A gorgeous sunset

Welcome to Tammy Fletcher, who has a new blog, It's Good To Be Us. She and her husband and two dogs are new Hardin Ridge Campground Hosts and bloggers since just this month.  Tammy, tomorrow I'm going to read your first six posts - I got a quick peek at the photos, that looks like a great place to be a host and the fawn you snapped is darling. Good shot! I look forward to following along with you on your adventures. Welcome Aboard, Tammy!  :)

I took some shots of a waterbird during our walk to the lakeside the other day.  I couldn't get close to it to see what kind of bird it is (blue heron?), and when I tried to sneak up on it, away it went.  I often see it standing there at the edge of the water in the afternoons. I should get my camera back early next week, and the good zoom lens will help with this kind of shot. (I just learned that my repaired camera was mailed out three weeks ago and is siting at my mail service.  I had no idea they would repair it this quick. Yeaaaa, Nikon!)

 Took this one late afternoon through the bushes in our site.

See the bird at the water's edge?

We are in a new location nearby for six nights, then we'll return to the campground above the lake, hopefully in the same site.  If it's taken, we'll go across the road to one of the other sites and that will also be good.

During slow blogging days, I like to put little Katie on the post.  Here she is - Katie with her baby - she flips it around, rolls around with it, and when sees me looking at her, she stops and lays on it, like she's embarrassed. :)

 

 I think I ruined her fun! :(

Here's the last sunset photo I got around the lake the other evening - it was gorgeous.  Probably the prettiest sunset I've seen yet.  There was a group of professional photographers from England down the road taking photos of the sunset for a National Geographic TV program in England.  One of the men said they are traveling Route 66 and taking photos for the program.  He had a thick accent, and I think that's what he said.  When it got dark, they left.  Here are a few sunset shots taken close, further, and furthest on my camera zoom lens:

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

Two more days to go...

WELCOME to our new followers!

Box Canyon Blogger - Mark explains his blog as, "Exploring and photographing the west's most remote hidden treasures from a home base in Lovely Ouray, Colorado."  I can't believe some of the places he hikes - top of the world vistas.  His blog, Box Canyon Blog, has gorgeous photos of the area he calls his home base, Ouray, CO.  He and Bobbie have two beautiful homes that are for sale, side by side - check out his blog for all their adventures and some info on the homes for sale.  Boy, Mark, I sure wish I could buy them. I'm happy to have you as a Follower - Welcome!

Garri Ann, who writes that she is a "grateful grandma," who lives in Southern California. That's the only info I saw - Welcome Garri Ann!  We're happy to have you as a follower on our travels!

Ralph Hall is an Oregon guy, living in Salem. He doesn't show any other info, either, so probably not an RVer yet.  Hi Ralph! Thanks for following along with me and Katie on our adventures!

Welcome aboard to you all!  :)

Katie and I have just been hanging out this last week.  We've had some fabulous storms, lots of rain, thunder and lightening.  This last weekend was really crowded around the lake.  The RVs and tents and trucks and boats were many more than I've seen since I've been here.  A few large groups, too. Friday our Ranger, Kelly, had to go to the shoreline and warn the campers to move their rigs/camps back - the rain was going to raise the level of the lake and move the shoreline too close to their rigs.  Some of them were pretty close to the water when they set up camp, and I wondered if they would be in trouble.  It's Tuesday, and there are still quite a few campers at the lakeside.

 Lakeside after heavy rains on Friday.

 Saturday - dried out in the sunshine.

I've only seen the herd of horses once, I think, since my last post, but we have a new family that's been around every day.  There are five of them, maybe a stallion, three mares and a yearling.  They are all different colors, and very friendly.

Yesterday Katie and I were walking across the street through the campground - it's empty now - and all of a sudden over the edge of the campsite, right next to where we were, came the stallion.  He just hung around eating the grasses as I slowly backed away, and soon over the edge came the rest of the group.  I got a few photos then walked away.  I don't like getting too close to wild animals, but they sure didn't seem to mind us.

 This is the biggest horse in the group. He always leads the others.

 Next up the hill is this one. (I used to date a man with legs like this.)

These three are always bringing up the rear. 

 This is the youngest - maybe a yearling?  He has interesting coloring.

