Monday, December 8, 2008
Keystone Mobile Home Park, Carlsbad, NM: Dec 5-???
So here we are in Carlsbad two days early. The park seems pleasant enough, and the price is certainly right! It took a bit of maneuvering to get the trailer in between the trees in our spot and the cars parked on the street, but we're pretty happy now that we're settled in. Doug seems to have shaken the flu, but the drive to Roswell and then on to Carlsbad was pretty tiring. The cats have adjusted & seem satisfied -- they have a south-facing window & daily sun puddles so far. We passed on playing bridge Friday evening since Doug could barely remember his name, but look forward to lots of bridge & line-dancing during our stay, as well as the Christmas trip to Albuquerque.
Valley of Fires Recreation Area, Carrizozo, NM: Dec 4
This campground sits on a ridge overlooking 127 sq miles of malpais (badlands). The Rec Area occupies 463 acres and was named for a Native American account of the eruption that created a valley of fires. The magma flowed from Little Black Peak 1500 to 2000 years ago, one of the most recent lava flows in the country. Our plans were to stay 3 nights, relax, & enjoy the 3/4-mile nature trail. Unfortunately, when we plugged our trailer into their electricity, it tripped their circuit breaker. Switching from 30-amp to 20-amp made no difference -- that breaker tripped also. We called park maintenance, who assured us the breaker was new, and that the problem was almost certainly in the trailer. He offered an extension cord to see if we'd have any luck hooking up to a neighboring site, but Doug, who seemed to be coming down with the flu, decided just to get set up & crawl into bed. What's more, as part of the testing process, Doug had turned off all the breakers inside the trailer, so when Willie tried to run the inverter nothing would work, convincing us the problem was with the inverter (and depriving Willie the opportunity to watch TV while Doug slept). We did go online & find an RV repair facility in Roswell before Doug crashed, and he made an appointment to have them look at the trailer the next day.The next day we got off by 9am, despite the 22-degree weather. When we got to Roswell the electricity tested fine. The repairman said Valley of Fires is notorious for bad electricity, and if we had talked with him he probably would have told us to not waste our time coming in. But they had three minor RV parts that we had been looking for for over a year, one of which he installed for only $10, so it certainly was not a wasted stop.
Volunteer CG, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM: Dec 1-3
Joe & Bonnie Nemmers, whom we met in Albuquerque this spring and at The Ranch in prior years, were volunteers here and as such were able to extend us an invitation to stay for 3 nights (if we were willing to do some volunteer work we could have stayed longer). Bosque del Apache is a magical place, and we are re-energized every time we visit here. "The Bosque" straddles the Rio Grande, which, like the Nile, used to overflow its banks every spring & flood the surrounding area, thereby re-fertilizing & re-vegetating the soil. Now a series of dikes & watergates simulate this activity. As a measure of their success, 17 sandhill cranes wintered at the Bosque in 1941; today more than a thousand times that number winter here. There were only about 5000 during our stay -- they don't peak until Jan & Feb -- but there were over 20,000 snow (& Ross's) geese.
The big events of the day are the fly-out & fly-in. The fly-out is more dramatic, with thousands of snow geese (they don't all over-night together) circling in the water, honking & flapping their wings, and then suddenly, for whatever reason, they all decide to take off -- no one wants to be the last one out. From afar it looks like snow in a snow-globe swirling upwards, up close the noise is staggering -- a sudden explosion of wingbeats. It sounds like someone suddenly turning on a very loud motor. We got up early to witness the spectacle our first & third mornings. We were successful the first, but the other time the geese had already flown, even though we arrived at the same time.
