On & Off the Road

Again, sorry for not posting last night.

Sunday morning was a time for putting the trailer in order.  Dishes needed washing, the floor needed sweeping. A little vacuuming, some counter washing… that kinda thing.  About 1, we drove over to M&Ps to meet up with Scott’s brother Ray… I mean George… no, it’s Ralph… uh… Mark!  That’s it!  Mark! (An inside joke, sorry.)  Mark, his wife Julie, and two of their 4 children were supposed to be there a little before 5.  They were driving from Hobbs, about 4 hours east of here.

At quarter to 3, we got a call that they were just leaving!  That meant that they wouldn’t be here until nearly 7.  But once they arrived we all had a great evening of chatting and joking around. 

And that, was Sunday, Day 9 of our saga.  Today, Day 10, we take the trailer down to Las Cruces.  Not sure what more to add.  Tonight’s post (or tomorrow morning’s, depending on how today goes) will probably also be short and photoless.

Hey all,

Today was a slow day.  We got going about 10, then headed over to Mudder & Pops for the day.  There we sat and chatted all day, while I did laundry.

After the laundry was done, Scott and I returned to the camper to put our clothes away.  Then it was back to Mudder & Pops and off to dinner.  Back to M & P for coffee, and here we are.  About to call it a night!

We have decided to remain in Alamogordo until Friday morning, and do a series of day trips from here.  Monday will be another “boring” day, as we’ll be taking the trailer down to Las Cruces for some repairs.

Love you all!  Miss you.  But don’t ever want to come back home!  (Ok… I’m kidding.  Kind of.)

Yesterday, we uprooted ourselves, and headed for Alamogordo.  This is a relatively short drive, less than 200 miles.

After hitting the road about 9 a.m., we drove southeast along US180 to Deming.  From Deming, we made a side trip down to Rockhound State Park.  Rockhound is one of the few parks where you’re encouraged to pick up and take home rocks… up to 15 pounds per person!  The lower trail is just loaded with jasper of all colors, perlite and… well, bunches of rocks!

There’s an upper trail at the park where one can find geodes, thunder eggs, opals, and… well, bunches of rocks.  Scott and I are fascinated by rocks.  The problem is… we wouldn’t know a jasper if it stood up shook hands and said “Hi! I’m Jasper!”  Nevertheless, we did spend about an hour on the lower trail, and picked up… uh, bunches of rocks.  I DO know that a handful of the rocks I picked up were called “black perlite”.

The problem I had Thursday with heat, continued to effect me yesterday, and apparently Thursdays hike had taken a toll on Scott’s hips as well, so we decided to forego the upper trail, and left the park about noon.

We stopped in Las Cruces at an RV Service to see about getting our hot water heater fixed, but they won’t be able to see us until Monday, so we’ll head back there then.  From there we drove on up the highway to Alamogordo.  The road out of Las Cruces is about the steepest we’ve been on yet.  If I recal correctly, the name of the mountains we passed over is the Organ Mountains (lots of spires that remind one of organ pipes.)  If you’ve ever been on steep roads and gotten stuck behind a truck or RV, that was us yesterday!  Fortunately there were three lanes, and we pulled all the way over to the right and just plugged away.  We finally made it to the top, and from there until about 15 miles outside Alamogordo, I don’t think I used the gas pedal, as it was all downhill, and just as steep as the uphill site!  Of course, we had to go through an Immigration Inspection site.

This eastern side of the Organ Mountains (I’ll do some research later, and post a correction if the name is wrong) is home to White Sands Missile Range and the White Sands National Monument.  Dunes upon dunes of gypsum sands (gypsum is the stuff dry wall is made of) cover the area.  Sci Fi movies are filmed in the area because of the desolate, almost alien appearance!  Once you get away fromthe highways, the vegetation dies out, and there’s just white powdery sand.  People in the area actually go sledding in the middle of summer on this stuff!

