January 1, 2017 – Don’t Need to Put a Border Wall Here

Big Bend is another National Park that you don’t hear much about. It’s out of the way and not visited by many, but is should be.  Seeing that beautiful places like this have been recognized and protected by our government, gives me some degree of respect for our leaders, at least the past leaders. The south border of the park is a canyon carved by the Rio Grande River.

Finally, a warm hike!

I'm standing on the US side, those cliffs are in Mexico.

The south side of the river is Mexico with a completely vertical canyon wall about 6 times higher than what Trump wants to build. Hope they don’t put a wall on our side of the river so we can’t enjoy this natural wonder anymore.

The purple prickly pear added bright pops of color in the desert landscape.

December 31, 2016 – Guadalupe, Marfa and Prada

Our last day of 2016 was a busy one. We happily said adios to our White’s City parking spot and planned a morning hike at Guadalupe National Park just south of Carlsbad, but a frigid 19 degrees kept us only to an interpretive trail around the visitor center. How far south are we going to have to go to get warm? We hit the road for south Texas and the Mexico border.

I made sure our route took us through Marfa, Texas. Laine and I visited here last year when we were driving across country. Marfa was put on the map for the mysterious lights that flash in the night sky. They have a viewing building for this, but I haven’t made it there at night to see what the hub-bub is about. The town is now an artist enclave with a few galleries and interesting restaurants. 

A few miles outside of town is an art installation depicting a Prada storefront in the middle of nowhere. It’s a false storefront, you can’t go in and shop, strictly for window shopping. The fence behind the “store” is covered with locks like the love locks on the bridge over the Seine in Paris.

We ended the day and the year at an RV park just outside Big Bend National Park.

December 30, 2016 – Caverns and Crappy Camping

At the recommendation of a fellow RVer we booked a night at our first KOA campground ever about 20 miles outside Carlsbad, New Mexico. This place was nice and tidy with roomy spots, but not much in the way of personality. The staff was nice and it was the first RV park we’ve stayed in that offered a menu. They BBQed daily and you could put in an order and they would deliver to your door. Not knowing this in advance, I had already prepped dinner for that night so we didn’t partake.

Our plan for the next day was to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a 45 minute drive each way from this remote campground. Research lead me to an RV park in White’s City at the turn off to the National Park and only 10 minutes from the park.  Reviews were horrible, but it would give us more time at the caverns. We decided to depart the KOA for something closer. The location was ideal, the “park,”

not so much. Thank God for a self-contained trailer. Most of our neighbors looked to be permanent squatters that permanently kept most of their belongings outside their rig. The bathhouse doors were swinging from broken hinges. The check-in office/convenience store/collection of everything they had ever owned building was very unique.

We were so glad we chose to check out Carlsbad Caverns. I don’t think I’ve read anything that prepared me for just how magnificent this caverns are. I had no idea what was in store for us. Everyone should see this national park. I’m claustrophobic so have had some difficulty with cave visits in the past and warned Denis I might have to bail if the trails get tight, but the only tight quarters was the elevator down to the caverns. There are other trails that require scrambling through tight spaces if you like that sort of thing, but we opted for the elevator down to the Big Room. The trail through this is over a mile. The place is massive. There is even a concession stand and restrooms down here. The job they’ve done strategically lighting the walkway and formations is ideal. Can’t say enough about this place, just spectacular and my photos don’t do it justice.

December 29, 2016 - The Roswell Incident

We drove through Roswell, New Mexico on our way down to Carlsbad Caverns. Roswell is very proud of their alien heritage dating back to "The Incident" in 1947 when some people say that merely a weather balloon crashed, but others swear it was a conspiracy covering up the crash of an UFO space craft. 

December 28, 2016 - Almost Up, Up and Away

My favorite event in Reno is the annual hot air balloon races. Albuquerque is home to I think the largest balloon festival in the U.S. Would love to be here sometime for it, but in lieu of the race they have a fabulous museum on the history of ballooning. Here are two of my favorite people waiting to be lifted into the air. 

December 20, 2016 - Christmas Break

It's almost Christmas and time for a short break from RVing. We parked Scoop at the Enchanted Trails RV Park just outside Albuquerque. winterized her for the sub-freezing temps of the high desert then headed over to stay with Denis' Uncle David and his squeeze, Carol. We stayed with them for just a couple days before flying back to Reno to spend the holiday with Mom and Dad.

The Enchanted Trails RV park was a step back in time. A whole group of RVer's here were staying in some lovingly refurbished retro trailers.

Dave and Carol took us to some beautiful spots around Albuquerque. Loved the southwestern food here.

 

December 19, 2016 - Truth or Consequences

Yes, Truth or Consequences is named after the old game show. In 1950 the game show announced they would film from the first town to officially change its name to the same name as the show. Hot Springs, New Mexico won the challenge. This little "hot" spot made it on our itinerary when I read about the hot springs that feed into the Rio Grande river. We booked an hour in a private infinity hot tub at the Riverbed Spa for only $30. Highly recommend, awesome place. It was chilly out so that hot tub felt so good.

December 18, 2016 - Lack of Research = Adventure Travel

It's been getting down right cold here in the desert southwest. Scoop is not freeze-friendly. If we stay in below-freezing temps we run the risk of our pipes freezing. Our initial plan was to stay as far south and at a low elevation until we were to head to Albuquerque to Uncle David's. Then I found that our planned route was making us miss cool places like Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. 

