Spring Valley State Park

Yesterday afternoon, after I had posted the Blast from the Past, I loaded Emma into the car and we headed for Spring Valley State Park. Spring Valley is really a day use part of Rockhound State Park. It is two miles further on from Rockhound. As I made the right hand turn to Spring Valley, I noticed this sign:

this was the first time I've seen a road with a 17% grade! Sure glad I had the car and not the motorhome.

It's hard to see, but the road is in the left 1/3 of the picture and goes right up into the Florida Mountains. As you go up the first grade, it is impossible to see where the road is going, so I had the car in second gear. As I topped the first hill, the view of the valley and Deming in the distance was cool.

I continued on up to the picnic area and trailhead. It would have been better to do this trip in the morning as far as pictures are concerned. Emma and I started out on the Lover's Leap trail, but it is a primitive trail, and I was not comfortable going very far without my walking stick. If I try this trail again, I think I'll leave Emma at home. I'll need to concentrate on my steps and Emma is a little too exuberant for that kind of a hike for me. I could just see myself taking a header as she went one way, and I slipped on the loose rocks another way. :)

When I got back, I filled the water tank and disconnected the water hose. Temps last night were below freezing and will be in the twenties for the next several nights. I don't mind doing that as I really get better water pressure with my pump than with the pressure in the park. Better pressure is especially nice for showers!

Tonight was the Monday evening potluck, as usual. Once again, the food was very satisfying. One change from previous weeks was that some thoughtful person had started a fire in the wood stove in the Rec Hall. It's really getting chilly and windy. I made sure to pick a spot not too far from the stove.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The Sunday Blast from the Past

After I left Page, AZ, in May of 2008, I headed for Zion National Park in Utah. I camped at a Passport America Park about 40 miles from the Visitor's Center. I didn't want to camp inside the park since there is a one mile long tunnel that I didn't want to drive the rig through. With a rig the size of mine, it would have taken a special escort through the tunnel (with an appropriate fee). The drive into the park was interesting enough just with the car!

Once you are at the visitor's center, further travel in the park must be done by shuttle bus. I got there early in the morning and took the shuttle out to the ranch area near the Virgin River.

You will spend most of your time in Zion looking up at the magnificent mesas.

The views are astounding.

The second day I was there, I took a ranger led bus tour that was very informative about invasive species (plants) and the geology of the area. The tour began at 9:00, so I had to get up quite early to make the one hour drive there in time to find a parking space at the visitor's center.

That was the day I decided to live on the wild side....and not make my bed before I left. ;) It was the first time in about thirty years that I hadn't made my bed. I guess it's just the freedom of the road that took over my sensibilities that morning...LOL.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Not much happening

If anything, the wind was stronger today than yesterday. There was a group of about nine of us that went to the breakfast at the Masonic Lodge this morning. Once a month they put on a breakfast buffet to raise money for their charities. I especially enjoyed the biscuits and gravy. :) On the way back to the rigs, we stopped at the Lutheran Church bazaar and I did find several baked items that I'll enjoy and a cross stitched table runner that I'll use on top of the set of drawers I have where the passenger's seat used to be. What a bargain that hand stitched item was...just $2.00!

I can't really say where the rest of the day went. Emma and I went on several walks, of course, and I did dump the black and grey tanks. Other than that, I just watched TV and played on the computer.

So, that's about it for today. A little bit of rain is beginning to fall, so I'd better fold up my rocker outside....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The wind blows in...

I had planned to go visit another state park after doing the laundry this morning, but high winds and overcast skies moved in so I decided to just stay home today. So I'll show you some sights of things around the Ranch.

