Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Summary
Trailer miles 5,169; Truck miles 19,374
Parking $2622.29; Gas $5274.01
Parking $2622.29; Gas $5274.01
Monday, January 7, 2008
SKP Saguaro Co-Op, Benson, AZ - Nov 18-Dec 31
Our original plan was to stay here for around 3 weeks, then head out to points west. Shortly before arriving, however, we learned that Gayle, Doug's dad, was thinking about selling his home of the last 40 years and moving to a retirement community. Doug's oldest brother Bob and his wife Paula found a really nice place in Albuquerque, where they live. Needless to say, this was a hot topic of discussion as all three brothers' families met at Gayle's for Thanksgiving. Despite the "hot topic" we all had an excellent time together. 
Willie & I decided to fly out and meet Bob & Paula in Albuquerque, so we could visit La Vida Llena ("the full life"), as it is called. We went on a tour, took many pictures, and found it to be a healthy, friendly environment that we felt Gayle would almost certainly enjoy. We also had a scrumptious lunch with Bob & Paula, then took a pleasant walk with them around the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park before flying back home that afternoon. It was exciting to be "jet-setters" for a day!
Our extended stay here has given us the chance to catch up socially with some of the members of the co-op, as well as take advantage of some of the cultural (& commercial, eg Trader Joe's) aspects of Tucson. This was particularly nice during the Christmas season, which got off to a fine start Dec 2 with two concerts in Tucson: the Reveille Men's Chorus in the afternoon, which was excellent; and the University of Arizona's Holiday Card to Tucson, a free concert given every year by the School of Music which was also superb. 
The Holiday Card has become so popular that they offered two concerts this year. And Benson is not devoid of culture -- the Cochise College Choir presented an excellent concert at a local church, and Doug made his vocal debut singing in the Co-Op's annual Christmas Carol Concert.
There is a good bridge group in Sierra Vista that we have been playing with 1 or 2 times a week, and a group trying to get started in Sunsites, a small community east of here, where the play is erratic but fun. And there is a line-dancing class here 3 times a week where we have introduced a couple of the dances we learned in NM.
We have also been up to visit Gayle, including Christmas day -- we stayed overnight after an enjoyable day of opening presents, chatting, and eating turkey -- and New Year's Day (lots of football). We rang in the New Year at the co-op's big bash the night before, expecting to leave just after the 10pm (New Year's in New York), but wound up staying until after midnight, so fun were the people at our table.LoW-Hi RV Ranch, Deming, NM - Nov 17
The "LoW" in the name refers to "Loners on Wheels", a group of RVing singles that the park caters to (but is not restricted to). Our good friend Bill Garmire was staying here so we dropped by for a night to see him. There was a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings being served at the local senior center that afternoon, so we headed over and stuffed ourselves. The next morning we agreed to take a foundling cat (~9 months old) to Benson -- Bill was thinking he might adopt her, and was heading to Benson in a few days. He notified us in transit that he'd decided against it, so we let her sleep overnight in the casita (we weren't sure she was disease-free & didn't want her mingling with our cats) and were faced with the dreadful task of taking her to the Animal Shelter the next day. The worst part was she was a beautiful pastel calico who took to us immediately, falling asleep in our laps and being generally loving & playful. But we just couldn't subject our aging cats to such a disruption, especially frail little Rainbow. We did learn that she was adopted 3 days after we turned her in, to a man that the shelter manager was personally acquainted with. The shelter in Benson has a reputation for excellent screening of adoptive "parents".Western Sky's (formerly Vado) RV Park, Vado, NM - Nov 15-16
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We stayed at this park once before in May 2007. It's still Passport America, still has free wi-fi, and is still a nice place to spend a night or two. While here we enjoyed a bridge game at a friendly club in Las Cruces and a visit with former RVing friends, Paul & Stephanie Bernhagen, who have settled in Las Cruces.Windmill RV Park, Carlsbad, NM - Oct 14-Nov 15
Windmill is a solid blue-collar park that was recently purchased by the owners of Carlsbad RV Park, a similar park less than a mile farther south on the way out of town. Windmill supposedly has wi-fi, but it's a pay system installed on the cheap by the previous owner. We were never able to get a signal (not that we would have paid for it anyway) so we were forced to connect at the library, the senior center, or at the motel next door. All-in-all a colossal hassle since we were never able to do everything we needed to do at any one spot. Even more frustrating was the fact that Carlsbad RV Park had fine WiFi, which was free and also available for our use. In the future, we will pick that park.One of the main reasons for staying in Carlsbad was to play bridge 3 or 4 times a week with our duplicate club. They play at the senior center, which, we discovered, also offers line-dancing. While discussing the future of the senior center one afternoon, we learned that Carlsbad has two senior centers, and that they both have line-dancing. While the instructor at our regular center was good, the one at the south senior center was excellent. We were sorry we didn't learn about her earlier in our stay.
