Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Cochiti Lake Campground, New Mexico

We drove about 40 miles today from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta grounds to this U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Park.  More about our new location in a moment.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the balloons and watching them take off and land.  It was a worthwhile experience.  But the location for camping was the worst we have ever experienced.  For $30 a night we got to park on an sloping surface that consisted of ground up asphalt, dirt, rocks, sand  and lots of prickly sand spurs.  No water and no electric, but plenty of dust.  I was glad to leave.  Enough of that.

But there were some bonuses to being at the Balloon Fiesta.  For one we got to see good friends Rudy and Carolyn Legget and their cute dog Abbie.  Rudy is the person who convinced us to look at the Foretravel brand.  We also met up with Roger and Linda Berke.  Roger is one of the smartest Aqua-Hot techs and fixed our hot water/heat system back in March.  We now consider Roger and Linda to be friends and they are fun to be with.  The six of us went out to dinner one evening.



We also met up again with Mike and Bev Heine.  We first met them at Bottomless Lakes State Park in New Mexico last March.  This was our 3rd time to see them.

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Lexie (13 years old) Bev (could pass for a teenager) and Mike Heine.  You can’t meet nicer people.

They were gracious and invited us to a dinner of delicious grilled Alaskan Halibut that Mike caught on their recent trip to Alaska.

Today as we prepared to leave Albuquerque we noticed that when the Honda was hooked up to the coach that one of the turn signals was not working.  I called Rudy, who diagnosed a bad diode.  I will get a replacement soon and teach myself how to put it into place.  It is really great to have friends who know more about motorhomes than I do.

Cochiti Lake is our kind of place.  It is very, very clean.  The parking pads are well spaced with lots of room between.  We are in a new portion of the camp ground and our streets are paved.  We have a beautiful patio with covered table and we even have a very attractive post lamp.  For those of you who have been to Buckhorn Lake Resort in  Kerrville, TX or Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, this place is on a par with them.   However, while we do have 50 amp service and water, we do not have a sewer connection, so we will have to drive a short distance to the dump every four or five days.  Not a big deal.  And we get all of this for $10 a night.
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Our patio
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View of campground
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Tonight’s sunset

Stay tuned.

4 comments:

  1. I enjoyed my time last year at Cochiti, but that was before the new section opened. Be sure to visit Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument while you are there. It is worth the trip! :)

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  2. That park is fantastic. I have already added it to my list of places to stay. Are you using a Golden Age Pass? You neither one look old enough for that. Stay safe

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  3. Hi Pidge! They call it a "Senior Pass"; but yes it is the same as what they used to call "Golden Age". At this COE park, that would be 50% off. Nice benefit for sure! And it is a beautiful park. The area that we are staying in is only 2 years old. Too bad they don't have sewer hookup and then it would be absolutely perfect!!

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  4. when at cochiti lake..what campsite number did you have??
    thanks for the info
    Rio Rancho

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