As I was getting the laundry ready to go, I went outside to put everything in the trunk of the car. As I moved around to the back of the car, I noticed a visitor....
There are at least two roadrunners that patrol the park, and one of them hung around my site long enough for me to get this picture. They especially like to pick off unsuspecting small birds from my feeder. My neighbor, Judy, on the west side of my rig hand feeds them hamburger some mornings, so they are not as skittish as usual. I really enjoy these birds...meep, meep! There are plenty of Wily Coyotes around too. Haven't seen any falling anvils, though. ;)

Emma and I visit the "bark park" a couple of times a day so she can get a little exercise off leash. The park aims to accommodate both city and country dogs. Her main exercise here consists of trotting around with a certain ball that she found in the enclosure. It usually takes her about a half hour to find the exact spot to bury this ball each day. Quite often, another dog digs up the ball later in the day, so she has a new mission each time we go there. Once she buries it and covers it up, she's ready to continue our constitutional around the park.

One of the ladies here takes care of all of the landscaping in the park, and what a great job she does. There are many native plantings throughout the park. Among them are many Yuccas. They bloom in the early spring and send up long flower shoots.
At this time of the year, the flowers have turned to seed pods and the winds help distribute the seeds.
The pods dry and open. See the seeds in the bottom right of the pod?

Here's what the seeds look like. They literally cover the ground around each Yucca. The seeds remind me of thousands of chips of flint lying on the ground. I bet plenty of seeds got dispersed with today's winds.

There will be a cold front blowing through over the next couple of days, and after tonight, it seems night time temps will fall below freezing for a few nights. Tomorrow will be time to fill the water tank and disconnect the hose at night.

I may go to a breakfast in town tomorrow put on by the Mason's. A bunch of us will meet at the office and travel to it together. It should be fun.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

A quick trip to Mexico

When I was out walking Emma this morning, one of the folks from the office let me know that they had a package for me. After putting Emma back in the rig, I headed to the office and sure enough the shoes had arrived! The big box that they came in looked like it had been through the war, but the important thing is that they arrived....and they fit perfectly. That's a relief.

After lunch, Jack asked me if I'd like to go on a quick trip to Mexico. He wanted to check to make sure that the stove that he had worked on was performing well at the orphanage. I said "sure." While we were down there, I wanted to look for a store that sold pet meds. I'm just about out of heartworm medicine for Emma, and the cost of Heartguard in Mexico is about 1/4 the cost of in the US. One of the challenges of traveling with a pet is that I am not in the same place every six months, and that's the amount of medicine I have been able to get. To get more, it involves the cost of another examination onto of the cost of the meds. Since I have her on the heartguard all year, I don't think the extra examination is necessary.

It's about a twenty five mile drive to Palomas, Mexico, down NM11. It's a good thing Jack knew where he was going as I would have been lost. After maneuvering through the border guards, we took a paved road for a while, and then Jack turned off of the pavement down the dirt streets. I hesitate to call them streets. They were no where near the caliber of streets in the US. I'm guessing that our top speed was about 5 mph and it was a very zig-zaggy route around lumps, bumps, and holes in the dirt. Our approach to the intersections was to slowly creep up on them and then look all directions to see if it was clear. There are no stop signs. It seemed like we were driving forever, but I'm sure it was probably only about a mile at most.

When we got to the orphanage, we were told the stove was working just fine, so we began our return journey through the back streets. I didn't find any pet med store. Once back in the US, we headed for Deming, but decided to make a side trip to try to get close to the "eye in the sky." This is a white blimp-like balloon(?) that can be seen in the sky from the RV park. It is put up there by the Border Patrol to monitor the border. We didn't get very close, but enjoyed the ride on the back roads surrounding Deming. You really can't get lost out there since it is pretty flat and devoid of tall vegetation, and the Florida Mountains are always in view so you know which way to head home.

When we got back to the rigs, I had a call from the store in town stating that the wine I had ordered, when I first arrived, had finally come in. So, I hopped in the car to go pick it up and get a gallon of milk. As I was paying for my purchase, a smiling gentleman(?) came up and put his arm around me and asked my name. He said "my name is Dr. Feelgood...just read my tattoo." Whoa!!! As I backed off, the salesclerk hollered at him to stop accosting the customers. He then grabbed his bottle of whiskey, picked up his coat from the floor, and headed out the door. Hmmmm, don't think I'll go back there again.

