Paducah to Mesa

I won't say I made a beeline home from Paducah, but I did drive west with purpose. Once I make up my mind I'm ready to head home, I'm typically pretty anxious to get there. So I drove 200-300 miles a day, stopping before dinner time for overnight camps.

My first stop was Maumelle Park, an Army Corps of Engineering campground just outside Little Rock, AR. While there, I spotted this beautiful rig in the campground and my siblings and I had quite a discussion on What's App trying to determine its value. We decided it was between $2-3 million, and who knows what they were hauling in that trailer.

My rig is worth less than $2 million! ;-)

My next night was spent in a free and friendly spot in Whitewright, TX. Yep, I driveway surfed at Chris and Dayna's. I could not get level nor reach the 30A plug from Richard's usual spot, but my smaller rig fit great right next to the shed in front of their house. They provided a delicious dinner of ribs, beans and potato salad, and we enjoyed getting caught up on family gossip.

Night three was spent in Lake Colorado City State Park near Colorado City, TX. It was a nice, nearly empty park, and a very warm evening, so I was glad to have AC.

Lake Colorado

My fourth night found me in Van Horn, TX in funky little Oasis RV park adjacent to Main Street and an active railroad. I counted five trains that went by (blowing their horns) during the next sixteen hours, included one at 10:15 pm and finally 2:20 am before peace settled in.

My final stop before home was back at Rockhound State Park south of Deming, NM. This is where I had stayed my first two nights out and I liked the campground a lot. However, mid-October proved to be a much busier season than mid-September, and the campground was full when I arrived. I sat along the camp road trying to decide what to do for the night when a ranger drove by, stopped and told me I could take the last hookup spot in the group site, as long as I didn't mind close proximity to some neighbors. I was very happy not to have to drive on that afternoon, and my neighbors turned out to include a couple of cute kids who fell in love with Hanna.

I got an early start the next morning, and drove the final 330 miles. As we came into Mesa/Tempe, Hanna stirred from her napping place on the floor, and at Elliot and Dobson, she stood up. At Alma School, she jumped up on the passenger seat. When we turned into our neighborhood, she began to wiggle. And when we stopped in front of our house, she ran to the door begging to get out. She was a happy pup to be home, and so was I.

I kept all my gas receipts this time, and when I get around to it, I'll tally up my miles and costs to see if I'm still getting 7.75 mpg. For now, we are enjoying our lazy days and the beautiful Arizona fall weather.

Rockhound and Pancho Villa State Parks

I left home at 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning. I made my way to the campground at Rockhound State Park just south of Deming, NM. My New Mexico State Park pass is still good through next April, so I decided to make good use of it. $4 for electric & water hookups in a beautiful campground is about the best deal you can find. It was in the 90s, so I really needed the electric for AC.

The next morning, I decided to stay an extra day and drive down to Pancho Villa State Park, where Dale had spent some time last summer. He said there is a great Museum / Visitors Center there, so I tossed Hanna in the back seat of the Fit and took off down the road. When we arrived at the park, we drove around the large campground, which is right in the middle of what used to be Camp Furlong in the border town of Columbus, NM. Some of the old buildings still remain, as well as old rusted equipment. I read all the signs and took several photos, then made my way to the museum. Just as I walked up to the door, the ranger docent was putting up the Closed for Lunch sign. I gave him a sad look, and he smiled and took it back down and said “Come on in! I can wait. You’re my first visitor today!”  Since Hanna had to stay in the car, I assured him I would be quick. But in about 12-15 minutes, he had given me a good overview of the museum and the history of the area, especially focusing on the March 9, 1916 raid by Pancho Villa. It was indeed interesting, as Dale had said. I could have spent an hour there if both Hanna and the ranger had not been waiting. (The photos below are not in correct order, but it’s too difficult to move them around from my phone. Note the sign with info re: the touring car. That was particularly interesting.)

We took a quick look around the town and headed back to camp. I intended to drop Hanna off in Minnie, have a quick lunch and drive into the Walmart for a couple items, but a thunderstorm came up and it rained off and on the rest of the evening. It was much more welcome than the few items on my shopping list.

I packed up and pulled out early the next morning, and drove 350 miles east on I-10 to Ft. Stockton. I am in a little run down RV Park a few miles off the freeway, with electric hookups to keep the AC going. It’s only an overnight stop. Hopefully, tomorrow night I can find some place more appealing.

