Cuba!? You might be confused by that article title but it’s referencing Cuba…New Mexico.
When I left Aztec, I wanted to visit the Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, because everything I’ve read about the Pueblo Culture indicated that evidence pointed to this settlement as the site of the original peoples that eventually settled much of the canyon lands in this part of the SW. This was the genesis of the culture. I’d tried to visit many times in the past but always set the trip aside, this time I was determined to make it to the ruins…which I have always understood to be very interesting while situated in an amazing, remote, area. So checking out this map, I could see that the ruins would be a bit difficult to access but I saw a satellite photo where I could zoom into the headquarters and saw that there were many RV spaces at the main park building. I wish I’d spent more time investigating that road leading in or the info about the ‘Gallo Campground’ which is along the Indian Service road but silly me, I just expected to be able to wing it. After all, who builds a paved parking area with RV spaces without expecting RVs to make it in there? Huh? Who?
The afternoon before I left, I did stop into a nice A&W Root beer stand there in Aztec close to the Ruins Road RV park and had a root beer float…yum!
That was some good Root Beer float lemme tell ya. Haven’t had one in years.
After leaving Aztec, I followed the 550 highway and after crossing US-64 at Bloomfield and getting back on the 550 I found it is in pretty bad condition about 5 miles from the crossing. 
This section was before I crossed US-64. I thought it would be smooth driving.
Anyway, after the good section and over US-64 back onto the 550, there were sections where I had to slow to 15 MPH to stay on the roadway it was in such terrible shape. I was afraid I’d break something on the RV if I drove too fast so was forced to lower my speed. Luckily, I didn’t have far to go, I was thinking as I was tossed to and fro. Much of the time I was only able to travel at 25 or 35 MPH but the trip should only have been 3 hours even with the side trip to the Chaco site. But the road heaves, potholes, and drop offs were awful. Once I got used to driving slower it didn’t seem too bad, but I sure wished they’d have done some maintenance to the roadway over the last 100 years. Kidding. The blacktop was aged and breaking up far too much though and the frost heaves were the worst. I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy trying to navigate the potholes.
Anyway, my GPS had me turn off onto Indian Service Route road 7900 so I did that and it was paved but still about as bad a roadway as 550 is but I kept going. Eventually, I got to a road junction, shown on that map linked above that my GPS suggested I turn at, where I turned off attempting a more direct route to the park buildings. Like I said, I figured since they had a paved parking lot, the road would likely be okay. Well, about 3 miles in, the road changed to gravel. Opps. So I stopped right there, checked my GPS and it was telling me that the road was ‘unimproved’ with nearly 10 miles left to go. And the sign just past the edge of the paved roadway wasn’t all that encouraging either, talked about washouts and the like. Recommended 4-wheel drive even. DOH!
So, changed my mind, I wasn’t going to attempt that in my RV and unhooked the car so I could use the obviously unimproved but often used turn around there along the road to muscle the RV around pointing the other direction. While sweating the possibility that I would get the rig stuck in the soft dirt. Looked to me that many large vehicles had done the same turn around there. Since I was not in the mood at that point after jockeying the RV that much to struggle down that unimproved roadway in my car for 10 miles with my RV parked here in the open with my kitty inside overheating (it was mild that day but I didn’t know how hot it might get as it was still early in the AM, but, the sun was bright), I thought, well I’m not that far from Cuba, so I’ll just spend a couple nights at the RV park there, and drive my car to the historical park tomorrow and perhaps the day after! If it was interesting enough that is. Yeah, a plan!
So hooked the car back up to the RV and off I went heading back to the 550, than on to Cuba. The road was a bit better after I passed the Sinclair fuel station a couple miles from the service road so that was encouraging. And shortly after that I found an Indian casino out in the middle of nowhere around 15 miles north of Cuba. Stopped in for a look around and a bit of a rest after all that travel on such a bad road. Like I said, it did get better after that Indian service road I had been on earlier. By now it was past noon. It is a nice casino but I just checked and they’ve closed. Dunno for how long, but likely it’s due to Covid and the slow business. It seemed on its last legs when I was there in Nov. ’21. It was pretty interesting place, I bought some nuts and stuff from their convenience store. The casino? Not sure if it was open or not. Open I think. I just stopped to rest and kill time so I’d get to Cuba around 2 pm when most RV parks have their check in time. After parking, turned to take this shot. When I got back 30 minutes or so later, I was almost boxed in by big semis.
And a few miles beyond the casino I spotted this. Don’t see a sign like this every day so stopped for a minute for a picture. 
