Sunday, September 9, 2007
John Osgood's back yard, Cody, WY - Aug 2-18
Not many people who invite us to park at their homes realize just how big our RV is, so we were a little skeptical when John Osgood issued an invitation to visit him in Cody. But John usually knows what he is talking about, so we decided to check it out. There was plenty of room beside a row of trees that provided good shade for most of the day -- especially nice since we couldn't use our A/C.
John Osgood was one of two enforcement rangers at Chaco Culture NHP the first year we volunteered there. He had the reputation of being strictly rules-oriented -- "if John noticed that he was speeding, he would give himself a ticket" is how one ranger described him. But as we grew to know John, we realized that he would always try to engage the offender in conversation, and would make his own decisions based on their side of the story. He knew every regulation by heart, but would try to be fair & open when dealing with the public. He was attracted to Cody because he can walk or bicycle almost everywhere, and is currently building a solar array to send energy back to the grid.
Our first day here was Willie's birthday & John treated us both to dinner at a new "upscale" restaurant in Cody. Before dinner, he invited us to yoga, which of course we immediately accepted. The instructor, who is excellent, just started classes in Cody a couple of months ago. The next evening (Friday) we walked to a nearby park after dinner, just in time for the start of the 12th annual Wild West Balloon Fest, a 3-day event in Cody. 
Friday night they had a "glow", which means that the balloons were inflated at dusk, and the burners were run simultaneously so people could OOOH and AAAH at them glowing in the almost-dark. This is especially hard on the balloon, so only about half the entrants participated. Unfortunately, storm clouds rolling in causing a quick end to this event. Saturday morning's strong winds also caused cancellation of that day's events, despite our arrival before 6 am! With 24 entrants, WWBF is one of the smaller hot-air balloon festivals, but that allows spectators the opportunity to chat with the pilots, and to help crew. 
Sunday morning dawned clear and fairly calm, so all systems were go. We were asked to crew for Kevin, an unmoneyed single guy from Louisiana, who was trying to break into the close-knit and fairly affluent hot-air community. What a character! He drives a truck that he sleeps in and can run on vegetable oil, which he picks up at restaurants along the way, straining it himself. He was a recent graduate of Oberlin College and built and sewed his entire basket & balloon. The main event of the day was a Hare & Hound, where one balloon, the Hare, sets off and after a while lands, and the Hound balloons give chase. 
The Hounds can't start filling their balloons until the Hare in actually in the air. The Hound that lands closest to the Hare wins. 
We helped Kevin get his balloon launched and then drove the chase vehicle (his unusual truck!). Kevin did quite well, but unfortunately was disqualified because he touched ground when he shouldn't have. We didn't totally understand the event, but it was fun to be part of it!
Saturday John drove us up to Bighorn Canyon NRA. The 71-mile-long Bighorn Lake is the main attraction for most people, and we did go swimming at one of the lifeguarded areas, but we also enjoyed the dramatic cliffs that enclose the reservoir, and managed to see bighorn sheep and a number of wild horses.
One of the main attractions in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which is actually five museums housed in one large building: Cody Firearms Museum, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Plains Indian Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum, and Draper Museum of Natural History. Because there is so much to see, the single entrance fee is good for two days, and we spent most of two days there. 
It is a wonderful museum and well worth the price, but after two days, we were certainly done with museums for a while!While visiting the Historical Center we heard about the Buffalo Bill Shootout -- an annual trap-shooting contest. We decided we might as well drive over and see what was going on. Trap shooting is not exactly a spectator sport, although it is a little hypnotic once you start. Contestants rotate through who knows how many stations, each with two trap launchers positioned to test the skills of the shooters, who get six shots (three sets of two). We watched three or four teams pass by one station before calling it quits. Most of the shooters were men, but there were a few women. Only one woman and two men got all six at our station. Coincidentally, the next morning we heard on NPR that a woman had won the Wyoming trap-shooting championship for the fifth straight year. Evidently she regularly shoots 200 in a row.
