Our overnight at Heron Lake State Park, NM

Katie and I left Santa Fe and headed north to Heron Lake.  It's a beautiful state park and has lots of campground areas.  We haven't been there for two years, and after hearing Verizon installed a tower nearby, I was anxious to camp there again. 

We drove to Ponderosa Campground, where Ryan said he got good connections when he was there (before the storm - lightning? - took out the tower), set up in a nice site and took a little walk around. 

The weather was perfect! See us on the right in the photo below?

Right up the road I spotted a cactus in bloom.  I didn't think I'd see any more of these flowers this year, but this single bloom was beautiful:

We had a nice view of the lake right in front of our site.  In the afternoon when the wind came up I spotted this little sailboat:

We went back to The Palms and I set up the computer - only to find no Internet connection.  I was on an Extended Network on my phone, and when that happens, all I get is phone service, nothing else.  No Internet, no e-mail, no data of any kind.

I talked to a few people around the campground, but they either didn't use a computer, or they weren't able to get e-mails on their phones.  So...  I guess this was going to be an overnight stay and then back on the road to Las Vegas NM to wait out our six-days out of Storrie Lake, then back to Storrie Lake State Park.

I was really disappointed!  We drove 2+ hours to get here, it was a beautiful park, great weather, loved our campsite, and we were leaving.  No Internet is a deal breaker for me.  (There is also no antenna TV here, but I can live without that.  Nice to have, but not a deal breaker.)

I watched a movie on the computer, played some games, listened to my Sirius/XM radio, and - I hate to admit it - but I was kind of bored.  I NEVER get bored.

When my kids told me they were bored, I told them only boring people got bored - find something to do.  Then recently I heard a better thing:   The feeling of being bored is God's (or the Universe's) way of telling you to slow down, think about things, look around you and enjoy your surroundings.  Think of something nice you can do for someone, or think of something nice that's been done for you.  That kind of thing.  I like this way of explaining boredom. 

I did all those things, and I was still bored; I was packing up in the morning and driving back to Santa Fe.  I had stayed at a Wal-Mart on Friday, Heron Lake on Saturday, and I had four more nights before I could return to Storrie Lake.  I stopped when I had a connection again and found two casinos and one good Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in Santa Fe that allowed free overnight parking.  Then on to Storrie Lake again.

As the sun started setting, the mountains across the lake were lit up:

The sunset Sunday night was gorgeous.

It was so quiet and dark there at night, nice and cool, great for sleeping.  In the morning we drove out of the park, and on the way saw a deer.  I haven't seen a deer in probably two years.  Pretty cool.  These photos were taken through the truck window - I was driving on the road and luckily there was no one at all coming in either direction, so I stopped to take the pictures.  I was afraid if I unrolled the window or got out of the truck either she would run away or a car would come up behind me.  So, these are the best I could do to reduce the sunshine and shadows on the glass:

Katie was very interested, she didn't bark at the doe, but she sure watched her until she was out of sight.

So I drove further along, and spotted a male and female Osprey sitting in a nest.  I got some good photos of them, and also the nesting mom and baby in another nest - I'll post those next time.  I got a lot of photos just driving out of the park. 

I stopped at the Visitors Center on the way out, and they said there was a big storm a few days ago that knocked out the tower, but I also talked to people who hadn't gotten a connection before the storm, so who knows.  If and when I know for sure that a 3G phone can get a good Verizon Internet connection in the campground, I'll be back.  It sure is a nice campground.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

Complete RV Care - Changing the new generator's oil

To complete the break-in period instructions (to satisfy any future warranty issues) for my new Onan Generator, I had to have the oil changed at 20 hours of use, or as soon after 20 hours as I could. I had a heck of a time finding someone to do that for me.  I had to have a shop do it, because I needed a receipt showing the generator's model number, serial number, and the number of hours showing on my meter.  I called Rocky Mountain, where I bought it and had it installed, but they wanted to do a Level 1 service, which is $149.  All I needed was an oil change.  Plus they are in Albuquerque and I'm in Las Vegas, NM - about a two-hour drive.  I did some research on-line and made some phone calls, but although lots of shops will change the oil on a car or truck, no one would touch my generator.  I'm sure there are places that could have done this for me, but I didn't find them.

Finally, after talking to Jeanne and Annie about it, Jeanne reminded me that we took a card from the pile left in the visitor's center for an RV repair company.  I called them, and YES, they would do it, they are in Santa Fe, and I was headed that way after my 14 day limit at Storrie Lake on Friday, so we made an appointment.

Here's the back of their card, listing all the things they do:

One of the things I like about this place is that they changed the oil right where I parked The Palms.  I could watch what was going on, and wasn't told to stay out of the shop area where the work was being done. 

I met Eddie who has been working on RVs for 20 years and knew what he was doing.  He was fast and efficient and I was glad Complete RV Care was available to do this for me. I brought my own oil, so if I need to add any before my annual service, I'll have the same oil on hand that's in the generator:

Here's Eddie taking out the plug so the old oil could drain:

He checked the air filter and it was clean, so I didn't have to buy a new one.

Re-installing the air filter:

After just a little time, the oil change was done and I went into the office to pay my bill and get a receipt from Patsy, which included the information I'd need if I ever had warranty issues.

My bill was $45.32, which included tax.

