The Kidz Travlin

GOOD-BYE/HELLO

2013-02-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's time for me to make some drastic changes to my blog. Kidztravlin will no longer be publishing blogs on this page. I know I will loose some followers, but at the same time I'm hoping to gain new followers with a new blog web page and along with that eventually making the blog web page into an actual web account.

So it's Good bye kidztravlin.blogspot.com and say hello to bstravelin.blogspot.com!

So why the change now? Well as I'm getting older (yeah, it's true-I'm showing some gray hairs). I look long and hard at my blog web page and wonder if I really would read from someone with the web page like the kidztravlin??? Maybe-Maybe not. I would wonder if it was kidz travling around or what and that might gear me away from looking at the web page....as I think that might have happened.

But now if I saw something ....travelin-that would probably keen my interest a little more on what those folks might have to say and what they have done.

I will still keep kidztravlin.blogspot active-for I think I have some good info for those few that might come across it someday. And for those that do follow me, I will for a spell, post my new blog onto kidztravlin. So you shouldn't miss to much, but hope you will switch over with us to our new blog web page!!!

So how did we come up with bstravelin? no it doesn't stand for "bull shit" It stands for our initials- Brian and Sharon! Brian came up with the catchy phrase-so blame him!!
I look forward to continue writing and hope to catch a few more readers along the way!!!

Again the new blog web page is:

www.bstravelin.blogspot.com

A TEST RUN….

2013-02-07T09:25:00.001-08:00

As we stood in line getting our mail the other day, the phone rang and it was the MVD of NM, claiming we had a problem already licensing our new Travel Trailer. The lady on the other end stated although our home was new and bought at a dealership-we still needed a VIN inspection! Really? We had only three options: 1-drive all the way to Santa Fe NM for an inspection; 2-see if the dealership forgot to give us a VIN inspection sheet; 3-find the state police that could do an inspection. Only one thing, we had a very short window to get this done!

Option 1 was the last we wanted to do. So off to the dealership we go and of course he has no such records. Nearest place for us to take our travel trailer for the inspection is at a station on the AZ side, near the CA/AZ border. Meaning we must tear down, hitch on and jump on the Interstate.

It’s a good thing that we took the truck first just to find out exactly where we were going and what we would need. We first thought that the inspection station would be the California check point. Nope and the officer was saying we would need to go into Parker AZ. That didn’t sound right to us. Back towards Quartzsite AZ once again. There is a weigh station and check point for out of state truckers. We pulled in there and sure enough that’s the place we need to bring our home in for the inspection.

Along with the VIN inspection, they would also do a complete vehicle inspection as well; Checking lights, breaks, ect. That was fine with us, what better way to do a test run to make sure all feels the way it should right? We do need to have all of our paper work in order as well.

*A copy of the Title to the travel trailer-check. *A copy of the Purchase order-nope-send it off to the DMV-no problem-dealer has a copy-check. *Proof of temp tags-check. *Finally Proof of Insurance-oops!

Oh we have insurance on our new home-but for the life of us-we couldn’t find the Proof of Insurance! We had the paperwork-but knew it wouldn’t be enough. No problem-I’ll just get the computer and printer out, go on line and print another copy-simple! Did just that, and went to print-and nothing! Come to find out the ink and the color are both completely empty!!! Great! And there is no place within close range to get another ink cartridge…..

I was able to download the proof onto the memory stick. Now we must find someone who can print us the copy of our insurance. The Senior Center stated they could do it-upon getting there, and discovered it couldn’t be done after all….Only solution now was to wait until the next day and go into a local business here in Quartzsite and have the lady do it.

Next morning, first thing first-check all tires. Brian already did the truck so knew they were ok-but the Travel Trailer tires were low and had to be pumped up. Then it’s time to hitch on. Since pulling it out here, we have had the hitch re-adjusted and had the break unit put on the truck. So this would be a good test to make sure that the break unit is set properly and that the hitch was finally in the right position for towing. It would also be my first time towing our new home on the Interstate/Highway and it would be nice to see how it handles-loaded with groceries and some water in the tank, along with liquids in both holding tanks.

The hitch seems to be in the right position now, the travel trailer don’t seem to be “sagging” in the front anymore. Brian re-adjust the sway bars and instead of positioning the chains on link 3, he tries link 2 to see how that will handle down the road. On the way back we will go back to 3 and see if there is any difference. Now we must and try to set the break unit for the travel trailer. We think we have it in the right position-all seem to be breaking evenly now.

As we tootle down the interstate I do notice just a bit of swaying, when reaching the speed of 65mph. So we think we may need to keep the sway bar link at 3.

We arrive at the inspection station with no problems. The VIN inspection goes well and the officer really likes our new home, so much that he forgot to do the other inspection!!! But we weren’t worried-for Brian checks it himself and we knew all was working properly.

The inspection in itself took about 20 minutes. First he takes all of our paperwork along with our ID. Then he came out and wrote down the VIN number on a form. Now he must run all of it (including our ID) through the system to make sure all is ok. We then are finally handed the paperwork back along with the VIN inspection sheet. As we are waiting for that to be process, Brian once again re-adjusted the sway bar link back to 3.

Heading back into Quartzsite, I no longer have that slight “swaying”, so we think we are finally adjusted properly for future towing. However, the breaks still need some more adjusting, and will do that back out on the BLM gravel road; where we can “play” with it safely.

Now comes the fun part-parking! We had left our patio mat along with a few other things in our spot (in hopes no one steals it). So the trick for me is to maneuver around our small area and get the trailer back in the same spot! Now, I have backed 5th wheels (mostly successfully, some not….), and the mini motorhome was easy. But I have to be honest, I feared backing the travel trailer for I have heard from many that they are not easy to back in….

But with this new wheel base-it should be simple. And it was! I had no problem what-so-ever! At first Brian laughed at me for as I’m getting the trailer turned around, I had to go on the opposite side of our patio set-up before I could straighten it back out. He told me that I did good, but our patio was on the wrong side!! After a glare, I did get it on the right side and without any frustration!!! I’m so proud of myself and now I know I can pull our new home safely down the road and park it without to many problems.

Now I’m excited and ready to begin another adventure in our new truck and travel trailer!!!

SETTLING IN & RE-ORGANIZING…..

2013-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last blog that we traded our motorhome and little red car in for a truck and a travel trailer. We spent the first week just moving all of our belongings from one to the other.

Even though we got everything moved into our new home, we still managed to keep moving things around. We put things in one area and give it a try for a day or two, then decide-nope it just isn’t in the right spot-yet. So time to re-organize it to fit our needs.

For instance, the pantry and dish cupboard just wasn’t right and we had to re-organized. Of course the clothing area had to be re-organized to suit us as well. Then there is the big closet which needed some re-organizing and some plastic organizer bins added in the mix of things.

Now Brian has this one big huge basement and that too had to be re-organize to suit him just right. He came to the conclusion he needed several crates to put things in-to make it easier for him to get at.

Through all this re-organizing, we also have to make a list of things we must buy to make our new home comfy. We have decided that carrying 3 7-gallon jugs just of drinking water and another 3 7-gallon jugs for filtering into our water tank was getting to heavy for Brian to keep carrying. So gone are the huge 7 gallon tanks in it’s placement are single one gallon jugs of drinking water that are kept under the bench seat. It’s also easier on me-for I was starting to have a hard time turning the nozzles on those 7 gallon jugs. So how do we now get water back into our tank without having to move our little home every time? easy! a water bladder! Works great and so far we love it! here is what it looks like filled with water:

Weighs 385 lbs. when filled and only 5 lbs. empty and stores so easy under the seat of the truck or in the compartment without taking up so much space as the 7-gallon jugs did!

Every time we go shopping, we pick up little things that we see that would work for us. With the big RV show in town we thought for sure we could knock a lot of stuff off our list-little by little the list is getting smaller.

As most of you know-sleeping very long on an RV mattress just don’t cut it. In just the two weeks of having our new home-the mattress that we have now is already showing indentation of where we sleep-so that must go and now in search for a new one.

Again at the RV show they had a demo of the new Euro Foam Denver Mattress and now we awaited for the arrival of our new mattress. We were a bit skeptical or our new mattress-for it came in a 16” X16” X 75”box. you can’t help but wonder how a mattress is going to feel after being compressed that long…here is what it looked like:

The Mattress rolled up….

Brian cutting the plastic away….

…and wholla! A new mattress!!! Of course Leah has to be the first to check it out!!!

We no longer have the luxury of the Onan generator at our fingertip anymore. Personally that won’t be missed to much anyways. You see, just before we left Fernley RV in NV; Brian had bought a 1000 watt Generator. Reason was it’s a lot quieter than the Onan (the Onan was placed directly under our bed in the motorhome and was NOT micro quiet as claimed to be!). We really didn’t need that big of a generator to begin with. Only time we ever used it was to charge things on cloudy days or to watch TV at night-so the 1000 watt will still do the job just fine for us.

Now that we are settled in, it’s time to figure some of the components in the truck and even in the travel trailer. We discovered in the truck that it gives us an update on oil usage and will tell us when it’s time to change oil! How cool is that feature? We have our cell phone synched with the truck so when we are driving down the road-we both can talk through the speakers in the truck-hands free!

Having to go with a 1/2 ton truck we couldn’t get the echo-boost engine-they simply won’t pull a travel trailer. Fuel will be more than what we are used to with the Chevy Tracker, but better than what we got with the motorhome. The good thing is, it will run on bio-fuel; which means e-85,86, 87 or 89, to make it more affordable for us. We just have to make sure if changing fuel grade, we have to have at least less than a half tank of fuel remaining.

As I stated on Facebook: I think the truck is smarter than a 5th grader or at least smarter than us!!!! Going to have fun figuring out this…..

FREE PANCAKES=NEW TRUCK & TRAVEL TRAILER?

2013-01-13T10:27:00.001-08:00

Okay so you want to know how Free Pancakes can equal a new truck and travel trailer? Well here is the answer….

Every year here in Quartzsite AZ Le Mesa RV puts on free pancakes and lunch Mon-Sat. All you have to do is fill out a simple quick form and get a name tag and then enjoy the food. It’s usually not much but hey, while in town why not enjoy their wonderful pancakes, after all it is free.

Well it was no different for us on Saturday, Jan 5, 2013. On this cold morning, we went in to have breakfast, get some drinking water, a few groceries and then head back out to the BLM. EXCEPT-after eating the pancakes, Brian says let’s go look at the travel trailers….Now I had found another Winnebago Aspect that had 3 slides that I became partial too, but Brian didn’t want to deal with anymore slides-specially when we boondock like we do and every thing inside was that pleather-not doggie friendly.

Anyways, we looked at what travel trailers they had and nothing jumped out at us. We had to laugh at one, they literally put the back door right in the bathroom! The salesman came over to talk with us. showed us a model that he thought would be perfect for us. The back bedroom was a bunkhouse and he thought we could convert the bunks to a den area. Not practical for our living style, so we walked away.

Next stop is Camping World. They also a lot here with both new and used RV’s. We were greeted with a salesman and we jumped onto his golf cart to look what they had. Again, nothing really jumped out at us. Except maybe one would work; only thing, it had bunks in the back. So we went into the office and in one of their lots up by Mesa AZ, they had a similar model without the bunk that they could bring down for us to look at. They wanted money down-with the understanding there would be no pressure on our part and if we didn’t like what we seen, the money would come back to us. I was a bit leery on the deal-but we did it and the Travel Trailer would be brought down on Monday-January 7th (yes, my birthday).

Now we needed a truck to pull a travel trailer with. It’s after 11am and there are no dealers here in Quartzsite. Nearest dealerships was either in Parker AZ or Blythe CA. Since we had great dealings with the Ford garage in Parker, we would head there. But we needed to beat the clock-because the dealership closes at noon. Brian made a quick call, talked to a salesman and told us to go ahead and come on over and take a look. He had the truck that Brian knew he wanted to pull our new home with, and they actually had one in stock!

We got there, just a few minutes before noon and true to his word, the salesman had the truck in front and was wiping the windshield off. Without blinking or asking much questions, he threw us the key and told us to take it for a spin! Now where else can you go and be handed keys to a brand new truck without the salesman going with you?

We did take it for a quick spin around the block, and it felt it was made for us! Went back and the they took the Chevy Tracker for a spin. Came back and we closed on the deal. They gave us Blue Book value on the car and we can pick up our new truck on Monday Morning-my Birthday!

2013 F-15o, Super Cab

Did I mention that earlier we had moved our wood pile and both Brian and I had our grubs on and looked pitiful?

Now it’s time to grab a quick lunch and head back. Poor Leah probably wonder what happen to us!

As we get back into Quartzsite, Brian remembers there was another RV dealership down the road and wanted to make a quick stop to see what they might have.

The salesman told us where the new ones were and told us to go look at them. He didn’t follow us and he allowed us to go at our leisure.

We stepped into each one and nothing again jumped out at us. Then I notice a brand new Jayco White Hawk sitting off a little from all the others. We both went in and right away, knew this is what we were looking for!

