September 5, 2017 On to Farmington

September 5, 2017

Oh!  All the other humans are gone!  And my maternal human is sitting.  I have to go curl my paws on her.  Hi maternal human!   I missed you.  Lemme curl my paws.  My purr box is really going.  Curl… curl.    Hi human, curl, curl, curl…  time to nap… on my human. 

Spouse and I woke up early so we figured we would get on the road to Farmington early.  Going north on 550 by 7am, there was a whole lot of rush hour traffic going south.  We have done this drive before… and again… and again…  It is really kind of pretty, just not over and over again.  It is high desert and buttes.  We stopped in Cuba for breakfast, then continued from the desert, over the pass with pines on the plains.  Ok, I won’t boor you with the details.

Instead, let’s talk about NM bingo.  Jennifer and Bob invented a game where you score points based on things you see in New Mexico.  For instance, if you see a Dollar General store, you get points.  If you see a Family Dollar in the same town, double points!  You get points if you see a washing machine in a yard.  More points for 5 cars (nothing less than 5 gets points) in a yard.  Oh, that is NON-WORKING cars…  Need I go on?  This is New Mexico.

Spouse and I made it to Farmington, staying at the Elks Club.  It is perched on a hill with a nice view.  We did not know what to expect when we got to our park, but it was better than we expected.  YAY!   A little bit of ‘enforcing’ with Spouse walking around with the manager ought to do the trick for now.

Since we didn’t get a walk in the morning, we took a walk along the Animas river.  They have carved trails into a nice Riverwalk.  Old groves of cottonwood trees create beautiful canopies.  There are deer and lots of skunks.  You definitely have to watch your step so you don’t accidentally piss one off.  They kept their tails raised facing away from us, which is a good thing, but the area smelled like skunk.  The way Rudy sniffed my hand made me question if there was a skunk scent on me.  I can’t smell it, but Rudy sure likes it!  Maybe I better shower so Rudy doesn’t chew my arm off…

September 4, 2017 Name that paw print

September 4, 2017

There are so many humans here!  What is going on?   The little human keeps following me around.  I try to hide and she finds me.  Here comes my maternal human.  SAVE ME!  Mew!  Not the little human again…  Mew!

It was a warm night for sleeping outside, but it did cool off.  Bob actually got cold.  I was good.  Hayden seemed ok.  But, neither Bob nor Jen slept too well.  Bob woke up with a migraine so we sent him home (all of 10 minutes away).  Jen, the kids and I went on a walk to the Pueblo.  Spouse stayed back and made breakfast.

There was actually staff at the pueblo today.  Every time I have walked there, it hasn’t been open.  Little did I know there was a fee for entry.  Ooops…  She told us to go ahead and walk the trail along the river, so we did.  Ellie and Hayden were quite the troopers.  We saw a coyote run across the trail.  It was pretty furry for a coyote.  I was told it might have been a Mexican wolf.  We also saw some weird paw prints in the sand.  One set was canine – maybe the wolf/coyote.  The other prints were much smaller.  We smelled a skunk, so maybe they were skunk prints.  However, one of the prints looked like it might have been an iguana.  It had prints on both sides of what looked like a tail.  Maybe a gila monster, who knows.  The trail follows the Rio Grande and ended in a beautiful cottonwood grove.  It was a nice walk and I totally enjoyed the kids.  To all of you who know how I feel about kids… I actually REALLY enjoyed it!  Who knew?

Living proof that some kids will survive after I spend time with them!

Back at camp, Spouse had breakfast ready for us.  Since Bob left, we took Jen and the kids home, along with our laundry…  We had enough clothes for another week, but we are not sure how much longer we will be, so now we are good for a while, probably enough to get us home… I hope…

It was a great visit with them, but alas… we must get back to Hannah in preparation for the next leg of our journey…  Rudy appreciates the solitude!

September 3, 2017 Food and family

 September 3, 2017

I like our new spot.  There is lots of dirt to roll around in.  I roll and scratch.  This is fun.  Time to go inside and sleep though.

Today, we chose to do nothing.  How often does that happen?  We thought about going up the Sandia Peak Tram…  we were told that it is not the thing to do on a holiday weekend.  Oh yeah, forgot about that.