We had one of our stranger adventures during a walk along the Pecos River. We could hear (& see) all kinds of merriment from a large gathering on the other side of the river. It was still going on by the time we crossed over, and we decided it must be some sort of city-sponsored event, so we strolled up & helped ourselves to some free ice cream and a couple of other snacks before we realized it was a company picnic! No one seemed to notice our red faces as we tried to sink into the ground and then slowly fade away down the riverwalk.
On one especially gorgeous day we drove to Guadalupe Mtn NP for a day-hike up McKittrick Canyon (which has been described as the prettiest spot in Texas) in order to view the fall colors. Roughly 15,000 years ago, the whole area was covered with maple, oak, walnut, and other deciduous trees, but as the prevailing climate became warmer & drier, they could only survive in the Guadalupes, leaving an island of fall colors surrounded by desert. The colors were not at their best this year due to a hot, dry summer, but were still wonderful.Click here for More Guadalupe pictures.
We also revisited the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens which displays flora & fauna native to the Chihuahuan Desert and found it as charming as ever.
And we attended a Carlsbad Community Theatre production of "Amahl & the Night Visitors". We had been put on notice that Deanna Garringer (Amahl's Mother) was going to be better than we expected, and she was quite good. But Daniel Miller (Amahl) was truly excellent, with a clear, pure soprano that was dead-on, and his portrayal of a bratty, precocious boy was also right-on, with eye-rolls and impatient sighs that were perfectly nuanced and not at all over-the-top.Friday, October 19, 2007
Windmill RV Park, Carlsbad, NM - Oct 14-???
We are parked for a month in Carlsbad, having turned in our lot at the SKP co-op in Lakeside in early June. We're still leaseholders there (a long story). Hopefully, our lot will find new leaseholders before the year is out. We'll see how we enjoy spending our time in Carlsbad. Since we want to play bridge with the club here 4 times a week, we decided it was more cost-effective to avoid a 50-mile round trip each time. We have also found a nice line dancing class at the same senior center where we play bridge.
This location is also closer to Carlsbad Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountains. We visited the Caverns for a drive of their scenic Walnut Canyon Loop, a quick tour of the Big Room, and the evening Bat Flight Program. Neither of us had seen the bats fly out of the cave before, and despite the fact that the numbers are dwindling due to it being time for their annual migration south, it was an awesome sight. It was also interesting to visit the cave again so soon after visiting Wind Cave and Jewel Cave in South Dakota. Carlsbad is the only cave we know of where you can go on a self-guided tour. There is really something special about being able to linger at your own pace and really admire the beauty. Carlsbad is huge in volume but smaller in length (miles of cave) compared to the other two.The cats are happy to be done with traveling for a while. Both Rainbow and Amber have been throwing up more than usual. Hopefully, it is just "hairball season" (spring or fall or whenever the weather is changing from cool to hot or vice versa) and nothing more is wrong. Trixie is again the stable one, with no apparent issues, other than never getting enough attention!