On the second morning we accepted an invitation to help band ducks. A grad student is doing research involving pintails where basically they attach a net to a rocket and shoot it off, capturing a bunch of ducks. He then takes blood samples and hands them over to an assistant to band them. This day's catch was disappointingly low -- only 4 pintails & 3 mallards (and one pintail escaped). He likes to get 12 pintails, but the low number was fine with us, since there wasn't really anything for us to do other than ask questions & take pictures. They did let us watch closely and then release some of the ducks. Fortunately it was the warmest morning of the three. That afternoon we drove around the main driving loop with Bonnie & watched a fly-in. The pond we stopped at already looked pretty full, but as it got closer to sunset, you could look towards their feeding-grounds & see wave after wave of geese flying in V-formation, all silhouetted against the nearby hills, heading for the ponds near us. Each new wave would somehow find places to land, and we never saw one goose land on top of another.Our last night Joe made pizza for us & another couple, which was excellent, and we then played six-person "Oh Hell". The woman of the other couple, who made an excellent chocolate dessert, had played "Oh Hell" MANY years ago and had been wanting to re-learn it.
El Rancho RV Park, Albuquerque, NM: Nov 1-30
This is the same place we stayed in May, located on the edge of Albuquerque's "War Zone". The park is so conveniently located and reasonably priced that it will be difficult finding a better place to stay, especially since all the nicer mobile home parks we talked to do not allow pets. Here again we did not do much sightseeing (by "much" we mean "any"). We spent most of our time visiting Gayle, playing bridge, line-dancing, or doing chores. We had the most delightful Thanksgiving dinner, prepared, for the most part, by Bob & Paula (Doug's brother & sister-in-law). Bob brined the turkey, which made the white meat not only extremely moist, but quite flavorful. Doug was embarrassed to say it was even better than his mom's. Erin & Bryan (Doug's daughter & son-in-law) drove all the way from L.A. (in one day!) and Erin's mom drove down from Denver, so it was quite a nice family gathering, and a good time was had by all, if we do say so. Bob also made the most wonderful stuffing we ever tasted. Thanks to Bob for all his hard work!We always get horrendous gas mileage in Albuquerque. This is probably due to the fact that stop-lights do not seem to be synchronized in any way. This makes a certain amount of sense, since no one drives the speed limit (except us) -- they either go 5 mph under or 40 mph over, so timing the lights would be a complete waste of effort.
It was especially hard leaving, since we will probably not be back with our trailer for a year, much to Gayle's distress (and ours!). We did agree to drive back from Carlsbad for Christmas (280 miles each way -- certainly not the marathon drives faced by Erin or her mom for Thanksgiving) which seemed to cheer Gayle up somewhat.
Santa Rosa Lake State Park, Santa Rosa, NM: Oct 31
We stayed here once before, way back in 2002. Santa Rosa's main feature is the Blue Hole, an artesian spring 87 feet deep and 60 feet in diameter, where Scuba divers come from as far away as Montana to be certified. Santa Rosa sits on old Route 66, so many of the motels and restaurants are historic. This was just a one-night stop, however, so we didn't get to sightsee.Clayton Lake State Park, Clayton, NM: Oct 29-30
Clayton Lake SP lies 12 miles north of Clayton, NM. There is a wide variety of spaces available for either dry-camping or hookups, situated around a small reservoir. We had originally planned to dry-camp but eventually decided to go with hookups. One of these years we are going to take the state of New Mexico up on its offer of a $225 pass that lets you dry-camp for free for an entire 12-month period. With the pass you can also pay $4/night for electricity. It's the best deal in the country!One of the best dinosaur-track sites in the world can be viewed here. Over 500 fossilized footprints (and tailprints!) made by at least eight different kinds of dinosaurs are visible on the lake's spillway. The tracks were embedded in the mud over 100 million years ago when most of New Mexico was a vast sea.
Lamar Ballfields, Lamar, CO: Oct 28
We remembered this free stop from our stay here back in 2004. The city of Lamar has a town park by its ballfields with a few no-hookup sites where visitors are allowed to park for free. There is also water & a dump station, so it's pretty handy for a 1- or 2-night stop. The park is right on US287 so the truck noise can be disturbing, but it diminishes noticeably at night.Shady Grove WiFi, Seibert, CO: Oct 27
This is our favorite commercial RV park to stay in after (or before) we park in the Boulder area. They have changed their name, adding "WiFi" to emphasize the fact that they have free wi-fi. Our stay here was uneventful -- we parked without unhooking so we could get an early start in preparation for next day's great refrigerator swap-out.