I took my morning walk around the Jemez Pueblo.  We are right next to the Rio Grande.  The pueblo dates back about 500 years.  Then we got serious…  RUMMIKUB!  I let Spouse win a game!  What was I thinking!  But I won it back… and I got him holding some points!  YES!  To be continued…

We did some grocery shopping in anticipation of my nephew and his family visiting.    We also filled our empty propane tank.  Spouse agonized over paying more for getting the tank filled than we would when we got to Farmington.  But we needed it for our barbecue tonite, so he had to bite the bullet.  I am surprised that he did not writhe in pain!   We will light the fire pit and make s’mores.  And we will set up the cots and sleep outside.  It has been warm, but not hot.  We have needed the air conditioner inside though.

 

Spouse cooked the caribou, some salmon and some halibut that our friends gave us.  None of us had eaten caribou before and it was quite good.  It was lean and tasted like steak.  I am not much of a meat person, but I liked it.  Maybe it was the hatch chiles that we roasted and put on the same plate.  I REALLY liked them.  It is the season for them and people buy them by the 25 pound bag and have them roasted.  We may have to get some when we get to Farmington.  I don’t know where we would put a 25 pound bag of peppers, but the couple next to us came here from Phoenix specifically for them.  They had at least 60 pounds of them!

As we ate, the skies grew dark and ominous.  Spouse had showed Hayden and Ellie how to make kindling from solid pieces of wood.  They had fun with that.  By the time Spouse lit the fire, the wind was really blowing.  We had to rescue one of our chairs that blew into the fire, but weather be damned!  The kids are going to have s’mores!  And that they did!  We did get a few sprinkles on us, but the rain pretty much stayed away.  The lightening show was quite nice.

Bob, Hayden and I slept outside in the cabana.  The clouds parted and the moon was really bright.  Good thing the cabana provided some darkness.  I wanted to tell ghost stories, but Bob didn’t recommend that!  Jen, Ellie and Spouse slept inside.  Rudy was quite overwhelmed with all the activity.  He hugged his daddy all night long.

September 2, 2017 Leaving Las Vegas, yes we are

September 2, 2017

Oh no… my paternal human got up first…  I guess I will get less food.  Ok, I ate… MEOWT!!  MEOWT!!!

After our morning walks, we found ourselves leaving Las Vegas.  Spouse remembers towns by certain things:  cheap gas, and Dairy Queens.  Las Vegas had at least two Dairy Queens.  This is now an OK place for him!  It actually was nicer than we expected.  It is not a garden spot, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  And at the Elks Club, all the RV spots are now full.  But time to move on.

Speed limit?  What speed limit...

Heading south on I25, we are headed to the town of Bernalillo… another garden spot.  My nephew and his family live next door in Rio Rancho so we will spend some time visiting.  It is quite a nice drive with rolling rocky hills and ponderosa pines.  As we near Santa Fe, adobe style houses start popping up.  We stopped for breakfast at the Flying Tortilla.  We prefer to eat at non-chain restaurants, and this one was right next door to an Applebee’s.  Good food, but tough to make turns towing Hannah.  Center dividers can really be a pain…

We are back in the Coronado Campground.  We stayed here last year.  Each site has a cabana and a firepit.  We have some morning shade, but the air conditioner is on now.

We drove down to Albuquerque to meet my nephew Bob and his wife Jennifer for Thai food.  The streets are kind of new and they really pissed me off.  It is impossible to negotiate around all the friggin’ islands they have.  How many U turns does one have to do to get in a shopping center?  And forget about towing Hannah.  The islands are so narrow, there would be no way to tow anything and make some of these turns.  What are city planners thinking?  REALLY?  I am sure the neighborhood hears the cussing of delivery truck drivers…

Rudy likes our new spot…

September 1, 2017 Staying close to home

September 1, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I want to go outside and play but my humans won’t let me run free.  MEOWT!

Today is the Friday of the Labor Day weekend.  We chose to basically stay off the road.  We stayed local and took a look at what Las Vegas, New Mexico really is.  OH, and Spouse washed the truck … again…

After our morning walks, we headed to Storrie Lake.  It is a state park only 3 miles from the Elks Club.  It is a shallow lake, and we can see all the reserved spots are roped off.  It is not real crowded.  There are spots for RVs with electricity, and some with water.  I think we have a Los Angeles attitude about the holiday weekend.  At home, things would be booked and crowded.  I don’t think that would be the case here.  We orchestrated around not driving on Friday and Monday, and it probably wasn’t needed.  Oh well.

