New Mexico - soooo happy to be here! :)

We have two new followers!

Welcome to BEE!, who is not showing any information.  Bee, if you have a blog, let us know.  Are you an RVer, or planning a future RV purchase?  Katie and I are happy to have you following along with us on our full-timing adventures.

Welcome, also, to Fernweh!  Per their blog,  Fernweh: in German means "an ache for distant places", which sums up nicely what we want. 'We' are a husband and wife with a goal of living a life of travel. Our plan is to be in an Airstream, wandering North America in 6 years.  Keep your eye on the prize; you'll make it.  Thanks for following Me and My Dog!

Welcome aboard to you both!  :)

First thing, I have to show you a photo of my youngest granddaughter, Lauren, from Vacaville, CA.  She is 4 and quite the gymnast.  Her team was in the local Memorial Day Parade, and I got this photo from my daughter's Face Book page.  Kristy said if you go to the parade, watch for the littlest blond on the team. That'll be Lauren. :)

Lauren, 4 years old, in her Gymnastics parade uniform.

I haven't gotten any parade photos yet, but I thought this one was just darling!

I haven't posted since Sunday, when I was parked in the BLM area on the side of Highway 10.  A lot has happened since then - nothing bad, just a blur of trying to get out of California and onward to New Mexico.

I've spent $698.04 in gas this month - most in the last six days. This is by far the most I've used in a month in the last year. When you consider I spent the first 22 nights in an RV Resort, this last week has been a killer gas-wise and mileage-wise!  I stayed in a different place each night for eight nights in 90+ degree weather, waiting for the holiday weekend to be over so that I could get my blood test results, and then hear from my doctor.  Would I have to drive back to San Diego to see her, or would she prescribe something?  If there was an Rx, I needed to get it at a Kaiser pharmacy so I was stuck in Southern California until I had news.

I finally heard from my doctor's nurse on Tuesday afternoon - the doctor was off, but another doctor was covering and prescribed an Rx for me, a low-dose thyroid med.  I don't have any symptoms, but the pharmacist said I'd have more energy, etc, so I picked it up on Tuesday afternoon, and who knows?  Maybe I have symptoms that I don't know about, and think are normal.  Maybe I'll feel better in spite of myself. :)

At 3:00 pm left the Palm Springs area and headed northwest to New Mexico. We sped north to Needles, CA, then west on I-40 through the Arizona Desert.  The road seemed new, and was not level, so it was an interesting ride.  There wasn't much traffic and the driving was easy, but after hours and hours, I was looking forward to different scenery.

Desert Center - West through Arizona

We drove through Kingman, to Williams to Holbrook, and finally to Gallup, NM.

The speed limit most of the way was 75, and that's how fast we went. The roads were great for the most part, I slowed down when I was on a road that wasn't smooth, but most of them seemed to have been recently repaired and repaved and were great.  Even the big rigs were driving 75 mph.

On Tuesday night we stayed at a gas station right off the 40 in Lake Havasu, then last night we stayed at the Walmart in Gallup, NM, so it took us only one full day for the entire drive, from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon.  I usually take my time, but felt some urgency to get out of the heat and settled in a nice place.  Katie's nose is drying out again even with the ointment the vet recommended, and the generator was going all day to keep the A/C on and The Palms cool enough for us.  You can imagine what that did to our miles-per-gallon!  The worst tank was 5.15 MPG.  :(   Definitely wanted to speed along!

Walmart Camper - this was a young woman who came in late.

For probably the first time ever, I was at a Walmart and didn't need anything, so I didn't even go into the store.  Katie and I took a little walk in the dirt lot alongside the Walmart parking lot, saw a snake, and then stayed on the blacktop.

We woke up early this morning.  I wanted to arrive at the State Park in the morning and have time to find a site, so we got here at 9:00 am this morning and I couldn't be happier to be here!!

I bought the Out of State Visitor's Annual Pass for the New Mexico State Parks for $225. With the pass, I can park free in the Primitive Camping Areas, or in one of the Campground areas that don't have hookups, which is what I chose after driving around the areas.  I can also change to an electric site for $4/night if I want to.  This pass is good for an entire year, or through the end of June 2013, at any of the New Mexico State Parks.  I am thinking between the Arizona/California Long Term Visitors Permit and this annual pass, campsites will be pretty inexpensive for the next year.

This is our campsite.  We are the last campsite in the Scenic Overlook Campsite.  There is an empty site right above us, and others down the road, mostly empty, so it should be pretty quiet.

We have a beautiful view of the lake out the window.  Views of large and small birds flying from tree to tree and over the lake are constant, and we've already had a small ground squirrel and a large squirrel visit our site.  After the blazing hot weather for the last month and a half, this warm, breezy 80ish weather is perfect. From what I can see, the forecast for the next three weeks is pretty much all 80's with cool mornings.  Nice.

View from the dinette window.

This is the first time since I've had my solar panels that I've been parked under a tree.  I get full morning sun, then shade in the afternoon.  I may move The Palms out further to get more sun. I'll see how it goes, and if I have enough sun for what I want to do.  I love this campsite, and don't know if I want to move.  Quiet time is 10 pm to 7 am, and generators can be used the rest of the time, so if I need to use my generator to watch TV, I can.  I don't like to run it for very long, though, in a place like this.

Also, the bonus is:   the Verizon signal here is great.  So far this park has everything I need and I'm really happy to be here - FINALLY!

And now I'm going to sit outside with Katie and my Kindle and enjoy this beautiful area.

From Me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

P.S.  I just had a temperature pop-up from Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs - 111 degrees!  Whew, glad we're not there today.