The repair place was in Stratton, 15 miles east of Seibert. When we arrived they had us park our rig along the street out front of the shop & went right to work. During down times the owner would come over to chat, and with the election a week away, politics was a natural topic. He turned out to be a true libertarian -- hated McCain & Obama both, thought they were 2 sides of the same coin; believed in every conspiracy theory imaginable -- a real character, but he was interesting to talk to & did good work. He had a big confederate flag in his window. Then began the food triage. We ended up throwing out at least half of the food from the freezer, due to uncertainty. Better safe than sorry, we decided. Food is cheaper than doctor visits!
The repair place was in Stratton, 15 miles east of Seibert. When we arrived they had us park our rig along the street out front of the shop & went right to work. During down times the owner would come over to chat, and with the election a week away, politics was a natural topic. He turned out to be a true libertarian -- hated McCain & Obama both, thought they were 2 sides of the same coin; believed in every conspiracy theory imaginable -- a real character, but he was interesting to talk to & did good work. He had a big confederate flag in his window. Then began the food triage. We ended up throwing out at least half of the food from the freezer, due to uncertainty. Better safe than sorry, we decided. Food is cheaper than doctor visits!
Boulder County Fairgrounds, Longmont, CO: Oct 20-26
We extended our stay in the Boulder area one more week in order to play in a sectional bridge tournament in Longmont. We decided to try the Fairgrounds, which we had checked out in the past but had never stayed at. It also has a 2-week limit and is much more expensive than the State Park and not as nice. It is, however, a bit more convenient. The base fee is for no hookups, plus a varying fee for water, electric, or water & electric. We only wanted electric, and since the office was closed the day we arrived, assumed we had to park in one of the electric-only spots, which severely limited our choices, and it was a bit of a squeeze fitting into one. The next day we met the manager, who told us we could have parked in a water & electric spot and she would have seen that our water was not hooked up & only charged us for electric. But then later in the week she "caught" Doug adding water (via a 6-gallon jug that he made no secret of using) and got all snippy about it. Guess you have to tote water in from somewhere else to avoid the appearance of "stealing" some from the county!
Since the bridge tournament was also at the Fairgrounds, we could walk to the daily events. We did well enough and had lots of fun, so it was well worth the extra time. We played in some team events and enjoyed our various teammates.
Our trailer continued its campaign to single-handedly revive the country's sagging economy -- this time our refrigerator went out. A few years ago we bought a couple of those wireless thermometers & popped one into the fridge. Since then we have religiously checked the daily highs & lows in & out of the trailer and inside the fridge. Thursday, as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed that the temp inside the fridge was 50 degrees. Oops -- not good. The next morning we bought ice for the fridge & dry ice for the freezer. We mentioned our predicament to Kurt Simmons, a fellow Mensan, excellent bridge player, and gourmet cook who happened to be catering the tournament (not playing). He offered the use of fridge & freezer there for the remainder of the weekend, which would be perfect as long as we could find someone to repair/replace ours on Monday. Friday, between bridge sessions, we began calling around to RV repair facilities, none of whom seemed even remotely interested in looking at our fridge before the end of the following week, even though we explained that we were full-timers whose food would rot if something was not done pronto on Monday. We finally stumbled onto a RV-repair website listing a service provider out in eastern Colorado, not exactly on our planned route but close enough. This was at 10pm and we decided to call just to see if the phone number still worked. They answered!! -- not the repairman but his wife -- he was working on an RV needing an emergency furnace repair! When we finally talked, he knew exactly what we needed, was going into Denver Monday morning, and would pick up a new one and be ready to put it in on Tuesday morning. We bought more ice and hoped for the best!
