All roads lead us to Santa Fe! Octo 28 - Oct 31st

We're on the road from Taos shortly after 9am. I called Santa Fe Skies RV Park and am able to check in 3 days early. Whew. Good spot to wait for the cold and possible snow skiff weather. The main thing here will be the cold morning temps of 25F which is like -4 C. Burrrr. Nice to be plugged in.

Today's a beautiful day with temps up to 64F, although a bit breezy. We arrived just before 11 am and our site is vacant, so we moved right in. After minimal setup, plugging in the power, we took off to expore the Downtown Historic Plaza. Unbeknowst to us, they're celebrating the Day of the Dead. Lots of people in the plaza ready for the performances later today. Lots of face painting etc. We were fortunate to find a parking spot in the lot near the plaza. The plaza area is over 400 years old.

After walking through the park, we headed down one of the streets to view all the cute artisan shops along the way. 

Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

Museum of Contemporary Indian Arts

Little Plaza's among the Big Plaza between shops.

We went to The Shed Restaurant and put our name in for a reservation, and would have an hour's wait. We were told back in Durango that this is a place to go to for authentic New Mexico Cuisine.

Great margarita's and non-alcoholic cocktails.

After a wonderful lunch, we continued to see a few stores before it's time to go back to the car before our time ran out on our parking voucher. A great day.

Back home we sat outside for an hour until the sun went behind some clouds. Our site W1.

This is a bottle tree art display here at the rv park. They have quite a few sculptures everywhere here.

A lovely sunset tonight, evidence that the cold front is almost here.

Sunday we both woke up early, Ray at 4 am and me at 4:45! The wind overnight was pretty gusty and our slide toppers banged all night. A very blustery morning. It will be a chore day today.  Ray's requested bread and pork belly in the InstantPot. :)

By 9am it actually dropped a degree in temp, with the wind 3C or 37F. Definitely cold outside. Nice and warm inside though. At 10 am we headed out to pick up our 300A fuses from Home Depot that are waiting for us. Next up, breakfast at Crepas-Oh. One of the top breakfast restaurants in our area. Wow, the review were correct. Ray ordered a Bananas Foster Crepe and I the Dulce de Leche French Toast stuffed with fresh fruit. Both were delicious.

After our delicious breakfast, it's time to do a little grocery shopping at Walmart. I also popped into Kohl's to finish up my Christmas shopping for Kristi. :)

Back home by 1 pm it's time to make bread, get dinner ready and keep the laundry going. Oh, I also gave Ray a much needed haircut. :) The wind really picked up in the afternoon, a good day to hunker down. We even viewed a few snow crystals fly.

We woke up at 5:30 am. We managed to maintain the temp in the MH to 58F all night with the electric heater and rear furnace turned to 58F. The front one has gone kaput. No snow on the ground, but cold at 25F. The basement registers at 30F so good think we brought our beer inside into the living area. I think the front furnace is the one that provides heat to the basement.

We managed to contact an RV Tech to come and look at it this morning. We drove to their shop and caught them before they got busy with something else. They believe it to be the computer board and will wonders never cease..... have one in stock. Action R & V RV Repairs.

Well they came, and said there's fluff on the sail switch contact, they jiggled it and then the furnace worked at that moment. Ray asked them take a look at our inverter/power situation. That's when things went downhill. Ray took out the inverter's small fuse to show them to see if they had a spare .... somehow this initiated a huge spark which shut the whole system down. It shouldn't spark as it's meant to slide in and out. We now have no shore power. They did a bunch of testing and half the breakers are not getting any power at all. The two GFI plugs were tripped as well. And.... the front furnace is not working again! They said we need a new inverter and suggested a place in Albuqueque that works with inverters, Rocky Mountain RV and Marine. Ray changed the 300amp fuse again to see if that would help. NOPE! He then plugged the fridge in to the power post directly to take the load off the inverter. 

After they left us with that "good news" we called a few places regarding repairs. While waiting for call backs, we headed into Santa Fe to visit the International Folk Art Museum. What an interesting display. There is a large wing with the permanent display of contemporary folk art. There are three more wings with revolving displays. Today these displays are Arcric Parkas', Mexican Day of the Dead and Japanese Ghosts and Demons.

