New Mexico Road Trip 2021: Part 2

On the third day of our road trip, we left Texas and made it to New Mexico. One of the neatest parts of this trip was watching how the landscape slowly changed. Texas is big and beautiful!

Day 3:

It had been 102 degrees when we arrived in Amarillo, but a cold front came in overnight and the temperatures dropped 50 degrees. It was cold and very windy when we left Amarillo and went to Cadillac Ranch. We didn't paint the Cadillacs, but it was a fun, quick stop on our way out of town.

We stopped on the side of the road to take some pictures because the Panhandle landscape was just so beautiful.

And then we made it to New Mexico! Our big outing was to Capulin Volcano National Monument, which is an extinct cinder cone volcano in northeastern New Mexico.

The fog was very dense, even at the base of the volcano, and just got denser the further up we went, but at least it wasn't hot. It had been 95 degrees the day before.

We stopped to get a new National Parks pass and picked up some other goodies, like this sweatshirt that Henry lived in for the rest of our vacation!

We had stopped at a grocery store before we even left Texas, so we had a picnic lunch at the park. It was so cold that we had to dig out our winter coats!

And then we hiked the one-mile Lava Flow Trail at the base of the volcano. It was so foggy!

After the short hike, we drove up the volcano (which was pretty scary because of the fog) to hike the one-mile Crater Rim Trail. Once we got to the top, Will decided to stay in the car, but the rest of us hiked around the rim.

Later in the summer, clusters of ladybugs gather at the top of the volcano, but we only saw one ladybug when we were there.

The fog was intense! We literally couldn't see anything.

At one point, Henry laid down in the middle of the trail, unwilling to go on!

But he made it, and about 2/3 of the way through, the skies cleared up and we had beautiful views of the valley and down into the crater.

So much happier!

Crater views

After the volcano, we stopped in Cimarron for a coffee/ice cream break at Hiker's Coffe Co.  

One more hour in the car, and we made it to our cabin in Angel Fire!

Dinner at a local pizza place that specialized in Detroit-style pizza.

Day 4:

We had the best view from our cabin, overlooking a meadow. This is the sight that greeted me each morning.  

We were all up early because we had gained an hour. The birds were also awake and singing by 5am. We decided to hike the nearby Oeste Vista Trail, which was supposed to be about 2 1/2 miles but was more like 4 miles, with about 600 feet of elevation gain.

It was a really beautiful trail, and we got such an early start that we didn't encounter many people.

After our hike, we came home for lunch and some downtime. Gene did some sketching on the back porch.

We must've been full of energy, because we decided to do another quick hike, just one mile around Monte Verde Lake.

We saw geese and their babies, who were not happy because some teenagers were chasing them on the trail.

New Mexico is really beautiful!

It was a long day with lots of physical activity, so Henry crashed on the recliner when we got back home.

We don't love going out to dinner on vacation and would much rather come home and whip up a quick meal, and that's exactly what we did for most of our trip. This was a chicken pesto pasta with aspargus.

And we ended our day with some relaxing time in the hot tub. 

Angel Fire was exactly what we wanted for this trip -- cooler weather with lots of time in the great outdoors.  

New Mexico Road Trip 2021: Part 1

We got to go on vacation this year! We didn't go anywhere in 2020 because of Covid, but this year, we planned a road trip to the mountains of New Mexico, which felt like something we could do fairly safely, even in light of a global pandemic. Lucky for us, vaccinations for 12+ were approved in May, and all of us were fully vaccinated before we left on our trip in mid-June. While the pandemic is far from over and the boys and I still prefer to mask up when inside, it did mean we could enjoy restaurants and feel a little safer overall. And we did have a really great trip!

DAY 1:

We've never done a long road trip before, but it was really nice to load up the car with everything we needed. Ready to go!

We are not fans of driving all day, so we purposely broke up the 14.5 hour drive into three segments. On day one, we drove to Fort Worth via Waco.

Did you know that Dr. Pepper was created in Waco? I'd been to the Dr. Pepper Museum years ago, but Gene and the boys had never been. It was really fun and we learned a lot about the history of fizzy drinks.  

Complimentary Dr. Pepper sodas at the end of our visit!

When we finished touring the museum, it was lunchtime, so we found a Mexican restaurant nearby (Hecho en Waco) and had a great meal. The boys found an armadillo sculpture outside and promptly named it Digby. 

And then we walked a few blocks to Fabled Bookshop, which was pretty high on my list of places to visit!

It is the cutest bookshop! The entrance to the children's section is through the wardrobe doors, which is adorable. 

We came away with three books, a new travel mug and some tea for Henry. 

Then we drove on to Fort Worth, where we had dinner at Braum's, which is an Oklahoma store/fast casual restaurant. We'd never even heard of Braum's until two of my coworkers raved about it, and we knew we had to try it out when we were in north Texas. It was great for a quick dinner.

DAY 2:  

On this trip, we decided to stop at all the kitschy roadside attractions we could find, to break up the time and make it a little more fun. So, on day 2, we stopped by Decatur, Texas to see the mural and dice sculpture.  

The phrase "eighter from Decatur" originated here, which is why there's a dice sculpture in town. Apparently, a local named Will Cooper would place dice with his sweetheart next to him, shouting "Ada from Decatur, county seat of Wise" for luck. Soon, that became "eighter from Decatur," which caught on when people needed to throw an eight. Who knew??

We went around the corner to a cute coffee shop and got coffees and pastries to go.

Wise County Courthouse

Our last stop in Decatur was the Petrified Wood gas station. Built in 1927, the owner covered it in petrified wood eight years later.

Next, we went to Wichita Falls, were we took a short detour to see the largest shovel in Texas.

Also in Wichita Falls, we went to see the World's Littlest Skyscraper. Built in 1919, the town paid $200,000 for what they thought would be a 480-foot skyscraper, but the plans created by J.D. McMahon were for a four-story, 480-INCH tall building, which  is what was built. The town was swindled but now it's an attraction worth a quick stop.

We stopped in Chillicothe and saw a Rubik's cube sculpture,

and then took a quick break at a rest stop.

The sign says to watch for rattlesnakes, but we didn't see any!

We saw lots of wind turbines in the Panhandle.

And then we rolled in to Amarillo, where it was 102 degrees! It was Father's Day, so we went out to a steakhouse for dinner with our favorite dad!

Part 2 of our road trip up soon!