Thank God it's Monday!

Look what I saw walking in front of The Palms the other day:

Yup!  A coyote was in the area.  It's been a while since I've seen one, and I wasn't expecting any to be here in this campground.   He just walked along, crossed the street in front of a car, and disappeared into the desert bushes.

I took some photos the night of the Lunar Eclipse - the full moon was beautiful and the sunset in the east was gorgeous, too.

 

On Saturday there was going to be a big Easter Egg Hunt down on the beach.  Unfortunately the rain started Friday night, and Saturday was grey, windy and rainy until the afternoon, so I don't know if the event was held.

Saturday morning there was something going on down where the Egg Hunt was going to be.  A large firetruck drove past our site headed in that direction, and I thought it was there for the crowd that would show up for the hunt, you know - for the kids to look at and get to talk to a real fireman.

 

Then two more large fire engines and one Fire Department car went past in the same direction.  That seemed excessive for visiting an Easter Egg Hunt.  I wondered what was going on.  Then a bunch of Park vehicles went past in the same direction.  Then some police cars.  Next two ambulances.  Shortly thereafter I heard a helicopter going overhead, and it circled around and landed nearby. 

I never did hear what happened, but it must have been something big.  It was quite a while before the official vehicles drove back toward the park entrance. 

It cleared up in the afternoon and Easter Sunday was nice, too.  This photo was taken on our walk Sunday; it was a beautiful day:

On the way back down to our site, I saw a huge spider in the road.  It had to be 3 or 4 inches long.  Katie sniffed it, and I yanked her away from it.  I went kind of close to it, but didn't want to get too close.  I was thinking, "Boy, is this spider going to be great for the blog!" and got a picture.  When I got home and pulled it up on the computer this is what I saw:

Do you think someone was watching out the window - laughing?  Yup, I think I was punked.  It sure was ugly, even if it WAS fake and missing most of it's legs.  :)

We moved this morning.  

Until this morning we were up over the lake in the dry camping sites.  Wow, this weekend was brutal - since our site was right on the road going down to the water there was constant traffic going by, even till 11 pm on the weekend.  

People kept using our site as a turn around - I thought we'd be side-swiped more than once.  

One guy in a van decided to overnight in front of The Palms.  That was sure nice of him to use part of my campsite???!!!   Don't you just love holiday weekends?

And then around 9:30 on Saturday night a guy in a big truck full of people drove right into my site behind The Palms and ran over my little black table.  Can you believe it?  I had moved the chairs into the shelter because of the rain, so it was just the rug, the table and some rocks to hold the rug down.

Picture this scene without the chairs - and with more big rocks to hold the rug down in the wind. 

I went out and checked out what in the world he was doing, he said he thought it was an empty site.  I said, "At 9:30 on a Saturday night on a holiday weekend, you thought you were going to get an empty site???   Did you NOT see my motor home right THERE???"  He said yes, but there was room between it and the shelter, so he thought it was vacant.  I suspect a lot of alcohol was consumed this weekend!  

So this morning we moved to another area where we aren't surrounded by a lot of other people and there's not a lot of traffic going by.  Peace and Quiet - much better!

It's actually amazing how seldom I'm bothered by other campers; when it happens it's usually weekenders during a holiday weekend. I guess if I was living in a house somewhere and people came to my street and partied for three days I wouldn't like that either.  But I DO remember back in the olden days when I was the one doing the partying.  So I try to remember that, too, and always sigh in relief when the campground is quiet again.  :)

We should sleep well tonight - Katie and I hope you do, too!  :)

FINALLY!

A Roadrunner!  I was working in the kitchen and noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked out I saw a very large Roadrunner walking along the post line behind The Palms.

Of course, I  s-l-o-w-l-y  rushed to get my camera.  I've learned that if I RUN, then Katie gets excited and starts barking, and when I get back to the window, the bird will be gone.  GRRR.   So I did a fast walk, got the camera, turned it on, and went back to my kitchen window and started snapping.

I've never noticed the iridescence in their feathers before.  This morning the sun was catching his feathers just right for me to see it.

He jumped up on a post and started preening, fluffing up his feathers, etc., just like a regular bird.  As I was snapping photos I realized he IS just a regular bird.  I guess since he is always just running by, I've never seen one act like a bird.  Never seen one fly, never seen one preening, flying here and there, etc.