The Arctic Parka Exhibit

Walrus tusk with etchings of a celebration

Contemporary Art From Around The World

These things are amazing, so detailed with the hand painting.

Depiction of Inferno (a comedy) by Dante

What a beautiful quilt top left

The "Day of the Dead", Dia de los Muertos, exhibit

The exhibit is the Ghosts and Demons of Japan.

They also have a haunted room full of scary creatures screaming and pressurized air coming out unexpectedly ... definitely a Halloween theme.

There are hundreds more pictures we could have taken lol. Driving down the road from the International Folk Art Museum are these statues so Ray jumped out for a few pictures. Journey's End Marking the end of the Santa Fe Trail. This the physical location of the trail's end.

Another stop on Ray's "list" is the  Kakawa Chocolate House. They specialize in homemade hot chocolate and chocolates... right up Ray's alley. Instead of a flight of beer, he ordered a flight of hot chocolate. Too sweet for me, but Ray really enjoyed the experience.

A very tiny place. We managed to get the last table.

After the chocolate adventure, Ray took me to Taos Brewing, a short distance away, so we could have a bite to eat and I a beer. We originally thought  this is a brew pub, but it wasn't. Our shrimp tacos were good though. This statue is beside the pub.

Back home to get ready for the night. Our inverter worked enough to run normal things inside, but was not charging the batteries. When the sun started to go down and off the solar panels, we had to turn the inverter off. Ray ran another extension cord through the kitchen window to the empty spot beside us utilizing that 20amp plug. We used that power for lamps, charging station for our phones and laptops and our coffee maker. We also got out our Big Buddy propane heater so we would stay warm overnight. What a pain in the butt.

I started putting in calls at 4 pm to 6 pm to a place in Phoenix where Ray first thought we should go, but after 2 hours of leaving messages and no response back I will try Albuquerque tomorrow morning. So our plans are definitely up in the air until we find a place to get this fixed.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a balmy 54F inside. Ray got up first and turned up the propane heater and turned on one of the electric heaters plugged in to the extension cord. Thankfully we are warm with it being 25F outside.

At 8 am I'm back on the phone again to find someone to help us. The Rocky Mountain people don't deal with motorhomes!  I never did hear from the other place in Phoenix. I managed to contact La Mesa in Albuquerque and now have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9am thankfully. Then where to stay. I  to managed to find a site at Enchanted Trails RV park in Albuequeque, which is almost next door to La Mesa. One of their last sites available with only 30 amp service. I told the lady it didn't matter as we had no shore power and would have to adapt down to 15 amp anyways. lol

We packed up right after that and Santa Fe Skies gave us our money back for the days left on our reservation. Thank you! So, see ya later Santa Fe. There's still so much on Ray's list to see, so we will definitely have to plan to come back another time. 

We pulled into Enchanted Trails  RV Park and Trading Post (on old Route 66) shortly after 11 am. We didn't bother setting up as we were waiting for a call back from Victron Inverters to see if they have any in stock. This is Ray's preferred replacement and whether they wanted to see our motorhome and possibly install it themselves. While waiting, we went out for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Our first time trying out this franchise .... their sauces were delicious but their wings were way overcooked and dry. Oh well, we felt better and headed back home. Jordon, who is the Victron dealer, called us back. Yes, they have a unit in stock but would prefer La Mesa to sort out our electrical problems and just sell us the inverter to us for them to install. We shall see what they have to say tomorrow. If not he can take us in three days from now. 

For now, we are set up again with power cords running everywhere, and the fridge plugged directly into the power pole. We went to Camping World, next door, and got a 30amp down to 15 amp to plug it in. Big Buddy is ready to go for tonight once the sun goes down and we turned off the inverter. Front furnace does not work either so I suspect the computer board. Having the technician come in Santa Fe only cost us money and nothing got fixed! Hopefully these problems can all be solved tomorrow. At this point we are reserved here until Saturday morning. We shall see how long all this will take.

Fortunately we have gas for cooking, which is not affected and hot water for showering. Ray complied a substantial list of things to see here, so we will be occupied while the MH is being fixed. :)

Fingers crossed this all get solved tomorrow. HAPPY HALLOWEEN