Since the bridge tournament was also at the Fairgrounds, we could walk to the daily events. We did well enough and had lots of fun, so it was well worth the extra time. We played in some team events and enjoyed our various teammates.
Our trailer continued its campaign to single-handedly revive the country's sagging economy -- this time our refrigerator went out. A few years ago we bought a couple of those wireless thermometers & popped one into the fridge. Since then we have religiously checked the daily highs & lows in & out of the trailer and inside the fridge. Thursday, as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed that the temp inside the fridge was 50 degrees. Oops -- not good. The next morning we bought ice for the fridge & dry ice for the freezer. We mentioned our predicament to Kurt Simmons, a fellow Mensan, excellent bridge player, and gourmet cook who happened to be catering the tournament (not playing). He offered the use of fridge & freezer there for the remainder of the weekend, which would be perfect as long as we could find someone to repair/replace ours on Monday. Friday, between bridge sessions, we began calling around to RV repair facilities, none of whom seemed even remotely interested in looking at our fridge before the end of the following week, even though we explained that we were full-timers whose food would rot if something was not done pronto on Monday. We finally stumbled onto a RV-repair website listing a service provider out in eastern Colorado, not exactly on our planned route but close enough. This was at 10pm and we decided to call just to see if the phone number still worked. They answered!! -- not the repairman but his wife -- he was working on an RV needing an emergency furnace repair! When we finally talked, he knew exactly what we needed, was going into Denver Monday morning, and would pick up a new one and be ready to put it in on Tuesday morning. We bought more ice and hoped for the best!
St Vrain State Park, Longmont, CO: Oct 6-19
Our original plan after leaving Yellowstone was to head farther east, perhaps to the panhandle of Nebraska, before heading south. The need for commiseration after the deaths of Amber & Rainbow, as well as a bridge tournament in Longmont the last week of October, convinced us to alter our plans & return to the Boulder area instead. St Vrain SP continues to be a pleasant place to stay, and is inexpensive as long as you are a Colorado senior resident. Too bad it only allows a 2-week stay!
Our 2 weeks zipped by in a blur of social activities. We became more acquainted with our new kittens, who quickly bonded with each other, even though they had never met until we adopted them. Jasmine had aspirations of being "top cat", but Trixie, emboldened & empowered by her time alone, quickly put the kibosh on that idea. Just as well, since Jasmine & Pandora now romp together throughout the trailer and snuggle together when sleeping, leaving Trixie to peacefully snooze alone & unmolested.Monday, October 6, 2008
Boyd Lake State Park, Loveland, CO: Oct 2-5
This is where our fall adventure started so long ago -- lots of laughs & lots of tears in between. Hard to believe when we left that we would be returning with only one cat. We have already written about our new cat pals -- they are all three currently napping contentedly in different places. All is well in the Madison/Haynes household for now.Sunday, October 5, 2008
We have three cats again
We are currently parked at Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland, CO, and are still in mourning for Amber & Rainbow. Mindful that those two were irreplaceable, we decided to check out the Larimer County Humane Society, about which we knew nothing. The shelter is in a small cinder-block building, but the interior is clean and the staff is friendly & efficient. They did not have an overwhelming number of cats, but we still found three prospective companions (all female): a "butterscotch" (orange) short-haired tabby cat, a mostly-white long-haired cat with gray-tabby patches, and a small long-haired tortoise-shell kitten.The butterscotch turned out to be a little too "nippy", possibly due to the fact that a bratty child was rattling her cage-door just before we met with her in the visitation room. The other two, however, turned out to be perfect -- they both took to us right away, snuggling & purring contentedly when either of us was holding them. We were able to then meet with them together in the room, and things were quite peaceful.