Unfortunately most of the pictures didn't come out - too much in the background, I think, and I was having problems focusing clearly on the Roadrunner.  Such a bummer.

There was a breeze blowing his feathers up.

He stayed on the post for a while, then jumped down, walked along a little and jumped up on another post.  He totally fluffed up on the way, but I couldn't get a clear photo.  I'm going to show you, anyway, even though it's a really bad photo.  I don't know why these didn't come out, I could clearly see him, but I was shooting at an angle through the thick kitchen window glass, and maybe that made a difference.  He fluffed up and just stood there, kind of like the Turkey Buzzards when they hold out their wings to cool off and dry their feathers. 

Then he jumped up on another post, preened a little, jumped down from that post, and headed toward The Palms.  He looked around, turned around and headed off down the road. 

Bye-bye Roadrunner, y'all come back soon, ya hear?  

That just made my day!

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

Wordless Wednesday - This is how Amazon.com ships cars

Interesting.

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

Tow Truck

Katie in her stroller - this is what she does when she doesn't want me to take her picture - squint.

Here are a few photos from our walk yesterday.  First a bird nest in a tree across the road, made of lots of fishing line.  These birds sure love the fishing line for their nests.  I'd love to see what the inside is made of, but it must be something soft for their eggs and babies.  The fishing line must be easy to work with, and of course it lasts a long time.  I'll bet these nests last from year to year to year, even with all the winds in New Mexico in the spring.

I noticed this little colorful bug sitting on a post.  He was so pretty - a type of beetle?

Here's The Palms in the distance with Elephant Butte in the background:

Per John Hedges in a comment on my last post:  "Having gone to EB spring and fall for the last 4 years I caution you of the soft sand by the water. There a local guy with old army surplus trucks pulling people out of the sand at $500.00 per pop."

Sunday afternoon I saw a large army camo truck pulling a large motor home going up the street.  I was thinking, Well, that's a new kind of truck to pull an RV.   Then I remembered seeing them last year when I was here.

Then he went by again with another large Class A.  Then another.   I finally realized that Army truck was a TOW TRUCK.   I looked down at the beach below me, and where there had been a lot of RVs camping, it was now almost empty, obviously many of the RVs were towed out.  I should have gotten a photo of the tow truck pulling one of the RVs.

As nice as it would be to park down right ON the water, after getting stuck in the sand at Hot Springs LTVA, I'm a little gun-shy of parking on sandy places.  And at a $500 fee?  WOW, that's a lot.  I'm wondering if our roadside service policies would cover a tow out of sand along a lakeside, though.  That's not really "road side."

So, fair warning to anyone heading this way.  Make sure you're on a solid surface if you want to be close to the water.  Especially big rigs - the three I saw driving by behind the tow truck were all long Class A's.  What an expensive weekend that was for those RVers.  :(

This morning I looked out the window at the place all the RVs were camped out over the weekend, and this is what I saw:

The put a bunch of concrete barriers on the sand and placed a bar-b-que and picnic table in the middle to keep vehicles out of the area.  Obviously this is where the RVs were stuck in the sand yesterday.

It looked like a full moon last night, but not quite yet.  Here are my photos from yesterday evening:

The full moon will be tonight.  And tonight, or I should say early tomorrow morning after midnight, there will be a blood moon, the first lunar eclipse of 2014.  All lunar eclipses happen during full moons, and this one will start at 2:58 am CDT. The total eclipse will happen between 2:06 and 3:24.  This is when the the moon is completely immersed in the earth's shadow.  You can read more about it HERE.  Will you be up and watching, or snuggled in under your covers?  I hope to be up, but realistically - I'll be sound asleep.

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

 

Elephant Butte State Park

Here we are at Elephant Butte State Park, overlooking the lake:

This isn't a designated campsite, but is among other sites.  Last year I was camped nearby and during one of our walks we took a little road off to the right and saw people camping right here on the side of the road.  I asked them if it was okay to camp there, and they said, yes, they took this spot every year if it was open.  When we arrived here, I didn't see a site I liked in the area for dry camping, but this spot was empty, so we parked.  The Ranger has driven right past us twice - and waved - so I guess it's okay.  :)

This is our third day here, and so far I really like it.  We have a perfect wide view of Elephant Butte Lake and all it's islands, the beach below us with people camping out, the boats going by.  It actually has a much better view of the lake than the other designated dry camping sites with shelters and fire pits. It's very quiet, and rather than being right on the road, we're off enough that no cars drive by except people taking this little circle drive, probably wondering what's on the circle.