Coincident with our stay was a performance by the summer stock group Montana Shakespeare in the Park, "Merry Wives of Windsor." We enjoyed it so much that the next night we drove 30 miles to Powell for their performance of "Heartbreak House" by George Bernard Shaw. A single stage, slightly modified, worked well for both productions, and the acting was quite solid.
Cody was founded by "Buffalo Bill" Cody as a gateway to Yellowstone NP, the world's first national park, set aside in 1872 to preserve its incredible beauty. The thousands of displays that comprise the world's largest thermal basins, now the park's biggest draw, were secondary. 
Yellowstone is so large that if you took one photo per square mile you would have over 3400 pictures. We drove into Yellowstone twice, through the East and Northeast Entrances. On our first trip we first visited Grant Village campground to meet Mike & Scott, campground hosts we had been emailing. They enjoy hosting so much we are seriously considering submitting our names for consideration next year. They suggested we get the estimated eruption times for the major geysers, and plan the rest of our visit accordingly. Only Old Faithful looked promising, and we didn't really feel like standing shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others after being the only ones watching Old Faithful when we visited in the winter. Instead, we toured West Thumb Geyser Basin, then drove north to try to see trumpeter swans on the Firehole River, but ran into a complete traffic standstill about a mile north of Biscuit Basin. We quickly turned around and went back to Biscuit and then on to Black Sand Basin, which were both enjoyable and quite uncrowded. Afterwards we had a leisurely drive back to Cody, spotting a moose along the way.The following day we were in downtown Cody with John and noticed a lot of smoke on the western horizon. We asked around and learned that the East Entrance had been closed due to a forest fire. Indeed, every night it seemed that there was a new fire in Montana or Wyoming, mostly lightning-caused. At last count there were at least 13 different major fires in Montana alone. East Entrance was reopened for one day after they received 0.6" of rain, but was closed again the following day when winds caused the fire to flare up again.
Our second visit to Yellowstone meant driving up the Chief Joseph Hwy -- truly one of the most scenic roads in America. Highlights include a 360-degree panorama from Dead Indian Pass, then a incredible winding 10% grade down to Sunlight Bridge, across Sunlight Gorge. We definitely will NOT EVER take our trailer into Yellowstone via this route! Our plan was to lunch at Cooke City outside the entrance to Yellowstone, and also check out the fudge (all tourist towns have fudge, right?), but driving through, we didn't see a single restaurant that looked appealing, and no signs for fudge. A few miles further, just outside the entrance, is little Silver Gate, which is a real "don't blink" kind of town. Luckily we didn't and spotted a cute little log-cabin restaurant with a wide variety of mostly vegetarian food. In Montana! The food was yummy, and we happily headed off towards Yellowstone, where we got to go to the head of the line because of our Golden Age pass. 
We pulled off at Baronette Peak after noticing a group of people with spotting scopes that turned out to be a guided tour looking for mountain goats. We dragged out our binocs & not 60 seconds later had spotted 3 or 4 where no one else was looking. They were all suitably pleased and allowed us to look through their scopes. Further down the road we drove into Lamar Valley, one of the greatest animal preserves on earth. This large, flat, tranquil valley is one of the least-visited areas of the park, perhaps explaining why it is still so Eden-like. We encountered one traffic slow-down, where perhaps 20 cars had pulled over to watch a grizzly bear eating a bison carcass. 
Anywhere else in the park would have meant an hour's delay, but here we were able to slow down, binocle the scene (at a safe distance!), snap a few pictures, and continue on our way to Tower Fall and Yellowstone Canyon. What a contrast! Weaving our truck through a sea of cars trying to park as close as possible so they could jump out, dash to the falls (click), check one more item off their list, and disappear in a cloud of smoke & dust. We strolled over and truly viewed the falls (click), then strolled back to the Visitor Center where we bought a couple of ice creams (yum!). We then hiked a half-mile straight up to the campground, where we decided we would probably not like to be hosts, then back down, spotting a MacGillivrey's warbler -- not a lifer, but VERY cute. 