We decided to winterize Scoop which we were going to have to do in Albuquerque anyway and hotel it for a couple nights while visiting high desert sights. We stayed in Silver City, New Mexico so the next day we could drive into the canyons where the Gila Cliff Dwellings reside. A quick Google map of the route showed that it was 1.25 hours from Silver City. We could leave Scoop in the parking lot of our hotel, drive to the cliffs, then go pick up Scoop and drive to our next destination that was only a couple hours down the road.

What we didn't research was road conditions. You would think that being from the Sierra Nevada area we would know to check road conditions when traveling at higher elevations in the winter. We didn't even check the elevation. It wasn't long after we started out that the winding, forested, steep county road went from icy patches to full blown ice rink. the 1.25 hour drive became 2+ hours. We arrived at the cliffs safely and were thankful we at least had thought to not tow scoop to the dwellings.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are up a picturesque one-mile hike up from the valley floor along a creek. It was cold out with patches of snow on the trail, but we were ready for this. Our nail-biting drive and brisk hike were well worth it. These caves made into homes were amazing. A forest docent recited amazing stories of the families that built and resided here. More amazing and appreciated was that visitors were allowed to climb, crawl and explore all throughout the dwellings. I was glad I didn't have a small child to keep track of.

 

 

The rangers at the monument were amazed we braved the mountain road to get to the park and routed us back to Silver City a different way that went around the mountain we went over. The drive back to pick up Scoop and head to our next stop was thankfully uneventful.

December 16, 2016 - A Birthday to Remember

Today I turned 58. For my birthday dinner I asked Denis to BBQ some fillets to go with a salad and a good bottle wine at the campsite. A nice peaceful camping dinner. And then the skunk came.

Let me backtrack. Earlier in the day we were sitting outside in our camp chairs. About 30 yards from our campsite was a hiking trail and strolling down the trail in broad daylight was a beautiful coyote. He had a full winter coat and looked very well fed. He wasn't slinking past, merely walking past, giving us a bored glance. I immediately had to count heads and be sure Fu was accounted for and corralled so he couldn't take off after his relative.

Now fast forward to our evening BBQ. We hadn't started the steaks yet, the sun had set and it was dark out. It was a nice evening, a little cool, but we had the door open for fresh air with the screen door closed. Fu was sitting at the screen door looking out into the darkness when all of a sudden his diligence was reward. He had spotted it. He was gonna get it no matter what. His whole nine pounds pushed on the screen and it gave way. He disappeared into the darkness. We jumped into action thinking we would never see him again. He was going to be that coyote's dinner! 

Denis, the faster of us two, was next into the darkness until he realized it was dark and he needed light. As he turned to come back for a flashlight, Fu screamed, my blood curdled, Fu came running back to us and I grabbed him up, then it hit us....the smell. He hadn't seen the coyote, it was a skunk.

My little Fu, that I was so thankful to have back in my arms, was dropped back to the ground. Poor little guy had foam coming out of his nose and mouth while liquid poured from his eyes. We got him on his leash, did a preliminary wet wipe down, then googled how to get rid of the skunk smell. We had all the ingredients but peroxide. Fortunately, the neighborhood Walmart was only a couple miles away. Denis went to the store while I stood outside the trailer with Fu who was not fit to take in. I nervously stared out into the darkness expecting the coyote to come lunging from the darkness. Then I realized I did not have to, I called my son Chaz in Minnesota. He stayed on the phone with me until Denis returned. What a sissy I am!

The recommended recipe of peroxide, baking soda and Dawn dish detergent worked miracles on Fu. When I was done washing him there was only a slight scent around the wrinkles on his face where I couldn't really scrub too hard. We had to throw out the clothes I wore when I picked him up and the initial towels used to wipe him off. In all the hubbub I didn't get any photos, but I found this old one of Fu at bath time to show his level of misery.

December 15, 2016 - Christmas in Scoop and Molly

I love to decorate for Christmas so Denis indulged my desires with a trip down the Christmas decor aisle...Merry Christmas!

 

December 13, 2016 - Best Desert Ever

Our dear friends Jim and Theresa Lovett are from Tucson, Arizona and they gave us great recommendations for the area. We set up for three nights at Catalina State Park. This park had wonderful hiking trails and bike rides. Besides enjoying hiking and biking in this park we went to Saguaro National Park - West District and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We both decided that the Sonoran desert is our favorite. The diversity of plants in this desert environment is amazing. You know what else is amazing in Tucson? The taco trucks! I'm sure there are amazing restaurants in Tucson, but the taco trucks ruled with us. We try to watch our budget and cook in most of the time, but we also like to try the local fare as we travel.

 

 

 

 

December 13, 2016 - Musical Instruments and Zen Gardens

Our next stop has been on Denis’ bucket list for a few years. Back when Denis worked at Target headquarters one of his favorite people was Bob Ulrich. Bob was a collector of musical instruments and eventually founded the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, Arizona. 

MIM displays over 6500 musical instruments from over 200 countries around the world. We thought this would be a quick walk through, but we ended up staying over 4 hours. Visitors are given headphones that activate and play music from an instrument when you walk up to it, must be Bluetooth technology. Then as you walk away from an exhibit the music fades quietly away and the next begins as you approach that display. Highly recommend the MIM.

For our overnight in the Phoenix area we camped at McDowell Mountain Regional Park. The park provided beautiful vistas of the mountains and perfectly raked sand sites reminiscent of a Zen garden. I found myself tiptoeing to our picnic table so as not to mess up the raking pattern.