Category: New Mexico

Bluewater Lake State Park, NM – Wednesday September 28, 2016

We are in site G8 one of the newer areas of the campground.
No electricity or water but it is kind of flat.

Overhead view.

This morning started out with taking Hank to a vet. Last night we were playing our usual evening games and while running to jump onto the bed he gave out his high pitched squeal, like he does when something hurts him.  I thought he had stepped on a burr or caught a toe nail.  He was not putting any pressure on his left hind leg.  When he has a burr he usually chews on his paw until he get it out however he was not chewing on it.  The first time he got a burr in his paw he let me pull it out, the second did go as well as the first and haven’t tired it since.  

This morning he did not come flying out of his kennel and when he did he was not putting any weight on his leg.  Google had two vets in Winslow, the first one was out of the office today visiting ranches and the second turned out to be great.  Hank has a strained knee ligament on the inside of left hind leg.  Doc have him a shot and some medication for the next ten days. Said Hank should be better in two weeks but not to worry if it takes up to six weeks, another one of those age things again.  He is to be kind of quiet for the next one to two weeks so he does not over work his good right leg. This means carrying him in and out of the motor home to pee and poo.  Hank has never liked to be picked up however he has been pretty good about it today. Hopefully him and I will get it all worked out and he will not be as afraid as he as been in the past.

Driving maps:

Around Winslow
Winslow to Bluewater Lake.
Campground over view.

 

 

 

Caballo Lake SP, NM – Sunday November 1, 2015


In camp all day currently watching the Seahawks game.  This will be our last day in New Mexico for a while, we are currently planning on attending the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta next October. We will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Phoenix and Lost Dutchman SP, it will be an 8 to 9 hour day on the road.
During the last 14 months and our three trips south we have spent 65 nights in New Mexico.  We will spend the next two and a half weeks in Arizona and then home for Thanksgiving.

Spaceport America, NM – Saturday October 31, 2015

Today we took the tour of Spaceport America the private spaceport being used by Virgin Galactic to send people into space.   The tour was interesting and an opportunity to visit a place which may have a significant impact on the development of space.
Google Earth view of the main terminal.
This view is from 32,000 feet showing the 12,000 foot runway.  An interesting google footnote is these pictures were taken on December 14, 2013.  There are newer pictures of Truth or Consequences, NM which is only a few miles west of here from April 1, 2015.  I’d have to say Branson has some influence on where Google takes pictures.
This is where we walked into the hanger and into the visitor’s center.  The visitor’s center had some new high-tech displays and information about space and the spaceport.
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This globe shows the major satellite orbits around earth.  Besides the 6 passenger spacecraft which will  take people into space for 4 minutes, only $250,000 in advance, Virgin Galactic is working on a reusable craft to take satellites into space.

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This is one of the displays they use for a plus G’s experience.
  This is looking through a window down into the hanger and a mockup of the passenger space craft.
This is the admin and runway tower building, also the fire department of spaceport and surrounding area.
This is the hanger doors side of the building.Here you can see the track for the four hanger bay doors on this side, there are four more on the other side of the building.

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Our picture of the walk in entrance of the hanger.
Hanger and admin buildings.
This is a really long runway, 12,000 feet.
Cool sculpture at the entrance to the spaceport.
The stars on the inside of the curve.
I’m glad we went.

Caballo Lake SP, NM – Wednesday October 28, 2015

Hatch, NM (20 miles south of here) is the U.S. capital of red and green chili peppers.

Here are some chili fields and how they grow.

I also found a good use for my tool box.

Hold my box of wine in place.
Yes, it’s not the greatest in the world however it should keep better then bottled wine does in the warm motorhome.  I don’t have enough room in the refrigerator, like some people I know.

Caballo Lake SP, NM – Tuesday October 27, 2015

This morning we moved 45 miles up the Rio Grande River to one of the lakes created by the dam system on the Rio Grande.

Here is our travels for the day.  This is a big lake with a campground up  on the lake and one below the dam on the river.  We ended up at the lake campground and it seems to be a nice place.  We will be here until November 2, 2015.

Here are the campsite pictures, site 9:
Now remember this site has water, electric and covered picnic table for $14.00 a night and with our annual pass we get it for $4.00.
Here is the overhead view.  We drove around a couple of times to get the site we wanted.  The first site we stopped at was a nice site on the corner however a garbage dumpster was close to the site and to many people take their dog for a walk when they go to dumpster.  Hank would have to let everyone know he was there to protect his campsite.

 

Leasburg Dam SP, NM – Monday October 26, 2015 Follow-up

Where to go.  One of our challenges of retirement and travel is “Where do we go next”.

We have a plan:
from here we’ll go north to Caballo State Park, NM until Monday November 2.

Next stop will be Lost Dutchman State Park, AZ just outside of Phoenix for 2 weeks, Nov 2 to Nov 16.

Next to Buckskin Mountain State Park close to Parker, AZ on the AZ/CA border.

Friday Nov 20th we will start for home.  One or two days driving through California with extra time if we have to wait to get through the Siskiyou’s.  At  least this is the current plan.

Monday afternoon I got out for a walk down to the dam.

Leasburg Dam is on the Rio Grande river or what is left of the river.
The Leasburg Dam is a diversion dam running most of the water into a canal.
This is what is left in the original river flow area looking up towards the dam.
This is looking down river and this is the largest flow area of the river bed.
My InReach GPS transmits it’s location to a satellite every 10 minutes when it’s moving and every 4 hours when it’s not moving.

It has an internal record of where it is every minute and when I sync the InReach over the internet you get a much smoother picture of our travels.  If I was walking the blue line would pretty much be on the road.

Leasburg Dam SP, NM – Sunday October 25, 2015

We are at Leasburg Dam State Park on The Rio Grande River just north of Las Cruses, NM.
Here is the travel map.

We are in site 24 for tonight and Monday night.  This campground is small and most of the sites are reserved during the week and all are reserved this weekend.  When we were looking for a site I drove the motorhome and car into a spot where I had to unhook the car to be able to turn the motorhome around.  This is only the second time I’ve go myself into a spot I could not get turned around.  The first one was at a Pony Express Rest Site in the middle of no where on Hwy 50 in Nevada.  Since I had the car off the motorhome I went and found a site and walked back to get Jean, Hank and motorhome.
Here are the site pictures.
A couple of view pictures.
One moon coming up picture.