We then started back home, but quickly got caught in a traffic jam, much worse than before. When we finally reached the point of interest, all we could see was a single coyote off to the right of the road in some long grass. Willie took a couple of pictures just to say we did, but it wasn't until we got home and really looked at them that we realized (and should have known by the traffic jam) that what we were looking at was a collared & ear-tagged wolf! Yowza!! What a treat!
Six miles west of Cody at the top of Shoshone Canyon stands the Buffalo Bill Dam. "Buffalo Bill" originally promoted the idea of using water from the Shoshone River to irrigate the land east of Cody, thousands of acres of fertile soil that receives less than 10" water per year. The Bureau of Reclamation made this one of the first three major dams to construct, and work started in October 1905. The project quickly turned into a nightmare -- because of spring/summer snowmelt & flooding, construction could only proceed in the fall & winter. Winters proved unusually cold & snowy, and flood waters were higher than expected, destroying existing work & delaying progress even further. The original contractor went broke less than a year into the project, as did two more after taking over. The last bucket of concrete was poured Jan 1910 in 20-below weather. There is a Visitor Center, added in 1993 as part of enlarging the dam, which we drove to and were suitably awed.
Also coincident with our stay was the motorcycle gathering at Sturgis, SD. What this means, basically, is a lot of spill-over of late-comers and early-leavers. Everywhere you go there are bikes -- bikes in Cody, bikes in Yellowstone, bikes on the road, bikes in parking lots. Most of them Harleys. Most of them loud. And quite a few with little respect for the rules of the road. I can't tell you the number of times we were passed on a double-yellow by a bike or even a group of bikes. I really, really got fed up with it really, really fast.We found a nice little duplicate bridge game in Powell and went once from Cody and, since we enjoyed it so much, again from our next stop in Lovell. It was about the same distance from each place. We won the first time -- our first master points since early July -- and did mediocre the second. Both times were fun!
John was such a great host that we started being very conservative with our black water sewage tank. We could empty the gray (dishwater & shower water) on the ground to water his trees, and that is usually the main problem, so it helped extend our stay. There were several more yoga classes that we wanted to attend, so we spent another week parked in his yard, catching up on relaxing and doing gentle sightseeing around the town. We enjoy the town of Cody a lot and can see why John is so happy here. We also think it would be way too cold in the winter!!
Eagle RV Park, Thermopolis, WY - Aug 1
We decided to spend one night at this Passport America park despite a less than glowing review from our friend Lloyd. Our space was a little tight, and the manager was obsessively fanatical making sure we didn't park on her grass, but the electricity was adequate for our very much needed A/C (Lloyd's main complaint was inadequate electric). 
Since we were only in town for one day, we decided to pack as much sightseeing in as we could, so first we drove back through Wind River Canyon, an absolutely gorgeous stretch of road between Riverton & "Thermop" (as the locals call it) that we were unable to fully appreciate the first time since we were pulling the trailer, and all the scenic pull-offs were on the wrong side of the highway. For whatever reason, the Big Horn River is what flows through Wind River Canyon.
We then grabbed our swimsuits & headed off to Hot Springs State Park. In 1896, a treaty signed with the Shoshone & Arapaho nations specified that the water from what turned out to be the world's largest mineral hot springs would be available to everyone free of charge. The State Bath House at Hot Springs SP continues to honor that agreement, although there are two other water parks on the SP grounds that do have entrance fees -- and lots of tourist activities like water slides and niftier pools which of course leads to lots more kids and horsing around. 
The State Bath House was just perfect for us. There is an indoor and an outdoor pool, both maintained at around 104F. It was enjoyable soaking, but we both got out before the 20-minute time limit -- it was more enjoyable to walk around the thermal features in the state park. Also, we remembered to get a key to allow us to get into Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site, which was our third activity. Legend Rock is located about 30 miles west of Thermop. 