We go to look for the salesman to ask about this particular model, he too started walking our way. First question was that unit sold and why was it sitting off by itself. He just got that one in and hasn’t been what he calls “cleaned”. We went in with him asked a few questions and made a deal! His deal was 10 times better on the trade in than what Camping World even offered us! For the first time ever, we received money back-enough to almost cover the truck cost! Our new home would be ready for us Tuesday Afternoon.

Next step was to bring the Motorhome in to him so that he could make a walk through. That was being done the next day, Sunday morning.

We brought the motorhome in, the Salesman, Jeff, was very pleased at what he saw and was impressed on how clean we kept it. Also the main selling factor was the low mileage on the motorhome.

Brian had promised me Chinese in Lake Havasu and was planned to go on Monday, but instead we did it that Sunday instead, Along with some shopping.

On Monday Jan, 7, we picked up our new truck and said good-bye to “Ole Red”. We need now to make arrangements with a another business to have some things done to the truck; like window tinting and bug visor along with rain visors to be put on.

Next stop was to make arrangements for the Solar Panel to be put on our new rig later in the week. We first planned on taking off the original solar off the Motorhome and have it placed on the travel trailer. Brian went to go on the motorhome to remove the panel that he noticed that it couldn’t be removed without putting holes in the roof. It was first agreed we could take the panel off, but leave the brackets.

Brian and I finally came to the conclusion that we would leave the solar panel on the motorhome and we would have a new one put on. Brian has always questioned whether Camping World installed the solar panel in right or not. It was later discovered that they did not do it right and also learned we paid for a much higher dollar solar panel, wiring and did not get what we paid for! So never again will we do business with Camping World! But that’s another story….

Tuesday rolls around and by afternoon we now had the keys to our new home! The let the real fun begin…moving things from one to the other. Since it was getting late in the day-we would start the move in the next morning.

Since all this began, we have been going on very little sleep, excitement won over on both of us. Yes we have traded in the past, but for some reason this one felt so right to us! Again we were up bright and very early and started the moving process.

On Wednesday afternoon we had everything moved over to our new home and said good bye to “Big Bertha”.

We spent majority of Thursday, re-organizing and straightening things out. Of course it called for another trip to Parker to buy a few new things for our new home.

Friday would be my first time pulling our new home on the road. After purchasing the truck, we discovered it had no break unit on it and the truck was to come with a complete towing package including the break unit. So we have to wait for Ford to order the break unit and have them put it on. So it was a bit scary pulling the travel trailer knowing I didn’t have the break unit. Don’t worry we weren’t going far and went slow at it!

Our home had to go to Discount Solar here in Quartzsite for a new solar panel and new invertor to be put together. That would become all day job. We upgraded the solar panel, invertor and the controller. We now have state of the art equipment!

So you ask why we changed? We liked the motorhome, it was nice driving down the road and having the convenience of the bathroom inside without leaving the rig. It was convenient to just pull over, unhitch the car to go look for a spot. Those two things will be missed.

However, we didn’t have the space that we will have in our new travel trailer. We are basically the same length as the motorhome-just without the driving compartment. And hooked both truck and travel trailer is just about the same length as what the motorhome was with towing the car.

In our new travel trailer we have a couch, more kitchen area and the bedroom is separate from the rest of the living quarter. the bathroom is much bigger with a much bigger shower (so no more hitting our elbows!). We went from a full size bed back to a Queen. Brian says that he now “looses” me in bed! More room to move about with plenty of storage both inside and out. Brian has a huge basement compartment that goes across the whole width in the front. Oh and did I mention it comes with a stove and microwave????

Also insurance and living expense will drop making our budget a little more easier to live within our means! We went from two driving vehicles to one. Maintenance will be easier to keep on one than the two as well.

The travel trailer came with covered underbelly with glacier insulation, keeping us warmer inside on cold days and keeping outside noise-outside.

Leah our dog, is adapting really well with this. She has taken claim to one side of the couch. Her only downfall is there is no carpet, all linoleum floors, so we have to lay rugs down so she don’t slip and slide all over the place.

I will have to learn how to back our new home into spots! Maybe I will practice out here in the desert!!!

Good By ole Friends-You both did us well and we will miss ya-but it was time for a change!

APPLES TO APPLES

2013-01-02T07:42:00.001-08:00

After completing another season with Amazon.com I can now compare Apples to Apples between two fulfillment centers. My first year was with the fulfillment in Coffeeville KS and this year at Fernley NV.

There is a significant difference between two fulfillment centers that actually surprised me. Here is what I found different between the two:

To start with, at the Fernley fulfillment center at the “Meet n’ Greet” Day, your first couple of hours is spent at safety school. It was very extensive and thorough. We moved from station to station, learning proper procedures and safety tips to help us out. At the end we were given an easy quick quiz to see if we were paying attention. You had safety school as well in the Coffeeville KS fulfillment, but nothing compared to what we learned at the Fernley Center. I was very pleased on how they did their safety school and think all fulfillment centers should do it the way Fernley did!

In the Coffeeville KS all the dept. managers, PA, PG’s wore certain colored lightweight vest. For instant the managers wore Yellow vest, while the PA’s wore green, and PG’s wore Blue and we had a few that would wear red vest(mostly Ambassadors/trainers). And they all had a saying on the back “Ask Me”. We had one camper scout that wore a brown vest. This made it easy to identify each person-specially when you are new and have loads of questions. You know who you could ask and get the right answer. While in Fernley RV-well you kind had to figure out on your own who was who…No one wore vest-occasionally one or two people would were safety yellow vest that had the saying “Ask Me” on the back. But none to identity the managers, or PA’s or even the PG’s…

At the Fernley center, we had more than one camper scout and they wore a red fancy vest. They were readily there to help us whenever we needed it or had questions. If they didn’t have the answer-they would find it for us camperforce. At least in the Shipping Department, our camper scout was always there to give us a hand when ever needed and did his best to try and greet each of us with a friendly smile (Thanks-Al).

Also at the Fernley fulfillment center, the HR staff was constantly out on the floor-so if you had any issues, you could stop one and they were readily and willing to help in any manner they could. The only downfall was that their main office was always locked to us associates and they didn’t have what I would call an “open door” policy. But they did have a second office out on the floor that did have the “open door” policy-when someone was in.

In Coffeeville our camperforce representative, Paul & Dana, always tried their best to periodically reach out to us camperforce and had a great shoulder for us to lean on, or maybe even cry on once in a while. In Fernley, I honestly met our camperforce representative maybe once or twice and I don’t think I could actually pick her out in a line-up, but she would do a great job in responding quickly to any emails questions we might have. BUT with that said, HR WAS great, and HR Manager was really awesome! She did listen to us and she really did a great job in my book in trying to connect with us camperforce.

One other significant difference between the two was that at Coffeeville, your first 4 days on the floor in training, your Ambassador (Trainer) was there in ear shot of you needing any help. If there were several folks being trained-then they would have others in close proximity to help you along as well. They would even help give you pointers to help bring you numbers up to speed as well. As for Fernley fulfillment-our trainer gave us a guide around our department, showed us the basic of packing, and we were placed on the line in a few hours. She didn’t stay in earshot if we had any questions, and we weren’t sure who we could ask for assistant-making it just a bit difficult for us on our first couple of days. I’m not the only one that notice this, but heard several complaints from other camperforce in the break room in other departments with the same issues-feeling improper training and since of feeling “lost” in our first week on the floor. During peak time there seemed to be plenty of Integrity folks helping those newbies.

With all that said, however, I’m still pleased with working at the Fernley fulfillment center and have every intentions of going back there again. Why? I guess it’s because even though there were the differences, I did meet a lot of really nice workers, both seasonal and regular full timer associates. The manager(s) were really great the atmosphere alone was more enjoyable. Even though you may not know who to ask a question to-you could stop just about any blue badge and still ask that question-they would take the time and still help you out. You did soon learn who-was-who, and for the most, everyone seemed to work really good as a team. I do look forward to more years with Amazon.com as a seasonal camperforce! I love the challenge it gives me and it’s just for a few months out of the year with good pay and benefits to a full time RV’er like us!

The Fulfillment Center in Coffeeville, KS

I SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END!

2012-12-07T11:55:00.001-08:00

I think I can finally see the light at the end of that tunnel!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and since then, I have been busy working, sleeping, and working….

The first Saturday after Thanksgiving, was voluntary overtime at work that I signed up for. But since then it has become mandatory overtime. We first started out with 12 hours shifts-5 days a week. Then this past week it went to 11-1/2 hours shifts and now the next week we go back to 12 hour shifts and yes, still five days a week.

So when I leave for work at 5:15am I see no sun, when I get home at 5:30 or 6:00pm-it’s once again-dark. I get two days off and if I’m lucky it’s a sunny bright day-as it is today.

We are now down to just two weeks left and peak season is really upon us here at Amazon.com. This past week in just one afternoon we got hit hard with orders that all had to be shipped out between 5pm & 5:30pm. We all worked hard and in some case we tagged teamed and rushed to meet the goal.

Amazon is expecting it to be a very, very busy week once again coming up-so plenty of rest is in order.

A few days ago, C-NBC news was here in Fernley reporting on the workcampers and temps that Amazon hires during this busy time of the year and yes, I got interviewed! here is are two links to that story:

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000133724

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100286251

Our poor little Leah sure didn’t know what to think of that huge camera in our rig and she just wouldn’t quiet growling! it was almost comical!

Anyways, that is the reason why I haven’t had much time to think about writing on the blog-just a few more weeks and then it’s on to another adventure for us!

WHAT A WEEK

2012-11-03T10:26:00.001-07:00

Once again I have gotten behind on my blog writing….I guess coming home from 10 hour work days; I’m just too beat to think about getting on the computer. On my days off I just want to kick back and relax, spend time with Brian and Leah-so again the computer usually gets pushed back on the back burner. Then before you know it-another week has flew by-again.

Brian and I about a month ago got eye exam and ordered new glasses. With his being specially made-it takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks to make. Upon making his and putting the lens in the frame-the lens broke and there for causing another delay in receiving our glasses. I finally went to pick mine up just to discover that the gal measured wrong and my bi-focal placed wrong! Now mine have to go back to the lab to be redone and now Brian’s are finally finish. This means another trip or maybe more back to Sparks/Reno area.

We have taken short drives around the area. A couple of weeks ago we took a Saturday drive to both Lahontan Lake and Pyramid Lake. Now as for Lahontan Lake, well…let’s just say thank goodness we no longer own our canoe and took it there! The lake no longer has any water in it what-so-ever!! Here are some pics of the place:

It does still have a very nice and spacious campground that if we ever come into this area early again-we could stay at. Just too bad there is no lake anymore though….

So then we went on towards Pyramid Lake which is on the Piute Indian Reservation. Now there was still plenty of water in this lake that we saw many out fishing and folks camping along the shoreline. Here are some photos of Pyramid Lake:

Along the way to Pyramid we followed the Truckee River which flows into the Pyramid Lake and found some spectacular views:

After exploring we found an area to where we could get out and walk a spell. again we were along the Truckee River and found the trees starting to turn colors here:

We learned where the wild horses hide out and got some good photos of them roaming free here in Nevada:

recently the BLM had a round-up; catching about 3500 wild horses. They had an auction and sold all but a few hundred that are still pinned up and not sure what they will do with them. Even though it sounds cruel with this round-up, if you could see how scarce the vegetation is around here and water source-I do understand why they do this round-up. Out of all only a couple had to be put down due to a sickness.

The past few weeks have been uneventful at work-until this week….I am in outbound/shipping. Meaning that I basically package single items to go out to customers. This past week I got the pleasure to go upstairs to Crips Plant. I’m basically doing the same thing-except I’m filling boxes with multiple items for customers. For the most it’s not much different than single shipping. But occasionally it becomes like a Tetris game; trying to get items to fit properly into the box.

As proud as I am being a camperforce for Amazon.com, it also makes me sad to see other camperforce folks coming into the plant and acting almost like children! They don’t want to follow the rules that the leaders have us follow-almost making up their own rules-and making it difficult for us that do follow the rules.

I was involved in a bad situation this past week with another camperforce and due to the fact of the nature and being under investigation-I cannot go into anymore details…other than I pray it don’t happen again and proper actions will be taken. I wasn’t hurt in any manner-just bullied and intimidated….

Other than all that “stuff”, work has been good and soon we will be gearing up for “Peak” and I’m hoping for plenty of overtime in outbound.

BUSY, BUSY & TIRED

2012-10-13T16:19:00.001-07:00

I know that I should be writing more often than what I have been. But it seem of late that I have been very busy or just plain too tired to even think about getting on the computer.

Work is going great! This week I did voluntary overtime-and that should really help the paycheck and our future trip to California. I do have to say that I think I’m working much harder than what I did last year in Coffeeville.

I had to break down and buy a pair of therapeutic gloves to wear while I’m at work to help my hands from hurting so bad and then braces for at night when I’m sleeping-to help keep them from going numb and tingling. Both seem to be helping greatly.

Last weekend was busy. Friday we went out with another couple (he is working for Amazon) for a nice Prime Rib Dinner. Being it was close by-Brian and I chose to walk to the casino/restaurant and on the way home we caught one of the many beautiful sunsets.

