Roper Lake State Park

Hi all,
 We're finally here, Roper Lake State Park 6 miles south of Safford AZ. our home until March.
While it is nice to see new places there is something about returning to a place where you spent a time that brings a smile.

 We actually drove in a bit of a different route this time driving up Hwy 70 from Lordsburg. It was quite scenic reaffirming why we need to spend more time here.

 Pulling in we got a nice welcome from Michelle, who two years ago was the assistant park manager and volunteer coordinator. She has interviewed for the now open manager position and hopefully will receive good news soon.
 We got a different site this year and it looks pretty good. It does have a nice shade tree that blocks our mountain view some but not to bad. We have had plenty of the cool quail visit already, they are Gambel Quail and so fun to watch. Bob told us that they are trapping and relocating some believing we are overpopulated in the park.

Yellow headed Blackbirds

 We are also next to Bob and Rose who were here last time. Glenna and Milton are also back in our Hacienda Loop and Pat who was our neighbor last time also returned. The staff is down a bit as they wait for some seasonal rangers to come on board. We look to have a pretty full staff of volunteers with three more couples to arrive in the next month or so.
 Sounds like our duties will be pretty much as last time. We will work two days doing light maintenance projects and two days in the visitor/gift/ entry station. We volunteer 4 days a week 4-1/2 hours on those days. And whoo hoo we are scheduled for Fri, Sat, and Sunday off.
 While most things look the same around here some are a bit different. They added some nice concrete surface around the hot tub, previous was dirt and tricky exiting while wet. The water level in the lake is also way up, two years ago the level was pretty low so now up to a good level.

It also might not last but there was fresh snow on nearby Mt Graham. Mt Graham is a 10,000 ft mountain about 3 miles from the park.

 We made a drive up the mountain as soon as we could. They close some of the road Nov. 15- Mar. 15 and they had a light snow up there already. Wendy got some of her first pine needles up there for baskets and is starting to run low.
 The drive is 35 miles with the last 12 unpaved making for some slow going. We had a beautiful sunny day but a pretty stiff wind made the 45 degree temp on top feel cold.

 The drive up ends at Riggs Lake and campground. This is national forest so no hook ups or amenities. As we drove about the campground we saw about 8 wild turkeys and 5 deer and one brave camper in a pop up. That's pretty rough trying to keep a canvas sided rv warm at the 30 degree nights on the mountain.

Mesilla, New Mexico

Hi all,
Onward we go, we left Alamogordo with a few days to go before needing to be at Roper Lake. We picked the Dreamcatcher RV Resort in Deming, N.M. Dreamcatcher is a Escapee Park and we had stayed here two years ago on our way west. A no frills park we planned to hang out a few days catch up on wash,eat some New Mexican fare and clean up the rig.
 We had one day where we planned to drive to Las Cruces and hit up a farmers market and craft sale that Wendy had read about. We set the GPS  and off we went for the 50 mile trip. We found a nearby parking area and followed a good crowd of younger folk thinking they must know the way. Well we sure couldn't find or see anything that looked like a market. We finally came upon some folks with RV club jackets and figured they would know. Well as it turns out they occasionally run the market on evenings and sadly this was one.
 Well on to plan B, Wendy had read of an old New Mexican town nearby that had some shops and museums we could check out.
 Mesilla is one of the most colorful and historic towns in New Mexico. In 1861 Mesilla was declared the capitol of New Mexico and Arizona territories. In 1881 the railroad wanted to go through Mesilla but was denied by the people. Las Cruces allowed the train passage and was soon grew while Mesilla population tumbled, it wasn't long before Las Cruces took the role as county seat.
 Mesilla had a rough and rowdy past with lawlessness and much bloodshed. Billy the Kid and many outlaws also contributed to the wild living. Billy was tried in a building on the south side of the Plaza.
 He was tried and sentenced to hang for the murder of Sherriff Brady. He was taken to the courthouse at Lincoln, N. M. where he escaped.

