventuring the next day!
Part 5 coming soon.
-Andrew