Coleman Park, Brownfield, TX - Oct 13
This was another free Texas city park offering water & electricity. The RV sites were rather ugly, but Coleman Park was quite nice, and since the weather was still in the low 90s, we dropped a few bucks into the donation box at the cg. No other free cgs had a donation box or we would have contributed to them also. This was truly a stop just picked out because it was halfway to our destination of Carlsbad, NM. 
All we did here was get gas and drive down Main Street to see what was here -- NOT MUCH! About 50 miles further south we found a much nicer park (probably not free but maybe not very expensive) which was a Gaines County RV park located at a golf course. Other than Palo Duro Canyon and Lake Meredith, much of the panhandle of Texas seemed completely & boringly FLAT! Nothing to break the monotony save a few pecan groves and fields of cotton and something we think is either sorghum or milo. Amusingly, we passed near a small town named Levelland -- not hard to see where they got that name! It also has a free city park!Buffalo Lake NWR, Umbarger, TX - Oct 11-12
There is no lake at Buffalo Lake NWR -- Umbarger Dam was built in 1937 and a lake quickly formed, but decreased rains and a water table lowered by irrigation and urban pumping dried up the lake in the 1970s. The shortgrass prairie remains, and the campground is one of the nicest we have stayed at, if you can maneuver around the trees planted excessively throughout.
The main reason for swinging so far east on our way down to Carlsbad was to visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Doug had never been to Palo Duro & Willie only once, many years ago. Palo Duro is a 120-mile long steep-sided canyon billed as the second largest canyon in the US. 
Only about 8 miles are accessible in the state park, but the canyon there is stunning either from the rim or the bottom. There are 3 RV cgs within the canyon, but we had heard the road in was steep, so instead we parked at Buffalo Lake NWR and took a day trip to Palo Duro. 
We enjoyed our time, but were glad we hadn't camped there. Of course, the comparison of free at Buffalo Lake to $26/night (includes $6 daily entrance fees) at Palo Duro had something to do with this decision! Even though this was the off-season, the park had an overpopulated feel to it. 
They had also had had a recent heavy rain of 2 1/2 inches, which caused a lot of flash flooding and high water at the six road crossings of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River (isn't that a great name?). The sixth crossing was so high that the road was closed at this point, and you had to backtrack to get to the other side. 
As a result of so much moisture in the ground and the fairly hot day, the humidity was much higher than normal in this usually dry area.Driving back from Palo Duro we got a phone call from Erin and learned of the death of her mother-in-law, Betty Perez. Betty had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor less than a year ago, with a correspondingly gloomy prognosis.
How cruel it was that within a month of the diagnosis, this adorable woman in her early 50s went from someone full of life & love to someone needing help going to the bathroom. Every day a little more of her was stolen away until she finally passed away. We are reminded to enjoy all the time we have together, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.Stinnett City Park, Stinnett, TX - Oct 8-10
The city of Stinnett (stin-ETTE) allows RVs to camp for up to 72 hours for free, and that includes water & electricity. Our other option was Lake Meredith NRA, where we could also stay for free, with no hookups. There are a number of campgrounds scattered around Lake Meredith, all described in very flattering terms in our brochure. We decided to check one out and chose Sanford-Yake. We were pretty shocked -- normally NPS/BLM cgs are among our favorites, since they're located in scenic areas. Unfortunately, this was not as true for this cg. The cg overlooks the dam, which is pretty ugly, and all of the real RV sites are what we call "pull-alongs" -- the road widens & you pull over & park & hope your slide-out doesn't get clobbered by passing traffic. We drove back to the Ranger Station hoping they knew of any better cgs, but there was no one to be seen. We gave up & opted for Stinnett City Park instead.We were pretty thankful to have electricity, since highs were in the 80s for our entire stay. When we were setting up, we noticed quite a bit of trash lying around, so Doug decided to pick it up as a way of saying thanks. Unfortunately, that evening a bunch of teens descended on the nearby parking lot, and the next morning there was just as much trash as before. Doug decided that if they didn't care to keep their park clean, he wouldn't either. The gathering of teens turned out to be a nightly occurrence, with much revving of engines & squealing of tires. Fortunately our a/c blocked out a lot of the noise, and they would break up by 11pm, which was 10pm our time (MDT).
