4 strikes and we're out :(

WELCOME to our newest Follower, turquoisemoon!  She has two blogs, but is not an RVer that I could see.  Since I'm on the road, I didn't go down too many posts, but the posts I read look interesting.   Thanks for following along with us, turquoisemoon, we're happy to have you aboard!  :)

Although we had a beautiful campsite at Navajo Lake, I decided to move on the next morning. 

1.  Really hot - why does The Palms have wheels if we can't move to a comfortable area? 

2.  I couldn't seem to find a site where I'd fit and still face west.  That helps get the maximum from the solar panels, and puts us with our nose facing the hottest part of the day. We've been getting the sun beating down on us in the dinette window in the early part of the day, and then in the window over the couch in the hot afternoons.  It really helps to have the sun start in the kitchen window, go overhead, and end up coming in the windshield. I can control the heat better that way.

3.  This is a super dusty park. Not a lot of gravel or small rocks, just dry dirt that is really dusty.  But I probably would have stayed with those things, at least for a few days, #4 is what did us in. 

4.  I woke up Friday morning and stepped into the most ants I've ever seen.  They were everywhere!  BIG black ants and little black ants.  They were inside my (fake but fabulous Walmart) Crocs in seconds and I was really worried about them getting into The Palms.

I've never packed up so fast.  That was early Friday, and it's now Sunday morning, and I haven't seen any ants inside The Palms, so I think we're okay.

Heron Lake State Park was next on our list, so we headed that way.  It was a beautiful drive.  From the Visitor's Center, they have a telescope to use to see an Osprey nest.  There are three babies.  When I was with a camp host looking for a site (she was so nice, and went way beyond her duties to help me out) we drove right by it and saw two babies peeking out before mom tucked them under her again.

It was a little cooler there, and even though it was a weekend, there were some nice campsites I could get while facing West that were right near the water.  I even drove down to the Primitive Camping area at the far end of the Heron Lake State Park road.  The road was rough, and the turn down to the water was sharp and had large ruts.  I took a chance - wow, what ride! - but we made it.

Our primitive campsite, for about 10 minutes.

It was quiet and beautiful, with two other campers within eyesight. Katie and I walked down to the water, and in the dried mud there were large bird tracks, so I was thinking this would be a great place for bird watching.

I got my phone to check West and the level bubble app, and saw there were NO VERIZON BARS.  Rats! I couldn't stay there with no phone, so we drove out back to the main camping area. 

I was in an Extended Network area, and even if I was lucky to get any bars to allow calls in and out, this extended network didn't allow access to the Internet through my phone, at least I couldn't get it. Other people told me they used their computers, but I was on the phone with Verizon in the Visitor Center for 40 minutes, and we just couldn't get me on-line.

Anyway, I figured I could stay a few nights without Internet access.  We found a great campsite with a beautiful view and also with an easy walk to the lake.

 

I got The Palms set up and we sat outside for a little while enjoying the view.  Then Katie and I walked down to the lake, and I lifted her up and carefully put her back feet into the water.  She didn't fight me, so I put her front feet in, just a few inches - I was still holding her - and she started doing the dog paddle!  It really is instinct, because I don't think she's ever been in a lake before.  We walked more along the lake water line, and then walked back and I waded in the cool water and SO DID KATIE with no prompting from me!   Up to her knees.  I was really surprised.

So we walked back to The Palms and Katie sat down and started licking her stomach.  I laid her down on her back to see what was going on, and she had red bites/welts all over her underside.  Under her armpits, all over her chest and stomach, and down the inside of her back legs.  GEEZ.  I found some black bugs on her and picked them off, then put her in the sink and gave her a bath, thinking it would be soothing and might get any other bugs off her.  I put the 3 in 1 antiseptic ointment that the vet recommended for her nose all over her.  Surprisingly, she didn't seem to be bothered too much.

In the morning her bites looked a little better, and I found some Neosporin cream to put on her.  I decided to move to another site out of the grasses near the lakeside.  The new site overlooked the lake and was also an easy walk, but we stayed away from the lake on Saturday and only walked on the gravel roads.

The camp host in that area said all the little dogs get bit like that.  We had clouds coming in and a storm expected. After the rain, the bugs aren't bad, she said.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any rain and this morning, the sky didn't have a cloud to be seen. It was going to be hot again and I decided to leave and head north and see if we could find an area with cooler weather and Internet access.

 Beautiful Friday Sunset.

Of course, having the phone access is mandatory for me, but so is the Internet.  One thing I realized is that I couldn't even get on-line to figure out where to to next.  I couldn't get the temps in other areas, which was the fastest way to the coolest, closest NM campground.  I finally looked at the Atlas, picked a town over the border in Colorado, plugged that into the GPS and we left New Mexico, heading north. 