The petroglyphs here, classified as the "Dinwoody" tradition, are some of the most bizarre that we have seen -- weird plant-looking things with teeth, men with horns, an upside-down guy -- almost psychedelic. Some of them date back over 11,000 years. Click here for More Legend Rock Petroglyphs.As we drove back to town we noticed the sign at the fairgrounds featuring "pig wrestling" that evening. As tempting as that sounded, we decided we were just too tired to enjoy one more activity. We did enjoy large flocks of common nighthawks circling over the road as the sun was setting!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Pioneer RV Park, Lander, WY - Jul 29-31
We usually have a pretty good idea where we are spending the night when we head out from our last stop; we also don't like to travel more than 150 miles in a day. One side-effect of this policy is that if anything goes wrong, we have a good part of the day to recover. Our plan after Vedauwoo was to stay at Double J, a Passport park in Jeffrey City, although we were a little worried since after repeated phone calls and messages left, no one had answered nor returned our call. Still, we decided to be optimistic. Now with only half a million people in the whole state, none of Wyoming's cities can be called "large", but Jeffrey City takes this to the other extreme -- the term "ghost town" might actually be more appropriate. There were a half-dozen RVs parked at Double J, as well as "For Sale" signs at every corner. Knee-deep weeds covered most of the lot. A note stapled to the office door instructed us that parking was $20/night -- no mention of Passport America. What you have to understand is that as well as taking "small" to the extreme, Jeffrey City really takes "ugly" to the same extreme. There is a very good reason why everyone left town, and we decided to follow their good lead.
Our backup plan, 6th Crossing, was actually also listed in Jeffrey City, but our mapping software pinpointed it 20 miles west. We dutifully headed off, and spotted a group of RVs right where the campground was supposed to be. Upon turning in, however, we found that it was a former KOA that had been bought out by the LDS Church (it was a stop along the Mormon Trail from the pioneering days), who were very welcoming and encouraged us to park (for free!) without hookups which was very tempting, but it was so hot (mid-90s) that we thought A/C was in order. 
So we fell back on Plan C, Pioneer RV, a Passport park in Lander. This turned out to be a wise choice, as it is a friendly park in a nice location. We also learned that 242 miles is a lot longer than we prefer to travel in one day!
After checking out the Lander area, we decided to extend our stay to 3 nights, since there was a lot to see in Lander and also some necessities of life to catch up on. Lander is an attractive town with a nice city park with free RV parking for up to 3 nights with no hookups. This would be a very attractive alternative when we did not need hookups.
Our tourist day started with a quick visit to The Sinks State Park, where the Popo Agie River flows into a cave ("The Sinks") and actually disappears underground, reappearing a quarter-mile downhill (at "The Rise") following an unknown route. It takes over 2 hours for the water to make the journey, and more water flows out of The Rise than flows into The Sinks! This was followed by a long day drive on the Loop Road, which starts at the state park and travels quickly to over 8000 ft elevation with very scenic lakes in the Shoshone National Forest. Again, it was nice to enjoy the cool mountain air. We were glad we didn't bring the trailer up to look for potential camping spots, since there was major road reconstruction going on for the first 8-10 miles and a traffic delay of over 30 minutes at one point. There were some campsites up on top that would have been quite suitable for larger rigs, plus lots of open areas for boondocking. Coming in from the South Pass side would involve a much easier tow. We spent some time beside a lovely lake (Louis Lake) having a picnic lunch and just enjoying the scenery.
The Loop Road hits pavement again near South Pass City State Historic Site, a renovated mining town, which we viewed in passing but did not stop to visit. We continued on towards Atlantic City, a mining town that is being "rediscovered" (somewhat) and stopped on a hill overlooking town in order to get the perfect photo. When we got back into the truck, it wouldn't start. Upon investigation, we discovered the battery cable had corroded completely and was now in two pieces. 
Holding them together wouldn't make enough connection to get the truck started. So we gathered some stuff and walked the short way down the steep hill towards town. With some amazing luck, the first person we ran into was the town "mechanic" and a really nice guy to boot. He quickly jury-rigged a fix which would handily get us back to Lander and recommended a reliable local garage for the permanent fix. After a quick trip down the mountain and a short visit to the local garage, we were all set to be on our way the next day.