Let’s go check out the Wildlife Refuge nearby.  Lots of beautiful meadows covered in bright yellow Broom Snakeweed.  There are ponds with lots of water fowl.  At one point, we stopped to listen to the geese gaggle.  We saw some hawks, but other wildlife doesn’t come out in the middle of the day.  We know better, but we are on our schedule, not theirs…  Was that lightening?  Better get off this dirt road so Spouse doesn’t have to wash the truck again!

What is the downtown like?  There is the Highlands University.  It is a huge, modern university.  Right up the street is the historic Santa Fe Trail and a cute city center with a square with a park in the middle, hotel and shops all around.  Very cute.  There are a lot of stately homes, most of them crying for some sandpaper and paint.  It really is quite a large town, which is not evident from the highway.  It’s amazing what is out there off the major highway…

When we got back to the Elks Club, there were other RVs there!  Holiday weekend…  But we got our spot!  We will leave tomorrow for Bernalillo, and visiting with my nephew and his family through the holiday weekend.  We actually have a reservation – at a place we stayed at before and Spouse liked.  It is a rare thing for us to make a reservation.

August 31, 2017 Visiting Sandy

August 31, 2017

My maternal human normally gets up first in the morning.  So, I whine to her for food.  If I have food already, I will go eat it real quick so she will give me more.  Then I will go snuggle with the paternal human.  He will give me lots of food.  I have his number.  I help him groom then he gives me food.  Good deal.

I did a morning walk around the neighborhood, and realized the GPS sent us way out of our way yesterday.  I hate her at times…

Today we are visiting Sandy.  Sandy and I met in 1982 when we roomed together on a safari in Kenya.  She has been living in this area for almost 20 years.  It is always an adventure going to Sandy’s.  She is off the grid on dirt roads and we always get lost.  Today was no exception.  We know how to get to ‘the tunnel.’  Then we have to find the right dirt road.  We go left, we know this is not right. Too much paved road…   We go right.  Is this right?  No, let’s go back.  Maybe it is right but it is further.  Yea, this is good.  But now what…  crap, Spouse just washed the truck.  Why?  Knowing how we get to Sandy’s, why would he wash the truck?  Sure enough, we swim through some mud…  We finally got Sandy on the phone and she guided us past the big bad S curve to her house.

The cabin from across the way

Sandy lives in a little casita off the grid.  She started to build a log cabin, but ran into some circumstances, and ran out of money.  The cabin has killer views of the pecos valley, but, alas, it will never be finished on site.  Her brood of dogs greeted us and we all visited.  Spouse and I took a walk around.  It is a beautiful area.  The roads are challenging but there are a few nice homes out here.  One of her dogs (Felipe Navidad) is now our new best friend…

We visited, we ate.  Thankfully, Sandy made some food that was somewhat healthy!  YAY!  And it was good. Even though it is kind of difficult to live off the grid, there is an undeniable beauty here.  Maybe the next time we come, we can do it without getting lost.    We left right before dark, and didn’t get home till almost 9pm.  Rudy was going to tear our throats out…

Last year while we were on our trip, I lost a dear friend in Glen Spreen.  This year, I lost another dear friend, Shelia Baker.  It is her birthday today…  I hope to break this jinx next year.

August 30,2017 Back in New Mexico

August 30, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I really like it outside here.   I am happy just sitting in a chair watching.  I don’t think my humans brought enough chairs though.

After our morning walks, we readied Hannah.  From this point on, we are somewhat is a business mode.  We need to get to Farmington, but first, we have a few visits.  Today, we got on I25 south.  To the east, plains.  To the west, plains with the mountains in the background.  The plains turn green, add some ponderosa pines, add some rolling hills and some canyon sunflowers.  After the town of Trinidad, we head into the Raton pass.  It crests at around 7900 feet, and is lined with pretty pines and alpine meadows. 

As we cross into New Mexico, we leave the mountains behind.  The plains are green with loads of canyon sunflowers making it quite a pretty landscape.  We see antelope grazing amid the cattle.  I am driving, which I think makes Spouse nervous.  OH well.

We headed into Las Vegas, New Mexico at the Elks Club.  It is not pretty, but it works.  The significance of this location is that it is somewhat close to where my friend Sandy lives.  She is in the boonies so this is a reasonable drive.  We thought of doing other campgrounds, but with the holiday weekend coming, we didn’t want to drive all over to find campsites are all reserved.  So, this is easy.  We aren’t here for the camping per se.  But they sure do have a fast internet!

What, no pictures???  not today