Category: Campsite

Eugene, OR – Monday February 22, 2016

We are starting our southern trip to Peoria, Arizona for Mariner’s Spring Training.
Here is our campsite picture for today. We are at a rest stop just north of Eugene Oregon.  It was almost 11:00 before we left home and got here at 5:30. 
Little rain in Washington and clear sunny skies all day in Oregon.  Not much else going on just driving in the sun.  Will continue south to Red Buff or so tomorrow. 

Sumner Lake SP, NM – Thursday October 15 , 2015

This park is just a few miles from Fort Sumner, NM where Billy the Kid was killed.  Friday will be Billy the Kid museums and Fort Sumner.

Campsite pictures, we are in site 5.

Here are some pictures of Eastern New Mexico’s fall bird, the wasp.  The park ranger at Bottomless Lakes SP said they get a bunch of these every fall and we have had our share today.


Motorhome improvement.

Don’t know if this is as much of an improvement or simply to make my life easier.  As we spend more time traveling we are setting up and taking down camp many more times each year.  Tuesday we stopped at Home Depot in Roswell and picked up 4 sets of quick couplers for our water supply system.
These brass couplers will sure make getting water a lot easier.   I’m sure I will enjoy them.  Speaking of water, our drinking water is a lot better this year than what we had last fall.  This year we are filtering the water through 3 filters before it gets to the holding tank and then once more at the kitchen faucet.  The water in the bathroom sink is much much better than what we had last year.   I am using a universal water filter right at the park water faucet, than a large 2 stage filter before it goes into the holding tank and than a universal filter at the drinking water tap at the kitchen sink.   When we traveled down here for two weeks at a time we could get by with the bad taste for several days, however when we are here for 2 to 3 months at a time good tasting water becomes more important.

Bottomless Lakes SP – Roswell, NM – Wednesday October 14, 2015

Today we went to the historical museum.

It is in one of the towns old and really cool homes, built in 1910 to 1912 it belonged to the White family until 1976 when it was given to the city.  Most of the original photo collection has been moved to a new building next door.  It does have some interesting bathroom sink fixtures.

Look how the knob is on the side.

Here are the campsite pictures of site 29 at Bottomless Lakes State Park.  This state park has a good free WiFi system for $14.00 an night $4.00 with annual pass.


Tomorrow we head north to Fort Sumner to visit Billy the Kid things.  We are planning on staying at Sumner Lake State Park.

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, 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 – 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.