Our backup plan, 6th Crossing, was actually also listed in Jeffrey City, but our mapping software pinpointed it 20 miles west. We dutifully headed off, and spotted a group of RVs right where the campground was supposed to be. Upon turning in, however, we found that it was a former KOA that had been bought out by the LDS Church (it was a stop along the Mormon Trail from the pioneering days), who were very welcoming and encouraged us to park (for free!) without hookups which was very tempting, but it was so hot (mid-90s) that we thought A/C was in order. 
So we fell back on Plan C, Pioneer RV, a Passport park in Lander. This turned out to be a wise choice, as it is a friendly park in a nice location. We also learned that 242 miles is a lot longer than we prefer to travel in one day!After checking out the Lander area, we decided to extend our stay to 3 nights, since there was a lot to see in Lander and also some necessities of life to catch up on. Lander is an attractive town with a nice city park with free RV parking for up to 3 nights with no hookups. This would be a very attractive alternative when we did not need hookups.
Our tourist day started with a quick visit to The Sinks State Park, where the Popo Agie River flows into a cave ("The Sinks") and actually disappears underground, reappearing a quarter-mile downhill (at "The Rise") following an unknown route. It takes over 2 hours for the water to make the journey, and more water flows out of The Rise than flows into The Sinks! This was followed by a long day drive on the Loop Road, which starts at the state park and travels quickly to over 8000 ft elevation with very scenic lakes in the Shoshone National Forest. Again, it was nice to enjoy the cool mountain air. We were glad we didn't bring the trailer up to look for potential camping spots, since there was major road reconstruction going on for the first 8-10 miles and a traffic delay of over 30 minutes at one point. There were some campsites up on top that would have been quite suitable for larger rigs, plus lots of open areas for boondocking. Coming in from the South Pass side would involve a much easier tow. We spent some time beside a lovely lake (Louis Lake) having a picnic lunch and just enjoying the scenery.
The Loop Road hits pavement again near South Pass City State Historic Site, a renovated mining town, which we viewed in passing but did not stop to visit. We continued on towards Atlantic City, a mining town that is being "rediscovered" (somewhat) and stopped on a hill overlooking town in order to get the perfect photo. When we got back into the truck, it wouldn't start. Upon investigation, we discovered the battery cable had corroded completely and was now in two pieces. 
Holding them together wouldn't make enough connection to get the truck started. So we gathered some stuff and walked the short way down the steep hill towards town. With some amazing luck, the first person we ran into was the town "mechanic" and a really nice guy to boot. He quickly jury-rigged a fix which would handily get us back to Lander and recommended a reliable local garage for the permanent fix. After a quick trip down the mountain and a short visit to the local garage, we were all set to be on our way the next day.Vedauwoo NFS CG, Laramie, WY - July 27-28
The last time we camped here was May 2006 and the park, known for its weird rock formations, was almost deserted. This time it was inundated with climbers. 
We went shopping & sightseeing in Laramie on our one full day here, also stopping at the Lincoln Memorial rest area/info center built at the highest point on the "Lincoln Highway", the nation's first transcontinental road, which traveled 3500 miles from New York to San Francisco (now much of it is I-80).Boyd Lake State Park, Loveland, CO - July 23-26
We had heard about this park while living in Boulder, but had never camped here, so when our good friend Lloyd recommended it, we decided to give it a try. Boyd Lake and the park are surrounded by Loveland, but it is still a pleasant setting. The campground is far enough from the lake that you don't get a lot of boating noise, but still within easy walking distance.
We spent time with the campground hosts, friends from The Ranch co-op in Lakewood, NM, and another couple, also from The Ranch, who happened to be here, which made our stay especially pleasant. In addition, we had a visit from Mark & Susan who hadn't seen us enough, and a very enjoyable dinner with Sue & Rick Yoder from Fort Collins, whom we hadn't seen in over ten years. Our good friend, Naomi LaPointe, is now living at the Good Samaritan retirement village in Loveland, so we were able to have several nice visits with her. Our friend Mary Ann from Longmont joined us for the second visit. Loveland is also home to an amazing Sculpture Garden. We only had time to see about a quarter of the sculptures, and more continue to be added each year. As usual, there is lots to come back for!