The white & gray's name was Yasmine, which we have changed to Jasmine (Jazzy), and we have decided on Pandora for the tortie. Both cats immediately took to our home, sniffing around everything curiously, and settling down in the open. There have since been a few minor "incidents" as Jazzy has decided that she should be "top cat". Trixie doesn't know what to think of it all, but we are continually reassuring her that we love her. None of the three is forced to hide out at any time. Jasmine and Pandora traveled well on their brief trip home from the shelter, which is a good omen for our future travels. And where better to get new companions than Loveland??!!The presence of some new cat activity is helping our hearts to heal while still remembering how special and unique Rainbow and Amber were.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
RV World Campground, Rawlins, WY: Sept 30-Oct 1
We stayed an extra night so we could play bridge with the local ACBL club. We came in 3rd -- pretty respectable considering we hadn't played since August. We also enjoyed having WiFi again, as we could not get our Verizon broadband to work since leaving Yellowstone.Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Big Sandy Recreation Area, Farson, WY: Sept 29
Another one-night stay at Big Sandy -- the weather was cooler and it wasn't nearly so buggy. We took the left fork and parked in the "real" camping area, which had some restrooms (which we didn't even check out), picnic tables & fire rings. The fall colors in Wyoming at this time of year are amazing, with willows, scrub oak, cottonwoods, and aspen, all changing to various shades of yellow, orange, and red -- it is difficult to keep ones eyes on the road. Eventually you are almost overwhelmed, after so many miles of such incredible beauty.Monday, September 29, 2008
Gros Ventre Campground, Grand Teton NP, WY: Sept 23-28
Gros Ventre (pronounced "grow vaunt", French for "big belly") is a no-hookup campground at the southern end of Grand Teton NP. We arrived early on the 23rd and had a wide selection of sites. Unfortunately, we settled on one that was closing in a couple of days -- evidently we missed the note at the check-in station listing sites that would be closing. We went shopping in Jackson & came back to a note saying we would have to move when the site closed. Then Sue Horne arrived and didn't bother setting up her tent that night, sleeping on our couch for one night.
The next morning we walked around & chose a spot with good solar all day. As we were starting moving preparations, Sue noticed a family of moose - a bull & cow with a calf - near the trailer (within 50 yards). So we all watched & photographed them for a while. Then Sue got to watch us move. Our last day here Doug again spotted a bull moose browsing in the field across the road from us. He went out & took a few pictures as the animal slowly moved forward towards him, at which point he thought being on the business end of moose's antlers was not perhaps the smartest place to be. He quickly retreated into the trailer.
The new site was much better than the old, and we had a wonderful visit with Sue, driving up to Yellowstone one day and driving & hiking Grand Teton the other days. We were sorry to see her go, but knew we would be seeing each other again in a few days. We were pleased at how well the solar worked and how much more cheerful the trailer felt in full sun. Still, having only one cat was feeling way too empty!Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Colter Bay RV Park, Grand Teton NP, WY: Sept 22
Our early departure caused a few complications -- Sue Horne, another good friend, was planning to come visit us starting the 22nd, but we weren't entirely sure where we would be, so she agreed to delay her arrival by one day. We decided to move to Colter Bay for a night. That would get us out of Yellowstone and into full hookups, so we could recharge our batteries as well as run our electric heaters to dry the trailer our some. One big disadvantage of running the propane heater constantly is that is produces a lot of water vapor [C3H8 + 5(O2) -> 3(CO2) + 4(H2O)]. After Lewis Lake, the humidity in our trailer was probably over 90%, which we suspect added to the gloomy feeling. The sky was clear & the sun was out the next morning, and we felt almost human.Monday, September 22, 2008
Lewis Lake Campground, Yellowstone NP, WY: Aug 27-Sept 21
This CG is indistinguishable from a Forest Service CG. There are 80 sites set in a lodgepole pine forest, on four loops (one tents-only) with no utilities. Water is available near the pit-toilets, at least one per loop. We had our own water spigot for filling our fresh-water tank -- the water pressure was insufficient to hook up to. The water, which came from Lewis Lake, was probably the best I've ever tasted, having been minimally treated. Electricity came from our solar panels; the park also provided a set but due to a strange wiring configuration, Doug was unable to hook them up through our controller. 