Some of our sunsets around here have been beautiful-and I happen to have the phone with me to take these pics

Then the following day we went Rock Hounding near by. We even manage to see some wild horse in the distant.

Brian & our new friend, Ray checking out some “junk” that was found while out rock hounding

Wild Horses grazing/napping out in the wide open spaces that Nevada seems to have

this week I volunteered to do overtime-so that shot one of my 3 days off. Since it was a pay-week, we had decided that the both of us needed new glasses. So off to Sparks/Reno we headed.

Brian hasn’t had a good eye exam in a very long time and the Dr. was intrigued with his eye condition. He had study a little in college about what Brian has (Milk Cataract behind the eyes-but never had a patient with his eye condition. At the same time it gave me a new found look at what he (Brian) sees or does not see. The Dr. was impressed that with his vision impairment as it is-that he does not allow it to slow him down.

all in all-there has been little change in Brian’s eye’s. Maybe a little weaker-but not progressing any worse than what had been thought in past exam-which is good.

And of course I too had to have an eye exam. Little change in mine as well and as the Dr. so kindly reminded me: I’m no spring chicken and mine is progressing at the normal speed of me getting older each year…Now where did he ever get the idea that I was growing old????

While in the Sparks/Reno area we had to go check out the worlds largest Scheele's store. It was amazing with two huge aquariums and a Ferris Wheel inside the store!

One of the two aquariums inside the store.

We did find some nice hats that we have been looking for that is light weight and yet help protect our head, face & neck from the sun.

And then or course today (my last day off) I had to do some minor cleaning of some cupboards that was long past due. Brian does the majority of the cleaning and cooking while I’m at work and does a great job. He even does most of the laundry-I just nicely help him sort it out so that my whites don’t end up with my darks-as he use to do once upon a time-before we were together-but he has come a long ways and learned a lot!

I do appreciate all that he does while I’m at work: Feed Leah, clean, Walk Leah, visits with the neighbors, Plays and Walks Leah, gets dinner ready, Feeds Leah and of course I come home from an exhausting day to a nice hot meal and a clean motorhome!

This week will once again be a bit crazy. The dept. I’m in will have another “Stress Test” on Wednesday and they have changed our schedule for that day-slightly. Instead of our normal 7am-5:30pm; it will be 8:30am-7pm and possibility of another volunteer overtime that yes, I will sign up for.

So until the next time that I’m not busy or tired………….

FERNLEY RV PARK

2012-09-29T16:00:00.001-07:00

Last year while working for Amazon.com in Coffeeville KS, we stayed in a RV park right across the street from Amazon itself. It made it an easy commute with me walking for the most part to and from work.

Last season while there, I did a blog on the park and described the set up. Although it was very spacious from site to site-it had a lot of issues like constant water breakage and even electrical lines breaking due to large rigs. When they completed the shower house-that became a joke in itself-for when one person showered it about ran out the main doorway-literally!

The weather in Kansas seemed to be gloomy and rainy; making the final decision that we would not return there this year, but instead try Fernley NV. We had been told how nice the RV parks around Fernley and Sparks were that Amazon contracted with. True to what has been said-we are presently sitting in a very nice RV Park this season.

Fernley RV Park is situated right on the western side of the town, Fernley NV. Within walking distant to downtown businesses and a few casinos, not to mention some nice restaurants. I’m not really in walking distant to Amazon-although if I was to be more ambition-I could walk to and from work; for it’s less than 3 miles-one way. However after being on my feet for the 10 hours-I don’t think I’m in the mood to walk home at night. So I choose to drive instead.

But getting back to the park; it’s not very big. Fernley RV Park only has 40 sites-small enough for us to become acquaintance with each other, but big enough to help a neighbor out when one needs it or left alone if we chose to be. Right now there are a few what we would call “locals” that have been here for a couple of years. We have become fast friends with them. We have met some folks that just stop here for a lay over for a night or two and then move on. Each week a few more of us Work Camperforce are showing up to start our seasonal work for Amazon and soon the park will be completely filled to the brim.

The park has all blacktop roads and cement pads with a picnic table to each site. The office is kept very clean and those that run have always been very pleasant to us. Both Owner and Managers don’t give you the feeling that they don’t like their job or that they don’t want you here-it’s just the opposite.

Mail is kept organized and not thrown out on some coach. We each have a small grassy area that is watered nightly-very green. The elderly gentleman that mows does a fantastic job and makes sure that he’s very careful around all of our rigs-and he manages to do it with a smile on his face!

It’s nice to come home from work and being as dirty as I am, walk into the shower building that has been kept very clean and guess what? Yep! Water doesn’t flood the whole place and run out of the building!

Even the laundry facility is immaculate and very reasonable. Enough to where we don’t want to go anywhere else to do our laundry-what a nice conveniences for us RV’ers working for Amazon.com!

On the back side of this park also is a small mobile home village and we are getting to know a few of them back there as well. The mobile home has a mixed diversity of Hispanic and Americans and both seem to be very nice as we walk through. Several have fallen in love with our little Leah, including this Spanish lady that tries to speak to her and we just don’t understand what she is saying-but Leah seems to like her as well.

Did I mention that since being here, we have seen some beautiful sunsets? And that just outside of the park wall are some spectacular mountains and wild horses run just not too far away from here?

All in all if I were to rate this park-it would mostly defiantly get a 10+ rating. You know-I just might have to go online and do just that!! Two thumbs up Fernley RV Park-you are doing a great job and Thank You for Making us Work Camperforce feel right at home!!

Here are just a few pictures of the park:

PLAYING CATCH UP

2012-09-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

I know I haven’t written much on my blog webpage. But there comes a time in one’s life that just needs a “slow down”. Well this has been my time to slow down.

I haven’t really done a whole lot with the computer. I go on and check emails and maybe write a few things on Facebook-but that’s been about it.

Now that I’m back on track and in gear once again-it’s time to play catch up. I know I haven’t written much of late on my blog; but that soon should change and will write at least once a week.

Since my last post we left Las Vegas a couple of days ahead of schedule; we just got tired of the business of the place and wanted a little peace and quiet before I initially started working.

so we headed to Walker Lake just outside of Hawthorne NV. The land surrounding Walker Lake is either BLM Land or belong to the Army Ammunition Depot.

Again we only stayed for a few nights. There really wasn’t much there. Oh there was a lake-but we couldn’t swim in it due to all the silt in the water. There was hardly any boat activity since it’s a salt water lake. We were surrounded by very rocky mountains with absolutely no trees anywhere.

The only thing I could say about this place is that we did get some beautiful evening skies. But generally the days were hot and the nights mild. We had no hook-ups at all-since it was BLM land.

After leaving Walker Lake we moved on step closer to Fernley and landed our feet again for a couple of more nights at the County Park in Fallon NV. Here we did get water and electric on our site; which meant we could run our AC.

The park wasn’t too bad and there was a nice walking/bike path that we could walk on. The downfall was that we were on Hwy 95 and constantly heard semi’s all day and all night long.

Did you know that Fallon is the home Top Gun? We weren’t too far and could constantly hear the roar of the jets taking off.

We arrived one day before our schedule date at Fernley RV Park. This is where we will be parked until at least the 23rd of Dec. It’s not a super big park and host only 40 sites.

Fernley is about 30 miles east of Sparks/Reno and only about 3 miles from Amazon. So far we are finding it to be a friendly little community and everyone thus far has been nice to us. Some of the folks here in the park have been here for a long time while others are just traveling through and then of course there are us who work seasonally for Amazon.

Brian likes it here a lot. Everything is in walking distant for him (including Wal-Mart) and once the temps get out of the 90’s I know he will be outdoors more. We even think Leah likes it here-she already has a boyfriend (or two) and she is getting along great with the other doggies around here.

I do have one week already in with Amazon and has gone fairly well so far. I got days and in outbound-which I request-So that makes me a Happy Camper!

The body was a bit sore the first few days-but it was actually easy for me to get back into the swing. I have already exceeded way past what was expected out of me by the second day. I received a “positive feed-back” which will go into my file.

Now that we are settled in and I can play “catch up”- we will see how the rest will pan out……

VIVA LAS VEGAS-2ND TIME ‘ROUND

2012-09-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

A little over a year ago we spent some time out at Lake Mead National Recreation and drove into Sam’s Town to take the shuttle bus down to the strip.

Well, we have turned a 3 day stay, into a 5 day stay into a two week stay here at Sam’s Town RV Park in North Las Vegas. One, the price was right so we couldn’t beat the rates. We got 25/7 security, swimming pool & hot tub plus the free shuttle down to the strip. We also caught an online promotion special and got 4 free breakfast to boot.

The temps have been in the 100’s each day and nights aren’t cooling down any, but we just run our AC, and spend time in the pool cooling off.

We have braved the hot temps and taken the shuttle bus down to the strip. We always make sure we stay dehydrated with lots of water and a few beers. We have seen things this time around that we didn’t see when we were here once before.

Some can afford to do shows here in Las Vegas; us, well we can’t afford to do the main show attraction, but that hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the free attractions. You don’t realize what all there really is to see and do.

Here are just a few things that we have gotten to enjoy this time around:

Sam’s Town Water & Laser Show:

The Fremont Experience:

Fall of Atlantis at Caesars Palace:

Conservatory at Bellagio:

The last time we were here we went at night and saw the Fountains of Bellagio, Sirens of Treasure Island, Volcanic at the Mirage to name a few.

We yet want to see the wildlife at the Flamingo, Show in the Sky at the Rio & Streetmosphere at the Grand Canal Shoppes. So I guess this means we have to put up with the extreme heat and the crowd of people at least one or maybe two more time.

ADVENTURE NEARING AN END…..

2012-08-17T15:32:00.001-07:00

As we traveled a mile and a half each morning to the top of the “hill” to check emails, I finally received the email that I have been waiting for for several weeks. Amazon.com in Fernley NV has decided to take on us seasonal camperforce a ahead of normal schedule.

We all were given start dates for both September and October. The first being on the 2nd of Sept. We had to email back two choices for start dates. I chose the 2nd or the 9th of Sept-in hopes for the 2nd. As it turned out, I got the 16th of Sept. That’s okay now it allows us to complete our Adventure here in New Mexico-finishing with Bluewater State Park.

So now we sit back and go “wow, already”? Where has our summer gone? Yes, I could choose a later start date, but knowing that we will be traveling California next summer and knowing that the prices are higher there-the more money-the better for us to travel.

This will be my second year working seasonal for Amazon.com, my first with the Fernley fulfillment center. Last year was at Coffeyville, KS. It seemed to have rain, and the campsites at the park we were at was always flooded out. Never seen much of the sun come the month of Dec. It made a “depressing” area for my husband, Brian and our little Min Pin, Leah while I worked.

We know this year in Fernley, the nights can get mighty cold, and the wind may blow fierce at times. But, the days will be warm or at least tolerable and we should see more of the sun. That will help Brian and Leah while I’m at busy working away.

As I write this I have to tell a quick little story told to us by a friend: This friend had another friend that worked Amazon.com in Fernley NV last season, and she told her about how her sheets froze together! Gee, I wonder if they ever ran heat???? Brian and I laugh at this little bit every time we think of the cold in Fernley.

Fernley has more to offer, with Reno being a very short distant away and shopping will be made easier. By the sounds of the campground it will be paradise compared to what we had last year.

Being at Fernley fulfillment center also keeps us centrally located here in the Western part of the U.S. as we travel each summer and explore new states out West.

So, as our adventure for this summer nears to an end-another new one will soon begin….

DAYS GONE BY….

2012-08-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! Here it is the middle of August and I can’t help but wonder where the days have gone? As I received news about when I will start working at the Fernley fulfillment center for Amazon.com, we make our final plans as we head in that direction.

Where has this summer gone and what all did we get to see and do?

Well, when we started our adventure back in early April, we first landed at Navajo Dam State Park near Farmington, NM. It was cold and we even saw a bit of snow. We got to visit the Aztec Ruins.

Site at Navajo Dam State Park

Aztec Ruins

We then moved onto what we hoped would be a little warmer temps; El Vado State Park. The days weren’t bad, but the nights were still quite chilly. There wasn’t really much for us to do there so we moved onto Heron State Park.

Site at El Vado State Park

I think at Heron, we both agreed this was probably one of our favorite parks here in New Mexico. We had an excellent site with privacy, great view of the aqua marine lake and many trails to keep us busy with. The days were warm and sunny, our nights were still on the cool side yet.

View of Heron Lake from our site-Spectacular!!!

The foot bridge crossing over the Rio Chama.

One of the things we said is that each summer as we travel a state, we will do something “special”. Well, this year we choose to do the Cumbre & Toltec train ride out of Chama NM. It was the best ever and enjoyable.

Riding the Cumbre & Toltec Train

Now it was time really head to the mountains. Our daytime temps are perfect-yet the nights still stay on the chilly side. We towards the Taos area. First destination was at Cimarron Canyon State Park, then onto Eagle’s Nest State Park.

Cimarron Canyon State Park

Eagle’s Nest State Park

Due to the extreme dryness, the burn ban for Northern New Mexico went into effect a lot sooner than many of us thought. So piles of fire wood, including what we had gathered and cut was all left behind.

As we continue on our travels we venture into Coyote Creek State park. This will become a very nice park, once they get all the work done. While there, we had no water resource-for they were putting in a new well, and a recently built new shower building.

Site at Coyote Creek State Park

The new Ranger Station and Shower Building

I got wind of some spectacular hiking in the Carson National Forest and part of the Pecos Wilderness and was told of a National Forest campground called Santa Barbara-so off we go again to a new place.

This became a favorite of ours. The trails were awesome and always something new to explore-no matter what direction we headed. Here we wish we could have stayed much longer. But with the 4th of July sneaking up on us and rumors flying around that both State Parks and National Parks may shut down for a spell due to the extreme fire dangers in the mountains-we had to get somewhere that we could hold over for a spell.

Santa Barbara Campground in the Carson National Forest-so peaceful and awesome!

Each one of these pictures were from a different trailhead that we adventured onto.

We headed towards Storrie Lake near Las Vegas, NM. We had been told by the park ranger that it would be “safe” during the crazy holiday and they have never shut down due to any fire danger. When we arrived there-we saw why; There was literally nothing to burn!

Storrie Lake State Park-where’s the lake?

The days were hot, but tolerable and by early evening we could live without the AC running. However we had to put up with neighboring dogs constantly barking, but enjoyed listening to the coyotes carrying on during the wee hours of the night and morning.

The monsoonal rains came early and was a blessing to all, including us! So that meant we could continue on our adventure and not worry too much about fire dangers. So back to the mountains we headed.

Next destination was towards Santa Fe. We landed at Hyde Memorial State Park up in the mountains. Hyde is New Mexico’s very first State Park. The park shows the age-it is old, but unique in it’s own way.

Our spot at Hyde Memorial State Park-we are tucked in, but just behind us was a Day-Use Pavilion.

While here, we had a pleasant visit with our daughter as she moved from Grand Junction, CO to San Antonio TX. The days are still warm and nights are still cool.

Our daughter, Melissa and her dog-Duke

The monsoonal rains have proven to us that when it rains-it pours here in the mountains. Each day we got hit with a thunderstorm and even a little hail. We wonder with all the recent rain-will they ever lift the burn ban?

Monsoonal rains also brings hail with it during one of our afternoon thunderstorms.

Sure enough the day after our daughter’s visit-they lifted the burn ban and we can go back to having campfires. Our problem is the site we could fit the motorhome in-we literally was inches from the fire ring and could not even think of a campfire while parked here.

I was starting to feel the summertime blues and the last two parks we managed to park very close to a day-use pavilion that always seemed to be rented. At this point we have decided that we are not very fond of the State Parks and needed some peace and quiet.

We wanted to spend a little time at Bandelier National Monument, so we headed in that direction. Here we did find our peace and tranquil. Well, all except for one night when some partiers decided to come in and be rude. After numerous complaints the next morning to the camp host by us campers-rangers were called in and the rowdy group was asked to pack it up and leave the park.

Campsite at Bandelier National Monument

We were amazed by the Indian Ruins in the mountainside and the trails. Again the days were warm and now the nights are tolerable to where we could have a window open during the night time. We even had a pair of bucks that grazed right behind our site.

Part of the ruins at Bandelier National Monument

A Pair of young bucks grazing very near to our campsite.

As continue on our summertime adventure we now spend two weeks at Jemez Falls Campground in the Santa Fe National Forest. During the week it was peaceful and not very busy. But come Thursday and Friday we watched the campers piling in for the weekend. On Sunday-they would all head back home. Majority of those that come to camp came from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Bernalillo to escape the heat and the city life.

Jemez Falls Campground in the Santa Fe National Forest.

We came across this elderly couple that camped next to us and we became fast friends. Their few days became a week stay. However-not knowing why or reason-they all of sudden packed up late one afternoon. Strange…..we hope we didn’t offended them-and we always remembered our deodorant-I think…

Brian and I both have come to the conclusion that we really like the Jemez (pronounce: “Hay-Mez”) Mountains. There are three hot springs nearby to soak in and the air is so refreshing and very relaxing. We now know why the “city folks” come here for a little R&R. Only thing is-we stayed clear of the hot springs during the weekend!

McCauley’s Warm Spring

Spence Hot Springs

While adventuring one day, and nature calling with no nearby bathrooms, one does what one must do-find a tree or in my case-a rock.

Not needing to go into details-I manage to look over the edge and found a white roof camper and another one on the move. I went back and told Brian what I had discovered. The question became where did those campers come from and how they got there….

As we get back in the car and head around the bend on Hwy 126 we soon learned of a Forest Road (379) that went 22 miles to the Gilman Tunnels (towards Albuquerque) and reconnected again with Hwy 4. We adventured a small distant down FR 379, we discovered there was several disperse camping areas that we could actually get our little motorhome into. So when our time was up at Jemez Falls-we would move into this area.

We literally had 3/4 of a mile all to ourselves for the most part. Weekends picked up and campers piled in-but many respected each other and gave plenty of space. We never heard any real noisy generators and only had one group not far from us that party a little-but was respectful. And they played country music that we liked.

We first thought that we could only stay for two weeks and would have to move on. But after making a phone call we learned that we could stay up to a month-that was perfect for us! Both Brian and I and even Leah truly love our little piece of heaven and really don’t want to leave.

Well now hearing that I may go to work sooner than what we expected-it’s now time to think about heading towards Fernley. So our month long stay in our little part of the world will be cut short.

First stop will be at Albuquerque for some shopping, then onto Bluewater State Park for a short lay over as we slowly make our way to NV.

Spending the majority of the summer with temps in the low to mid 80’s and nights being anywhere from the mid 40’s to lower 50’s I now have to acclimate my body to warmer temps. The temps in Fernley are still in the low to mid 90’s; and the fulfillment centers are not AC-so I must prepare myself to these temps once again.

I can’t believe that the days have gone by so fast! We did many things that most don’t have the time to see or do.

There were many trails and errors over the course of the summertime adventure. Many we learned from, some we have cried over, but laughed a lot, the most is that we made lots of fond memories to carry with us and we look forward to our next adventures in life.

McCAULEY WARM SPRINGS

2012-08-06T09:02:00.001-07:00

While camped at Jemez Falls we took the 2 mile hike to the McCauley Warm Springs. On our first adventure, we weren’t sure which direction to head, since the map doesn’t tell you where it’s actually at….

We asked a group that appeared that maybe that is where they were heading and they actually headed us in the wrong direction! Yes, we think it was deliberately…oh well. Due to recent rains here in the Jemez Mountains the creek we thought we had to cross was overflowing and pure muddy with no safe way of crossing.

So this particular day-no soaking in the warm springs for us…getting back to the campground we asked another couple if they knew where the spring was at and they gave us perfect directions.

So now I will do my best to give those that wish to find these springs directions so they don’t get confused-like we did.

Many folks that head to McCauley Warm Springs will go from Battleship Rock Monument and hit the trail from that end. But there are us that go in from Jemez Falls. The Springs are about a 1/2 way point on the trail if hiking from Jemez Falls to Battleship and visa versa. One way the hike is about 4-4 1/2 miles. Which means getting to the springs is a 2 mile hike-one way.

So, if at Jemez Falls, jump on the trail that says to Battleship Rock. As you go down the hill from Jemez Falls Day-use area you come to a split immediately at the beginning of the trail. There is a wooden post, one stating Jemez Falls in one direction and McCauley in the other direction. Follow the trail up the hill. A short distance you come across an intersection in the trail. Take a moment and take the trail to the left (Westward). It only goes a very short distant and take in the view from there. It was breathtaking! Here are a few pics of what we saw:

Now get back on the trail. If you didn’t make that left turn, you would go straight ahead and there is a wooden post that states the trail goes straight.

At this point of the trail it will get very rough and not a trail for those with bad hip, knee or any other serious health issues to be on. The hike gets very difficult. The trail is easy to follow, but due again to all the flash flooding recently-the trail has many washed out area and then you have to climb over, up or jump (short distant) off rocks. Mind you; all the while you are climbing downward. So what goes down-in this instant-must go back up…that’s the hard part!

You will also have to either do the limbo, or climb (in my case I’m short-so I had to straddle), several fallen pine trees. There were points we wonder if we were headed in the right direction. If you can hear the creek to your left in the distant-then you are on the right track. You will come across some very red terrain on this trail as well.

As you do get closer to the springs, you will hear more rushing water. You will come across a small meadow like and will see some paths to your left. Those paths are just camping spots people have made over the years. Just veer to your right, and climb a short ways and before you know it-wha la-you are at the springs!

There are three pools, the first one you see is the smaller of the three. Now these springs are called “warm” springs. They are not hot in any means. We guess the temp to be maybe 78-80.

When we got in, we started to get nibbled on by minnows! It was a very weird feeling to feel these little fishies eating on our flesh. Some folks think it’s refreshing and enjoy it-for us we didn’t care to much for it.

Can you see the minnows swimming around?

The lower pool

The Top pool

Anyways, we decided that the pools were not warm enough and didn’t care for the minnows in it. We will go and check out Spence HOT Springs and see if it’s any better.

SUMMERTIME BLUES

2012-07-26T07:13:00.001-07:00

As we travel through Northern New Mexico and see new sites, one still can’t help but feel the Summer Time Blues. That has happen to me….

As much as I’m enjoying seeing new sites, there are days that I feel that I can’t help but feel blah. I think it’s been because of not knowing what’s up ahead. There for a spell we didn’t know if state & national parks were going to shut down due to extreme drought and fears of forest fires.

Each time we moved to a new spot we always had to make sure that we could be packed up at a moments notice if a fire should break out. I think that hasn’t helped the situation of how I have been feeling.

So now Monsoonal rains came early and the mountainous areas has received lots of moisture-the burn ban has been lifted. Good news is the rain-the bad news-too much rain keeping us limited on what we can do. Can’t hike for fear of getting caught in a thunderstorm and you’re stuck indoors.

After we left Storrie Lake we headed back into the mountains and towards Hyde Memorial Park. We found a secluded spot that would accommodate our rig. The problem was once again we were sitting on top of a Day-Use picnic shelter that seemed to be rented constantly.

Right behind us is a huge Picnic Day-Use Shelter.

Nice site but once again right behind us is another huge Picnic Day-Use Shelter.

It seems that New Mexico State Parks allows P.A. systems to be used in their picnic areas and the Latinos that seem to rent these shelters take advantage and use them. It wouldn’t be so bad if they could play something half way decent-but it seems to be more annoying than anything else.

Now a days I guess it’s okay to allow your children to scream and carry on or just let that baby cry and cry and not to comfort it in the least. So with all the ruckus that one is not use to can get annoying after a spell.

Since becoming full time RV’ers we have always worked summer months and been fortunate to have a little space between us and the campers-therefore spoiling us a bit with our own little peace of quietness. Now that we ARE the campers among other campers; well let’s just say that’s hard to get use to. But it is an adjustment that I must get use to.

We do enjoy watching the little ones scamper around playing, and meeting folks from all over the United States that are traveling through, such as we are. But as I sort of stated earlier; There are well behaved kids and then there are those that needs a good ole fashion spanking on the behind (yeah, I know in today’s world that is considered child abuse). Then you have those that come in at 10-11pm and want to party all night long-not giving a hoot about their sleeping neighbor.

Brian and I seem to have different views of what sites we seem to like. It seems what I think would work for us and for Leah, he don’t like and visa versa. But we finally have set down some ground rules that we will stick by when ever we are now looking for that “perfect” camping spot.

1-There is no such thing as a “perfect” spot. Not unless you are out boondocking in the middle of nowhere.

2-No more parking anywhere near a day-use picnic shelter. We scout out where they are located and steer as far away from them as we can!

3-We both like it dark at night-so watch where there are lights. Not too many parks use street lights anymore, but those bathroom lights can shine in just as bright.

4-No parking close to bathrooms! Specially ones with lights.

5-No parking in the inner circles-you seem to always have campers all the way around you.

6-Sun has to be #1 priority in order to have the solar units to work, then a big enough area for Leah to romp around. And maybe a little bit of privacy for ourselves.

7-Last but surely not least; will the site accommodate the motorhome without having to do a balancing act on boards and allow us to use our awning as well.

We must now have to take all the above in consideration whenever looking for a site. One thing about New Mexico State Parks that we absolutely despise is the fact that they allow as many rigs, tents and people on a site-so long as each one pays their camping fees! We don’t agree with this and never been anywhere where they allow this. Then they wonder why they have so many problems….

One thing that both Brian and I do agree on is that we prefer disperse camping. You can be out more with nature, you don’t have to worry about your neighbors and the only noise you will get is from nature itself. But sometimes it’s hard to find a disperse area that will get the motorhome into safely without getting stuck or doing damage. The roads are usually rough with deep ruts.

So the rest of our trip around Northern New Mexico is being spent now in the National Forest, and yes we actually found a disperse camping area that the motorhome can travel down and will allow us to maybe enjoy some peace and quiet and to watch Nature at work. We will go into two more state parks-maybe….

SANTA BARBARA CAMPGROUND

2012-07-16T05:37:00.001-07:00

Santa Barbara Campground is in the Carson National Forest and in the heart of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains (meaning “Christ of Blood”). You are surround by beautiful mountains with varies types of trees and pines.

Upon getting to this park, you must travel on Hwy 75 (from the town of Mora) to the town of Penasco, then veer left onto Hwy 73. Now according to the internet instruction, you turn onto FR 116 (which we never found the sign)-but it’s actually a county road now (C-021). After missing the road and getting into ranch country, we knew something just wasn’t right. Upon asking a few locals, we soon discovered that we were on a “back” rough road into Santa Barbara and not RV friendly. So having to unhitch the car and get turned around we headed back in the opposite direction. Again we could not find this “forest road-116”, asking another local we soon discovered that FR-116 was actually C-021!

Travel about 5+ miles and the road dead-ends into the park. The only downfall is the road turns narrow once you get onto national Forest Rd. Here are some pictures of what the gravel roadway looks like:

View as if leaving the park.

View of the road heading towards the park.

We hoped that we didn’t meet another RV coming out-for it would have been a tight squeeze for two large RV’s or even a horse trailer to pass each other. We got lucky…

After biting our nails on this stretch of the roadway, we entered into Santa Barbara Campground and we thought we found heaven! The campground was just beautiful, spacious and oh, so peaceful (well, for the most part).

In this park you are at about 8800 feet in elevation and if you are not use to this kind of height-you need to take a few days to acclimate yourself. So we took the first two days just kicking back and enjoying our campsite and the awesome view surrounding us.

There were plenty of sites that provided lots of shade-but we preferred this particular site with lots of sunshine for our solar panel to work.

We had a great view of the surrounding mountains.

We came across this particular campground by the word of mouth from an elderly lady at Coyote Creek State Park. She told us if we enjoyed hiking to come and check this out-well of course that got my interest in a heartbeat and that is why we came here.

True to her words-we had our choices of hikes and never getting bored with the hikes. She told us about two different lakes (No Fish Lake & Truchas Lake) and even a waterfall that would be along the trails. What she failed to tell us was how far it was to those lakes and the waterfall! In order to reach Truchas Lake or to the water fall-you would need to spend one night out on the trail! Even by horse you could not do it in just one day. The water fall was 15 miles-one way Truchas Lake was also about as far for it was at the Santa Barbara Divide (The Continental Divide).

We did adventure on some trails and enjoyed them greatly. The first one we did was called the Centennial Trail. We went from 8800 feet to 10, 545 feet in elevation. Although we only hiked a total of about 7 miles-it was very strenuous climb up and then back down. Here are some pics of the view from this trail:

The next trail we did was the West Fork Trail leading to Truchas Lake. That day we did about 12 miles around trip. It wasn’t nearly as strenuous as the first hike. It was spectacular and I think I could have kept going. But we go by how much water we carry and what is left. Rule of thumb; when we drink 1/2 of our water source-it’s time to head back. Here are some spectacular pics of this trail:

And last but surely not the least, we took the trail just outside of the campground. This one was to be a leisurely hike and we decided that once it climbed-we would not keep going up and head back down. Well, I didn’t take our hiking GPS on this, so not sure what elevation we did climb. All I know is it kept going up and up and up. We later learned that it does a loop circle and connects to the East Fork and somewhere along this trail a plane went down many years ago but evidence was still there along with a grave marker. The trail would have eventually taken us along a rock cliff where rams roam the area. We didn’t get to see any-but enjoyed the hike non the less. Here are a few pics of this trail:

We only got to spend a week here and would have loved to stay longer. But not sure what might happen with the upcoming 4th of July-we headed to a state park that we knew would stay open during the busy holiday. Last year many National Parks and State Parks in the mountainous areas shut down due to extreme fire danger. No one knew for sure if they would be able to stay open or if they would shut down again, especially with the season starting out in a drought….so better be safe than sorry. So we will see what happens…until next time…..

CHILLIN OVER THE 4TH

2012-07-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

Last year at this time many State Parks and National Forest campgrounds in the mountainous areas of New Mexico shut down for a period of time due to extreme drought and fire risk.

They decided to shut these parks down within days of the 4th of July; leaving many folks scrambling to find a place to camp during this summertime holiday. We were told by an elderly couple that we met that they were camped at Eagle’s Nest State Park when Cimarron Canyon was shut down. Rangers came by and asked campers if they could double up on sites-they would appreciate it greatly. Well this elderly couple was approached by a younger couple and upon introducing each other and thinking this would be a good thing-they allowed this couple to double up with them. The younger couple went and got their unit from Cimarron Canyon-along with 5 of their children!!! Can you imagine the look on the elderly couples face-specially when they have not been around children?

Well anyways, rumor has been flying around now for weeks both by campers, volunteers and even park rangers that once again with the drought in place they may shut down these same parks down once again this year.

So not knowing if we would have a camping spot in the mountain areas of Northern New Mexico over the 4th of July, we decide to just chill out this summertime holiday. We knew by researching that we would be “safe” at Storrie Lake State Park just outside of Las Vegas, NM.

We arrived here at Storrie Lake, leaving Santa Barbara Campground in the Carson National Forest and the mountains the last week of June. We hated to go for the weather was perfect with plenty of hiking and lots of area to explore.

We felt like since arriving here we went from beautiful trees to blah dead prairie grass. Before arriving, Brian called the park ranger to make sure that they would not shut down at anytime. His response was-they have never shut down-ever….we now see why…

The dead grass and what our site looks like…we sure need the rain!

We had plan on making the best of it here-even with the heat. We thought, lake-swimming. After getting here we didn’t know if we should laugh or what, because the “lake” is smaller than most ponds we have seen! Between the muck and all the goose poop, it was not wise to get in this icky water!

This is what’s left of the lake and where the green grass is-should be more of the lake. We are told that the lake is down to 20% or less…..

We got here on a Sunday, as we were driving along on Hwy 518 from Eagle’s Nest, we came across flashing red lights. Upon slowing down we soon discovered we would be traveling the last 5 miles with those involved in a triathlon! For most some bikers were courteous and traveled along the recently cleaned shoulder, while others would not share the roadway with us travelers. Therefore we had to be extra cautious of oncoming traffic, those jerks that were impatient and wanted to pass both us AND the bikers-in a no pass zone, mind you.

We were so thankful when we finally arrived here at the park-not realizing that the start AND the finish line was here in the park! What a mess we had gotten into!!! There was not a campsite available and was told to just park anywhere until something opened. We were not even allowed to walk or drive around until the event was about over.

After all was said and done, we manage to find a nice primitive site. What we didn’t realize was how hot it really was down in this lower elevation. The temps were reaching into the 90’s. Just thankful the humidity levels were very, very low; this made it more tolerable.

Our first night was disrupted with a loud party down along the water; where they allow anyone to park and camp. Apparently the so call party was shut down sometime after 2am.

The next day while walking Leah, we had an altercation with these same people about their dog being off leash and coming after us. Long story short-I got threaten to be “popped” by a gun; therefore involving park rangers and state trooper. No one was hurt-the guy was fined for having a gun on state property and escorted out of the park.

Then the winds kicked up something fierce-blowing lots of dust and dirt our way. We had one gust so strong that poor Leah actually jumped the wall and onto the other side! poor girl!

our primitive spot-and where Leah jumped over the wall

Our second night there, we had to put up with the camp host dog barking nonstop and no one doing anything about it. We decided that we have parked in a very noisy area! At the other end of the park there is a small circle with only 4 spots and one being another camp host, it would be probably much quieter. Only thing is the sites are electric. So for $4.00 a day-yeah it would be worth our sanity to have.

There is a small community just behind the hill from us. They seem to allow their dogs to bark through the night-but it’s tolerable; until the Coyotes join in. We seem to have a pretty good size pack of coyotes that is residing not too far away from us. We laugh for the young pups we hear them trying their best to sound like their momma in howling and they just can’t get the pitch just yet.

Monsoon season has come early this year-so that’s good news. The much needed rain is falling in the mountains. We hope it’s enough to keep the parks open. We know they probably won’t lift campfires and we are completely fine with that-so long as they don’t shut down the parks.

The night skies-as it tries to rain here…

With Wal-Mart and the town just a few miles down the road-we have made a few more trips in. We were also told about some hot springs that once belonged to a resort. The resort is no longer there, but the hot springs are. They are now owned by the college. Well we thought that we would go a few times and do some soaking. After getting there, we were turned off by all the algae floating around as well as the smell.

It’s been nice to just chill out in AC and watch a little TV, but both of us are ready to head back to the mountain for some peace and tranquility. We should know soon if they will keep these parks and trails open.

Upon talking with rangers from both Hyde Memorial and the National park their theory was if enough rain has fallen they will keep the parks in the mountains open-unless a fire broke out. If not-more than likely they will close them come the 10th of July.

The moisture is out there-but it’s still not enough. The good news is the fires are way down compared to last year. In New Mexico so far there has only been 3 fires-one is 100% contained and the other two are close to being contained-after causing devastating destruction to the areas. The big concern now is the flash flooding in these scar burned areas.

3 STATE PARKS IN NM

2012-06-28T10:40:00.001-07:00

Since my last few post we have stayed in 3 more state parks here in NM. Personally, my opinion on state parks-give me my national forest any day and I’m a happy, happy camper!

On Memorial Day we headed towards Cimarron Canyon and I was excited about finally being in the mountains and surrounded by wildlife. So I will start with Cimarron Canyon Campground.

CIMARRON CAMPGROUND: It’s not like most campgrounds when you think about it. Usually a campground entrance is off a highway and you go down a small roadway-or at least one would think. But in Cimarron Canyon it’s set up differently and could be deceiving.

As you travel along Hwy 64 heading out of Eagle’s Nest and towards the town of Cimarron, you will go around a few curves and bends; then as you descend towards the bottom, you become surrounded by canyon walls with a fast moving river called Cimarron. Just before you hit the first of 3 campgrounds, part of Hwy 64 now becomes Cimarron Canyon State Park. Be warned: pulling off anywhere through this 7 mile stretch of Hwy 64-you better pay your daily fee or could be fined ($25.00 per occurrence)

Your first campground on the left is Toby campground. It’s one single circular that about 1/2 of the sites are reservable. These sites are not very big nor large rig friendly. We did see a few 5th wheels come in, but it was a tight squeeze for them to get into their site. about over 1/2 of the sites are share sites as well. Hope you can get along with your neighbor….

In fact the site that we took in this campground was a shared site, but we thought that the only time we would get someone was maybe on the weekend and a tenter at that. Well our second night there sure enough here comes a tenter and they thought that they should set up right behind our rig-causing a minor disagreement. Long story short-they didn’t stay and moved on to another campground. But come Saturday we did get a small tongue pull next to us. Fortunate that we met them earlier and they were a very nice couple. They were in a reserved site and they had to move-therefore becoming our neighbor. Here is what the two rigs together look like:

The next campground down on Hwy 64 is Maverick (it’s about 6 miles on down the road). Maverick has a few more sites with about two inner circles. 1/2 of these sites are also reservable. It appeared that some of the sites were a bit bigger but still not much room to move around. This park tends to draw more the family with children. It has two small fishing ponds as well as the river. Again a few sites are share sites.

Now the last campground a mile down is Ponderosa Campground and recently been renovated. With that said, I felt as though if we would take any of these site we would feel like we were parking at Wal-mart! Upon entering, the sites are all along the edge. So in other words your door side would face the grass/wooded area and the opposite side would be right along the path of where people drive! As you go around this “circle”, you cannot finish-for it’s coned off so that the host slide-out don’t get hit. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, just like a parking lot in the middle were more spots with no grass, no tables-but one could park there if they wish too. Not my type of camping spots. Only good thing-Ponderosa could accommodate any size rig.

EAGLE’S NEST CAMPGRUOND: This is fairly a new campground and could easily accommodate any size rig coming in. It’s wide open with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and the town of Eagle Nest.

This park is located in the town of Eagles Nest, and on one side of the campground, you have views of homes, barking dogs, machine running, and other businesses.

If one would have to gripe or complain about this park it would be about all the money spent in the new visitor center that is NEVER open, the beautiful LARGE parking lot both for the visitor center AND the boat launch (to a pretty low and pathetic lake), not to mention the WAY too many vault toilets for the day-users (I think we counted six). While the campground is graveled, one water spigot and only ONE vault toilet. Many of us campers saw lots of problems with this. Like, instead of spending money on a visitor center that is NEVER open, why not spend it on a dump station? Maybe flush toilets? or if the day-users can have nice paved roads, why couldn’t us campers have nice paved pads and roadway?

Anyways it wasn’t a bad place to stay, always a nice breeze (sometimes too much of a breeze). Warm beautiful days with very cool nights. Again, about 1/2 of the sites were reservable.

They supposedly have a trail, but we had a very difficult time finding it, for it’s not maintained very well. They are hoping someday to have a trail all the way around the lake. Only obstacle they have is making sure it’s above lake level (which at this time it’s a joke), and getting around the canyon wall.

COYOTE CREEK: It’s now time to head to the mountains and away from the town. We took the shortest route from Angel Fire to Coyote Creek. Heading out of Angel Fire on Hwy 434. Hwy 434 veers to the right about 10 miles out of Angel Fire. Once you take that right, the road will narrow and get windy. Then you have a sign that states there is no center stripes for the next 5 miles. The road on this stretch, is so narrow, there is no room for a center stripe!

While traveling, we prayed we wouldn’t run into another rig coming out, or a semi truck. To our bad luck, on this 5 mile stretch we ran into a very large gravel rig coming right at us! I moved over as far as I safely could, he barely scraped by us with only inches between us. If either one of us was going at any higher speed, we defiantly would have hit. Not a safe road for RV’ers!

Many will travel all the way back to Taos to Hwy 68 to Santa Fe and jump on I-25 (East) to Las Vegas, then get on Hwy 518 to Mora, and then Hwy 434 to Coyote Creek. This section of the Hwy is much wider from the Mora to the park entrance . Down fall is that it’s about 160 miles around vs. 30 miles out of Angel Fire….

With that said, once we got into the park we found it to be very nice. Upon entering, just past the host and their new Visitor Center/ranger station and shower building, you have the reservable electric sites. These sites are tight together with no room to move; but can accommodate large rigs.

The road that veers to the right past the visitor center goes to a semi circle with two very nice reservable primitive sites (this area was recently been redone).

But past the visitor center, the road continues on with primitive sites scattered around with plenty of room. If you go past the playground and over a very rickety bridge, you come across yet more sites. This is where we found ours up on the hill and had the whole area to ourselves! We loved it!

Most sites (except the electric reservable area) have these unique picnic shelters.

There will be one more road that turns left just before the last site (the one we were in), and it’s rough and mostly for folks in tents. Although there was a sign in plain site that states no RV’s, we saw a 35 foot tongue pull go up there! It’s a wonder that he even made it, but mind you, it was already in very rough shape, so we don’t think the owners gave a hoot if they did any more damage.

While here, the park was under construction. So the gravel road was mainly rough dirt road. With the new shower building, they had to dig a deeper well to keep up with the demand. So new pipes were being placed and many sites were closed. So they allowed folks to park “anywhere” an RV or tent would fit; even if it wasn’t a campsite. The water was off during our stay here and they were hoping to have it up and going by the 1st of July.

We had been monitoring a bear that was circling the area. Brian got a distant glimpse of the bear. He had already been destructive. One of the bear proof canister for trash was knocked off the bolts! Here is a picture, after it was up righted…

The previous year, 3 bears had to be tagged and relocated while one had to be put down-it was on it’s 3rd strike.

We have to say that Coyote Creek was by far our favorite park thus far. It’s peaceful and once the construction is completed, it’s going to be a very nice park. Like I said earlier-not fond of the electric area and really feel for those that have to go into that area. Maybe that will eventually get redone allowing more space between each other. The manager has his workers on top of this park. Every site is powered washed down and the vault toilets were so clean I think one could have eaten in them!

Coyote Creek along with Elephant Butte (in southern NM) is in a pilot program with internet. Meaning these two parks have free Wi-Fi. It only works near the ranger station/visitor center and you will need to get the password. We used it once and it worked great.

Second in place was Cimarron Canyon. Although we weren’t fond of the sites, we did like the area. Wished the trails were open. From the middle of May to the end of July, all trails (with the exception of Clear Creek Trail) are closed. We would have stayed our full 21 days here, but after a spell the cotton trees were spewing the cotton so bad that when outdoors you felt if you open your mouth-you got a cottonmouth! We were there in May and every day it rained Cotton so bad, you couldn’t sit outdoors and enjoy.

I think Eagles Nest Lake is okay and many enjoy camping there, but being hikers as we are, this just wasn’t the place for us and we are not fond “camping” inside city limits.

After nit picking each park, we decided that it was time for a break and head to the National Forest-and hit some serious hiking trails.

PLAYING CATCH-UP….

2012-06-26T13:32:00.001-07:00

Dealing with altitude sickness has put me behind on a lot of things. But I’m in no hurry and have the rest of my life to play catch up and if I don’t-oh well-life will go on, right? But I will try my best to play “Catch-up” while I can.

We spent a week at Coyote Creek and was beautiful. The Cell phone worked there-somewhat…I could use the phone to put quick messages on FB or we could check the weather or take in phone calls-but that was about the limit of our usage. Coyote Creek did have a WI-FI service that I could go up and use (outside), but didn’t feel like doing it. Rather I enjoyed spending the days outdoors instead of worrying about computing.

The past week we really have been out of communication. We decided that since I got my altitude sickness finally under control that we would really head for the mountains.

While staying at Coyote Creek campground we came across two ladies that had just come from Santa Barbara Campground in the Carson National Forest and said the hiking trials were spectacular to go see and do. The one told us about a water fall and about two lakes that you can hike to. Well that intrigued my interest so much that we needed to check it out!

At first our plans was to leave the motorhome at Coyote Creek and take our tent and go for just a few nights. But we started to think about it (rather Brian did) he asked what I would think about spending a week with the motorhome instead. I was ready and packed in no time!

We left on Sunday (June 16th-Father’s Day) and headed to the high country. We took each day daily, not knowing if I would have any troubles and now that our time came to an end-I had survived!

We spent the time hiking, relaxing and since they are still in stage one of the burn ban, we could enjoy campfires once again. We did go about two miles up the road where we could get a signal for our phone and checked messages every couple of days.

Now rumors are flying around about some state parks and national parks shutting down for a spell and leaving us few choices to go. They are trying to reduce the risk of fires-specially over the 4th of July week.

Storrie Lake (State Park) will not close and therefore we will lock in here through the 4th of July week. Hopefully once that is over they will again re-open these parks and we can finish our adventure. And if not-well we will cross those bridges when it’s time.

I’m not totally thrilled about this park-particularly because it’s high desert country and hot…oh well…life such as it is…I guess I will be making Lemonade out of Lemons.

I will take this time and play catch-up on the computer and maybe take in a few books and who knows what else…

DRIVING THE ENCHANTED CIRCLE

2012-06-09T10:28:00.001-07:00

the Enchanted Circle is a circle around Taos, that goes up towards Questa and then come back down. Here is a map of the Enchanted Circle:

Along the way there is plenty to see and do on this 84 miles circle. You have the Taos Indian Reservation-one of the nation’s oldest reservation that is still being used yet today.

You have several popular ski areas as well along this Enchanted Circle like; Angel Fire, Eagles Nest and Red River. There is plenty to do both winter and summer-depending on what you are interested in. During the summer months some of the ski slopes are used for hiking or maybe mountain bike riding.

Red River Ski Resort

There are several campground both state and national parks along the Enchanted Circle. Eagles Nest Lake State Park is along the Circle or you can get off and go just a few miles onto Hwy 64 and then you are in the Cimarron Canyon where there is 3 parks along there for some summertime camping.The Carlson National Forest will greet you along the Enchanted Circle with more camping and hiking opportunity as well.

One of the few campgrounds on the Enchanted Circle in the Carlson National Forest

With skiing being very popular in the winter months, hiking is fantastic in the summertime. Both the National Park and the State Park offers some really nice maintained trails to explore.

Fawn Lake in the Carlson National Forest

One of the things we have noticed along this Enchanted Circle is the local crazy drivers! Now I mean no disrespect for the locals that live here and have to put up with us tourist driving around. But at the same time that they have to put up with us, they need to also remember that we help bring revenue to their area.

I will go into a little more detail on the driving scenarios that we have already encountered just the few weeks we have been touring the area.

As we started the Enchanted Circle with our small motorhome, towing our little car; We got cars that would literally be on our bumper- I guess trying to push us to go faster. anyways, there are pull-offs and whenever we could-we would pull off and let those go by-since they are in a hurry to get somewhere….

Now just driving the car alone as we head towards Questa, touring around and maybe going about 5-10 mph slower than the normal speed limit (how else does one get a chance to see the surrounding?), it seems that the locals are in a hurry once again and even though it’s a no passing zone, they speed right around us as if there was no tomorrow-on a hill and curves-crazy drivers….We just slow down more yet and let them get ahead of us.

Now remember, we are NOT from this area and there are a lot of hairpin turns and curves, lots of climbing up a mountain and then descending back down again, and not sure what is just around the curve or bend, is another reason that we tend to go a little slower than normal speed.

We again had another incident that could have turned very bad. As we are descending down the mountain with curves, the truck that was the second one behind us decides to all of a sudden to pass the car in front of him AND us! So the van directly behind us decides to also pass; almost clipping the back end of our car. Well I did something that I know I shouldn’t have and I won’t mention what. Anyways it anger the guy in the van so bad that all of a sudden he slams on his break, puts it in reverse and gets out!! I just casually kept on going-driving on the shoulder-ignoring him. All the while Brian is getting ready to dial 911-one problem-no cell phone reception. The van again speeds up around us-laying on the horn…The sad part is that I actually was going the speed limit when all of this happened, and I would have gotten off at at the first pull off to allow both of these jerks to get around.

Then on this same day, we are heading towards Angel Fire and wanted to stop at the Vietnam Memorial State Park. As we enter what we assumed to be state park property, I’m on the road while Brian is taking pictures. I get a vehicle behind me, so I tell Brian to hurry up and get the pics. The car then goes around, raising his hands up in the air at me-to top it off-it was a deputy in a suburban patrol vehicle!!!

As I go over the hill-I soon discovered that I’m actually on some roadway that goes yet into the parking lot to the Memorial or goes straight ahead into housing development. So I felt bad that I blocked a roadway. But how was I suppose to know since there are no signs telling us that the state park road is also a main roadway to homes?

After both those two incidents that day-we decided we have had enough of driving the Enchanted Circle and to go home. We are not home more than 30 minutes and here comes this same deputy. He pulls off in front of our spot, runs our plate, we can hear the dispatcher telling him there was no warrant or wants for Brian & Sharon Scofield….He never got out of the vehicle to talk to us or nothing…..I wonder how he found where we were camped at? He must not had nothing better to do this particular day other then to intimidate tourist in his area.

So now we joke that I must drive extra careful-for this deputy probably has it out for me!!!

A few days later, we thought that our cell phone croaked. We couldn’t pick up any tower signal, couldn’t call out-nothing-notta…well the nearest town that possibly might have a Verizon store is all the way back in Taos. So here we go again, driving on the Enchanted Circle.

We had no mishaps, no jerks all the way back into Taos. If I got a small line-up behind us, I would simply pull over whenever it was safe, and allowed them to pass us on by.

We soon learned that all the towers in Northern New Mexico were down-except for Taos and they didn’t know for how long they would be down. So we got our shopping done, and headed back home.

It’s close to rush hour and once again we have a jerk on our tail-literally….I’m going the speed limit and yet he wants to push us off the roadway. So the next pull off I planned on getting out of his way. I had to quickly get out of his way-or he would have literally hit us!

Then as we come around a sharp curve, we see a white car going off very quickly to a drive-way. What she had done probably had saved our lives as well as her own. Here comes a black SUV trying to pass her in a no passing zone and in our lane! He quickly swerves back into his own lane-missing us by inches!

So if you ever drive the Enchanted Circle-remember the locals are always in a hurry and to stay out of their way!

Seriously though-the drive on the Enchanted Circle is pretty and a must see and do if ever in this area-just do be aware of the driver ahead of you as well as behind you and be cautious of the Deputy in Colfax county (he drives vehicle #4)!!

BUSY WEEK-WHEW

2012-06-05T10:06:00.001-07:00

It’s been such a busy week, that I’m so ready for a slow down….It’s been a great week, but now it’s time to stop and smell all those wild flowers that are blooming in the air.

We moved from Heron Lake (and just in the nick of time) to a RV park in Chama. We normally don’t like or do private parks, but this one in particular allowed us to “boondock” in a tent site (which saved us oodles of money) and this also allowed us to be closer to the train ride.

At Heron Lake we got spoiled in almost having the campground to ourselves with a few other campers, but as Memorial Weekend approach-so did the campers. It was time to move on out.

We went to Twin Rivers RV Park at the Chevron Gas Station in Chama. We had been doing business with Eddie and his wife Sonja since arriving in Chama and they are a wonderful couple. their campground isn’t fancy and don’t have much too offer, but they offered the peace and tranquil that Brian and I like.

We choose to go in two days before our train ride, so that we could go to the Cumbre & Toltec Station and get some pictures before we got on board on Sunday. I was able to get some great pictures of the steam engines on their first day run. Amazing!!

The day before our train ride we got hit with such fierce strong winds. I don’t ever recall being in such winds on a continuous basis we were that particular Saturday (May 26th). We had sustain winds between 35-45mph with gust reaching over 60+mph! In the park we had a tree knock down a power line. It landed across one of the picnic tables (one we almost took-glad we didn’t!). But what no one saw until later was that the power line came down behind an RV that was in storage and caught the grass and the motorhome on fire!!

Another couple of minutes and the motorhome would have exploded with gas and propane being on board. The fire dept. did a great job in getting it out.

Sunday morning arrives and we were so excited and pumped for our train ride! We spend quality time in the morning with Leah before leaving her behind for nearly 9 hours. We also woke to a second morning of record low-21 degrees-Brrrrr!

We enjoyed our train ride immensely! We were told by a local to take the bus to Antonito and ride the train back to Chama. So that is what we choose to do.

We boarded the bus promptly at 8:30am. Both Brian and I were a bit surprised that there were not as many as we thought there might be. I think there was maybe 60 all together. We arrived at the Antonito train station about 9:45am, boarded the train and it left the yard at 10:00am on the dot.

I kept going from the car to the open platform car to take plenty of pictures (nearly 500 shots). We stopped for about a 45 minutes lunch at Osier and then back on the train again.

The train arrived back in the Chama’s yard right around 4:10pm. We stayed on scheduled the whole trip. I guess the day before (the 1st day run) the everyone ran about an hour behind…don’t know why….

Then it was up bright and early Monday morning (Memorial Day) to head towards Taos and our next destination-Cimarron Canyon. As we got away from Chama we started to hit some really beautiful country! I instantly fell in love with the view and the area.

Driving was a breeze, nearly not another soul on the road way. We came across several elks grazing and I manage to stop the motorhome in the middle of the road to shoot a picture of one!

As we got closer to Taos, traffic started to pick up and by the time we parked at Wal-Mart; it was beginning to be a zoo on the roadway. That was okay, we could parked, unhook the car and head to the grocery stores and refuel up both fuel tanks, food and our bellies!

By 2:00pm the roadway was quieting down and it was time to finish the last leg of this trip. We thought we shouldn’t need Ms. Garmin’s help since we stay on Hwy 64-WRONG! somehow we missed our turn! I found a place to pull over but to get turned around, we had to unhook the car and back the motorhome safely to get it turned back in the opposite direction. Hook the car back up and turned on Ms. Garmin!

We had first planned on stopping over at Eagles Nest State Park, but being it’s still a new park, I guess they haven’t gotten the sign posted yet on the highway and couldn’t find the entrance to the park.

We thought that many, many years ago we were at Cimarron Canyon, but to our surprise we have not. When we finally reached the first campground, we unhooked the car and left the motorhome parked in the day-use area and went searching for a spot.

We again were surprised at both the lay out of this state park and the campgrounds and how busy it still was for a Monday afternoon. There are 3 campgrounds with-in, however to access each one you have to stay on Hwy 64. Never seen such a thing like this before.

Brian and I jumped in the car, first checking out Toby Campground, then went farther down to Maverick and just about got hit several times by the same group of kids on bike! Very rude little munchkins and parents just sitting back not caring. Decided that this park was NOT for us this time. We were told by the host that we would like Ponderosa-it’s mainly older folks. but to our surprise and dismay-we felt like we were parking at a Wal-Mart parking lot! Only one site that we might have liked.

Being very disappointed in the park system here and not sure what we would do and being tired (and yes a bit cranky), we again took another look at Toby. We found a site that fits us perfect with a great view of the creek. The downfall is the site next to us, their parking is right next to our slide-out. All the sites are very, very close together and we are not impress with that one bit.

You can clearly see where the next site is close to us

Anyways, we are making the best of it here, even with a couple of problems; like another tent camper trying to come literally on top of us and having an issue with the host and getting the ranger involved (Scofield’s win-host and camper lost)

Leah really loves it here as well and is now completely wore out and sleeps the night through.

Now that our bodies has had a few days to adjust yet another elevation (8000 feet now) climb. We hiked the one and only trail (out of 4) that is open to hike. We took Clear Creek Trail and at first it became a nightmare-but that’s another story for another time. When we actually got on the right trail system we enjoyed it greatly and found 3 waterfalls!

Our spot is shaded 90% of the time-so solar doesn’t work the best. No cell phone signal; unless you climb up the hillside. However, Brian put up the antenna on the car and we can get a good signal but in 1x instead of 3g. We can check messages (twice a day) and check FB. But the rest has to be done when we go back to an area that we can get the phone to work (or drive over to Coyote Creek and use their internet).

Plenty of wood to be found and been having campfires every night and even during the day. We both enjoy cooking over the campfire as well. As soon as our pile goes down, we go back in search for more and again we are stocked for another week of enjoyment around our campfire.

No siting yet of bears, but they are in the area and hoping to see one (from a distant-of course). We think we might had one through the other night and even the host dog got up in the middle of the night carrying on.

the weekends seems to get busy around here. We did end up having a neighbor next to us; however they were a very nice couple that we met early in the week and had to move off a reserved site.

We took a quick drive to Eagles Nest just this past Sunday (June 4th) and soon found that we could not get back home to the campground! There was a serious accident on the road; blocking it from both side. At first the fire dept. estimation was that it would be 3 hours to clean up. Then we were told that the 3 hours could be much longer!

We told the fireman that our camper was back at Toby and we had a small dog to get back to and if there was any other way around. There was-but it would have been 189 miles-and we were only 3 miles away! We then asked if we could “walk” around the accident back to the campground.

The fire chief gave the fireman permission to allowed us to ride in the fire truck rig to the scene of the accident, escorted us around the accident and then we hiked the rest of the way home. We got back around 9pm. The accident wasn’t cleared off until after 1:00am! It took at least 3 tow trucks that we knew of…..

So you see, we have not had a dulls moment since being here at Cimarron Canyon and plan on enjoying the remainder of our time here at this park.

HERON LAKE IN NEW MEXICO

2012-06-05T10:01:00.001-07:00

This is now our 3rd state park to visit here in New Mexico as we travel the Northern part of this state. Our first one (Navajo) wasn’t impressive to us. We enjoyed ourselves at El Vado-but not much area for hiking.

Here at Heron, we had plenty of opportunity for hiking many areas; which suited us just fine.

We had the chance to scout out the park before moving over here, since it wasn’t that far from El Vado Lake. There was plenty to choose from, but only a few that would fit our need or rather that we liked.

Upon coming into the park, you travel onto Hwy 95 off of Hwy 84/64. You first come upon the entrance to the small marina and Little Oso Primitive Camping. Past there is the visitor center.

Then you come to your first campground which is both Willow Creek and Blanco. Both of these are mostly electric/water sites. These two campgrounds can and will accommodate any size rig manageable out there. Over half the sites in both loops can be reserved during peak season (Mid May-Mid Sept). There are both back in and pull-thru. In Willow Creek there is flush and vault toilets, while in Blanco you will find the shower building and a vault toilet as well. The road starts out paved but quickly turns into good gravel road. (Note: Blanco & Willow are the only two that have electric and water hook-ups)

Next you have Bushy Point Campground. Now word of caution when going in: Upon entering this area, be aware of a sign straight ahead. The road that veers to your right is for rigs 24 feet and under. And trust me in this loop you want to exceed that warning! This section of the loop can be reserved. The road is narrow and tight and sites are small. Bushy-West is straight, even though there are no warning about length size, I would not want to see a triple axle 5th wheel coming in here!

One was very selective on where they parked their 5th wheel and manage to get a great site with an awesome view of the lake. Now we observed two other 5th wheels (approx. 30 feet in length) and they had a dickens of a time trying to get into the sites that they wanted! As you come in, the first several sites are fairly large, and they stay large just until you get past the vault toilet. If climbing up the hill, the sites in that direction get much smaller as well as the road. Both the 5th wheels finally manage to get into the sites that they wanted, but both ended up with good gouges and scratches along the side of their rigs.

We stayed at Bushy-West and found a great site. We pulled our rig straight in. We still had plenty of room for our small dog to play (leashed of course) and parked our car behind us-sideways. We had plenty of privacy and a great view of the lake.

the only faults we honestly could find in this park was the fire rings are too close to the railroad ties that they use; and you couldn’t sit only in one direction-so if the smoke comes towards you-you really can’t get out of it. The second problem we found is the vault toilet on this side when it rains-it floods. We had on a couple of occasions where there was about 1/2” of standing water inside the vault toilet. Brian and I both took turns in sweeping them out, since the rangers weren’t around to take care of it. The only water hydrant is at the beginning when you first turn into the park.

now getting back to the campgrounds around Heron Lake; the next campground down the road is both Island View and Salmon Run. Island View again isn’t large rig friendly, but there are not signs telling you any limit in size. If you are about 30 feet or less, you might be fine, any bigger, well lets just say you may end up with a few scratches on you rig…. The sites at Island View also seem to be much closer together and that didn’t impress us any. there is a section just to the right that is also reserved as well.

Island View has a shower building and a water hydrant near the host (across from the showers). While Salmon Run only has a vault toilet.

Salmon Run is another one that has a size limit of 24 feet and it tells you this upon entering the road. However, we did find a couple of sites that would have fit a bit larger rig, including us (we are 27 feet in length). These sites were at the beginning, but after that-no site would fit anything other than what they posted and making the sharp curves were nearly impossible for anything bigger.

Farther down yet on Hwy 95 (which is also part of the park road as well), you go over the dam and you have two more campgrounds. These two campgrounds are more out in the open where trees more scarce, but much closer to the lake. They would fit the bigger rigs as well. They are called Ridge Rock, and Ponderosa. Then finally you have La-Laja where the boat ramp is and a few campsites.

Now we found the perfect camping spot and wish we could have gotten our motorhome in, but there would have been no way. It’s called Rincon Primitive Area. It’s only open during Mid May-Mid Sept. The Ponderosa are abundant as well as the wildlife in this area. However, when entering this particular park you are warned that the road maybe impassable during inclement weather. It’s mainly a dirt road with many deep ruts. But the sites were so secluded and very primitive and we really fell in love with this area. There is only one small vault toilet half-way down into the area (near the emergency spillway), and no water. Here you pack it in-pack it out.

Now about Heron Lake itself; it’s a fairly large lake compared to El Vado. However only boats can idle speed on this lake, for it’s considered a “no-wake” lake. We saw several sailboats tootling around out on the lake as well as pontoons and a few bass boats and there is a small (and I do mean “small”) marina on this lake as well. The lake stays mostly an aqua-green color that is very pretty. Fishing seems to be very popular as well. there is no swimming area and you are on our own.

there are 3 trails at Heron Lake. The most popular one is the Rio Chama Trail; it’s 5.5 miles one-way and connects with El Vado Lake.

The Rio Chama trail. The swinging bridge that goes over the Rio Chama was built back in the 80’s .

Then you have the Salmon Run trail; Salmon Run runs 5.5 miles one way. It starts at the Dam and goes all the way to the visitor center where it connects up with East Meadow Trail.

The small marina can be seen from the East Meadow Trail

East Meadow Trail is over 2 miles long and we found this one to be our least favorite. It’s a nice trail, but goes to an open meadow where you view homes and that didn’t impress us. We enjoyed the Salmon Run for you seem to go in and out of Ponderosa trees and always had a view of the lake.

The Salmon Run Trail

So if you are thinking of visiting the area, we strongly suggest staying at Heron Lake. We found this to be the place if you like to hike, bike, play on the water or just kick back and relax. There is something for everyone here and you are only 20 miles from Chama NM.

RIO CHAMA TRAIL

2012-05-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

After one day rest of having an inflammation shot to reduce the swelling on my rib cage I was once again rearing to head out on a trail. And was told that I could, so up bright and early and ready to hit the trail, backpack filled with snack, lunch and plenty of water, we took to the Rio Chama Trail.
The day was beautiful with sun out bright and temps just perfect. The Trail head starts at either Heron Lake or at El Vado Lake. It runs through the Chama wildlife management area and it’s 5.5 miles-one way. However, due to the fact that the trail does go through the wildlife management-we could only walk a ways before we had to turn around. The wildlife management is closed until Memorial weekend, when it all opens up to hikers.
So being that we are camped at Heron Lake, we started at that end. When first driving towards the trail head, you see what we would call a graveyard for junk. It belongs to the state park and it’s where they either store or keep their extra docks; whether in good shape or not. Also is a huge pile of large boulders that they use as blockage to areas they don’t want folks near.
But once parked, is a very nice area with a few picnic table and a couple of benches overlooking the trail head and the canyon. Plenty of shade with large Ponderosas around.
'
When first starting out at this end (Heron Lake), you will descend down a wooden staircase before you start with switchbacks until you get down to the river and the swinging bridge.

If hiking in springtime, be warn-you may get buzzed by hummingbirds; Specially if you wear red hat!
As you approach the river you come to an extension bridge, or as some call a swinging bridge that goes across the Rio Chama. This was built by the Youth Conservation back in the 80’s. since then the State Park has tried to maintain this trail through federal grants. The staircase and the bridge is solid, but the switchback shows signs of washout and abuse. The repairs are done the best way it could be done. However, this trail is not for those with bad knees, hips or are frail.
Many only go as far as the bridge, and then turn around, instead of taking the hike further on, as we did. The bridge is really amazing as how it’s being supported.


In the above pictures, the first one shows the cables that support this bridge. The second picture shows one of four cements that supports the cables. Third picture shows the size of u-bolts that are used. And the fourth picture shows how far apart the boards maybe in crossing. Word of caution: if small children are with you-you might want to watch them closely-so not to get their foot caught!
And yes, you can make the bridge swing-we did!
I was hanging on while Brian was both trying to take my picture and swing the bridge.
Now that you are done playing on the bridge, it’s time to take the hike. At first we thought that we would climb back straight up the ridgeline-but instead we veered to the right and went along the edge-keeping the Rio Chama in eyesight the whole time. Then we curved and slowly started the climb upwards. We just went slow and steady and enjoyed the view.
You are socked in with Ponderosa, Juniper and other types of trees. Being it was morning, it was cool during this part of the hike, and breathtaking.
What seemed like we should have gone at least 3/4th of mile or better, we only went about 1/4th of a mile. This was due to the climb upwards and going slow. We came across a picnic table out in the middle of nowhere, with somewhat a view through the tree lines of the Heron Dam.

As we continue on the hike, we came across an interesting spot where a large boulder had sometime recently broken off, coming down the mountain side and crossing over the trail before landing in it’s new permanent spot.      To one’s eye that didn’t know better, they would have assumed that this happened in the last few years. But upon reading and researching it was learned that it happened back in 2005. Here is a picture of the slide, and where the rock landed:

There were points of the trail that was overgrown and narrow and at times we even wonder if we were actually on the trail. The only marker you have is after each mile, if you look closely you may come across a mile marker. The terrain was uneven crossing from rocks, to solid mud to needle pack or leave pack ground; and you really never knew what was or might be around the bend. We always kept our eyes wide open and our ears tune to our surrounding at all times.
We finally came to a place where there was a marker that explained the area and that the overview from there was now overlooking El Vado Lake. This was a good resting area for refueling our bodies with nutrition.

Farther down the trail we came across a spectacular view of both El Vado Lake and Heron Lake.
El Vado Lake with the pennisula…You can’t see it well in this picture, but the middle house apparently was recently destroyed by a fire. Can you image the view these people have?
We kept on this hike, we knew that we could not do the whole hike this day and would only travel half of it. Every time we thought we might turn around, our curiosity would get the best of us and we would say “let’s go to the next bend”. We still had plenty of water and we know that when half gone, we would have no choice BUT to turn around-for our own safety.
Anyways once again we said we would go to the crevasse in the rocks-but again we decided to climb through this crevasse and reach the top mesa before turning around. It was very narrow and due to the weather warming, we had to go cautiously for unwelcome critters (snakes). I only got half way up when I was greeted with 100’s of flies. I told Brian to turn around and head back down. Not sure what had caused all those flies, but we didn’t want to stick around and see either. It was time to head back. (We soon later learned that at this mesa-the trail closes and becomes part of the wildlife management).
Heading back, a little slower, we came across some scat. It belonged to a bear. What discover that it apparently crosses here frequently because there was “old” scat with fresh on top. As we were “examining” this scat, we heard noises below us and then a cub bear crying for momma; It defiantly was time to get out of there!
Whew-that was a little too close. We both had our mace ready, whistles/horns in hand and we kept looking back over our shoulder just to make sure we were not being followed.
All-in-all we had a great hike and loved every minute of it. We calculated on our GPS (E-Trex) that we hiked just about 5 miles round trip and took us 4 hours. We had to take lots of camera breaks and of course water and food break.

Some day we may return when the whole trail system is open and due the whole thing-round trip.

ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

2012-05-15T07:31:00.001-07:00

We have been traveling and visiting New Mexico’s state parks now for over a month. We started out at Navajo Dam near Farmington. Elevation there was only at 6100 above sea level.
Now to some that isn’t really much-while to others anything over 4000 feet is too high. Last year while working at James M. Robb/CO River State Park near Grand Junction, we had a older lady that came from the mid west area that got elevation sickness and we were barely over the 4000 feet. She ended up having to cut her family visit and go back down to sea level. I really felt sorry for her and her family-for that meant going almost back home. I remember saying to Brian that I sure hope that never happens to us while we start our adventure.

Now 12+ years ago when we started to live in an RV and I went to my doctor for my “last” check-up with him; I remember him telling me due to the fact that I do have bad lungs (Severe Chronic Asthma)-I would have to take altitude climbing very serious and gave me strict instructions to go by; and they were: anything over 4000 feet, I must only go about 500 feet a day, come back down at night, got back up during daytime for about 2-3 days. At any point if I felt heaviness in my chest-descend immediately and don’t go back up! He didn’t think I could ever really go high in elevation and stay any length of time.

Have I taken his advise? Well, no not actually. And I haven’t done bad-until now….Since starting our travels, each year my asthma has improved greatly. Recently I had donated my nebulizer machine to a clinic and no longer carry any kind of inhaler. But I almost wish now that I at least have an inhaler.

I had no trouble ascending from 4000 feet to 6000 feet. Even at 7000 feet, I still wasn’t showing much sign of distress in my lungs or chest. Oh I occasionally would have a little shortness of breath after extreme hiking and would have to take short breaks to catch my breath, but Brian too was having the same effect-so nothing too worry about. Just take it easy and go slow.

Now that we have ascended to over 7500 feet, breathing started to get a little more stressful. We have been here for over a week and only hiked a couple of days with rest in between. Shortness of breath was coming more frequent-but for the both of us. I notice since being here, that I’m a little more short temper and agitated and didn’t’ know why. Surely by now we should be well adjusted to the elevation. wrong!

Generally, yes, a week adjustment is sufficient for some to acclimate their bodies to elevation. BUT it actually takes 3 months for a body to develop more red blood cells to get your oxygen level back to normal. During this time your body retains more water fluids that actually can go to your heart, lung and brain.

That still wasn’t the total case for me when we made a quick dash to the urgent care in Tierra Amarilla in NM. I started out having difficulty a few nights ago waking up with what I thought was a racing heart. I ignored it until it happened again the other night. But upon getting up yesterday I still had chest pain (felt as though Brian was sitting on my chest and wouldn’t get off), and very short of breath. As I moved around, I felt better. Going into Chama to run errands, felt fine. But after coming back and doing some work, the shortness of breath came back along with the chest pain and the racing heart. I knew it wasn’t a heart attack, but also knew something just wasn’t right.

Upon entering the clinic I was taken back immediately. an EKG was taken and my theory was right-I wasn’t having a heart attack. But it wasn’t my lungs either-for they had no wheezing and sounded clear. Which also meant there wasn’t fluid building either. So what was causing me to be in distress?
The last several days we have been socked in with rain and humidity which was enough to cause an onset of severe inflammation on all of my cartilage in my chest and rib bones. The inflammation was putting added stress on my heart-making it feel as though it was racing.

The doctor was hilarious! As she is pressing on my chest bone, asking me if that hurt-Brian makes the comment back that oh no we got a quack! She turns around and actually smacked him!
But in all seriousness, I had to have an anti-inflammatory shot to reduce the swelling so that I can get back to enjoying life! I actually had a wonderful team and got excellent care in such a small tiny community.
But at first the doctor talked about us having to descend back down. I was devastated, for we already had paid for the Cumbre & Toltec Train ride and I wasn’t ready to leave the area yet! I now don’t have to leave!

But here is a few tips for those that are planning on traveling to higher country and they are not acclimated to the elevation:

Don’t go from 0 to 100 ! What I mean by that, is let’s say you are at sea level and you plan on camping at 10,000 feet above sea level. Do it in increments. Start at 4000 feet for a night, then climb a few thousand and stay for another night or two. Providing you are not having any difficulties or your body isn’t in stress.
Once in high elevation: don’t over exert yourself-even if you feel fine. Wait a day or two. Even setting up camp can be stressful to your heart and lungs and you don’t know it.
Don’t drink alcohol the first night or two-again give your body time to adjust. alcohol goes to the blood stream faster in higher elevation.
Take water pills and an anti-inflammatory pill (ibuprofen) to help reduce extra fluid build up in your body. But please consult your physician first; specially if you have any medical conditions.

Here are some signs that your body maybe in stress from high elevation:

Headaches. This is normal to most that ascend. But if gets extreme-then it’s probably a warning sign that you may need to descend.
Loss of Appetite: This could be the beginning and warning sign that something isn’t right, don’t ignore it!
Agitation or Grumpiness: Remember, less oxygen the higher you go, which means less oxygen for the brain-can make one more grumpier than normal.
Shortness of Breath: this is very common when ascending and can be expected. However, if gets extreme even when sitting down-then it’s time to think about descending! Seek professional help!
NAUSEA: If you get to the point that you feel sick, you need to seek professional help and descend immediately!
Dizziness Or Light Headed: Once again-you need to descend ASAP! This means fluid is starting to build and you need to go back down and seek medical attention.

Once fluid has started to build around your lungs, heart or in the brain,this becomes a serious medical condition and needs proper medical attention. Thinking that descending is going to help, it will, but you will need professional help as well. Folks die every year because they ignore the warning signs. And don’t think age matters-it don’t….

Unfortunately because my lungs are damaged due to past asthma attacks, I will not be able to spend any time over 9000 feet and above. I can go for the day and be okay, but not overnight. So elevation I must always know how high I’m at.

Remember: this is just an advise, and before any elevation climbing, check first with your own physician before going on such an adventure and don’t ignore your own body’s warning signs. Only you know what your body can or cannot handle.

EL VADO LAKE, NM

2012-05-07T14:22:00.001-07:00

El Vado Lake is tucked away and does not get a lot of spring time visitors. Partially because it is so far out to the lake. Coming from HWY 84/64 turn onto Hwy 112, you go about 10 miles then turn right onto the Park entrance road and travel another 4 miles before entering the park.

When we pulled into this lush green park-there was only one other camper.
We found a perfect spot with a fantastic view of the lake. It actually was a shared site-however one half was being redone and no one was or would be working on it-so we had the whole area to ourselves.

Upon entering the park, we needed to fill our tank with water. As Brian was busy doing this I was checking out other sites-just to make sure the one we picked was perfect. As I’m checking it out-here comes a 5th wheel in.
Now being older and not in shape-I make a fast dash to the car, and go park the car on our future site. Whew-just in the nick of time, because that 5th wheel had the same exact spot in mind.
That site become ours for the next few weeks. At one point we were the only campers in the park. Occasionally we would see maybe one or two other campers coming in but only for a night or two.
Springtime at El Vado lake is very slow. The lake isn’t big, however it’s the only lake near Chama that anyone can take a boat and run it wide open. Therefore we have been told that come summertime the lake is very, very busy with all types of boats, pontoons, jet skis-you name it-if it’s got speed it will be on the lake. While there-we were lucky to only see one or two boats on the lake.
Again we were fortunate because by summertime-the grassy fields will burn up and turn more brown than the lush green that we had the pleasure of enjoying.

Half of the campground was closed and only the main area (Elk Run) was open for business. Elk Run has two full hook-up sites that are generally used for volunteers. Otherwise sites had water and electric or were totally primitive. Pinion Beach and Shale Point have no electric or water on sites.
Compare this park to Navajo it’s by far a smaller park run by only two rangers and was by far in much better condition. Once entering the park you go from paved road to gravel roadways. The main area (Elk Run) is more solid pack than Pinion Beach or Shale Point. All sites in Elk Run gave you plenty of space for large rigs to get in and move around and you were not on top of one another. Several sites were share sites-each having their own electric and water.
No large trees to hit on, all were trimmed back to give the big rigs plenty of room. Shale Point is not large rig friendly and there really is only a few sites down that way. A smaller unit could get in there if they choose too.
Being this park is more in the High Desert of the mountain area-there wasn’t really any big trees to speak of. Lots of Juniper and Pinions.
Pinion Beach is large rig friendly, however, the road is not gravel pack as the main area was. If no heavy rains are predicted, you could get in and out with out any mishaps. Some sites were very secluded and close to the lake. We wish this was open when we were there-maybe another time.
The shower building does not open until about a week or two just before Memorial Weekend. There is a pit toilet near the boat ramp and one or two in the two areas that were closed.
As for wildlife viewing; many osprey's were nesting in the closed area. And from afar we discovered a pair of eagles that were also nesting. We came across some mule deer and enjoyed watching them romp around the rabbit brush.

One of the reason’s of wanting to stop and spend time here was the trail that links El Vado Lake to Heron Lake-The Rio Chama Trail. According to research it would be a perfect place for hiking and viewing wildlife.
We didn’t realize that part of the trail crosses over to the Wild Life Management Area and therefore was closed on the El Vado end. We were told by the lake manager the reason the trail was closed was so that hikers don’t disturb the wildlife as they are with their young ones. It would open again on Memorial Weekend. Now in the same breath he then claims that Turkey hunting was allowed in this exact area that are closed to hikers! Now-that made absolutely no sense what-so-ever! It’s not okay to hike-where we are quiet and there only to view, not to hunt. Hunters are there to hunt….What is wrong with that picture???
We took a quick tour over to Heron-and the Trail is open at that end…..no-it makes no sense at all to us…wonder if I need to contact someone about that situation and what kind of response I would get????
All-in-all we did enjoy our quiet time there at El Vado Lake. But it was also starting to get boring since the trail was closed and so it was time to move on a little sooner than planned. That’s why we love not being on any kind of schedule.
We decided to only go a very short distant-Heron Lake. Here, there are three intertwining trails-including the Rio Chama Trail-that is open from this end. More to look at, to see and to hike!