Camping outside of Santa Fe

After the beautiful drive from Albuquerque, we stopped at a campsite several miles from Santa Fe. This is by far the best campsite we’ve stayed at so far. There was a nice little area for us to pitch our tent, park our care. It even had a table and a fire pit. There were also excellent showers and bathrooms. We arrived pretty early by our standards – 8:30pm, and we decided to set up camp and relax. We gathered some firewood and made a fire. I warmed up some chef boyardee ravioli (mmm) and Euge had butternut squash soup (mmm???). Euge was also kind enough to pick up some marshmallows, a chocolate bar and some graham crackers – all the ingredients for smores. We cracked open a couple of coronas and enjoyed the fire and the crystal clear night sky. After the coronas, we played around with Eugene’s camera using a long 15 second exposure and our flashlights.

Eugene’s Excerpt: Grandpa – i was thinking of you when i made the photograph of the Jewish Star.

Roswell to Albuquerque and Valley of Fire

On the road to Albuquerque we were finally able to drive on a long desolate desert road. Holding a hand out of the window to the blue blue sky made it seem somehow more vivid and real. It was a beautiful drive. Aleksey was enchanted by the infinite road, and we stopped to take plenty of pictures.

On the way we stopped by the “Valley of Fire,” a 44 mile long, in places 165 feet deep, 5,000 year old lava flow. It was a short hike that proved to be interesting.

From there we continued until we reached a traditional family-owned Mexican restaurant, whose recipes were passed down through 3 generations. Aleksey had a combo platter which he claims ended up melting into itself – so telling it apart was no easy task for the untrained eye. I had an enchilada style Burrito with cheese which was DELICIOUS.

We finally arrived in Albuquerque only to be terribly disappointed by a boring and uneventful stay, in an area that seemed to mirror our experience. Aleksey had a NY Style slice of Pizza – his evaluation: good, but not as good as a real NY slice of Pizza.

Roswell, NM

What can we say? Three alien gift stores and a saucer shaped McDonalds. Bye Roswell.