We were initially getting around six hours per day of solar through a window in the trees, but as the days got shorter & the sun lower, we were getting less than four by the time we left. Doug hooked the park's panels directly to our batteries for a few hours on two separate days during long stretches of cloudiness. Our 3-year-old AGM batteries worked better than our original batteries ever did.
The timing of our stay here was bad for several reasons. We arrived on a Wednesday, and were scheduled to volunteer Thursday though Sunday. 
Although this position was presented as campground host, our actual duties were manning the Ranger Station at Lewis Lake from 9am to 4pm with an hour back home for lunch. We also made 3 rounds of the cg during our working hours. The weather was ideal those first four days. Monday, Sept 1, our first day off, we woke up to snow. When we turned on the furnace, it immediately began to squeal. We checked in our (ten-year old) service manual which listed a service rep in West Yellowstone. Even more amazing, he was still in business. He was able to come down & replace the furnace motor (if you think the service charge in your neighborhood is bad, try all the way across Yellowstone NP!). Thus began our first stretch of cold, cloudy weather that lasted till the following Monday, which was the day we drove Amber to the vet in Jackson. 
She died in Willie's arms on the way down. Three days later we repeated the trip for Rainbow. These experiences did nothing to endear us to the place!It was also the first year of new management for the cg, since the previous ranger had just retired after 35 years there. No one knew who was really in charge or what should be going on. Things were starting to get figured out later in our stay, but it was very hard to deal with.
By our third week we were becoming exceedingly disgruntled with our volunteering. When the position was first offered to us in February (by phone) we were told that 1) we needed to arrive on Aug 24 and set up in one of the full-hookup sites near the south entrance "for a week of training"; 2) that we probably could not get a cell-phone signal at Lewis Lake but could drive to the south Ranger Station and get on the internet there; and 3) that if it got too cold we could move back to one of the full-hookup sites by the south entrance. As time got closer, we were told to arrive on Sept 1. We balked at the idea of trying to find a place near Yellowstone to park over Labor Day Weekend at such short notice (to say nothing of having to pay for it). 
We asked why we couldn't use one of the full-hookup spots, and were informed that there were only two, and both would be occupied until well into September. At this point we were feeling uneasy about the whole arrangement, but decided to go ahead with our commitment.
After we arrived we were informed that we would not be allowed access to the internet, and that we could not move down to one of the two full-hookup sites, even after they were vacated. Further, the frequent ranger support we were promised dwindled from infrequent to never. Besides using propane exclusively for cooking & the refrigerator, we were running our propane heater most of time, forcing us to spend $30 every 6 or 7 days on propane. When we asked if we could get some sort of reimbursement, we were told that every other no-hookup volunteer position in Yellowstone was reimbursed for propane, but that Lewis Lake's position had not been budgeted for it. In other words, no reimbursement. 
And we were receiving no emotional support, no social support at all -- we felt like we had been abandoned. Fortunately, Susan LeFever (a friend from Boulder) had coincidentally planned to visit us starting Sept 11, the day Rainbow died. That alone probably saved our sanity and gave us much-needed comfort. 
The following week we tried to get out sightseeing as much as possible, hiking to Natural Bridge with Betty Prange, a fellow Escapee we had met in Benson, and visiting many of the thermal features. It was heart-rending to come back home to poor Trixie, confused & lonely. It was then we decided, as one friend put it, to vote with our feet. When we told the ranger who had "hired" us that we were planning to leave after the weekend, his response was to slam the Ranger Station door on his way out after dismissing us curtly. 
However, Josh, the new supervisor, was more than pleasant about it and gave some really glowing comments. He said he would have us back any time, that he didn't blame us for leaving, that they would do better by us next time, and that he would recommend us for any other volunteer positions at Yellowstone. It was nice to not burn bridges but still be able to do what we felt we needed to do.