We passed Holloman AFB on the outskirts of town, then finally arrived about 3 at our destination.  After setting up, we drove over to Mudder n Pops… that’s Scott’s Mom & Dad… where we had a nice chat, then all drove over to Terry’s new house.  Terry is Scott’s sister-in-law… Bruce’s wife.  (For those who may not know the story, Bruce… CPT Bruce Hays… was killed in Afghanistan on September 17, 2008)  Wow! What a lovely home she has.  I’m turning green just thinking of it! (from Envy, duh!)  We ate dinner, then talked more.  We finally got back to our little home on wheels at 10 and headed straight for the sack. 

Sorry, no pictures yesterday!

Good morning everyone!  Sorry about the delay in getting this written and posted.  I discovered yesterday that in spite of absolutely gorgeous weather, in the upper 70s, one CAN indeed run afoul of the heat and sun!  For those of you who know me, I have had 2 heatstrokes.  Because of this, my body’s thermostat is pretty well toasted, so I have a hard time dealing with heat.  I had to take a nap and take it easy last night.

So.  Enough of the whining already!

We finally got on the road yesterday about 10, and headed back west on Rt 180 (the one we came in to town on Tuesday) to go to a place called “Catwalk at Whitewater Canyon”.  The Catwalk is about 70 miles west of Silver City, near the town of Glenwood, NM.  What is there to do at the Catwalk?  Why, I’m glad you asked!  One walks!

In about 1889, gold and silver were found in the mountains above Whitewater Canyon.  The Canyon is just over a mile long, 250 feet deep, and in places less than 20 feet wide.  A mill was built at the base of the canyon, and a small town that no longe exists sprang up around the mill.  William Antrim worked here during the 10 years the mill and town existed…. he’s the step-father of Billy the Kid!

Gold was hauled along the rim of the canyon to just above the chute and then dumped down a chute.  Water was brought via a 4″ pipe through the canyon to power the mill.  Along the route of this pipeline, a catwalk was built along the same route as this pipeline.  It has been rebuilt several times, as flooding is common through this canyon. 

There’s a 1.1 mile hike up through the Whitewater Canyon that alternates between this catwalk and trails along the side of the canyon.  We hiked up this beautiful canyon to the 1.1 mile mark.  One can hike much, much further, as this is one of the access points to the Gila National Wilderness Area, a wilderness of 755,000 acres.  That’s a lot of acres!

Along the way, we met two men hiking with their dog, a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog!  This dog looks more like a wolf than anything.  It’s a hybrid cross between Carpathian Wolf and a German Shepherd.  The breeders work to keep the wolf gene at 25% of the makeup.  Wonderful dog, I couldn’t help but be envious!

At the top of the trail, we stopped for a picnic, then came back down.  A total of 2.2 miles (probably a tiny bit longer). 

From the Canyon, we drove up to Mogollon.  Mogollon is a “Ghost Town” that didn’t look to ghost townish to me.  A lot of people (ok, I counted several occupied houses… maybe 50 folks?)  It was a bit anticlimactic, as there were signs on all the businesses saying “Open May to September”.

The thing is, the road up to Mogollon is incredible.  9 miles from the highway, 5 miles of this road are only one lane, hairpin curves.  Made Wednesday’s drives look like cherry pie!  Scott drove.  I clung to the door handle and prayed.

Unfortunately, the day got a bit hot, so we came back home, and I napped.  And we went to bed early.

NOTE:  There are two more pics I want to post.  Watch for those later, as I’m having problems getting them posted.  Probably in a special post tonight.

View of the Catwalk

On the trail

On the trailOn the Trail

Mogollon

Another night with no heat!  Yeesh!  At least now, we know why.  But, just in case, we purchased a small space heater today.  And we slept LATE.  I mean LATE!  7:30 a.m.  After nice hot showers down at the office, we spent some time with one of the men who works here, who came up to see if he could help us get our hot water working.  No luck.

About 10:15, we set off on the road to see some of the surroundings.  First stop was Fort Bayard, an old 9th Cavalry (“Buffalo Soldier”) post… once commanded by General John Pershing.  Unfortunately, there’s not much to see there anymore, except the National Cemetery.  From there, we set off to see another old Army post a few miles away, but there was even LESS at that site. 