I've only gotten one photo of a bird so far - a Western Kingbird:

These little purple flowered plants are popping up all over - most are small and very pretty. I think they are the flowers that are used as filler by florists.  They dry out and I always used them in small vases because they don't seem to "die."

Here's Katie before our walk yesterday afternoon.  I keep the hood open when we walk, but she wouldn't look at me so I closed it and of course she looked my way to see what's going on!

The stroller is working really well for us.  We start out walking and after a while I put Katie inside for the rest of our walk.  Her ankle puffiness is finally going down since it puffed up while she was off leash and running back and forth alongside Annie's motor home at Riverside.  Boy did she love that!  Her little face was pure happiness while she was running.

Yesterday I watched a boat being rescued.  It was pulled in by an official New Mexico boat - Game and Fish?  Police?  I'm not sure which agency does this, but the boat has the New Mexico seal on the side.

Thank goodness for these people - can you imagine being stranded in the middle of a lake?   Well,  guess if the fish were biting it would be okay.  At least for a while.  It was super windy yesterday, so it must have been a relief for the boaters to get back to shore safe and sound.

Here are some photos of the lake during the golden hour, right before sunset; first The Palms in the lowering sunlight:

Isn't this a beautiful place to camp?  Sure beats living in the suburbs!

I wanted to clear something up that I think some readers mentioned in comments.  When I posted about my 11-year-old grand daughter, Kennedy's, new business, some people thought SHE was the originator of the business.  This is a social selling company - a multi-layered concept using home parties and websites and Facebook pages.  Kind of like my generation did with Tupperware (without the social media).  The originator of Origami Owl Custom Jewelry is a 14-year old girl named Bella.  You can read about it here:  Origami Owl.  Kennedy is working within Bella's business, and has her own business named Touched by Charms, selling this jewelry by having home parties and using social media networking to build her business.

Kennedy has only had one party so far, her Launch Party, and she did really well. She and her mom, Trish, plan one in Sacramento and one in Vacaville in the next week.  The jewelry isn't expensive and it's really nice - so nice that it really sells.  Kennedy donates some of her income to charity, but here is what she bought with the rest:

That is a seriously cool bike - and is that a happy face, or what!!!  Kennedy, you look great on your new bike. I'm proud of you for all the work you're putting into Touched by Charms - like Bella, I wouldn't be surprised if you have the money for a car on your 16th birthday!  (Does this kid have fashion sense?  Look how her shirt and shorts match her bike.)

Since we're talking about grandchildren, I wanted to give a shout out for my nearly 9-year-old grandson, Drew.   He's missing his two front teeth, but not his generous spirit!

When asked what he wanted for his birthday this month, he said there wasn't anything he wanted, but people could donate to a charity instead of getting him gifts.  My daughter, Kristy, said he's seen the ads for a charity that really affected him, and that's the one he chose.  So, instead of sending him money or bringing him gifts, his family and friends are donating to Sleep Train Foster Kids.   That's the link for Drew's Birthday Donation Page if you want to see how he's doing.  He's hoping for $250 for the foster kids.

How selfless Drew is for helping kids who have less then he does, and he's not at all a spoiled little boy.  Kudos to Kristy and Matt for raising such a thoughtful, generous son.

I don't know where my grand kids got their philanthropic genes, certainly not from me, but I'm so proud of them.  These two are the oldest kids in each family, and they are sure setting a fine example for their siblings.  :)

WELCOME to two new followers to Me and My Dog ...and My RV:

Welcome to Steve Soto!  Steve is the Engineering Team Manager for RVillage, which I posted about HERE.  He interacts extensively with cross-functional groups such as Engineering, Project Management, Product Management, Quality Assurance, 3rd party software vendors, and Professional Services.  It sounds like you're a pretty busy guy, Steve, especially in a social medial company that's growing so F-A-S-T.  You must be doing a great job! Thanks for following along with me and Katie; we sure appreciate it!

Welcome to fulltime rvers!  This new follower doesn't show any information at all, so I can't give you anything more than their name.  If you have a blog, or start one, let me know and I'll post the link for our readers to check out.  Thanks for following me and Katie, we're very happy to have you along.

Welcome Aboard to you both!  :)

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everybody!  :)