We spent the major part of a day driving up the Big Thompson River Canyon to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain Natl Park. The scenery was gorgeous and there weren't so many people that it was unpleasant. We enjoyed the cool mountain air and had a nice picnic at Endovalley, one of our favorite areas. We made a quick stop in town for some fudge.And, believe it or not, we still found time to play bridge, although our level of exhaustion may account for the fact that we never seemed to be on the same track, and probably did worse than we ever have since we started playing duplicate.
St Vrain State Park, Longmont, CO - July 13-22
While CO state parks are generally expensive, with Willie's Aspen Leaf (senior) pass, it is quite economical to stay in the state parks. Great progress continues to be made on this park. Gone are the trashy visitors with no respect for the environment. Work continues on a full-hookup loop, which will open shortly. In the meantime, there are two electric-only loops, the old third loop having been shut down and planted over with native vegetation and a waterway dug through it -- we can't even tell where the old sites used to be. St Vrain SP is still, and will probably always remain, a weekend-destination only park for people in the Denver metro area. It is still too close to I-25 and the traffic noise, but they hope to alleviate that with more vegetation and some earthen berms.We were in "winding down" mode while here, still trying to see friends, but also taking time to enjoy the park. Of course, as usual, we got really busier than we would have preferred at the end of our stay. Due to some follow-up medical for both us and the cats, we will be returning to St Vrain SP in late Sept for a brief stay. We have already made a reservation for our favorite campsite. We are looking forward to seeing friends again!
Shady Acres Mobile Home Park, Lafayette, CO - June 13-July 12
Back for yet another stay at Shady Acres, the somewhat disreputable park where we originally parked our home while we were moving into it. Age has not been kind to Shady Acres; as a matter of fact (according to a newspaper article sent to us), the park has been bought out by a group of investors who plan to kick everyone off and redevelop it commercially. The fate of the numerous low-income families that live there is uncertain. Other interesting tidbits gleaned from the article include the fact that city water was shut off to the park years ago due to nonpayment (the owner then started to serve his tenants with on-property well-water) and that the county health dept has investigated numerous raw-sewage leaks on the property over the years. Needless to say, we chose to drink bottled water.
Our first order of business was flying out to Mississippi to attend the memorial service for Willie's mom, Anna Lynn Kilpatrick Haynes. She requested a small service for immediate family only, with readings from John 14 and Thanatopsis. 
Willie was able to download a couple of appropriate versions of "Beulah Land", a gospel song that Anna Lynn also requested be performed. Willie's niece Jennifer designed & printed the program, which we will treasure. Brother Kevin White, the minister who so ably assisted us all when Willie's father passed away in 2003, drove in from Arkansas where he now ministers. The range of emotions we both experienced upon seeing him cannot be described. Special thanks also to Sue Horne, our good friend and bridge partner, who took care of our cats while we were away. She interacts with them almost as well as we do, and would call us each evening to report on their antics.
The rest of our stay was spent in the usual rush of visiting friends, doctor appts, vet appts, and a wide array of activities including movies, Cirque de Soleil, playing bridge, Colorado Music Festival, visiting the Boulder Mall, eating out (way too often, as usual), and, in general, overbooking our time.As we got closer to the end of our month's stay, it became obvious that we needed (and wanted!) to stay in the area longer. We inquired whether we could get some sort of prorated rate for 10 more days, but were turned down flat. Their nightly and weekly rates were much too high for such a junky park. We quickly made reservations at St Vrain SP, and were amazed when we could book for ten days in one of our top five spots. We weren't sorry to leave Shady Acres -- the RV section was populated with a horde of undisciplined little urchins, Artful Dodgers, really, who took delight in pilfering anything that wasn't tied down.