I'm expecting a package today from Amazon.com containing a Seagate backup and a pack of DVDs so I can back up my computer, including programs.  I have a backup of documents, and also use Carbonite and a couple of clouds, but that's for docs, photos and graphics.  I want to download the consumer preview of Windows 8, and need to do the backup first.  I wasn't sure exactly how to do this, because the documentation on the Windows site said if you download the Windows 8 consumer preview, you'll lose all your programs and will have to re-install them when you upgrade to the purchased program.

I didn't want to do that, it's so timeconsuming, so I e-mailed Rick, and he sent me an e-mail with info and a link to his recent post on how to do this.  Thanks, again, Rick!  Sometimes I read your posts before I need the info, and it kind of goes over my head.

I've had two packages delivered here - one arrived early in the morning, the other right around 8 pm, I'm hoping this one will come early so I can get started.  I'm excited about having Windows 8 - if it's better than Windows 7 I'm going to love it!  NOTE: 12:00 - it just arrived, so I'm going to start backing up as soon as I publish this post.

We are leaving this campground Thursday morning, our three weeks will be up then.  I hate to leave.
 

I need to be gone for six days, then we can return for another three weeks.  That's probably what we'll do.  I have a few ideas on where to go for the six days - if I like where we end up, I'll stay the limit there and then come back here to Bluewater Lake.

I also love my campsite and will try to get it again next time.

Katie and I have been walking around the last week through the other nearby campsites.  Looking at how the sun comes into the site in the morning, and how much sun we'd get in the afternoon before the sun sets to maximize the solar panels.  If this site is taken, there are three others that look good.  Sometimes a change is good, so I have an open mind.

A couple of critters in our site the last week:

 Whenever it's really windy, these birds have so much fun.

They swoop and soar on the wind, and then hover over the trees with 

their feet hanging, slowly lowering themselves onto the tree.

 Fun to watch their maneuvers while landing.

 

 

  Another little bunny.

 Saturday Sunset

My next post will probably be published at our next location.  Until then, have a great week, everyone!  :)

Sightseeing trip to Cibola National Forest

I went for a drive a couple of days last week with Hazel and Cari, my friends from last winter at Quartzsite.  They are great about sightseeing and learning about the surrounding areas and pretty knowledgeable about American Indian history.

A week ago Sunday we drove to the Cibola National Forest and made a large loop through some of the Indian Reservations and checked out some campgrounds in the area.  It was a grey rainy day, so we didn't get out to walk much, but the scenery was gorgeous.  We left at 10 am and didn't get back until a little before 7 pm so we were out for a long time.  I left Katie at home, and she did really well, no accidents.  Since I walk her four times a day now, I wasn't sure how she would do, but she's a trooper!

I'm terrible about getting and remembering locations, especially if I'm a passenger, so I can't really tell you where we went exactly.  We went down 40 and crossed the Continental Divide, driving through the towns of Thoreau, Prewitt, Milan and Grants, and visited one of the Visitor Center after Grants.  I got a good driving map of the area at the center to see where I could disperse camp if I decided to.  I can see why boondockers are upset at the new regs.  There sure weren't many places to boondock in this forest area that were legal. Wow, very few - three or four places in the whole, huge Cibola National Forest.  I was surprised.  The Ranger said each area is different.  I sure hope so. 

We drove through Acoma, Navajo and Zuni Indian Reservations, through National Forests, BLM areas and El Malpais  (Lava Beds).  We took highways and improved dirt and gravel roads.  It was a long, interesting, beautiful drive, but because of the rain I didn't take too many photos. This camera doesn't do as well as my Nikon that's in the shop, but I got a few good ones when we got out of the car.

Some photos from that day trip:

 Arch in the mountain.

 Cari standing on the ledge overlooking a large valley. 

The view was gorgeous.

 This is the same place as the photo above, looking in a different direction.

 Close-up of the photo above looking across the valley.

Cattle sheltering from the rain under the trees.

 Val, Hazel, and Fleur where we stopped to check out a trail head.

Beautiful rock formations in this area.

 Lava Beds - this was driving through El Malpais.

Then on Friday afternoon we took a shorter trip to check out some campgrounds closer to us.  They are near the town of Grants, Forest Service campground/picnic areas. The first one we visited was Coal Mine Campground where you can stay 14 days for $5/day, or $2.50 with the Senior Pass. It was a nice clean campground with good, level sites.  It was small, 15 sites, and in a very pretty area with picnic tables, restrooms, and a nature trail. There was a woman with a car eating at one of the tables, and another campsite had a couple with a car just standing there talking.  No campers.  No RVs or tents.  I would have loved to stay there next, but it was too remote, too empty and had no Verizon bars.  Too bad. 

