Father's Day Weekend in Red River

A scenic drive, a small mountain town, and a comfortable RV park make for a nice June outing. Over Father’s Day weekend, we took a trip to Red River, New Mexico. Red River is a cool mountain town in northern New Mexico about 40 miles from Taos, New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This was our first official trip in Connie, our “brand new to us” 33 foot Class C RV. This trip was hastily planned and so we booked the only available site at Roadrunner RV Resort that is located 1 mile from town. We opted to stay there since our family was there as well.

Preparation for our trip was surprisingly easy. We only stayed Friday - Sunday so we did not need much to get us through the weekend. Roadrunner RV Resort has full hookups so we did not have to concern ourselves with filling up Connie’s fresh water tanks and we had already packed most of our camping supplies. All we had to do was get the refrigerator turned on (push a button) and load up our food and beverages. I did add some water to the fresh water tank for the toilet in case we needed to use it on the short drive over to Red River from Albuquerque.

One of the neat things about this trip is the drive. It is about 3.5 hours but the varied terrain going from Albuquerque to Red River is interesting to observe. The route took us from Albuquerque to Santa Fe to Espanola, north to Taos and Questa, and finally, east to Red River. The most boring leg of the trip is the Albuquerque to Espanola stretch, mostly because my wife and I have driven this route so many times to visit family. However, Espanola to Red River is beautiful!

Things get interesting once out of Espanola and headed up the mountain past Velarde. The drive is along the mountain side on a 2-lane highway that borders the Rio Grande River. This stretch of river is very popular for rafting so it is fun to watch the many groups of rafters headed down the river bobbing up and over the rapids. During wet years (yes, we have those in New Mexico) the river can look absolutely violent with its white capped rapids as it rages southward. Unfortunately, this year, New Mexico has been dry so the river looked lower than usual and not as lively. Some of the climbs are pretty steep but overall, the drive up the mountain is not too bad even in a loaded RV. One of the coolest sights is a few miles out of Taos. After climbing over a steep incline, you can see the Rio Grande Gorge. It is quite the spectacle looking out over the flat mesa and seeing a large crevice cut through it. If you have never driven over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge west of Taos, I highly recommend it!

Circumventing the Taos Pueblo due to construction was actually a treat. All the times I had visited Taos I never ventured much from the main town. Having to take State Road 240 gave us a chance to survey the “suburb” neighborhoods of Taos. There were a lot more houses out on the western end of Taos than I thought. The land is pretty open as well with a lot of the houses sitting on large plots of land. The road needed some work but it added to the rustic feel of the area.

My favorite part of the drive was from Questa to Red River. At this point, you are in the mountains again and it is very green! I was surprised how green it was considering the drought conditions. It is gorgeous country. Once in Questa, we took NM-38 east to Red River. There are some great US National Forest Campgrounds off 38. All of them were closed due to the lack of rain, but I believe they are now open. I would definitely stay at these campgrounds as they are set within pine trees and are near hiking trails and the town of Red River.

We drove into Red River and had to go through town to get to Roadrunner RV Resort. Surprisingly, Red River was pretty quiet this weekend despite a wine festival going on at Brandenburg Park. The campground closures probably had something to do with the lack of crowds. Roadrunner RV Resort is popular and for a good reason. Their check-in process is smooth and flawless. You drive up and you are greeted at their gate by someone with all the information you need about the park and Red River without having to park and leave your vehicle. This is so convenient when traveling around in a 30’ plus RV. The sites are close together, but most RV parks are set up this way. The best sites are on the south end of the park, which includes an “over 18 only” area and some of the more spacious sites that back up to the river (sites 59-70). Most of my family had these sites. The reservation process can be done on-line on Roadrunner RV Resort’s website.

Roadrunner is set up nicely for families. They have tennis courts, a playground, a dog run, and multiple road loops that make it difficult to speed, allowing people to walk around the park without having to worry about reckless drivers. There are quite a few sites with trees and shade and most sites will accommodate large rigs. From my experience, the 30-Amp, water, and sewer connections are all conveniently placed and service is stable. They also offer free Wifi but for a $5 per day charge, the Wifi is much faster and more reliable. I give Roadrunner RV Resort 2 thumbs up!

Most of our time on Friday was spent setting up camp, testing out all of Connie’s features, and finishing up some work tasks that I had to get done (the reason I paid for Wifi!). One of the things that I immediately noticed with a motorhome compared to a tent and a popup camper is just how simple everything is to set up! Within 20 minutes we had the connections going, the slides out, and Connie leveled to perfection. My wife did not yell at me once! It was glorious. 😀

On Saturday, we decided to visit Red River and check out the wine festival. We leashed up the dogs, put on our sweaters due to the cloudy, fresh weather, and started the less than 1-mile walk into town from Roadrunner. It was perfect weather and miraculously, much needed rain started falling and continued on-and-off until Sunday. The wine festival was pretty small and we were kicked out within 20 minutes because our dogs were not very well-behaved, according to security. No matter though. The 2 wines I sampled were not worth writing about. It is hard to beat the wines from Gruet, Acclaimed, and M'tucci's Rosso (I am a red wine kind of guy). We spent most of the afternoon wandering around town, watching the family’s kiddos have fun on go carts, checking out the shops, and scoping out the breweries and restaurants for dinner. I guess the dogs were better behaved because we received no other complaints. 😀 Once we decided on plans for the evening we grabbed a coffee from Steam Coffee and Tea and hiked back to Roadrunner in a steady drizzle.