Shady Grove CG, Seibert, CO - June 12
This was the last stop on our mad dash from New Mexico to Boulder, a small family-owned Passport America park that we have stayed at before. It is perfectly situated (for us) for a one- or two-night stop before or after Boulder. We watched monstrous storm clouds build up all around, but only experienced moderate rain, and participated in a birth-order survey for one of the daughters high-school science project.Monday, June 11, 2007
Country Acres RV Park, Lamar, CO - June 11
Another Passport America park, this is a bit "pricey" at $15 for their half price rate. However, since it was over 90 outside, we felt we needed the hookups. It is also a parking lot, gravel rather than asphalt, next to a motel and about as ugly as they get. Lamar allows free boondocking at the nearby ball fields. Hopefully we can time our next visit for cooler weather.Trixie's appetite had been declining for a couple of weeks during our stays, and she finally stopped eating altogether while in Naco. We took her to the vet in Artesia (near The Ranch) and he noticed a number of lesions on her gums & tongue. The pain had gotten so bad that she couldn't bring herself to eat. Further testing confirmed that she is having kidney problems. An antibiotic seems to have helped with the lesions, and her appetite is returning -- she has regained two of the four pounds that she lost. We administered subcutaneous fluids to her daily for two weeks, and are continuing every two or three days. She is on a kidney diet which she seems OK with, and seems pleased with all the attention she is getting. On her second visit to the vet, her readings were back in the normal range. She will be tested again while we are in Lafayette.
Texoma City Park, Dumas, TX - June 10
Our last time through this area we stayed at an icky RV park in Dalhart, only to discover the next morning a city park in Dumas, about 25 miles away, with about 20 RV spaces in an asphalt lot, free for a one-night stay. They don't allow you to stay longer. This worked out great for Day 2 of "the dash". It is fine for the price, although there are loud trains every hour or two, continuing through the night. Dumas is famous mostly for being the town of the song "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas", written in the 20s by Phil Baxter and made popular by Phil Harris on the Jack Benny Radio Show in the 40s. For more information on this song or the little town of Dumas, visit www.dumaschamber.com.Wagon Wheel RV Park, Portales, NM - June 9
This was the first stop on our 5-day "dash" from The Ranch to Boulder, chosen solely because of its location about 1/4 of the way up. The "5.5" (out of 10) rating it received from Trailer Life is an overstatement -- it has all the appeal of a rusty trash can. Plus they have the gall to charge $18/night. Even more frustrating, when we left the next morning we discovered a lovely rest area by an Eastern New Mexico University museum where we could have stayed over night for free. The only disadvantage would have been no electricity to run the air conditioner, but we could have managed for one night.SKP The Ranch Co-Op, Lakewood, NM - May 25-June 8
The main reason for our trip here was to give up our co-op lot. The finances of having a lot here just didn't work for us. It costs $400 annually whether we park there or not, and since there was also a subtle shift in the social scene in the park, we just weren't enjoying being here all that much.What we do enjoy about the area is playing bridge at the club in Carlsbad. For the $400 per year we will save, we can stay a month or two in Carlsbad and save the $12/day gas for the 45-mile round trip from Lakewood.
While here, we finally decided to take a leap and join the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) and actually start saving up the Master Points we earn towards someday (in the very distant future) getting our Life Masters. We have been doing fairly well at our bridge games around the country, and we want to start saving up the bits of points we earn.We took one day to take a "tourist trip" up to the north side of Guadalupe Mountains Natl Park to an area called Dog Canyon. This area had been recommended to us by one of the rangers at Chaco who had been here for several years. It is a LOVELY area but a bit difficult to get a large rig up to due to several tight switchbacks. It almost made one long to be tenting again -- the campground was quite lovely and very secluded. We took a short nature hike through an attractive meadow.
Also in the area was the Guadalupe Rim Drive, which is a dirt road that parallels the rim of the Capitan Reef for several miles at the New Mexico end. There are many little side roads that go right out to the edge, and the views were spectacular -- especially with a fairly severe thunderstorm heading in!One of our last evenings here, we decided to try to find a lesser nighthawk, a bird fairly common to the area, but that we had not yet seen.
We drove through a nearby wildlife refuge (Seven Rivers NWR), and within the first 5 minutes, we had seen several of the birds and were able to positively id them. What a treat!