 The Mesilla Plaza is now a registered national monument. Many of the old adobe buildings are now shops and museums well worth a nice stroll through. While there Wendy and I had nice meal at La Posta Restaurant & Cantina, one of the oldest continuing restaurants in New Mexico
 Plan B turned out pretty good again showing sometimes the best plan is not always  the most planned.

Smokey Bear

Hi all,
 Wow good thing we don't spend all our time on the road I would barely have time to write the posts. We had one more day in the Alamogordo area and decided a drive was to be. Our aim was north to the Billy the Kid Scenic Highway. It lies north of Ruidoso, New Mexico in the Lincoln National Forest.
 Another sunny day with cool morning temps and as we were near the Capitan Mountains cooler temps prevailed. There also was another aim for this drive and that was to see the birth place and burial site of Smokey Bear. Who could miss crossing this off their bucket list?
 The drive took us from desert mesquite areas to shorter pinion pines and into the taller spruce and fir pines. Along the way we spotted a interesting cemetery and stopped. It was a public health service and Merchant Marine cemetery. Most of the sites only holding wooden crosses and small numbered stones as markers. As we looked about we noticed coins placed on the monuments and some of the graves, we found a sign explaining the meaning.

 Onward we drive stopping at a sign placed in front of the Capitan Pass where a small bear was found clinging to a tree after a fire on May 9, 1950. The cub was badly singed and taken to a vet in Sante Fe for care. At first getting the name of Hotfoot it was later changed to Smokey Bear.
 The Forest Service had actually been using Smokey Bear since 1944 but now had a real bear to use as our fire fighting mascot.
 Smokey was flown to Washington DC to reside in the National Zoo. Smokey became so famous that he received his very own zip code only second to Santa Claus in receiving mail.
 In 1976 Smokey passed away and at the urging of his many friends was returned to the city of Capitan, New Mexico for burial.

 We took in the nice museum amazed at the amount of items that have been used to keep Smokey's advice alive- Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.  .
 Not done yet we continue on to more of the Billy the Kid Highway. Along the way you enter the town of Lincoln a Historic Site. The town of Lincoln and Lincoln County were stomping grounds of William H. Bonney, better known as Billy The Kid.
 Lincoln remains one of the best preserved old west towns looking as it did 130 years ago. There are five buildings that offer a self guided tour giving the true Billy the Kid story along with stories of range wars and the Regulators of that time.

   Boy, how is that for a history lesson? Learning new things along the way is another perk of this life style

Alamogordo Part II- White Sands

Hi all,
Today the plan was to head to White Sands National Monument. But first we wanted to check out the pistachio farms and store nearby.
 This is one of the big areas for growing pistachios and now pecans are also grown in huge fields about. They have two different stores close by competing for the tourist dollar. We hit PistachioLand, USA first as it has the worlds largest pistachio drawing you in. We had samples of different flavors including the green and red chili, bbq, and ranch. We also had wanted to sample the pistachio wine but being a Sunday would not be able to until noon, oh darn- another day.

 We next stopped at the Heart of the Desert which boast being the oldest grower in New Mexico. They had many of the same offerings of flavored but also offered a pistachio ice cream and pistachio flavored popcorn. We happily spread the wealth between the stores.
 Finally on to White Sands we stopped at the visitor center for some quick knowledge of the park. White Sands is a 275 square mile of gypsum sand of wave like dunes. The dunes are ever changing driven by the strong southwest winds. White Sands Missile Range (4000 sq. mi.) surrounds the park and is still a important testing site today.

We had brought a picnic lunch and planned to stay to see one of the famous sunsets. We had a pretty good time checking different areas out and taking walks up and down the dunes. Our weather was sunny and 70 great for exploring and not getting to burnt out from the sun or reflection. One other item of note is the gypsum sand always remains cool even in the peak of summer.
 Hiking is not the only activity in the park, you can buy or rent a sled to do a bit of sled riding.  Wendy and I were hanging out in one area and a sled that was left by some other patron kept calling our names. So why not we gave it a short go, while not quite as fast as snow it was much more fun doing in 70 degree weather.

 We grabbed our chairs and to relax a bit waiting for the beautiful sunset but it was not to be today as some heavy clouds rolled in.