NM State Parks Spring 2019 Summary

Now that I'm home, it's time to summarize the experiences of the last six and a half weeks, including a comparison with Mom and Dad's weeks spent in the New Mexico State Parks during their retirement. It was quite nostalgic to visit many of the same places they loved so much. Richard even remembered which camp site in Navajo Lake Pine campground they liked to reserve. Unfortunately, site 4 is now designated as a camp host spot, so we couldn't camp in it, but every time I walked the loop with Hanna, I thought of them. Every time, I stood overlooking the lake, I thought of Dad taking his boat out and finding a favorite fishing spot. Every hour I spent reading, I thought of Mom relaxing in their fifth wheel while Dad was out on the water. And many of the sight seeing side trips Dale and I took were because I had read about them in Mom's journals.

Mom left a stack of journals where I rediscovered the excitement of their travels.

I didn't track all my expenses or mileage this year. After traveling in my Minnie for 3 years, I know what my gas mileage is (~7.5 towing my Fit), and my campground expenses were mostly covered by the annual pass I purchased for $225.

We camped in four state parks; Percha Dam, Bluewater Lake, Navajo Lake and Heron Lake, as well as a couple of boon docks outside the parks. We visited three more parks; Caballo, Elephant Butte and El Vado. My favorite campground was Heron, but the lake was so low we didn't enjoy the view much. That award goes to Navajo, especially since that lake has several arms and varying perspectives from the campgrounds and roads around it.

The best part of the trip was spending it with Dale. We really enjoyed camping together, each with our own Minnies, taking lots of trips to see the sights or running into the Walmart in the nearest town, walking the campground loops and trails, and sitting around an evening campfire making S'mores.

I really appreciated him accommodating my desire to visit certain locations. He might have wandered a little farther east or stayed longer in each spot if I hadn't been spurring him to move and discover a new adventure with me.

His summer plans are to mozy around northern Arizona, and try to find places to put his kayak in the creeks, streams and lakes there. I think I will try to escape the Valley heat and join him for a few weeks up in the mountains. Then next fall, I hope to head back east and drive the Nachez Trace Parkway end to end. Maybe I can convince him to tag along with me!

Maybe I can convince my readers to tag along too, via this blog!

Headed home

Dale and I left Navajo on Saturday morning, and drove south to Thoreau, where instead of turning east and driving into Bluewater Lake State Park, we kept going into the Cibola National Forest. Dale had boon docked in a nice location a couple of years ago, and we drove directly to his old site and set up camp. The road was a little rough, but doable with the big wheels on our Minnies. We spent a quiet night in the forest without seeing another soul, not even the four legged kind.

On Sunday morning, we said our good byes (for now), and I drove back to I-40 and turned west, while he made plans to turn east and back to the Bluewater Lake campground. I turned south on Highway 87 in Winslow, and made my way to Blue Ridge Ranger Station, and an overnight site next to Richard and Dianna. After Dianna and I took a nice forest walk, we had elk burgers for dinner, and I discovered they are delicious! Much chatting and an NBA basketball game filled the rest of our evening.

I made it home just before noon on Monday, to find 98° heat awaiting me.

She climbed up on the seat as we came through Mesa. She knows we're almost home!

Throughout the afternoon, I managed to get my Minnie put away in my back yard and emptied. I'm pooped! No walk for Hanna and me tonight.

Back to Navajo

After a wonderful week at the Heron Lake campground, Dale and I discovered the weather forecast had turned nasty and that area was in for cold and snow the next week, so on Sunday, we packed up and headed back to Navajo. We pulled into Pine campground and took two electric sites, with plans to hunker down a few days before the weather turned nice again. I discovered I have an electric heat setting on my heat pump AC, and it sure came in handy when the snow began to fall there!!

On Wednesday night, the campground began to fill with folks getting an early start to the long Memorial Day weekend ahead. At 10:30 p.m. some campers pulled in across the road from me and made raucous noise until 3:30 in the morning.

Dale and I decided it was time to move up the road to Juniper, the quieter non-electric campground. We found two great sites next to each other on the end of the far loop, and it was bliss for the next 10 days.

Waiting for graham cracker crumbs to drop

We mostly hung around camp for the week, walking 2-3 times each day and ending the evenings with a campfire and S'mores. It was lovely to just relax and enjoy being together.