We are now sitting outside the Pagosa Ranger Station in the San Juan National Forest. It's in the middle of the small town of Pagosa.   This is a nice town, clean and rustic and lots of little shops.

When I post this, I'm going to do some research on where to go next.  But first I am going to call my son, Tom.  His 45th birthday was yesterday and for the first time ever, I didn't wish him a Happy Birthday.  I walked around the campground with my phone looking for bars, and finally was able to get a call though.  I had to leave a message, so at least he knew I didn't forget about his birthday.

I have no idea where we'll be posting from next, your guess is as good as mine.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)

We're at Navajo Lake State Park, NM

Boy, are we beat!  But we made it to Navajo Lake State Park in New Mexico.

It's really hot, when we got here in the late afternoon The Palms was over 96 degrees.  It's 7:30 now, and with the A/C running since we got here, the temp in here is still 90.7.  It's going down realllly sloooow.  Katie is sound asleep, and I'm sure I'll be in bed early.  Between the drive and all the errands we ran on the way and the heat, I'm really tired.

We are overlooking a large lake going off in different directions, which we can also see.  It's really a beautiful view.  Here's our campsite and the view from the chair I was sitting in:

These photos are reversed time-wise - here is the dam - we drove by it on our way to the State Park:

This is the marina that we passed.  We can see it from our campsite.

There was a lot of interesting terrain on our way here. There were even some really nice Hoodoos, but I couldn't get a good photo, they were gone before I had the camera in hand.  I thought this area was interesting.

That's all for today.  Tomorrow we should be able to manage the heat inside The Palms better. By the time we got here, it was just out of control, and probably won't cool down in here until the middle of the night.

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

The Palms is ready to go, too.

WELCOME to new our Follower, Cari Cook!  I received an e-mail of introduction from Cari, and she said she just joined Me and My Dog as a Follower.  I couldn't find her in my list of Followers (she's there now with a photo but wasn't before),  so I checked back to the first page where the followers with no photo or info are shown, and there she was.  I saw others that I didn't recognize, so I did some research and searching in my posts to see if they had been welcomed, and they had not.

Here's who I found:  mickyjane, Frank and Chris, Diana, MIMI92R, and Laura.  I'm sorry I didn't welcome you all when you started following Me and My Dog, but I'm really happy to have you, and Cari, following along on our adventures.  Welcome Aboard! :)

Today I finally got out my RV cleaner and got to the bugs that were sticking on The Palms.  I got this stuff at Walmart and hadn't used it yet, but it's supposed to get off black streaks and bugs.  I had picked up a good number of bugs traveling across Arizona three weeks ago, and decided I'd leave here with a clean rig.

I got everything I could reach, which was most of the bugs, except the area over the windshield - the overhead bunk area.  I don't have a ladder so I couldn't reach that high.  I guess I should get one.

Last night I made two Birthday cards, one for my son, Tom, and one for my son-in-law, Matt.  Then I completed and printed out an on-line California Voter Registration form with my new mailing address, signed and dated it, and it was ready to mail.  I want to make sure I get my Vote by Mail form sent to my Mail Service.  I was going to walk down to the Ranger Office this afternoon when they opened at 1:00, but two volunteers drove up to ask me about a package they received (it wasn't mine), and they took my mail for me. That was nice.

This is so weird, but this morning I figured out we've been living an hour behind.  I guess if you don't have to go anywhere and you have no TV reception, it doesn't matter what time it is. 

I had everything on Arizona time, and here in New Mexico it's Mountain Daylight Savings Time.  I had to go around and re-set all my clocks an hour ahead, except my phone.

I don't know why I didn't notice that the phone was different than the rest of the clocks, I guess I don't use that one.  Three weeks.  An hour behind.  Isn't that weird?

We're ready to leave.  The last two or three days are always hard when we've been somewhere for a few weeks.  Katie keeps sitting on the dinette seat back, looking out the window and then back at me. She did that today while whining.  Drove me crazy, I finally gave her a chew toy and she stopped.  I think she was ready to go before I was.

We're leaving Thursday morning, and I'm going to stop for gas, propane, a little grocery stuff, and laundry on the way.  I'm about out of shorts, shirts and wear-unders, and need fresh towels and sheets.   We'll be traveling only three hours to our next New Mexico State Park, so if we leave early, we'll still get there mid-afternoon.

I usually get all that stuff done a day or so before we hit the road, but they are on our way, and there's a windy 5-mile road up the hill out of here to the Interstate, so we might as well take care of things on the way.

No good photos today. I think I've about taken pictures of everything I can.  I took photos of birds and squirrels today, but we've already done that on the blog.  I did get a neat looking spider on the wall of the vault toilet building yesterday.  He was a kind of big spider, and had the longest legs.  Just sat there posing for me.

 

We had another beautiful sunset tonight.  There hasn't been one in three weeks that wasn't beautiful.  It's so nice to have a clear view, no poles, wires, other RVs or buildings in the way.  

