Some of the City of Rocks birds we've seen

I've been lucky to see another Roadrunner - this one was over in the electric site area.  I didn't have my camera and had to run to get it, but still got some nice shots:

I saw this House Sparrow  Canyon Towhee (thanks Hazel!) while filling my water tank in the park.  A few of them came up to drink the water:

Flying off.

Lots of Grey-Headed Juncos here, very pretty birds:

And, of course, Gambel's Quail, which seem to be everywhere in the desert areas I've visited:

And finally, the Ravens.  I love watching these birds soaring in the winds here.  Two Ravens are building a nest across the street from my site, and when they leave the nest they fly toward The Palms, swoop down in the winds, and then raise up to fly over the large rock next to The Palms, and then turn and head west.  It is so cool watching them.  I went outside when one was coming my way, and he flew low right over my head.  They sure look bigger that close.  As he was flying right over me, he was scratching his head with one of his feet.

I've gotten some shots of them in the nest they are building, and in the desert collecting materials for the nest.  The coloring of the rocks varies in these photos.  I took them at various times during the day when the sun and shade were hitting the nest differently, so I had to play with the lightening, brightening, contrast, etc., to show more of the detail in some of the photos.  The rocks aren't grey, they are different variations of brown.

The nest is deeper than it appears.  The two birds had plenty of room to move around inside.

Arranging the nesting materials.

Collecting sticks and twigs.

 

More arranging.

I noticed the bird on the right would touch the beak of the other when it flew into the nest.

Flying back to the nest with more nesting materials.

Raven flying toward the rocks.

Hazel and I took a ride around the park yesterday looking for wildlife and she spotted two more nests in holes in the large rocks.  I think they are also Raven's nests; it looks like they start with sticks and I'd guess they weave the softer materials through and on top of that base to hold it together.

In the next post I'll show you more of the camp sites here - they are all so different and unusual.

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

City of Rocks State Park, NM

I was lucky.  After overnighting in the parking lot at Cabela's in Glendale, AZ, we drove into D & R Family RV at 8:00 am (without an appointment) to see if Ron could check our solar regulator, which had stopped working.  It was Monday morning and things were busy.  Ron had some things to do, but got to me a hour later and took the panel off the wall.  He checked all the connections, and one of the wires had worked loose.  He tightened it up, then checked my batteries to see if they had any loose connections and checked the fuse in that compartment.  All was well, and by 9:30 Katie and I were on the road again.

It was an all day drive, with a few stops along the way for potty breaks, gas/propane fill ups, lunch, etc.  It was a little windy on and off during the day and I took it easy and stopped a lot; after my last long, windy drive, I wasn't taking any chances with my wrists and thumbs, which still aren't completely healed.  We arrived at City of Rocks State Park in Faywood, NM after 5 pm.   (Actually, because of the time change, it was after 6 pm. Between being in California in the normal time, then changing to Daylight Savings Time, then going to Arizona who seems to have it's own time zone, and now on to New Mexico, which is Mountain Daylight Savings Time, I wasn't at all sure what time it was, but I thought it was 5.)

Below is a long distance view of the rock formations seen from the road coming down to the park:

 This is the Visitor's Center, where my friend Hazel, is Volunteering.

I drove around the Visitor's Center to the sites with electrical hook-ups, where the volunteers with full hook-ups are also parked.  I had called Hazel from Silver Springs and told her I'd be there in a half hour, so she was walking toward us when we parked the rig.

It was getting pretty close to day's end, and Hazel offered to drive us around the park to show us the sites available.  I've never seen anything like this.  She assured me The Palms would easily fit into the places along the roads and between the rocks to get to some of the more hidden campsites.

There were quite a few I would have liked, some were taken, some were empty.  There are some fabulous sites that are almost enclosed with rocks, but my solar panels wouldn't get enough sun in that type of site, so after Hazel dropped us off back at The Palms, I asked her if she would lead me to the one I liked best for now, right behind the Botanical Garden.  I didn't think I'd be able to find it again, and also thought she might help me back into the site and get level.  All these huge rocks were a little intimidating to me.  She was happy to help - thanks, Hazel!

This is the site I chose:
  

Our campsite at City of Rocks.

Of the sites I liked, it's the closest to the Visitor's Center.  It has the "rock room" out the kitchen window and a view of the road in front of me with huge rocks out the dinette and cab windows, and a wide view of the plains and mountains and sunset out the couch window.
 

The back of our site, with a little rock room.

Across the street - if you click on this photo you can see the campsite to the left.

At lunch time today Katie and I took a walk down to the Visitor's Center and I took some pictures of that area.  Hazel was working the center today, but was in her car driving away for lunch when we talked to her and the center was closed while she was gone.  Next time we walk down, I'll get some information on the rocks and how they were formed.  Hazel told me yesterday, but I don't remember it all.  Lava rocks is all I remember.

I thought these rocks looked like some kind of animal.

I love the photo below - hard solid rocks under a soft fluid sky.

I'll have more information about his unique area and some more photos next time.

This was our first sunset, isn't it beautiful?

WELCOME to our newest follower, AC S!  I don't see anything about a blog or profile, so I can't tell you anything other than she has a very pretty photo.  AC S, if you are an RVer with a blog, let me know and I'll give you a shout out!  Thank you for following along with me and Katie, and Welcome Aboard!