We were pleased to discover that nearby Borger had a duplicate bridge club, and they were happy for us to play. This year alone the club lost 5 members to death and 5 more to failing health, with no infusion of younger players to take their place. Sometimes we think ours may be the last generation that plays bridge. The city park in Borger also has a nice free cg, with signs that say no loud noises allowed, so there may not be the teen problem here. They allow 3 nights free out of every 7, so we figure they want you to return often!
We took a "scenic" drive out to Lake Meredith NRA and the surrounding area, which isn't much. We had a picnic lunch at Harbor Bay at a spot that probably used to be right on water's edge, but now offers a nice view of the faraway reservoir. The water level of Lake Meredith has dropped significantly after another dam was built upstream and also due to less rainfall, and the surrounding communities have all suffered. The town of Fritch has an Aquatic and Wildlife Museum that we had to really look for before we finally found it, and then it was sort of embarrassing to walk through, because it took only about 5 minutes. We drove to another cg, this one called Fritch Fortress, which actually was not bad. It offered a nice view of Lake Meredith and had some very attractive sites. It was duly noted for future reference.Our last day we drove out to Alibates Flint Quarries NM, prehistoric quarries of some of the most beautifully colored & highest quality flint found in North America. We had called earlier in the week & understood that a ranger-guided tour was the best way to see the quarries, but were told that we could also visit them on our own. This turned out not to be the case. When we arrived, the "Contact Station" was closed, there were no rangers anywhere, and the road that seemed to lead to the quarries was gated closed. We finally decided what they meant was that you could visit the Visitor Center in Fritch on our own, which we also did.
Boise City City Park, Boise City, OK - Oct 7
Our original plan was to park in Lamar CO on the 6th, then Boise City the 7th. Because we were a day behind schedule, we drove straight through to Boise City, almost exactly double the distance at 200 miles -- a rather long day for us, made shorter by the gentle tail wind that was our reward for staying the extra day in Seibert. We had checked out the City Park in Boise City earlier this year on our way up to Boulder. It looked acceptable for the price (free), but we certainly wouldn't pay to park there. We were not 100% sure that we were "allowed" to stay here, but since there were no "No Overnight Parking" signs, we decided to give it a shot. No one from the Oklahoma Dept of Transportation facility that shared the same parking lot ever gave us a second look.Shady Grove RV Park, Seibert, CO - Oct 4-6
We decided to stay an extra day due to strong winds out of the south, the direction we were headed. Winds stayed between 30 & 50 mph the whole day, and RVs began filtering into Shady Grove by 10am. By 4pm the park was more full than we had ever seen it. We walked around town late in the afternoon & noticed several fallen tree branches & yard decorations that looked like they had been there for years. We were not sorry we stayed.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Shady Grove RV Park, Seibert, CO - Oct 4-5
This is a small, friendly, CHEAP ($12/night with Passport America), and quite adequate cg located convenient to our travel route when going to or from the Boulder area and heading east or south. There isn't much to do here, and it's a great place to just catch up after a busy social whirl. It is hot & dry enough that we managed to wash & hang-dry 3 loads of laundry today.
St Vrain SP, Longmont, CO - Sept 24-Oct 3
The main reason for our return was medical, for Doug and Amber. When Doug was last in town, his eye doctor noticed a small discoloration on his right eye and wanted to check it out in a few weeks. She could not be there for the appt, but her associate was able to find it and reported that the size had diminished from "smaller than 1 mm" to "the size of a pinhole" (ouch). 