On Thursday (May 30), we piled Hanna and ourselves into the car and drove north to Durango, Colorado. We had googled "things to do in Durango" and found a list of sites and attractions. We started at the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, wandering through a lot of artifacts of both the railroad, and also other historical forms of transportation. From there we went to Nini's Taquerio for huge delicious burritos. With full tummies, we made our way to the Animas Museum, which was also quite interesting, well worth the $4 senior price of admission. We drove another dozen miles north to visit the Pinkerton Hot Springs, a cool little pull-off site where warm soda water bubbles up and over the rocks creating streaks of color that cascade down the hill. The green and snow capped mountain behind it is the perfect backdrop.

By that time, it was mid afternoon, so we headed back south, meandering down the pretty road through the Colorado landscape.

The following weekend, a bunch of twenty somethings filled the campsites around us, and we knew it was again time to move on. Home was calling, chores and appointments are building up, and I'm longing to see my kids and grandkids again.

Exploring around Heron Lake

We spent a relaxing and pleasant week at Heron Lake State Park. Every day, Hanna and I walked all the campground loops and some of the trail that runs from the Visitor’s Center to the dam, passing through each of the five campgrounds along the lake shore. We monitored the small amount of activity in and out of the campground. It was a very quiet week; so much so, that I actually got spooked one evening walking a distant loop and came upon a man camped all alone in his car. I got to thinking about what a good place it would be for an escaped fugitive to hide out. Hanna and I hurried back to our Minnie.

There’s not a lot to do or see around Heron, but we did take a few day trips to explore the area. We stopped at the dam one day to have a look.

We drove over to El Vado Lake twice. The first time, we took the north road to Stone House Lodge, where Mom and Dad stayed one summer. The park is really run down now and the business is barely hanging on. We carefully drove up a dirt road to the north lake shore, but it is very low too, and there was really no beauty to see.

We explored the south end of the lake a few days later, where the State Park campgrounds are located. It was a nicer lake view, but the campsites are more out in the open. We both agreed we like Heron better for camping.

We drove back into Chama one day to visit the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, but it was not open for tours until Memorial Day weekend. We wandered through the town welcome center (nothing to see), and headed back to camp.

The last day before we left, we drove down to Abiquiu Reservoir. Richard has told us about how the rivers wind through these many lakes before finally supplying water to the city of Albuquerque, so we decided to see if the lake nearest there would be any fuller. It’s a pretty lake, but a treeless landscape. There was one sailboat, but otherwise the lakeshore was quiet.

On the way to Abiquiu, we stopped at Echo Canyon. This was the sightseeing highlight of the week and we just stumbled on it and decided to stop. I’ll let the photos show how pretty and how cool this place was.

I’d like to embed a video but I can’t from my phone, so here’s a link if you’d like to hear the echo.  

We were planning to stay at Heron until Tuesday, but a nasty weather forecast forced us to move up our departure date to Sunday, when we skedaddled back to Navajo.

The Road to Heron

Dale and I packed up, hit the dump on the way out, and headed across Navajo Dam toward Chama and Heron Lake State Park. Now the road across the dam is a scary experience, even without a construction crew working on it. It’s a narrow two lane, with no guard rails and steep drop offs on both sides. Luckily, there is not much traffic on it. Usually. We started across, both of us straddling the center line until we came upon a pickup truck parked in the oncoming lane, sitting over the center line. There was just barely enough room to slowly squeeze past without falling off the cliff, but we both made it with at least a quarter of an inch to spare.

Google photo

It was pretty smooth sailing from there to Dulce, where we pulled into a small church parking lot for a quick potty break. The pastor saw us and immediately came out to welcome us and invite us to unhitch, set up camp and stay awhile. We tried to be as courteous as we could, while extricating ourselves from the “new best friends trap” he was attempting to create.

We filled with gas and groceries in Chama, before driving on to Heron Lake State Park. We pulled into the Visitor’s Center parking lot where I unhitched my car, and we drove through all the campgrounds to find the best sites and the best cell signal. We found two nice sites in Brushy Point where we both received 3 bars of LTE, dropped a lawn chair in each one, and went back to get our Minnies.

Heron Lake

Beautiful walking trails around the campgrounds. 

The lake is extremely low - unpleasantly so - but the campground is beautiful, with large, well spaced, level sites. There were only three other campers when we arrived and few campers came and left throughout the week. At one point we were the only two in the whole campground, and when we left, there was just a lone class B still there.

The weather was nice, but cool, the first several days, but turned more chilly as the week wore on. When the forecast called for snow the following week, we decided to load up on Sunday and head back down to Navajo, 1000 feet lower elevation, in search of warmer spring.

I’ll recap our sightseeing around Heron in the next post.