They also have a dog laying around in the yard.  She walked in front of The Palms while we were waiting, and laid down near my front tire.

I wanted to take Katie out for a little walk around the yard and was afraid the dog would be possessive of it's territory.  So I put Katie's leash on and held her tight to me, just in case, as we exited The Palms.  That old dog didn't even move.

She did walk really slow and I figure she was up in years. I think she must be deaf, because I kept my eye on her, and she didn't move a muscle, even when we came back and went into The Palms. Later I got a good photo of her:

She's part Chow and has a black tongue.  You can tell she's a sweet dog.

I even got a good photo of a Mockingbird - there were a bunch of birds flying around and singing.

I would highly recommend Complete RV Care.  They are located in Santa Fe, but the business is, I guess you could say, home-based.  There were a lot of RVs there waiting to be picked up that had been left earlier in the week, so they do a good business.  There's a large building where they work on RVs, but my oil change they did outside.  There's a house on the premises with the office attached to it on the end, with a separate entrance.  You reach Complete RV Care by going down a number of country residential roads, it gets a little rough and washboardy, but I just drove 5 mph, hoping I was in the right place.  The drive down these roads isn't long, and then you turn left into their business.

The people I spoke with, Patsy, Eddie and the owner's dad, were all very friendly and accommodating.  I'd sure use their services again, anytime I'm in the area and needed anything RV related. 

I'm going to add a review of Complete RV Care on RV Service Reviews, too.  This isn't a shop people will see driving by on a busy street, so I hope my review here and on RV Service Reviews will bring them a little business.  :)

Thanks, guys, you get five stars!

See you next time!

From me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

Last post from Storrie Lake

Katie and I are on our way out of town after completing the 20-hours of service oil change necessary for our new generator warranty.  I'll post about that next time, and I have a really good place in Santa Fe to recommend for RV repairs.

In the meantime, I have a few photos left from Storrie Lake State Park and wanted to post them.

Not a lot of bird sighting this time, but there were a lot of Western Kingbirds nesting.  One morning John was photographing two babies "branch hopping" as he called it.  They can't fly yet, so they are hopping around in the tree where they were hatched. I nabbed a few photos of them, too, for the blog.  They are very fluffy and soft looking.  These are the two babies I saw:

Here's the mom, keeping watch - she was flying around and chirping, very upset that we were there right under her babies:

Here's another one on the water pump in our site - or is it a Say's Phoebe?

I knew right away when Jeanne took down her hummingbird feeders, because all of a sudden I had some hummers visit my feeders.  She's had a lot of the tiny visitors, but I haven't had a lot of luck with hummers here.  All of a sudden, they were visiting and I did get a couple of shots of the little female below.  Because of the storm the night before, I took the feeders off the windows and put them on the table in the shelter.  They got more action there:

And there was a steer in the campsite across from us:

A young wanna-be roper was trying to lasso him with the rope.  Too cute!

And here's Katie, relaxing in her bed on the couch:

Here's a shot of our four rigs, mine, Jeanne's, John's, and Annie's, that I took on one of our walks.  All in a row.  :)

Yesterday Katie and I went into town to gas up the truck, get propane, do laundry and shop at Wal-mart.  When we got back, Nancy came over for a last visit.  Katie, of course, was wiggly with  delight.  Look at that tail wagging - she's seriously planning her next licking attack:

We were up and gone by 8:30 for our 11:00 appointment in Santa Fe.   Afterwards we stopped at a Petco for Katie to get her nails clipped.  I shot a photo through the glass of the grooming area from inside the store so she wouldn't see me.  What a face!  She looks like her world has ended.  But she is always really good, stands still and behaves.  The technician said she was a little cutie-pie.

We're in a Wal-Mart parking lot about 30 minutes north of Santa Fe.  We'll stay here overnight before heading further north tomorrow morning. It's raining a bit, and we've had lots of thunder and lightening:

Next State Park:   Heron Lake!

From me and Katie, have a great Friday evening, everyone!  :)

Taking a little walk

Jeanne and Annie and I have been walking the dogs every day, and we've added another walker, Renee - with her two dogs, Harley and Cole.  The five dogs get along so well, and its fun to watch them together.  Here they are walking down to the bridge:

There are frequent stops for kissing, sniffing, peeing and pooping, as well as some grass eating thrown in:

Our walks aren't fast or non-stop, but we sure have a good time.  Here they are waiting for me and Katie when I stopped to get some bird photos:

Sometimes the dogs all spread out, and sometimes they bunch up together; here's Annie and Renee and all the dogs with Riley taking the lead:

We met up with a huge frog, too, but he's seen better days.  Meet Flat Stanley:

We say hello to him every day when we pass.  You can see how large he is in this photo with Riley - don't worry, we just called him over for perspective - he didn't touch the frog:

When we got to the end of the road by the almost empty river onTuesday, there was a rig in the turn-around, and the woman came out with her 3-year-old dog, Mickey, who was so happy to see other dogs.  Our dogs all liked him too, and there was much sniffing and wiggling and tail wagging going on.

The dogs wandered around for a bit while the people chatted, then we gathered them all up again and headed back down to our campsites.

Some walks are more interesting than others, and this was a really nice walk for us all with the addition of Renee, Harley, Cole, and then Mickey and his mom.

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