Next stop was City of Rocks State Park.  This is an interesting rock formation that was formed by a very large volcanic eruption that occurred 34.9 million years ago.  The eruption was over 1000 times larger than the Mount Saint Helens eruption of 1980, and took months, possibly even years.  There were two phases of the eruption, the first was the plinian phase.  This phase produced large volumes of pumice.  The next phase, the ignimbrite, over 1000 cubic kilometers of rock ash, and gas (twice the volume of Lake Erie) was blown in to the sky.  This material rained to the ground over 132 miles away, creating City of Rocks. 

We hiked around the rocks for about a half hour, over a mile.

We then drove a very beautiful road through mountainous terrain, with a river along the side of the road for much of the route, and eventually headed on up the 45 mile road to Gila Cliff Dwellings.  Though only 45 miles, this road winds through mountains and pine forests and is so windy we both agreed we’d not want to tow the trailer up it!  Our initial opinion was confirmed when we hit the summit, then began an 8 mile stretch of hairpin curves with cliffs dropping off on both sides of the road.

These dwellings were built by the Mogollon (pronounced Mo-go-yone) people over 700 years ago… and yet, they remained at the site for only about 30 years.  However, the caves were inhabited for thousands of years before that.  About 1500, the Chiricahua Apache moved in to the area.  In the early 1820′s, Geronimo was born near this site.

We enjoyed the hike around this formation as well, about 1.5 miles… and very steep.  I’m getting good exercise on this trip!

We’re back now for the night.  Scott grilled some steak and we opened a bottle of wine. 

City of Rocks

Scott at City of Rocks

Eric at City of Rocks

On the Road to Gila

Scott at Gila

Some Gila Cliff Dwellings

Wouldn't ya know it? Graffitti!

Pine forest on road back to Silver City

Yowser!  What a day!

Before I launch in to today’s activities, I want to make it clear that Scott and I ar having a fantastic time!

That said, today has been a bit of a challenge.  I awoke at 5:30 a.m. to the marvelous sound of brewing coffee (we have it set to start automatically.)  And a very cold trailer, in spite of the running furnace.  By 7 a.m. when Scott got up, I was frozen.  No heat.  And did I mention that the water heater didn’t work yesterday?  So, we decided to forget the shower and get going.

We took back roads pretty much the whole way, south to Mountainaire then west to Bernardo, down to Socorro, then via the VLA (Very Large Array) and on to Silver City.  It was a hard drive, mostly two lane.  But absolutely gorgeous!  Some of those two lanes were pretty rough!

But the REAL fun began on our arrival at the KOA here in Silver City at 5:30 tonight.  Scott opened the trailer to discover that at some point in the trip, our fire extinguisher had discharged!  There was fine fire retardent powder EVERYWHERE!!!  Imagine a 10 pound bag of flour exploding in a space 10 foot by 20!  We’ve wiped and swept and vacuumed and pounded and then done it all over again!  We didn’t think to photograph it!  It took us 2 hours to clean up!  And to be honest, I think we’ll need to do it again tomorrow.  And very likely 1 or 2 more times on this trip.

So, no cooking for us tonight!  We ate at a very nice little restaurant in town, the Jalisco Cafe… yup, Mexican food!

Today was set aside for touring some ruins south of Tijeras.  After a leisurely start to our day, including showers, we got on the road about 9:15 a.m. and set off.  We drove down Highway 333/337 along the eastern boundary of the Manzano Mountains to Quarai Ruins near the town of Punta. 

Seeing this sign, I was glad we came at this time of year.  Eric Strom does NOT do snakes!

About all that has been excavated at Quarai, once home to the Tiwa people, is the Catholic mission church.

We spent about an hour wandering around the site, reading the various signs, then headed south to Gran Qivera, home of the Tompiro people.  This site was more interesting to me.  Unlike Quarai, not only is the mission church excavated but many of the pueblo buildings as well.  I was fascinated at the size of the dwellings.  Most rooms were only in the 4′ X 5′ range; rooms were accessible from the roof, so there were few rooms with doors in them.  The people here lived mostly on the roof of their pueblo, using the rooms only during the worst of inclement weather.  There were people living at this ruin, or very nearby for nearly 400 years, starting around 1300.

