The Longdogs

The Longdogs
Gretchen, Willy, and Harley have all taken their roles as navigator seriously! Now it's Xena's turn with guidance from her role models.

2026-9-18 Enchanted Trail and the 66 Diner TRR RR Stop 4

 Everyone arrived at Stop 4 of our Rolling Rally at Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post in Albuquerque NM by early afternoon.


The office and trading post.

The sites are level and gravel with full hookups or you can choose a water and electric site only if you would like.

They have the usual amenities like pool, hot tub, rally room, restrooms, TV room, and even a laundry. They also have some unusual sites like this hubcap tree. Considering how bad I-40 is, I'm sure they didn't have trouble finding them. I lost a front hubcap on my RV on the way here.

The park gave us a very nice rally rate but the really unusual part of this RV park in addition to the trading post is the display of antique trailers. The office gave me the keys to all of them so our Meet and Greet was a tour of the trailers. Such fun.


If you were looking for a much smaller trailer to tow behind a car like this, here you go.



Or if you were a full-timer, this might have been more your style.

Anne could picture herself living in this one.


Airstreams were just as popular back in the day.



All set to take off on Route 66.

Everyone was now ready to eat and what better place than the nostalgic 66 Diner.

We definitely wanted to get our kicks on Route 66.

Lots of great choices on the menu here.



They even have an old fashioned outside menu.
I should mention that if you join their Route 66 club, you get a coupon for an old fashioned milkshake the next day i your email. Just saying in case you pass through Albuquerque. And, be sure you plan to have it there because they bring it in the big metal container which fills the soda glass about 1 1/2 times. You can always get a to-go cup if you can't finish it.

Nostalgic sign display out front.


Back at camp, we were treated so some beautiful sunset views.



This wasn't my first time at this park and it won't be my last.

2026-9-17 Clovis Point TRR RR Stop 3

 This is a very short post. It was very difficult to find a stopping point on the way to Albuquerque that actually had sites for over 10 people. Most are small towns and can take a couple of RVs in addition to fulltimers. We had 14 women at this stop. We stayed at Clovis Point RV Park. They had just added a new section so they could fit us. Definitely not a destination stop but the manager was very helpful once we got in touch with her after arrival. She was young and rode around the park on a OneWheel which my husband and son would have loved. 




A few women went out to dinner. Others just wanted to rest up for the next days travel to Albuquerque.
          




2026-9-16 Caprock Canyon Day 4 TRR RR Stop 2

 Interpretive Ranger Natalie was so nice when I planned this rally that she agreed to do a coffee and a second day of activities with us. This time we were doing watercolor painting on bookmarks.

She had all the watercolor paint sets, practice paper, and bookmarks ready for us. We had coffee while she demonstrated several techniques for different strokes for us and let us practice them.

Breaking down flowers into individual strokes made it much easier to learn.


Once you did some practice runs you were ready to try a bookmark. She told us that if we really like some flowers we did on the practice sheet, we could cut them out and put them on the bookmark. Using a fine pen to make some strokes on the flowers really made a difference to some that might not have looked great to start.

The final step was to laminate the bookmarks. Ranger Natalie had to leave before we were done as she had a sick kid at home but another ranger stepped in to help with laminating. we really missed Natalie as she was definitely the expert at the process.

We headed into town for another event but we ran into a traffic jam. we waited patiently but finally had to call for a ranger to bring her flag pole as a couple of bison were just not going to move out of the middle of the road. Just like a bunch of giant kids.
                                      
    
In the afternoon we were lucky enough to have the Comanchero Canyons Museum open up just for us. Usually they are only open Saturdays. We got a guided tour.





I almost forgot to mention that we had a big potluck dinner back at the campsite. Somehow I was too busy putting things together to get any pictures of that but, needless to say, no one left hungry. We had a great selection of dishes as I put out a message so everyone could say what they planned to bring so that we didn't get 20 desserts and no main or vegetable dishes. It was all yummy. we have some good cooks.

This little guy didn't come to dinner but they are always fun to watch in their huge prairie dog town. We had to bid him goodbye as we head out in the morning to our very short stop in Clovis NM.


2026-9-15 Caprock Canyon Day 3 TRR RR Stop 2

 On Day 3 at Caprock Canyon, I was able to arrange a special event. Ranger Natalie invited us to the Ranger's Office for morning coffee and a demonstration on how to  prepare and weave Yucca leaves.


This is the Yucca plant. Ranger Natalie collected the leaves outside the park and had already soaked them down. The native Indians used the Yucca for many things. They braided the fibers and then wove them into baskets or rope for example.

This was fun but hard work to beat the leaves with a rock to remove all the pulpy part and leave only the fibers. Then you braid the fibers. Ultimately you could then weave the braids into a basket or make rope. It was fun but I don't think I would have been very good at processing enough to make a basket or rope.


The view from the Ranger's station is beautiful.

Next we headed back to my campsite where our very own Olivia Dyer demonstrated how to stencil your chairs or, for those that had already done their chairs, she brought cloth bags for them to stencil. there is a little creative artist in everyone.

Olivia has a large collection of stencils and the right paint to stencil with. Everyone had to be reminded that less paint on the sponge was best so it wouldn't run.

Elaine had done the back of her chair at a previous event but it turns out that doing the front is a good idea so you can recognize your chair from any direction.

Next we headed into Quitaque for lunch. No we did not go to the country club. I think this may be a joke as Quitaque is very small.

Remember when we had lunch at the Bison Cafe as Plan B. Well, today we were supposed have lunch at the Bison Cafe but we went with Plan B again which was to have lunch at the Coffee Mill and Mercantile.

You order your sandwich and drink up front and then have time to look around at all the merchandize they have. Many items are made by locals.


The shopping is fun and the food is great. They have a huge variety of sandwiches and drinks to choose from and they bring it out to your table.

Later in the evening we got a little rain.

Bur fortunately no storms. I made sure that everyone knew to head for the bathroom if the ranger drove through the camping area with a bullhorn. It happened the last time we had a rally there.
 
Another great day with friends old and new.