Ah. The Land of Enchantment. We’d finally arrived in New Mexico… and the landscape was unreal! As we entered the city of Albuquerque, I felt like I was in some sort of fake fantasy town. Like I was driving through a Grand Theft Auto map.

Maybe it was because I’d only seen a place like this before ON video games or TV. At first I couldn’t really take the city seriously. The roads were super rough to drive on. The lanes didn’t seem very intuitive. There were tons of billboards for lawyers, insurance agents, etc. and they all looked so ridiculous and over the top.

Maybe it was all of those episodes of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fogging my judgement. Plus, it looked so different from what I’d seen on TV. The city was way bigger than I thought it would be. And there was this huge mountain that you could see from pretty much any point in the town. It looked unreal. Almost “digital”.

Combine that with the extremely common sightings of late model “lowriders”, 50 mph wind gusts that blast sand into your eyes and mouth and empty syringes on the side of the road… yeah. It was hard to take ABQ seriously.

One paint job away from Cap’n Cook…

We opted to stay just west of the city at Enchanted Trails RV Park which seemed to be a really nice place! The weekly rate was amazing (one of our cheapest stays yet!) and we were excited to save a little money as we planned to hang out here for at least a couple of weeks.

And although the campground was pretty nice overall, we weren’t big fans of the setup. The pull through sites are alternated, meaning your sewer side faces a neighbor’s sewer side, while your party side faces a neighbor’s party side. A.K.A. no privacy on the party side. Plus, our next door neighbors somehow confused their old mops, brooms, shoes and toys for outdoor decor… so we had an awesome view every time we glanced outside 👍

But the weather was great with amazing visibility and the area offered beautiful scenery overall. If only there was a better place to stay… 🤔