My Life and Travels
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We left the RV Park about 9:30 a.m. and headed to the state park just 8 miles south. This is the largest park in New Mexico and has the most usage of all the state parks.
It is a winner, Great park, we have a great site with a great view of the lake, water and electricity with WIFI. Yes, for $14.00 a night we have a strong WIFI signal with a repeater just outside the back of the motorhome. It had good speed this afternoon to watch a video but it slowed down right after dinner when everyone started watching videos. We are pleased with the place and will be here at least until Sunday.
We have a bunch if day trips planned over the next several days and I’m sure we’ll find more.
Phone GPS puts us HERE: elevation of 4509
Great site, number 56 asphalt and level, you can see the WIFI repeater pole coming out of the top of the RV. The pole and base alone has to be $300.00 installed.
Here is map of our travels to date:
We have come quite a ways and it’s been a great trip.
Today we moved toward Truth or Consequences, New Mexico actually spending the night just north of Elephant Butte, NM which is just north of Truth or Consequences, if I have all of that correct. We had two goals when we left Datil; find a place to do laundry and a place with WIFI. I found a RV park which listed a laundry and WIFI which is also part of a discount RV park system called Passport America. By joining this group you can stay at a member park for 50% of their going rate. This park listed as having 69 sites and the laundry/WIFI. However, when we got there the WIFI no longer worked and the laundry was one washer and one dryer (at least they were clean). The 69 sites had 10 people who lived there permanently and one RV from Washington State. Later in the evening three other traveling RV’s pulled in, we all left Tuesday morning.
This campsite picture makes it look a lot better than it really was. Oh well they all can not be Monument Valley.
Here is the InReach hike Hank and I took on Sunday.
Topo
Aerial
Here is Monday’s drive
