More Storrie Lake critters

Okay - continued from my last post:

Warning, Warning, Warning!  Snake photos!

One day when Patti and I were walking down Flat Stanley Road and got to the bridge area, a young girl came running over to warn us to stay back.  There was a snake in the bushes.  So of course, we almost RAN over to see what it looked like.  Out came my camera, and when we got back to our rigs, Patti looked up Bull Snakes and came over with a You Tube video showing exactly what we were watching.  Thus began our education about mating snakes.  I did a little research to find out how they actually DO it.  Interesting...  If you want to learn more, just Google it.  These are big, long snakes, in the family of the constrictors.  I learned a whole lot more than I ever thought I'd want to know!

Notice the male snake biting the female in the second photo.  Apparently this is normal and doesn't bother the female.  We thought they were fighting and Patti got a stick and separated them, tossing one away from the other.  One of the snakes scurried away (third photo), the other following it.  Then one of them came back and hung out for a while - alone.  Probably the female, LOL. 

 We've had lots of electrical storms, some including hail storms.  



Lots of wild flowers are in bloom.  The fields are full of flowers.

The lake is up so much the windsurfers were playing:

There are so many different kinds of birds here:

Katie and I have been walking a LOT, which is good for both of us.  Of course, she only walks until her bad knee makes her stop, then she's in the stroller and we keep going.  Katie had her annual vet appointment with her shots updated and nails clipped yesterday.  All is well.  :)  The vet still recommends doing nothing with the seroma on her rear knee, and I'm just fine with that.  So she is good for another year. 

We're here through the 4th, then we'll be moving on.  From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everybody!  :)

PS - As you might have noticed, I'm cutting back on my posting.  The next post might be photos only - I have so many to show you but haven't been in a blogging mood lately, so maybe I'll just show you without so many words.  :)

Storrie Lake, 2015 - A new squirrel!

We're at Storrie Lake, New Mexico now and there are so many things here to see.  This park just feels like home to me.  Every day I get good photos.  I even snapped a new-to-me bird!  AND a new-to-me squirrel!  That's always fun.

We've met some new people, and are walking more and more. It's easy to walk here because the roads are paved.  They are easy for Katie to walk on, and when she's tired of walking or can't walk anymore, it's easy to push her stroller on these roads.  We're enjoying our stay here, as usual.

Here are some photos taken in the last week.

Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel - he is beautiful and so cute.  This guy is a new find for me.  Look at all the lines and dots on his back:

He quietly moved around on the side of The Palms.  I opened the window and screen to get clearer shots of him and he didn't budge.  He was looking for and eating little pieces of grass and seeds.

Then I made a clicking sound and he stood up didn't move.  Like a statue.  I guess if they aren't close enough to a burrow hiding hole, they stand completely still, hoping no one will swoop down and get them.

After a while, he ran into the field next to The Palms.  He sure is cute.

I saw this double headed Canada Goose last year, and he's back.  

(I also have a bridge to sell if you believe this one.  LOL)  These are such beautiful, graceful birds.  This is the first year I've seen them with their little goslings.

So tiny.

Katie and I have been walking, sometimes with Patti and her three little dogs, who we met last year here at Storrie Lake.  This year she is the camp host in the South campground.

At the end of the road is a bridge that goes over the Gallinas River.  This year the river has lots of water in it!  The bridge has been closed off since I've been coming here:

Look at the wood that's all torn up:

This is the river with water running under the bridge.  Last year there was hardly any water to be seen here...

...and flowing down on the other side:

Heading back down the road, which I call Flat Stanley Road, Katie in the lead.  Katie is doing more walking this year, but I still bring the stroller and usually she ends up in it before we get back to camp. 

 And guess who is still here in the road?   Flat Stanley!

Do you remember me posting about him last year?  I couldn't believe this flattened frog was still here.  So I named the road after him.  He has staying power!

I've met some new blog followers, too.  Below is Kyra, who came by to visit me and Katie.  Kyra doesn't have a blog, so I can't give you a link, but I sure enjoyed meeting her and chatting from time to time.  She left yesterday, heading north.  Safe traveling, Kyra!  See you down the road.

That's it for now - I have more photos for next time, but - warning, warning, warning!  One day when Patti and I were walking down Flat Stanley Road and got to the bridge area, a young girl came running over to warn us to stay back.  There was a snake in the bushes.  So of course, we almost RAN over to see what it looked like.  Out came my camera, and when we got back to our rigs, Patti looked up Bull Snakes and came over with a You Tube video showing exactly what we were watching.  Thus began our education about mating snakes.  I'll post those photos next time. You can't wait, right?

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

PS - I've decided to remove my blog from Kindle.  I wanted to give a heads up to those of you who are paying each month to have my blog posts downloaded to your Kindles.  (You will receive a notice from Amazon letting you know, also.)  I just felt I'm not posting enough each week to be offering Me and My Dog  ...and My RV! for sale on Kindle.  It's just "inactive" for now, though, and if I start revving up again and posting more often, I'll offer it again.  And a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who signed up to have my posts downloaded to your Kindles.  I really appreciate it!  :)

Heat wave's coming... heading north. Good bye, Elephant Butte!

We have been staying at Cedar Cove RV Park in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  It's right outside the town of Elephant Butte.  I paid for a month to see how we did staying in one place for four weeks.  Actually, if the weather cooperated it would have been fine, but 90+ degree weather is predicted starting today and lasting for a while, so it's time to move north.