We rested for a few hours and by early evening we started getting ready to head out. We set the AC in Connie to a comfortable 75 degrees for the dogs (their first test alone in the RV) and got picked up by my cousin to head back into town to eat at Brett’s Bistro. Folks, if you go to Red River and do not eat at Brett’s, you are missing out! Our entire family met up there and everything that was ordered from salads to steaks was absolutely delicious! Make sure to go hungry because the portions are massive. My wife and I ordered the chicken fried steak and got the “large” plate to share rather than the “extra large” and it was more than plenty to feed the both of us. The meat was perfectly cooked, no grease, minimal fat, and no nervy bites. The mashed potatoes were tasty and the vegetables were not overly fried. Would I go back? Most definitely! And I will try the filet mignon!

After dinner, we (the entire family) walked over to Red River Brewing Company and Distillery for dessert and drinks. The weather was cooler and still pretty wet but manageable. The nice patio at Red River Brewing also had a huge outdoor fire pit that gave off plenty of heat to hang out outside and enjoy the mountain scenery. Everything was perfect! My wife and I ordered their beer flight to start and could not have been happier. All the beers were very good and after wiping out the flight, I ordered the “Bad Medicine Honey DIPA” and sipped that while waiting for my carrot cake. The carrot cake was good and not too sweet. I enjoyed it. However, the dessert winner by far was the pecan pie cobbler. Yum!

The moment of truth came later in the evening when we went back to camp to see how the dogs fared alone in Connie. As we walked up to Connie, Baxter and Beau were sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window. We opened the door and Josie was laying down on the sofa. We looked around and everything was intact! They passed the test with flying colors!

Like most camping trips, we wish we could have stayed one more day, but responsibilities. 😞 Red River, New Mexico is a cute, mountain town with good restaurants and where outdoor activities abound. For our next trip to the area, I would love to try to hit the hiking trails and try some fishing out at Fawn Lakes or in the Red River. As for Connie the RV, I think she is going to work out just fine.

The Kids Are Leaving. Now What?

Having college-aged kids makes a married couple do crazy things. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my wife and I are no different. Our situation is a little unique, however. Our oldest child - our son - has been living in another state since he was 15 due to his pursuit of soccer glory. Consequently, for the last 6 years, we have been single child parents to our daughter. This past May she graduated high school and is planning on moving from the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico to the arid, saguaro filled city of Tucson, Arizona for college. This is all great and exciting for the children looking forward to their long, bright futures, but for the elderly parents left at home with each other, there are some adjustments to be made! 

In January 2022, my wife and I began discussing what we were going to do once our daughter moved to Arizona. We both want to travel more, visit the kids as often as possible, and see places we have never been. The other complication is we have 3 dogs: a 14-year old chihuahua/terrier, a 4-year old mutt, and a year old Labrador Retriever. It is very difficult to travel with pets!

Gratuitous Dog Pics

Our decision was to adopt the recreational vehicle life! The next argument….errrr….discussion was what to get. People who know my wife and I know we do not easily agree on anything! This made our search very challenging. At first, we looked at travel trailers. We looked at toy haulers, short, long, slides, no slides, fifth wheels, used, and new trailers. We agreed the toy haulers were nice but the cost of a toy hauler and the cost of the truck to pull it carried a heavy price tag! Also, the wife decided she wanted to drive our RV as well, but did not want to pull a trailer. Now what?

Time to check out motorhomes! We did agree that a Class C is big enough for us and the 3 pups. We would need plenty of storage and it had to look sporty af (or as sporty as a motorhome can look)! :) We ended up test driving 5 Class C RV’s in different price ranges. To get what we wanted, my wife and I discovered we had to go a little larger than we thought and would need slide outs. We also agreed that the Ford chassis looked the best. The Fords also have more torque, which seemed to make the Class C’s, equipped with the Ford engine, get up and go a little better than the Chevy. Plus, the Triton V-10 has been tried and true for a long time.  We also tried out a Mercedes Class C with the diesel engine, but the storage just was not enough. 

On a windy Saturday in April, we decided to go look at a couple of Class C’s we had found on Craigslist. The first one we test drove was a smaller Class C Winnebago that was nice but seemed a tad noisy while driving. My wife did not love it. We were feeling a bit discouraged in our search and were beginning to think that maybe the RV life was not for us. We almost did not go and see the next RV on our list. Thank goodness we did!

We made the drive to Belen, New Mexico to check out a Coachmen Concord. It was a Chevy, but the design of the Concord was very nice. Instead of the boxy look most Class C’s have, this model had a slight tubular shape and the front cap did not protrude over the top of the cockpit. We were intrigued. The owner let us in and we loved the interior design. One slide out contained a U-dinette and a jack knife sofa creating a spacious seating/sleeping area along with the kitchen. My wife loved the counter space. We had not seen counter space like that in any other RV we had looked at previously. The bathroom and shower were sufficiently sized and conveniently located between the kitchen/living area and the master bedroom. The master bedroom also had a slide out creating a nice sleeping space. The windows were nice and big, providing a good view outside the vehicle. The test drive was very nice despite the windy conditions on I-25, and the road noise was much improved compared to the other RVs we had test driven. The only drawback was the RV was not very clean, but everything looked in good working order. We now knew what we wanted and what to look for. Back to searching the Internets!

After a couple of days searching we found a 2016 Coachmen Concord in Anthem, Arizona that seemed to meet all our requirements for a Class C. Without seeing it in person, we made an offer over Easter weekend, had it accepted, and we were proud owners of a Coachmen Concord. My wife named her “Connie”, but said when we are drinking wine, her name is “Constance”. Funny stuff. But anyway, getting Connie back to Albuquerque is a story for a different blog post! Let’s just say that nothing is ever easy!