Where was the Come Back Y’all sign as we left Texas? But we were delighted to be welcomed into New Mexico. We must say that the roads were much better in Texas than New Mexico but not nearly as bad as Louisana.

We finally arrived at Santa Fe Skyes RV Park to find there were probably 30+ Airstream trailers that had gathered for a Airstream rally. Awesome.

We’re enjoying this RV park. Random outdoor art everywhere and an entire section dedicated to old mechanical items – farm equipment, vehicles, etc.

An old grader – beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

We went shopping for a hat for Margi and stumbled into the Montecristi Custom Hat Works shop where the cheapest hat was $1,000. The proprietor was very frendly and modeled Margi with a 200-year-old hat template that creates a stamp showing the head size of the user which is then used to custom make the customer’s hat.

Late afternoon sky in Santa Fe

Sunset. duh.

We may have mentioned earlier that I-20 west in Mississippi and all of Louisiana is in terrible condition. Much of the time we felt like we were on a bucking bronco, which eventually got the best of our 4WD system. The Dodge dash reported a “4wd serv”problem. When we arrived in Tyler TX Jim confirmed it. After searching the internet about the condition, Jim found this was a fairly common occurrence and clearly a design flaw for Dodge Ram trucks.

The problem is with the 4×4 Front Axle Locker Actuator. Rough roads can cause it to fail (thank you I-20). Jim went to the Dodge dealer in Tyler and found out that they would charge $800 for this strange-looking but clearly essential part, so he got online and ordered two (in case it happens again) for $80 (each) instead. He installed it himself.

We found a hat for Margi! Hand-woven from Ecuador, super light and summertime cool.

The turquoise and silver jewelry is amaaaazing.

Downtown Santa Fe by the central plaza.

We headed out of town to get up into the mountains a bit and discovered a beautiful state park quite by chance.

Stunning white birch trees were everywhere sharing space with tall pines.

We just can’t get enough Mexican food, so we dinnered at this gem, considered by tripadvisor to be one of the top ten Mexican restaurants in Santa Fe. Packed to the gills and a long wait to get in, but so worth it, plus had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful, friendly family from Iowa.

Oh Santa Fe.

A sunset drive south of Santa Fe took us to Madrid, an enchanting, if touristy, art village with one main street and lots to see, including this handsome musician and an old house sporting a brand new roof.

Down the road a couple of miles we found an even smaller village called Cerrillos, super quiet on a lazy Monday afternoon and not a person in sight. The old church was locked tight, but it stood as a beautiful centerpiece for the community.

The trading post looked like a super interesting place to check out, but since it was closed, we simply enjoyed the funky old things lying about, especially the cactus in this old broken down wagon.

The rock formations outside of Cerrillos are fascinating, especially the giant face rock, and who invited the Trojans??