We know that at the Balloon Festival there will be no hookups and crowded, so we wanted a place to fill our water and clean out tanks prior to getting there. Las Vegas, NM was fairly close to Albuquerque so I thought that would make a nice stop prior to the Festival. The campground was actually about 45 minutes away from town. It was a pretty nice campground – in a pine forest, decent hookups, but out in the middle of nowhere. We spent 6 days here – within 30 miles there was 1 restaurant (open part time), a golf course (we don’t golf), and that was it.
Another reason I picked here to stay at was Marsha and I got hooked on the Longmire Series. Although it takes place in the Buffalo, Wy area, it was filmed here in Las Vegas. So of course Marsha and I had to go into town to see the Plaza Hotel and the Plaza on which Longmire was frequently seen.
The history of this area is cool – was actually larger than Albuquerque and richer than Santa Fe. It seems to be dying now, but it was right on the Santa Fe Trail (goods transport from Missouri to Santa Fe). Lots of historical hotels, train stations, buildings and I hope someone with money can revitalize the area.
Over the hill we found an Alpaca Farm. This woman has had it for 26 years but is getting to be too much for her now – it’s for sale if you are interested. We took the tour and got to feed a group of them. All as cute as can be. Marsha bought some yarn in hopes of making something – if you see me wearing a colorful sweater you know she did it.
Down the road from the Alpaca Farm was another old farm – a raspberry farm and BBQ lunch place. Not much else around so we partook in a great brisket sandwich but passed on the raspberry ice cream. You could pick your own here but when we looked, it definitely was the end of the season and the garden looked very picked over. But a cool area none the less.
So we did a lot of hanging out, exploring the roads, taking care of business (mail, laundry, banking, Walmart stocking up). Internet was intermittent so we tried to get caught up on the blog, but still had issues connecting.
So with some excitement, we got ready to take off for Albuquerque to be part of the Balloon Festival.