Then we drove to Lobo Canyon Campground on our way out along Lobo Canyon Road back toward Grants.  It was not as well kept as Coal Mine, and a little further off the road. There was no one there. It would be perfect for a group of people wanting to camp for a reunion or weekend camp out. They'd have the whole campground to themselves.  It has six sites, picnic tables and restrooms, and is a free campground, but the sites are not for big rigs. Better for smaller rigs and tents.

Of all the campsites we drove through last week, we only saw a couple of tents and RVs.  It worries me that these public camping areas aren't being used - I'd think, especially with this economy, more families would be camping on their vacations. Especially in July, and at $5/night or free!

Hazel and Cari left on Sunday, heading to Arizona to visit a friend.  I'm camped in a different campground area here at the lake than where they were, and didn't see them every day, but it was nice to know they were nearby.  I'll miss them both.

Below are photos of the lake during the week, and then during the weekend.  What a difference!  I enjoy watching the rigs and tent campers drive in starting Thursday afternoon, and then most leaving Sunday.  When the shoreline is full, it's really pretty at night now that we can have campfires.  Almost every rig/tent area has a campfire and it's nice to look down and see them all lit up in the dark.  I tried to take some photos, but they didn't come out. (You'll have to imagine it.) 

During the week, there might be a couple of rigs on the shore, but it's pretty empty.  This weekend there were a lot of people fishing in the lake from their chairs on the shore, and some were wading in the shallow water.  Lot of kids playing in the water, too.  If you click on these photos you can see just how many rigs and trucks there are.

 Weekend view after I moved up to the site on the hill, Friday, 7/20.

 Weekday view, Sunday,  7/22.

This last weekend, Saturday 7/28.

This morning Katie and I walked down the hill and kept walking around the lake to the last rig you can see in the photo.  That's as far as the RVs can go.  I don't know how far you can walk, but I know you can't drive all the way around.  I couldn't believe all the trash on the beach left by the campers. Some of the rock fire pits were full of bottles, cans and garbage.  Who do they think cleans up after them?  Broken bottles on the sand - I found some big pieces and put them next to large rocks so no one will walk on them or drive over them. I didn't have any bags big enough to take them back to the dumpster. It sure would be nicer if people picked up after themselves - and didn't bring bottles to the beach. :(

I asked the Ranger if the same people came from one weekend to the next, and she said they are usually different. Some people who live close by come back from time to time, but for the most part every weekend has different people.  I guess that's why people leave so much trash - they aren't coming back and don't care how they leave the beach.  And although some are tent campers, most are RVers.  I think we're usually a good group as far as leaving our areas as we found them, or better.  I've seen the campground workers down there almost every day checking the area and picking things up. It's an on-going job, that's for sure.

This little bunny has been visiting our site lately. He's pretty small and very cute:

 

And finally, here's a photo of last night's sunset.  There were rays of sunlight streaming up into the blue sky from behind the clouds. It was beautiful.  

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

Waking up to horses, Bluewater Lake, NM

I've been so lazy!  Just haven't felt like blogging but Katie and I are really enjoying Bluewater Lake State Park.  I woke up to horses in my site this morning.  They are so quiet I didn't know they were there until I opened my shades - and there they were, eating grass.  So cool!

Then they walked down the hill to the fields by the lake, where two younger horses started horsing around:

They didn't look like they were fighting, just playing.  Then the rest of the group, seven of them, walked up and they all sauntered over to another little grassy area to eat.  Fun to watch!  They are beautiful, shiny horses, very healthy looking. This area must provide all the food and water they need to stay in top shape.  I haven't seen the whole herd for a few days. 

Here's my camp site, above the lake.  It's a big, clean, clear site.  Very pretty:

This is The Palms - photo taken from down where the horses were playing:

 These photos are from last week after I moved up the hill to my current site:

I think this is my favorite place to be since I started traveling.  The weather has been really nice - and by that I mean MY nice.  Which is sunny and warm, not hot, then cloudy and rainy and lightening and thunderstorms.  I just love this weather.  I got my first lightening photo, couldn't believe it when I actually got one.

 Looking out at the rain.

I have so many photos - I'll post more tomorrow.

Have  a great Sunday, everyone!  :)