That was about enough excitement for the day, so I headed home. At 4:00, I went to the daily social "hour", which usually lasts about twenty minutes, to see what the announcements for the day would be. There are a couple of church bazaars this weekend, so I may check them out. Church bazaars usually have great baked goods for sale. :-)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The saga of the shoes

When I was visiting my daughter, Robyn, in Indiana, I went looking for a couple of pairs of Saucony walking shoes. I was not successful in my quest, but did buy two pairs of Nike airmax shoes that felt fine when I tried them on. You can probably guess that they didn't turn out to be fine once I wore them for a day. I have issues with my ankles and after a short time in the Nikes, walking was very painful.

So, I decided last week to try shopping on line for the Saucony shoes that I can walk all day in. I went to onlineshoes.com and found exactly what I wanted, and they were on sale. ;) I ordered four pair so I'd be happy for a couple of years! I really felt good about it all until the next day. I got a message on my cell phone that they couldn't send the shoes to my present location in New Mexico. They could only send them to my billing address in South Dakota. What's up with that???? I called them back to find out the details, and sure enough, it was either send them to SD or cancel my order. I'm not even sure the mail service would accept a package that big, and then I'd have to pay the shipping to have them sent down here. I was a little hot under the collar and let them know how dissatisfied I felt. I was put on hold (with elevator music) for a time, and when the young lady came back on she said that after checking with her supervisor, they could send the shoes to NM if I used a different charge card. What the heck? What difference would that make? Anyway, I said I had another card and through her placed the order again. She said if I didn't get a call from them everything would be OK. Alrighty then........ Of course, about an hour later, the phone rang and you know who was calling. As it turned out, they just wanted to verify the shipping address and assured me that I would receive the order in 2-7 business days.

Fast forward one week, and I have yet to receive the shoes. Of course there was a weekend in there and today was Veteran's Day, so I'm hoping they arrive tomorrow or Friday. I will certainly heave a sigh of relief when they arrive.
Sometimes getting things while on the road can be challenging.

Not much else is happening that can be defined as very interesting. I did fix the wooden knife holder that shook apart in my travels today, but other than that it was just an ordinary day. For you folks up north, the weather has been sunny and in the 70's every day for the last 12 days. Really rough to deal with. :)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

A phone call changes my plans

Many fulltimer's plans are etched in jell-o, which is one of the beauties of this lifestyle. This afternoon, I got a phone call from Stephanie Martinez, the volunteer coordinator at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. I was out walking Emma at the time, but she left an interesting message. I am scheduled to volunteer there come the first of the new year. She was wondering if I could come earlier. It seems that a couple of more volunteer sites have been put in working order after the devastation of hurricane Ike. That request got me thinking.

It was just a couple of days ago that I made reservations at an RV park in Rockport, TX, for the month of December. Before I called Stephanie back, I called Enchanted Oaks to see what their cancellation policy was. I had made a $60 down payment to secure my site there. As it turned out, they said they would make a full refund on my deposit, and hoped I would be able to visit them at some time in the future. WOW, that was a pleasant surprise! You can bet that I'll stay at that park some time when I go down to see the whooping cranes. :)

I called Stephanie, and she was thrilled that I could arrive sometime during the first week of December. She also promised that there would be warm weather for December and January...LOL. Because of the change in my arrival, I'll be able to help with the waterfowl counts amongst my other duties. You know that will make me happy! I'm also kind of getting bored with all this time on my hands.

The last few days have been taken up with errands, grocery shopping, and getting a hair cut; and I sure got my money's worth with this cut! This afternoon, my next door neighbor, Jack, helped me redo the duck tape fix on my awning. It's much better now. It needed two people working at the same time to get the fabric taut, and he was a willing volunteer to help me get that accomplished. I think it will hold just fine until I can get it replaced. I'll certainly have to be conscious of winds, as I always try to be, though.

Last night, we had about thirty people for the Monday night potluck, and what a nice variety of dishes we had to choose from. I do enjoy those gatherings!

I think I may head for the Florida Mountains tomorrow....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy