Taking a Break.

July 22, 2016 Left Deming around 9:00 AM headed for Albuquerque for VA appointments on July 25th and 27th...We arrived at the Moose Lodge in T or C and got camp set up...Hell it's Friday night,,,,(Steak NIght) So had dinner at the lodge...Great Filet Mignon, bacon wrapped of course, Baked Potato, Corn and Roll....Let me tell you, that filet could literally be cut with a fork...Excellent....

July 23, 2016: Decided to take the dogs out to the lake so they could get their feet wet...That did not go well, the road I wanted to take was closed...Looked like they are going to be repaving it...so ended driving out to Engle...nice drive but un eventful..did see a small herd of Bison though..

July 24, 2016: Got a fairly early start to Albuquerque. Had decided we would stay at the East Heights Moose lodge...No trouble finding it, However the 30 amp service we were told they had ended up being 3 15 amp services with low voltage to boot. We did spend the night. I shut down everything electric except the AC..Refrigerator and Hot water heater were switched to gas..Voltage 105 VAC..Too damn low....Called the other Moose Lodge in the area, they had no idea what power they had in their RV sites....Several calls and still no info...

July 25 2016: Made my VA appointment, went back to the East heights Moose lodge and packed up to leave..Without too much trouble we found the other Moose lodge. Disappointed was not the first thing that came out of my mouth...It had 2 RV sites (If you could call them that) stuck in their back yard and was pretty much a dump..Started calling RV parks that were either full or did not allow dogs...Finally found 1 and headed in it's direction ...Got on I-40 W and things were looking pretty good, although not for long..Next thing we are on I-25, So being me I said screw it we are getting out of Dodge...Headed South on 1-25 and started calling RV parks...Found 1 in San Antonio and went for it...Found it a few miles down HWY-1 in San Antone, got camp set up and headed to the Owl Cafe for a burger, and very good it was, Cold beer and Pecan Pie to go...The park is Called the Bosque Bird watchers RV park and is located just out side the entrance to the Bosque Del Apache Wilderness area...

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July 26 2016 Left the Bosque around 9:00 AM. Tried for a few Geocaches between Socorro and Pie town, but the first 5 were across fences, which by the looks of them had had gates previously...

Stopped by the Very Large Array.   
On the way and  snapped a couple of pictures.

 Made it to Pie Town and checked into the Pie Town RV park at $25.00 / night. Went to one of the local restaurants and had a green chili cheeseburger, and a New Mexico Apple pie to go. (New Mexico Apple Pie had Green Chili in it.)..It's still warm from the oven so will demolish it this evening....The people that owned the park also have other businesses..

Later: The New Mexico Apple Pie was wonderful...Something about the sweet and hot together....

July 27 2016: The plan for the day, Find fuel, find some kind of grocery store, and do a couple of geocaches...We will see how far the plan gets..Tomorrow we will head for Holbrook...

July 27 2016 Kind of a day off thing...We went on a quest which was to find fuel and a couple of staples...We drove back towards Daitle to pick up a couple of Geocaches, Then one in Pie town. Then headed for Quemado for fuel...No fuel in Pie town...Made it to Quemado and picked up the stuff we needed including fuel and headed back to camp. We managed to pick up 3 Geocaches and 4 Pokemoms. One of the Geocaches was at a Historical Marker, Agnes Morley Cleaveland 1884-1958

 A ways down the road from the previous Historical markers we found this.

I guess it is where Agnes is buried..It has Morley engraved on it..


July 28 2016 Headed out for Show Low AZ. Why?.....Just because....Good enough..Spent 2 days there and did pretty much nothing..We did take a ride out to the Hon -dah casino and looked around. Walked around inside for a bit but did not lose a dime...

July 29 2016 On the way to Holbrook AZ. Staying at the OK RV Park, booked 2 days...

July 30 2016. It is now Saturday and we are heading for the Petrified Forest and Painted desert...Stopped at Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Co, and spent an hour or so looking around. 

 


Trip went as good as can be expected with a couple of old farts, we got tired we quit, but not before the end..Had no luck at all finding any RV spaces within 100 miles of the Grand Canyon, so guess we will make it another time.

July 31 2016 On the road again, this time headed towards home. Today we will stop in Eagar AZ and spend the night at the Bear Claw RV park in Eagar, It is around 87 miles.

Arrived in Eagar AZ around 11:00 AM and got checked into the Bear Paw RV Park...Nice little park with a lot of seasonal's. It has very large sites, like double wide. Located just outside of town it is very quiet considering how full the park is. We will spend 2 days here. May do a little Geocaching tomorrow. 

 We Picked up a couple of Geocaches and a few Pokemon, then went to DQ for a Blizzard,,...Needless to say we did not eat dinner that night....It did rain slightly that nite. In the morning we headed for home and got in around 1:00 PM...

We had a great time and it was a welcome retreat from Deming...Almost like a vacation...

Last of the season mini trip

 

 

Day 1 we made it to the destination for the day, Elephant Butte…We were extremely proud of Elephant  butte, as it was Veterans day and the streets were full of flags…Flags  are city owned but the vets helped put them out…and I mean out…like every 60 ft.

Camped in an RV Park  about a block or so from the American Legion Post.Wind was blowing like hell, no fun…

Tuesday night went to the American Legion for a jam session..Sue, Constance, and Husker played and sang, Wanda sang a few also…All in all a good time and got in  a bit of BS’ing.

Wednesday night we were back at the Legion to listen to Jim Corrons play, an ole time favorite of ours…More BS’ing….

Thursday we lit out for Carrizozo and spent the night at the Valley of Fire. Froze that night…We met up with a school chum of wands and had a late lunch..We then headed for Hondo,  I had not been there so was fine with me…We stopped at a small store called Tangle Wood Art…Most amazing store…You would not believe all the stuff they had…Here is a small sample.

 

Friday headed for Alamogordo and pulled into the Boot Hill RV Park…Nice little park that we have stayed in before..Reasonable rates and free wifi.. Really nice people. This was our final destination. A Geocaching event was to start Saturday morning at the VFW.. So at 08:30 Sat morning we were there…Had a buffet breakfast fit for a king, Then drawings were held, New cache coordinates handed out and much BSing.. It finally broke up and everyone lit out in their own directions to pounce on some new Geocaches…We met again for dinner at a chinese buffet and ate until we busted. with that over around 7:30 Wanda and I Headed back to the VFW for music..Cross Bow was playing and we really enjoy them..

The Hosts of the Geocaching event showed up, so we visited with them  for the entire evening….

Sunday, it was planned to head home….Did not happen…We felt tired and lazy so just lounged around the RV for the whole day….

Monday headed home…Miserable weather, Wind, Rain, and Dust..yes dust…took us an extra hour to get home due to having to slow down so much for the wind and dust…Long trip home…But we made it….

That is it for the season….Drained the fresh water tank, opened all the faucets and the low point drains…Called it a day….Still blowing and raining off and on..

Another adventure

 

In September some new friends, Dillon, Jean, Wanda and I headed out to cooks peak for a ride. It was a beautiful ride but had a set back or 2…

First one of the ATV”s rolled over in to the top of a mine shaft…Very luckily the girl was not hurt..Winched the atv out and were ready to get back on the journey…But Dillons UTV would not start no matter what we did so decided to just tow it back to the trucks…But…..It’s lunch time, so took time out to enjoy or lunch before heading back down the hill…About 8 miles to trucks. All in all a great day…Here’s some pics. You can click on them to enlarge.

The pictures with people in them were the old Cooks Town cemetery. Only a couple of the had markers..

The following was from a Deming Headlight Article:

The 1900 U.S. Census records 343 people living at Cooks Town. This sizeable population was in fact larger than that which was recorded for the more well-known town of Lake Valley. Over half of the population listed for Cooks Town in the census were either born in Mexico or born in the US to Mexican Nationals, not native born New Mexican Hispanics. The most common surnames were Rodrigues(z), Gardia, Delgado, Jaso, and Guttirez (Gutierrez). Hence, while the mine owners were primarily Anglo, the mining camps of the Cookes Peak Mining District were largely Mexican in their ethnic composition.

By all accounts life within these camps was particularly brutal. While there were seven brothels and as many as 25 saloons, there were no churches and only a single source of drinkable water. Cattle rustling was common, as was claim jumping. Disputes were settled without the aid of law enforcement, often with violent and horrific consequences. Blizzards could occur in winter and dust storms were not uncommon in the summer months. Making matters worse, there is circumstantial evidence that many of residents suffered from the effects of lead poisoning.

Today, the remnants of Cooks Town, Hadley Town, and Jose Town, as well as the thousands of mines which once operated in the Cookes Peak Mining District, are still visible upon the landscape. However, visitation to the range is strongly discouraged. Much of the land remains privately owned and the abandoned mines are extremely dangerous. Be that as it may, the landscape of the Cookes Range remains an important piece of history to Luna County.

A Day in the Desert.

 

This month, April has been an exciting month for us…To start off both my surgeries are pretty much healed and I am feeling pretty good. We bought a 2015 Polaris Ranger 570 mid (side by side)to replace the 2 ATV’s . So far so good. We have close to a hundred miles on it in the last 3 days. Yesterday 4/20/2015 we took a trip out the Green Leaf Mine Rd…Which covers miles and miles of dirt/gravel roads. We did manage to pick up 1 geocache on the way.

We had a blast on the trip and the highlights were an Arroyo to run in which was really great and the other was at the geocache site that had an awesome view for many miles.

 

 

A Day in the Desert with the new Polaris.

Bill Evans Lake, Grant Co. New Mexico

 

 

Wanda and I went up to Bill Evans Lake and spent 3 days goofing around fishing, flying and lazing around. Friday night it rained like hell for close to an hour, so we got to at least see some…..

No fish were caught or released. There were 2 different fishing derby’s going on Saturday, One a kinda family thing and the other a NMSU BassMaster qualifier…The largest Bass was 6 lbs 1oz…Nice fish..

I managed to get a few Quad flights in which felt pretty damn good.

 

 

Shot from my DJI F450 Quadcopter.

Hatch Chili Festival 2014

 

Travis, Teresa, Wanda and I attended the Hatch Chili Festival on Saturday Aug 30th and had a wonderful time. The event has grown a might since I was there last. More venders, Carnival among other things. A live band was playing. ( The Yarbourghs ) Probably spelled wrong but that’s the way it goes…

We had a couple of beers and some  Bacon Chili Cheese Fries that were just out of this world. After being beat by the sun for a couple of hours we went into Hatch and stood in line at Sparkys for a Green Chili Milk Shake….Well, Travis and Teresa stood in line. Wanda and I sat in the shade and waited…

 

If you are interested here is a link to the Chili Face Book Page.