This is a very affordable RV park.  It's on four levels, most of the come-and-go people are on the first level where I am, close to the office, dog park, laundry, picnic area, and other amenities.  There are many year-round residents, a few on this level, but most on the lower levels. There are different size sites, some are back-ins, just plain full-hook-up sites like mine, some have a concrete pad, some are drive through, others have a shade structure.  On the lower levels the sites are wider and longer and some have storage sheds.  They are priced differently by the type of site.

Below is the office which includes a really nice patio on the side and to the rear of the building.  One evening when Katie had tons of energy and wanted to run, I took her there and let her off leash (which is allowed - it's a fenced in area) and she ran like crazy down the lawn, along the patio and back.  She was so excited to be running on lawn - actually running at all.  She was so happy.

The building has a laundry on the right side, outside the laundry door is a small room with a couch where I waited while my wash/dry cycles were going.  It has a bookcase full of audiobooks, books and magazines.  The building has bathrooms with large showers, a very large kitchen/meeting room, a smaller room housing the library, where there are books and videos, and also where the mail is delivered.  Everything is decorated nicely and very well kept and the staff here are all very friendly and helpful.  By the way, in the office they sell all kinds of things - RV accessories, some food treats, and they even have a freezer with Schwan's frozen foods you can buy.  They've thought of everything.

One of the old rusty items here in the park - this is on the patio:

After her run, I put Katie back in the stroller and we walked home.

There is a little picnic area across from the office.  It has a bar-b-que and water spigot.  Over Memorial Day the park put on a dinner of bar-b-qued hamburgers and hot dogs.  Since I'm on my new eating plan, we went over and chatted for a bit, then went home for our poached chicken dinner.

In addition to the RV sites, there are three park models for rent at a three day minimum.  One is 1-bedroom, and two are 2-bedrooms.  It's nice for the full time residents here, or even people like me moving around, to have these on-site where friends or relatives can come and visit for a few days or longer and be right here where we are.
  

Below is the fenced dog corral.  It's right behind our site on a little hill and one morning Katie was barking and looking toward the kitchen window.  There was a woman there with two dogs that were just having the best time.  They ran and ran, one jumped all over the other and then they ran and ran again. 

There's an area with a lot of old, rusty farm equipment, and also others around the park.

Here's our site - nothing fancy, but nice.  There was no one on one side for most of the time, and the other side has a 5th wheel that has been unoccupied the whole time we've been here.  Big rocks, trees and bushes and cactus separate the sites and actually provide quite a bit of privacy.

We had these blooming cactus plants on each side of our site:

Lizards would spend time in the heat of the day lounging on the rocks.  Katie was after this one, and he went under one of flat rocks.   Can you see him?  This isn't such a great hiding place, buddy!  Katie always went right to the rocks each time she went out the door for a walk to see if any lizards were there.

One day I noticed something moving out the window, and there was a Roadrunner walking along on the side of The Palms.  I was taking his photo when he took off:

Then he stopped by the tree:

See how different he looks when he raises his top feathers and tail?

Then he got back down into traveling mode:

And away he went.

I wasn't expecting to see Roadrunners here, so that was a really nice bonus.  Lots of other birds here, too, doves, quail, etc., but you don't need to see them again. 

As Katie and I were taking our afternoon walk one day, we saw a snake on the path.  I wasn't sure about him - he wasn't moving, but looked like he was alive.  So I took a small rock and tossed it his way and he didn't move.  I'm not up on snakes, his tail didn't look like rattles, but...  I still didn't want to step over him.
  

We walked off the path onto the road to get around him.  He was pretty long and showed no signs of being run over or smashed in any way.  I don't like snakes, but seeing them is always exciting and I have to get a photo.  Anyone know what kind of snake this is?

I saw this large flowering cactus along the road, too.   

Very pretty blooms.

There are some rock cairns at the entrance of the RV park.  I always enjoy seeing them, and have made a few myself over the years.

Here are more cairns, and five stars in red rock - A Five Star RV Park?

WELCOME to our latest follower, Charlie Downunder in OZ! This is his blogger profile, "G'day ... my name is Charlie and I come from the land downunder. I live in Noosa, Queensland, Australia. I'm a whippet and a VERY GOOD looking whippet at that! Even if I do say so myself. I'm VERY enthusiastic about life. I LOVE everything and everybody. I also love to run .... I think that's a whippet thing! My favourite place to run is the beach. I used to be on dogster but when I heard it was closing down all my mates said I had to come here ... so here I am. It's not closing now but I like it here so here I'm going to stay. Crikey ... I hope you'll all follow me. I love to make new friends!!"  His favorite movie: I was named after Charlie Allnut in the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart so I guess I have to like that film.  I'm not much into films though.   His favorite music:  Phill Collins ... Dad plays it all the time so I HAVE to like it!    Charlie's favorite book:  All books ... I love ripping them to pieces.

I remember driving around the campground with my friend, Hazel, exercising her Greyhounds.  She would talk about her blog, her followers and the people she followed.  She communicated with many of them, and one that I specifically remember is Charlie.  Hazel thought it was so interesting that the DOG wrote the blog posts, and she thought he was so funny.  If there was a recent post from Charlie, she always related to me what he said. And Charlie: she felt bad that she thought you were a Greyhound.  And embarrassed!  She said you set her straight - so funny.   :)

Thanks for following along with us, Charlie.  Katie is so happy to have another dog along on our adventures!  :)

So...  tomorrow morning we are heading north to Storrie Lake State Park.  It's cooler there and we will be more comfortable.  I wanted to stop overnight at Albuquerque, but it's going to be blazing hot there, so we might just push on through to Storrie Lake. We'll see how it goes.

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

PS:  I couldn't resist, it's so uncanny...