Alamogordo Part I

Hi all,
Wow what a change of scenery! We stopped at Edgington RV Park just north of Alamogordo, NM. It is a passport park no frills but only $15.00 a night not to bad. It looks like a good campground to check out the area.
 The big draw here is White Sands National Monument after checking the weather forecast we decided to hold off on that.
 Our first drive took us into the Sacramento Mountains, nothing better than working the truck up a mountain. The route we chose  started at 4,300 feet and went up to Cloudcroft at 8,650 feet. Along the route up is a pullover showcasing a old trestle bridge that was once used to carry  passengers up to the cooler mountain temps in the summers. The trestle was one of 43 along the route and now the only one left. Restoration has been part of the rails to trails efforts although the whole trail is yet developed.

Cloudcroft is a neat little mountain town offering some nice shopping on the old main street. We browsed through the stores not buying to much.

 I don't always write on the food offerings along our way but an exception can be made. A store owner recommended a newer BBQ restaurant to us. We thought sure she was probably the owners mom. Boy who would care, Mad Jacks is true fresh barbeque, sold by the pound or on sandwiches that were literally dripping. I had the Twisted Brisket and Wendy the Devine Swine, as it was lunch hour and really busy we decided to take out and enjoyed our lunch at a nice mountain pullout with a great view.

 We continued down the road to Sunspot, New Mexico home of the National Solar Observatory. A beautiful 16 mile drive along the ridge of the Sacramento Mountains. This site sits at 9200 feet and overlooks White Sands Missile Range in the Tularosa Basin. It was chosen for its isolation from any major air pollution sources and plenty of sunshine, a excellent site to observe the sun. We took a self guided tour that took you from the visitor center to two facilities housing telescopes that are currently used. There are also two other telescopes no longer in use.

 The largest telescope stands in a tower 136 feet tall but extends underground 228 more feet. It utilizes a main mirror that is 64 inches. The rotating part of the telescope weighs 200 tons and is suspended by a container holding 10 tons of mercury which has a low friction enabling the 200 ton instruments to rotate.
 We finished up our drive making a loop drive along 244 through the Mescalero Indian Reservation making a full day.

On the Road Again part II

 Hi all,
 Continuing on with our trek west we came upon super strong winds. They picked up as we went along and by the time we got to our camp destination of Halstead, Kansas we were bushed. It is no fun driving in the wind not to mention the crappy fuel mileage.
 Our plan was to just stop for the day but we did extend as the wind was still gusting to 35 mph. But that is what full timers to do, although we have a volunteer gig to get to we have some cushion time to use along the way.

Travel through NM

 We stopped at Spring Lake RV resort, a Passport America member so a full hook up site for $14. a night. Not to much to do in the crazy wind we caught up with laundry and relaxed.
 On the move again the next day had us leave Kansas, drive through Oklahoma and Texas ending up at Ute Lake State Park in New Mexico. I know that sounds crazy but it was just under 400 miles and with some rain and no scenic reason to stop we just drove on.
 Ute Lake is a large reservoir that like many others around here is experiencing low water levels due to a prolonged drought. The campground is pretty nice and sites are quite spacious. They also only charge $15.00 for a water and elec. site. Wendy really splurged on this one as they said we could have the camp host site as it was unoccupied. Nice site with a good lake view.

Ute Lake State Park

 As we pulled in we got excited as we saw another Excel Camper just like ours, I know it doesn't take a lot to excite us. Well we got all set up and then it started to rain so we didn't get a chance to meet them then. The next morning cleared and as they were packing to go I strolled over for an introduction. Turns Jane and John are also fulltime RVer's and bloggers, not only that but we have each read the others blogs (http://flamingoonastick.blogspot.com). Small world as they say. We had a nice quick visit and they showed us some nice renovations that they have been doing. I was a bit reluctant to let Wendy see those.)  Their RV is the same model as ours 30RSO albeit three years newer. They had already extended their stay getting some new springs put on after one of them broke on the way.
 It was nice to meet them and hopefully we can meet up again down the road.
 Our next drive was Alamogordo to spend some time checking out White Sands National Monument and the area.