Abiquiu, the Apache Nation, and American Big Box Stores

We left Santa Fe and drove north along a scenic road west of Taos through Georgia O'keefe country. Around Abiquiu, at the Ghost Ranch where she lived out the later part of her life, the landscape is instantly recognizable from her many paintings of the area. The red rock cliffs and the river here are stunningly beautiful. Shortly after that the cliffs and rock faces give way to a high plateau that gradually climbs to 8,000 feet. We stopped at Chama where there were large areas of snow still on the ground and then headed south through the Apache reservation. This is an area of scattered rock formations, horse ranches, and old pick-up trucks that feels as if it's from another century. Then after more than 200 miles of being on back roads we arrived in Farmington, New Mexico, a prosperous city that seems to be in the centre of nowhere.

Farmington was a bit of a surprise. When we looked it up we saw just one RV listing called "Mom and Pops RV park." It was just off highway 64 in an old industrial area and didn't look that appealing. So we checked in our road atlas to see if there was by any chance a Walmart where we could camp. Sure enough there was a listing, which turned out to be five miles away. We drove the five miles through freeways loaded with chain restaurants and big box stores of every kind--all of them shiny and new. So here we are doing Walmart camping again, along with a few other rigs of varying sizes. We found that the Walmart Superstores are the perfect place to stock up for camping. They have everything we need, from dog food to stick-on hooks, to underwear--and in New Mexico they even sell a passably good California Chardonnay for $2.97.

Now we're stocked up and ready to reach the Grand Canyon tomorrow. The weather forecast doesn't look too bad (in the 50s during the day and down to freezing at night) so I think we can handle it.