Month: October 2015

Brantley Lake SP, NM – Saturday October 10, 2015

We left Elephant Butte at 8:00  a.m. and got here 3:45.  We did get to spend 4 hours in Texas and traveled 147 miles.  While in Texas we got to go through one of the permanent border patrol check points out in the middle of no where and 31 miles from the border.

The check point was about a quarter of the way across Texas from El Paso, still don’t see the ROI in these.

Campsite pictures:
View Pictures:
Campground location Pictures:
Nice place with water and electricity at all the sights.  Our current plan is to leave here Thursday the 15th and go north to Roswell.

Elephant Butte SP – Walmart’s Covered Parking – Friday October 9, 2015

Thursday we saw a first, Walmart with covered parking.Eight rows of covered parking with two rows of cars under each cover and it looks like thirty cars out from the store.
Here a google earth taken April 1, 2015 showing the beginning of the construction.

And here is a YouTube Video.

Saturday we’ll leave for east and Carlsbad Caverns for a week or so.  Weather is improving and should be in the low 80’s.

 

Elephant Butte SP, NM – Thursday October 8, 2015

Today was a great travel day, we did laundry in Truth or Consequences.
Richard and Vickie gave us an additional step for our MH.  At least a third of the time the last step off the MH has more drop then the our steps.

This additional step is adjustable height and we’ll get a lot of use out of it.  In this picture you can see how it fills in the last step.

Thanks Richard and Vickie.

Elephant Butte SP, NM – Wednesday October 7, 2015

Last night we had our first lightning storm.  I got one of my new toys (a lightning trigger) out and tried to take lightning pictures.  I didn’t do a very good job.

This is the only picture I got but I think after a couple of hours I have figured out how to use it.

We are in a new campsite today.  We were in a reservation only site and someone else had it reserved starting today.  The weather report for Carlsbad, NM is not good for the next couple of days so we decided to move to a non-reservable site and stay here until Saturday.  In site 52.
Here is our new view.
While Jean was watching TV this afternoon a flash flood and quarter size hail warning came across the TV for the area we would have been driving through.   It is not that it might hail quarter size hail it’s a warning not to be where it’s hailing.

Elephant Butte SP, NM – TV Satellite Dish – Tuesday October 6, 2015

When we got our DISH TV satellite receiver last year I also purchased the free standing tripod so the receiver can be located away from the RV with a clear view of the southern sky.   The challenge with this is when we are traveling and staying in rest stops and Walmarts I can not set up the receiver so we can watch TV.  The Winegard Pathway X1 receiver has a roof top mounting kit available for $100.00.  However it is designed to be a permanent installation.  Here is what I came up with so I can mount the dish on the roof and remove it whenever I want.    CLICK
I went up on the roof today to check the mount and everything is good.  The only thing I added from the original design is after the two outside locking screws are tightened into place I add a wing nut and spider lock washer on the inside of the bracket or end of the bolt.  I added this extra nut and washer to ensure road vibration did not allow the bolts to back out.

Elephant Butte SP, NM – Monday October 5, 2015

Nice day here in New Mexico.  Our plan is to stay here for several days until the weather east of here clears.  They are having a lot of thunderstorms with some small hail.

The suction cup which holds Martha in place every once in a while comes loose, Martha is our GPS.  It has gone for as long as three months and as short of a time as a couple days.  I needed to come up for a fix because I’m afraid the power plug in will be break off the back.

Here is my zip tie solution:
I’ll leave the long ends on for a couple of days to ensure I have the correct pressure, tight is good too tight is not always better.

Elephant Butte SP, NM – Verizon – Sunday October 4, 2015

We are now at Elephant Butte State Park with a great view of the lake.
Here is our site for the next couple of days.

This is a Google Earth view.
Verizon
This evening I spent another two hours on txt chats trying to get Jean’s txt account restored.  During the first fix Verizon changed Jean’s account from 250 messages a month for $5.00 to $0.20 per txt.  I sent two emails to the customer service manager I talked to a couple of weeks ago without any response.  Last Monday we stopped at a Verizon store in Sparks where Caesar said he had fixed the problem.  I check two days later and the account had not been restored. Verizon has a prefect Customer Service policy, when the representative does not know how to fix the problem they hang up on you.  I wasn’t positive that this was the procedure until on one chat I waited 30 minutes and still the rep did not return after I explained the problem, Verizon did an auto log off ( timed out ).  I had three chat reps hang up on me, I think the fourth may have restored the plan.   Only time will tell, or is it seeing the bill will tell.

Here is an update on our travels:
This is Sunday October 4, 2015.

This trip so far.

Closer view from Boise south.
Current overview of retirement.

Rant:
During the Washington State Legislative session this year they passed a bunch of tax increases and ways of spending money.  An example of tax increase is the increase in gas tax, think it is $0.11 a gallon, that is a lot of money.  Last year they increased camping fees (remember a fee is not a tax increase).  Many parks have nine levels of camping fees based on how popular the site is plus what the site offers for water, electricity and sewer.  I think the fees run from $25.00 to top of $45.00.  And yes we paid $45.00 for a site last spring.  An example of other states for camping is where we are in New Mexico.  $14.00 for water and electricity (also most parks have free wifi) with an annual pass it’s $4.00 a night.  The out of state annual pass is $220.00 for 13 months.    Washington state has fined itself $100,000 day for not fully funding education, however I have not been able to find out how much money they need to fund education and why education would need this specific amount.  Another thing the state has done to help create support for all this funding is involved with purchasing a new house.  Starting in January of 2015 when you buy a house the new owner will have to certify that they will cheer for all Washington teams.  This includes Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders, UW, WSU etc., (well may be not both UW and WSU their is a limit). The legislation does not specify how this will be enforced but I am sure our state’s law enforcement will find a way of monitoring this new law.  When I was in the Navy our motto was “NSA Customer Service guarantee, you speak, we listen”.
Rant for the day is over.
It is a beautiful day to be retired in New Mexico.

Wupatki Natl Monument – Gallup, NM – Saturday October 3, 2015

Friday I got out and took some wildlife pictures.
This guy was directing traffic.

This guy was in charge of everyone on the north side of the hill.

I also got some more night pictures.

I just think this is cool, we are really so small in the bigger world around us.  The white line is a satellite.

Saturday was a driving day.  We had people lined up to take our site at Lees Ferry ( it really is a GREAT site ).  Left camp at 8:30 because we had a 330 mile day to get to Walmart in Gallup, New Mexico.   Got to Gallup at 8:00 p.m. and headed right into Walmart for our every other week’s worth of shopping.  This being the first of the month the store was full of people and many many of the shelves were empty.

On the way to Gallup we stopped at Wupatki National Monument for a revisit.  Jean and I first stumbled onto this monument September 15, 2004 and we thought it was time for a revisit.
Some of the wild life.
The wood beam in the middle was put here around 1100.  I wish the beams on the front of our house had lasted this long.