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

Getting ansy to move on...

WELCOME to our newest follower, Deb C.  Deb, you don't show any info or blog, but we are happy to welcome you aboard, and glad you're following along with us on our travels! :)

In addition to Bluewater Lake, there is also a Bluewater Creek on the Eastern side of the park.  I'm sure there are trails down to the creek, but Katie and I admired it from above.

 Bluewater Creek

Well, everyone is gone, and we are again alone in this campground.  My initial worries about having a big family surrounding us - and lots of other campers, too - was unfounded.  They were a really nice group.  Lots of kids and dogs and four generations.  Grandma and Grandpa are 83 and 90 years old, their kids were there, as well as grandkids and greats, too.  The dogs were mostly off leash, the kids were riding their bikes up and down the street, there was constant going back and forth from one campsite to another, and with all that, they were wonderful neighbors.  No yelling, loud music, late nights, a very nice surprise.  In fact, it seems very quiet today and I kind of miss all the people.

I don't need to be a busy-body - Katie takes care of that job for me.  She usually doesn't sit up there unless we're traveling or she wants to be traveling.  If you click on the photo, the close-up will show you all the people in front of one of the rigs.  She sat there for a long time watching them.

We're still suffering from the high altitude, but it's getting better.  The last two days we took long walks around the park, checking out the different campgrounds.  It feels good to be able to walk more, but we're sure happy to get back to The Palms afterward.

Katie is a definite critter finder.  Yesterday she saw this large beetle and stopped and refused to walk any more.  I went back to see what she found (usually it's food) and she was watching this beetle.  We followed it across the street and into the dirt.

I got a couple of good shots of the large birds  in flight this morning.  I think you guys are right, this one is a Turkey Vulture. 

Turkey Vulture

 

I'm not sure if this is the same bird as the one above. It sure looks different from below.
 Note: Per Judy, both photos are Turkey Vultures.  They really have different coloring on the top and bottom. Thanks, Judy!

There are one or two other black birds the same size who soar above us all the time, and swoop down when they see something good.  This is one - he's not a Turkey vulture.  I tried to find him in my bird books, but although he might be a Raven or some kind of Crow, they don't show the light tip on his beak, so I don't know what he is. Per Judy, it IS a Raven! 

Raven

 

I've been watching this cactus - it finally bloomed yesterday.  It's the only one of it's kind I've found on our walks.  Most of the cactus here are the small kind with yellow flowers, like the one below.

More flowers around the park - I know these are kind of boring, but I want to remember them:

Having so many colorful flowers makes our walks more interesting, and also all the birds soaring in the wind, especially on really windy days.

And finally, these are photos taken when we had lots of clouds on Saturday.  The clouds really keep it cooler when the temps are up in the 80's.

 Late afternoon 

Sunset, Saturday evening.

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

It's raining!

It was clouding over late this morning, and it started looking like rain, but rain wasn't in the forecast the last time I looked.  Then, after our afternoon walk, the rain started coming down.  It's stopped now, but the sky is grey so I'm hoping for more.  I'm sure the tent campers aren't hoping for rain, though.

A LOT of campers came into this campground this morning.  This is the most crowded it's been since I've been here.  Lots of tents and RVs, and then a few minutes ago, a huge Cruiser 5th wheel pulled into the campsite below me, entirely blocking my view of the lake out the driver's side window.  It looks like there are a bunch of families meeting up here, because they all seem to know each other.  Lots of walking back and forth, music playing, kids riding their bikes up and down the street, etc.   Since this is Father's Day weekend, they are probably having a family get-together.  I've been lucky until now that it's been so quiet!

The Ranger has driven his truck through this area a few times today, I haven't seen him do that before, so he's definitely keeping his eye on things.  I hope they don't get too rowdy. 

One thing I've noticed about people camping with kids is that they might be kind of noisy during the day, but they quiet down early, which is really nice. 

For the last week I've been thinking I might want to move to the Primitive Camping area. We'd be right next to the lake and near where the horses and donkeys hang around.  If I start to feel I want more space, I might do that this weekend.  We'll see - but with Father's Day, it might be crowded there too, this weekend. 

Other than the rain and the crowd, nothing new to report. I downloaded a free monthly "rental" book from Amazon Prime yesterday and almost finished it last night.  Justice Rules by Thomas White.  It was really good, some unexpected twists and turns, kind of gross in places if you don't mind that, and I finally quit when my eyes were too sore to keep reading.  I read 92% of it (the Kindle Fire doesn't have page numbers, just percentages) and couldn't read anymore.  When I post this, I'm going to finish that book and start another.

Well, after I fix an early dinner.  I skipped lunch, it's 4:30, and I'm starved. I'm thinking a fried egg sandwich and a fruit salad.  :)

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