Doug had also noticed, around the beginning of Sept, that the index finger on his left hand would not uncurl when he woke up in the morning. He could work it out, but it seemed to be getting progressively worse. He saw a hand doctor, who called the condition "trigger finger" and even had a write-up telling all about it in layman's terms. He gave Doug a cortisone shot (REAL OUCH!!!) and said if the condition returns, he would need surgery. Other medical appts & follow-ups were non-eventful. YAY!
Amber had blood in her urine when we last visited, so we took her back to the Humane Society, where she sat hunched up all day, looking miserable & hissing whenever anyone walked by, but not producing any urine. So we drove her back and locked her in the bedroom, and FINALLY at 11:30 she performed (they give you black plastic crystals to use instead of litter for this process). The next day we took in her sample and they confirmed she still had blood, so then we had to take her in for an ultrasound, and of course they had to anesthetize her, she being "fractious", as they call it. They couldn't find anything wrong with her (physically, that is) which actually is the good news, if you don't consider all the money we just tossed. Anyway, Amber is back home safe & sound(?) and as affectionate as ever, and if she's ever diagnosed with blood in her urine again, we can just say "tough". They will culture the urine retrieved while under sedation and if she has any infection, we will have to give her antibiotics -- much cheaper and less traumatic than surgery or visits to the vet!
We went on our usual social binge, but were able to drive into the mountains one afternoon to look at fall colors. We especially enjoyed the town of Nederland, which is where all the hippies moved after the yuppies took over Boulder. 
Every year, for example, they celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Days, which honors Bredo Morstoel, or as he is better known, Grandpa in the Tuff Shed. For full details go to http://www.nederlandchamber.org/info/frozen.htm,
but in brief, he is the grandfather of Trygve Bauge, whom we have actually met and can attest to the fact that he is a real piece of work. Bredo was cryogenically prepared after his death in 1989 and has been on dry ice ever since, awaiting that time when medicine is sufficiently advanced to bring him back to life. 
Trygve meanwhile, a libertarian supreme, got shipped back to his native Norway for failing to possess a Green Card. While waiting in the airport during his deportation, he loudly joked about hijacking the plane, thereby assuring that he would never set foot in this country again. 
These are the slices of Americana that we frequently run into in our travels, and that people who travel 400-mile days and sleep over in Wal-Marts never get to see. Who knows -- maybe Crawford NE has its own Trygve Bauge.Brush City Park, Brush, CO - Sept 22-23
Brush feels like another "wagon train broke down" kind of place. The town slogan is "Don't give Brush the brush-off" and the name lends itself to amusing business names, like Brush Hair Salon and Brush Dental. We also enjoyed the name of a local nursing home - "Eben-Ezer" ("Could I have some water?" "Bah, humbug.") - but it was one of the nation's first, established in 1903. Home to many descendants of Danish and German immigrants, Brush was having a big Oktoberfest celebration when we arrived, but we unfortunately just missed out on it by the time we got settled in and walked to town. It was over at 5 pm!! Brush is very RV friendly -- the city park has electric and water hookups, and the first night is free ($10 for following nights, but few stay more than one night). Sightseeing is somewhat limited -- we checked out the campground at nearby Ft Morgan, also a nice, free city park but with only 20 amp hookups -- insufficient for running our a/c.Riverside Zoo & Park, Scottsbluff, NE - Sept 20-21
This was our first time in Nebraska with the trailer. We were driving into a strong head-wind, so we stopped in Crawford, NE for gas, just to be on the safe side. Crawford is the only town of any size (actually it's the only town with a gas station!) between Tepid Springs & Scottsbluff, and is one of those places where you figure the wagon train must have broken down, else why would anyone stop? But over 1000 people seem content to call Crawford home, so who are we to criticize?
Scottsbluff is named after Scott's Bluff, now a National Monument, which, along with nearby Chimney Rock (now a National Historical Site), provided the first discernible landmarks for weary pioneers on their way to Oregon and California. It must have been with mixed emotions that travelers reached Scott's Bluff, knowing they had finally reached the end of the mind-numbingly featureless plains, and yet they were only a third done with their journey, with the most difficult parts still ahead.