Our next stop was Abo.

All three of these ruins were in the Salinas Jurisdiction… named this because one of their chief products was salt from nearby saltbeds.  For centuries, the pueblo peoples here on the verge of the Plains were at the hub of great trade routes bringing in goods from as far as the Pacific coast to the west, shell fish from the gulf of Mexico.  Other trade goods came up from eastern Texas.  The people traded these goods and salt.  The Apache from the plains to the east came to trade.  Then came the Spaniards with their encomiendo system.  Most of the Pueblo people were pressed in to the service of the Spaniard settlers and the Catholic Missionaries, leaving them little time to collect the salt.  With no salt to trade, the Apache began raiding.  By 1680, all 3 pueblos had been evacuated.

Now we’re back home, safe and sound in our little trailer.  Without hot water.

Tonight, I think we’ll spend some time star gazing!

Today, like yesterday, was supposed to be an uneventful day.  Eh, not so much.

After a quick breakfast of cereal, and a couple good cups of coffee, we set off.  As hoped, we left the campground in Elk City at 8:30 a.m.  It was good sleeping in until 6:15!  That’s an hour more sleep than I normally get.

From Elk City, the road generally climbs throughout the rest of Oklahoma, and Texas, and into New Mexico.  Because of that, we discovered we’d not be able to keep our pace at 70 mph as hoped.  The truck literally drank gasoline at an alarming rate!  We stopped far more often than normal.

The first 6 hours of the drive WERE uneventful… slow going, but only moderate traffic.

The problem began shortly after passing through Santa Rosa, NM.  Scott was driving during this stretch.  Passing a semi as we rounded a bend on I40, all of a sudden we were hit by a sudden sharp wind gust.  The trailer fish tailed dramatically, and for several seconds (probably just 1 or 2, but it sure seemed like more!) I wasn’t sure we’d end up on the road in one piece.  Scott’s masterful driving saved us, quite literally!

We pulled off at the next exit, though there were no services, to check the trailer and it’s connections… and to calm down.  I took over driving from there.  For the next 100 miles or so until we got to the plains east of Tijeras, I fought an incredible crosswind.  I had to slow from our 63 mph down to about 50 to keep the vehicle in control.

But, we’re here now!  We got in about 4:30.  Set up takes us about a half hour, then we drove down to Albuquerque to get some groceries and supplies.  We’re at the Turquoise Trail Campgrounds.  We’ll spend 2 nights here.  Tomorrow we plan on visiting several ruins in the area.  Those tours should provide some interesting photos.  But here’s one to whet the appetite!  It’s from the front of our trailer looking north.  You can’t really tell, but we’re in some mountains, at about 7,200 feet.  We’re in a little cut in the mountains, and the hills on all sides pretty much  obscure our view of the mountains themselves.

Weather is gorgeous, at least temperature wise!

That’s Elk City, Oklahoma, about 112 miles west of Oklahoma City on Interstate 40.

No pictures today… it was mostly a travel day.

We had hoped to get going by 7 a.m.  And we actually succeeded.  We arrived at the storage are at 7 sharp, and after a quick hookup, we were on the road by 7:30 a.m.  The day started out a bit cold, about 28 degrees.  After we got to Kansas, it started to warm up.  By the time we reached Elk City, it is now 68 degrees. Yay!

There really isn’t much to report on, though.  We drove.  And drove.  And drove.  About 640 miles.  And then, we got here!  Our route took us west on I-80 from Council Bluffs, to York, NE.  From York, we headed south on Rte 81 to Salina, KS where we picked up I-135 to Wichita.  From Wichita to OK City, we were on I-35, then caught I-40 to Elk City.  As I said… not much really to report.

We are listening to a really cute book on CD… good too.  It’s called Dog On It.  It’s about a Private Investigator and his partner, a dog… as told from the dog’s perspective!  Cute, but not as sickeningly cute as it COULD have been.  Just the right amount of “doggyisms”, without going to the childish.