Fort Union and Labor Day Weekend

We did get an early start since we were both upset with the Cedar Rail RV Park. Fortunately we didn't have a long drive.

We took our time and stopped at several rest areas along the way. At one of the stops we read a historical marker about the Fort Union Historical Monument. I jumped on the computer and it sounded like a very interesting place.


It was only 8 miles off of our route and we had plenty of time, so detour time!


We spent two hours wandering around the ruins of what was once the largest fort west of the Mississippi. This was the remains of the Officers Row.

Some restoration has been done but mostly imagination is required to visualize life on this post that was established to protect the travelers along the Santa Fe Trail and act as a supply depot. This was the prison.

The ruts of the Santa Fe Trail are still visible. In fact, the flagstone walkway that was built to the hospital has steps down to accommodate the path of the traveling wagons.

The hospital was built for the soldiers but for 50 cents a day civilians traveling through were also allowed to receive medical attention.

It was a nice break in the day and we arrived in Albuquerque in the middle of rush hour. Ooops!


We found our rv park easily and it was much more pleasant than the last dump. Enchanted Trails RV Park is an older park but fit our needs perfectly.


Being the day before the long Labor Day weekend, we were afraid that the park would be full and noisy. To our surprise we had plenty of room and nice neighbors. Hmmm......

Driving Through Colorado

We decided to spend a couple more days in Lingle, WY while we plotted our trip south. There was a nice rock shop that Doug wanted to visit and we just were feeling like some down time. And that's what we did.

So, after spending hours with maps and guide books and campground books, we chose to just climb in the coach on Wednesday and drive. Let the chips fall where they may. I have been feeling anxious (for some unknown reason) to get back to the southwest.


Our plan was to find some place to stay in the middle of Colorado then head for Albuquerque. It was an easy drive through Cheyenne and across the Colorado border.
The scenery was pretty until we got to Denver. Typical big city, but it was fun to see the home of the Denver Broncos even though we aren't huge football fans.

Continuing on, we never found any place to stop that appealed to us and next thing we knew......we were in New Mexico. Barely.

We stopped for the night at a park at the top of Raton Pass called Cedar Rail RV Park. What a joke!


They parked us next to a cliff alongside the road going through the park. We were afraid to put the awning out since there was so much traffic going by us. There was absolutely no Verizon phone service and I was told on the phone that they provided wifi. When we got to the park we were informed that we were limited to 25 mb of wifi. We can go through that in an hour!

And to add injury to insult, it was the most we have paid for a night's parking all year. Obviously we won't be returning and certainly would never recommend the place.

We'll be out of here early!