end of day and on to the next ~~~~

Had gone to Mission RV to replace capacitor.  Compressor kicked on but not cool air.  Camping World next – no work until Tuesday – got number of two mobile repair people.   Pat Tellez was the right one to talk to.  He and Valerie are “All About Repairs.”  Met him in Las Cruces at his house.  He checked it out, took photos of problem and would call me next morning at 8:15 with choices.  We spent that night in the KOA cabins.

Friday  6-14-2013

Can you find the "no ear white lizard?"

The Snail has adapted to the white sand, too.

Pat called exactly at 8:15am with results of his conversations with Casita and Coleman.  I choose a new unit and he had us on our way by noon.  What a great guy.

We headed to Carrizozo, NM.  How could you pass up White Sands?  We took a short detour at White Sands National Monument.  I guess I had never driven down into the dunes.  They were spectacular.  A real treat was the “no ear white lizard.”  Very difficult to see as it had adapted to the color of the sand and was white too.

Passed the road to Three Rivers and stopped at Valley of the Fires BLM Campground.  Parked across from the restroom ~ I guess so the night light would shine in my face the whole night.  Fixed hamburger steaks and grilled onions on Coleman stove.  We showered and then the rain started.  The wind blew a gale and with the altitude change we needed no air conditioner.  Oh well.  Opened windows after the rain.

Nick (my son) sent a text to check on me and sent his profound statement.  “Just remember that whether you go 10, 100 m or 1000m further, no one will ever see the same things again (unless you take a picture)!!!”

Wednesday June 12^th

Morning came and we had our own breakfast and started for a hike down Devil’s Hall Canyon.  We looked at the trail head of Guadalupe Peak and cried “calf.”  No way could this old girl do it.   Sent Richey Plemper a message to apologize for not being “Wonder Woman.”   Unhooked and headed for Hueco Tanks State Park ~ nearly to El Paso.

Checked in, Got campsite with water and electric.  So excited.  Air conditioner did not cool.  Paulette text Larry and we now have an appointment to have the capacitor replaced. 

When night came we were still at 99 degrees in the Casita.  We had the fan blowing, max air going and windows wide open waiting for the sun to disappear and bring the cool.  It may have gotten to 70 sometime in the middle of the night but every time I awoke the spot under me was an oven.

Up early for packing up the trailer and going on the hiking tour we had scheduled earlier on Wednesday.  Decided to take a self-guided walk and were almost late for the tour.  Wow, we had an enjoyable and informative guide.  The others on the trip were Amos, Sherry, Caleb, and Ethan Wolf of Austin.  The little boys were fun and very smart.  Mr. Ed took us to unusual places and explained the geology, Native American Influence, and many historical facts of this area.  At one place we had to get on our backs and scoot under the ceiling to observe the pictographs left by the Apaches and Mogollons centuries ago.  We were able to get good photographs.  Ed had names of his own for many of the rock formations ~ Turtle, Dog, Mushroom, Bridge.  Thinking I had not understood the Huecos(pronounced Waco as the town or Indian tribe,) I was correct in my assumption of the use of the small holes for grinding and the places where the water pooled.  Hueco means “hollow.”  The Huecos are also larger pools of water which are more like a small pond.  Ed showed the group a hueco that had never been dry until the last drought.  Since there was a rain last week he was wondering if it would have water and it had about 1 foot. 

The trip is over and we are safely home. 

L. Johnson Historical  roadside park for lunch

Flying flags at Guadalupe Peak campground

I have not written in the blog since 2011 so I am a bit rusty.  I am not publishing a book so I will not apologize for spelling or sentence structure.  Read only what makes you happy.  I will try to post a couple of days at a time and add a few pictures.

Monday June 10^th 2013  ~  8:38 am

Pulling out of drive and headed for points west.  I was thinking of a leisurely ride to perhaps Junction and the South Llano State Park.  By the time we are in that area it is too early to call it a day.  We choose to go to Balmorea State Park and see how that was.  It did not seem as lush vegetation as when I was there in the 90’s.  We chose a nice spot with water and elec, filled the fresh water reservoir and went straight to bed.  Sometime around 1am nature called and I realized the air conditioner was not cooling.  I turned it off and went outside to check the outside temp.  It was very cool so the windows went open and before morning we were pulling for light cover.  Upon stepping out in the night I was amazed at the night sky.  The stars that were visible numbered in the millions and the Milky Way was quite visible.  Since we did not unhook the trailer we took a walk around before pulling out.  At the observation deck of the ceinega (desert wetland) the turtles (2 varieties) and fish were busy playing and I am sure wanting us to drop a morsel for them.  We did not feed them because we are good stewards of nature.

Tuesday June 11th

On we go to find a grocery store as we are so smart we waited until a tiny grocery in Van Horn was our option.  So much for a good avocado and veggies.  We had a burrito for breakfast and trudged off to Guadalupe Peak National Park.  It has a nice parking area for rvs now and we had aspirations of some nice hiking.  As per usual, we check in at the Visitors Center, chose a parking space, paid our money and prayed for the sun to set so we would be in a nice shade.  These spaces were dry camping so no reason to turn on the air conditioner.  We left for our first hike to Frijoles and Manzanita Spring and Smith Spring.  This should be a hike of approximately 3.4 miles and is considered a moderate.  Well I guess that could be unless you started at 1:30pm in the hottest part of the day.  Dumb.  We did have plenty of water and a couple of apples.  Not nearly as much water in Smith spring as when here before but loved the park bench for a rest.  Paulette had peppermint so we used it on our feet to help cool them off.  Not sure I wanted to dip my toes in the mossy water.  The trip ended well and both were happy to be back in the car where it was cool.  After returning to the camper, I started cooking chicken breasts and Paulette chopped zucchini and bell peppers.  It made a lovely dinner.  We had enough left over for Wednesday night.

A solo lady from Maine had parked near us so we had many conversations with her about her travels and ours.  She left from Florida and was wandering toward California by way of many stops.  She is 70 and more weathered than me.  We did the Piney Nature Trail before bed time, cleaned our bodies in the little Casita and headed for bed.  My muscles in my right hip were really hurting but I made it okay until around 2am.  Checked and the stars were showing off again.