With only one full day here, we actually had too many places we wanted to see. We visited Scott's Bluff NM, well worth the visit, and drove out to Lake Minatare State Rec Area, home to one of only seven inland lighthouses. Built by the CCC, it definitely felt like a "work for work's sake" kind of project -- who needs a lighthouse on a 2200-acre reservoir in Nebraska? 
But it was fun to visit anyway, and we could climb to the top for a good view of the surroundings. Driving back through town we noticed that a string quartet was being featured that evening at the Scottsbluff Historic Midwest Theater. Being big believers in kismet, we decided to check it out. The theater itself was worth the price of admission -- a beautifully renovated art-deco movie theater built in 1946. 
The Chiara String Quartet was invited to perform as part of Nebraska's Arts in School program. In two days they played in two student matinee performances, a school assembly, and a mini-concert, as well as overseeing a master class. In all they played for over 2000 students. At our concert they played an interesting program -- one complete work and "selections" from others. They are artists-in-residence at the U of Nebraska-Lincoln, and have just been named artists-in-residence at Harvard. Needless to say, they played flawlessly.Allen Ranch RV Park, Hot Springs, SD - Sept 17-19
Okay, let's be frank here -- "Hot Springs" when the ground-water is 85 degrees F? On the other hand, who would go somewhere called "Tepid Springs"? The local rivers also have the slightly warm water, and it is reputed to have curative effects. Hot Springs is interesting for its sandstone architecture, modeled after the Evans Hotel, which was built using pink sandstone from a local quarry. The RV park where we stayed has two levels: the upper level is full-hookup with no trees, costs more, and is within eye- and earshot of the highway. The lower level was shaded beside a gently-flowing river. We never saw anyone camped above.
Our first day we visited Wind Cave NP, our nation's seventh national park (1903). When the Rocky Mtns were formed 60 million years ago, the solid-granite Black Hills pushed up through numerous layers of rock, including limestone formed 320 million years ago. This formed a limestone ring around the Black Hills, which has partially dissolved away, forming vast caves such as Jewel & Wind Caves. Wind Cave was discovered in 1881, also by two brothers who found a hole with air coming out of it. Their approach was different, however -- they came back the next day with a friend small enough to fit through the hole. Thus, the original entrance is still preserved (but not used). Wind Cave is most famous for its boxwork and frostwork formations, and at over 108 miles, is currently the world's 4th-longest cave. The park also serves as a wildlife & prairie preserve.
Our next day we first visited Mammoth Site, an active dig inside a museum & visitor center. The Mammoth Site was discovered in 1975 when a developer was clearing a hill for a housing development and unearthed some large bones. Thankfully, he had the wherewithal to realize the importance of his discovery. A non-profit co-op was formed, and he donated the land. One of the world's largest collections of undisturbed mammoth bones, Mammoth Site was formed 26 thousand years ago when an underground limestone cave collapsed, creating a steep-sided sinkhole and natural trap for mammoth & other large mammals. Digging is done in July with volunteers from Earth Watch and elder hostels. They get enough items from that short time to keep the researchers busy for the rest of the year. So far they have unearthed hundreds of skeletons. It is extremely interesting to visit and see all the bones lying as they have been found.
The next day we drove back to Rapid for an ACBL-wide bridge tournament, but first we stopped at the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid -- everyone raves about it, including AAA who calls it a gem. And it's free! It was smaller than we expected, but still contains an amazing display of rocks & fossils, including a fossilized oreodont (pig-like animal) with unborn twin fetuses (feti?). We still had time, so we walked around historic downtown Rapid City. They are in the process of placing life-sized bronzes of all the presidents on their downtown street corners, four each year, and are currently up to 28, so of course we had to see all of them. The visitor center has a map, and it is a nice walking tour of historic downtown RC. 
As for the bridge tournament, everyone was in agreement that those were some of the most boring hands they had ever played, and besides we didn't earn any points (sour grapes?).