The picture directly above is as I dropped into the valley where Cuba is. You can see the RV park there in the distance. Here’s a link to Theresa’s RV Park and Beauty Shop, I thought I took a few pics early the next AM, but can’t find them now…there are a few pictures of the RV park at the bottom of that website if you want to see where I stayed. I enjoyed talking to Theresa, she is a kick in the pants. Big smile and a sparkling laugh at the ready. Told her my plans about perhaps staying for several days. Appreciated that full WE&S was only $25/night. And the free cookies she offered.
It was early in the afternoon but I was still thinking I’d head back to the Chaco site the next morning in the car so I’d hooked up water and electric, got online for research, and checked the weather. AND they were predicting freezing temps for overnight. No big deal, I disconnected the water and stowed my hose, blocked off the open entrance hole for it in the wet compartment, and set up to use the onboard water system. Just to be safe, since they were predicting 25 F, I set the furnace to 70 F, opened the cabinets under the sinks, shut off the water pump after filling my coffee pot with water, opened all the water spigots inside the RV to relieve pressure then closed them. I also left the car connected just in case. I tend to do that if there’s going to be some unusual weather.
Annnnddd next morning, I discovered that it had gotten down to 19 F! My RV wasn’t quite prepared for that (would have had an electric heater inside the wet bay had I known) and I found right off that the water pump was frozen. That made me a bit nervous as I didn’t want a bunch of plumbing repairs to do if I stayed there in the cold, so I broke camp instead of staying the 1-2 more nights I’d planned, and headed on down down the road to Truth or Consequences, NM. Stopping in Cuba the town a few miles south for breakfast. To bad really, I would have liked to stay there longer in that RV park but YIKES, 19 F!
Nice bright sunshine as I traveled but the cold lingered. I traveled from 7200′ elevation of Cuba, to 4200′ in T or C. Starting at 19F in the early morning when I got up and stayed cold until 4 hours later when it finally reached 50 F.
For the next 4 hours or so as I drove the sun would be shining on the side of the RV were the wet bay is and occasionally I’d stop and test the water pump to see if it had thawed out yet. I was around 20 miles from Truth or Consequences, NM before it started running again. I let it run until it was up to pressure, checked for water in the kitchen then went outside the RV looking for any water underneath or in the wet bay. None to speak of. Whew! No damage. I didn’t expect there to be any, but I didn’t want to press my luck by staying there in Cuba another couple very cold nights. And after I got parked in T or C and set up, Theresa called me and asked if everything was okay? Like was there a problem with her RV park that she could fix? I told her no, it was because my water system in the RV had frozen. Not much you can do when you don’t have water. That was pretty nice of her to check with me though.
And here’s a new map of the journey so far…Aztec to Truth or Consequences. With the places I stopped or tried to visit noted. Note that there is another, westerly way into the Chaco Canyon site that I wish I knew if it’s better then the eastern route. I’m still interested in visiting, as I said, that site is the genesis, the home of the Pueblo peoples culture all around the SW region. They are the ones that constructed all those amazing cliff dwellings you’ve seen pictures of over the years in so many other places around the SW. I just went through the brochures I picked up about the Cuba and Chaco Canyon site area and there is scant info specifically for RV’ers about visiting the ruins. Not sure they want us there. Which is understandable because of the poor road conditions. Well, maybe some other year I’ll make another attempt.
Meanwhile, heading towards T or C…
And here’s old town T or C. Not much to speak of, but it’s become a popular desert retirement area. I hear the water is really bad. Not much to do around here either. It’s just got sunshine and that’s about it. It is at 4200 feet though so it’ll have winter weather on occasion.
I stayed the night at RJ RV Park a couple miles past downtown. It’s a Passport America park so it only cost $15/night. Since this days drive was only 4 hours, I got there around 3 PM so that gave me plenty of time to research my next journey. I was trying to work out a plan where I’d go all the way over to Big Bend NP in Texas for a few weeks. It’s really a nice park, but I haven’t been there in 15 years or so. And it is only a 7 hour drive so…but something happened, I forget what, and I decided to head to Tucson the next day instead. Probably decided I wanted to go to Mexico via Nogales more than I wanted to visit Big Bend.
I’d left the car’s tow bar connected (but disconnect the umbilical) and when I reconnected the electrical umbilical the next morning and tried to shift, the battery was dead. I’d left the key on, dammit. Grabbed my 50 year old battery charger, plugged it into AC, connected to the battery, turned it on, and it smoked. Grrr. Dbl Dammit. Had to get my neighbor to give me a jump.
Once the car was started and charged itself up, continued breaking camp and was back on the road to Tucson by 10 AM, and that’s were I’ll pick it up next time with the adventures on the way, and after arriving at Amado, AZ.
Thanks for reading!
Jim