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

Katie the bird dog

Saturday, March 17, 2013

We are in Glendale, AZ and Katie found a duck's nest full of eggs.  The female duck, who was sitting on the eggs, jumped off the nest and quickly flew away, over to the water where the other ducks were swimming around.

Duck eggs inside a grassy plant, there are 10 or 11; about the size of hen's eggs.

Here is where we are parked today, at the edge of a large mall parking lot.  There's a type of water canal with fountains down the middle and ducks swimming.  It's a great place to hang for the day.  I have the windows open and there's a little breeze.  I can hear the birds singing and the fountains splashing.  The parking lot is on one side, then a main road, and Cabela's is across the street.  That's where we are going to spend the night.

One of these females is the mom.

There are palm trees and other desert plantings along each side of the water.  Lots of birds, too. This black bird was singing to me in the sunshine:

Ohhhh, solo mio...

...sta nfronte a te!  Look at that face, isn't he cute?

He had a beautiful singing voice.

This was Katie on our way here.  She continues to love her dog car seat, and often climbs into it over the back of the passenger seat during the day to rest and look out the windows.

Hi, Mom, I love you.

Since she has the car seat, she sleeps more when we're on the road.

We are staying at  Cabela's overnight and in the morning will visit my solar guy, Ron.  My solar regulator stopped showing it's digital readout on Thursday and it has a 5-year warranty, so we'll see if Ron can fix or replace it.  I'm planning to be there at 8 am, and after it's fixed, head on to New Mexico.

From me and Katie, have a good day, everyone!  :)

hot, Hot, HOT! 101 degrees in the shade

According to the weather forecast, we're going to have four days of 90+ degree weather. Right now, it's 101 in the shade according to my outside thermometer:

Yesterday was also very hot, and I finally took out the Frogg Toggs for me and Katie.  It's amazing how much they help.  In fact, hold on, I'm going to get them out of the fridge right now.....

Whew! Yesterday I put more water on them, rolled them up in a baggie and put them in the fridge.  I just put mine on and WOW is it cold!  Katie backed away from me, so I didn't put hers on yet.

This is us yesterday, chillin' with our Toggs:

I put mine around my neck and down into my tank top, and it really cooled me off.  This was the temp inside The Palms when I remembered our Frogg Toggs and dug them out:

I remember when I dried them out and put them away last year. When it's cool out, it's hard to imagine using them.  All I wanted then was another sweatshirt.  Now that sounds awful. :)

I spent the last week delving into information about RV insurance.  I contacted five agencies and companies, submitted information to get quotes, pouring over the various ways of saying the same thing regarding coverage, etc.  I've been with Progressive for the last two years, but each year the premium has gone up and this year it went up $330.80 more than last year!  This is with no claims and a perfect driving record.  That prompted me to start getting quotes.

I went to the Escapees Discussion Forum to get information about what the various commenters said about their insurance providers and how they responded to their customers.  I had a nice list which even included the links to some of the best RV Insurance Agencies and RV Insurance Companies.  Thank you Escapees!

That's another thing I'm changing.  I was very unhappy with my insurance agency, both last year and this year, and I didn't want to get a new insurance provider through them.

Yesterday, after receiving five quotes, I decided to go with Good Sam, GMAC.

They don't provide road service on their full-timer policies, so I also took out the Good Sam Roadside Assistance.

Even though I wasn't a new customer, because I quit them when I realized I had road service with Progressive, when I called them yesterday they offered me the new customer price and gave me an option for as many years as I wanted at that introductory price.  I opted for three years so I don't have to worry about it for a while, and I'm able to keep the low rate.

My motor home registration is also due on April 1, so I went on-line and took care of that, too.  I needed to have the truck smogged, and did that when I was in San Diego.  They send the passing results on-line to the DMV, and it was there to be added to my registration when I completed that on-line, so I'm done with that for another year.

Early yesterday evening, Katie and I took our last walk and I got a few shots.  The first is of a flock of birds flying overhead.

I'm not sure what these are , but they were pretty flying overhead.

We had a nice sunset yesterday.

And above that sunset was this beautiful crescent moon.

So... As I'm typing this, I'm watching John Bon Jovi on "Katie"; now I don't know if the heat is caused by him, or by the sun outside.   You know what I mean, ladies?  He   Is    So    Cute!

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

The Roadrunner was here!

Yesterday at 6:00 the Roadrunner finally came through our site. I just barely saw him out my dinette window and grabbed the camera and ran to the kitchen, focused and - can you believe it? - he stopped.  What a beautiful bird!  If you click on the photo you'll get a good close up with all his colors - I love that his eye is so clear and the red markings, too.  Here he is:

I finally have a good, clear shot to send to Mello Mike for his 2013 Roadrunner Photo Contest.  The contest runs until the end of May, so if you have (or get) a good shot of a Roadrunner, send it on over to him and get in the contest.  You can send up to three pictures.  I never thought I'd win last year, and WhoooHooooo, I did!  Maybe this year is your turn.  Click on his name above to visit Mike's post with the information, and e-mail him your favorite Roadrunner shots.  (His e-mail address in in his "Profile.")  Good Luck!

And then there was a funny bunny scene going on under my chair. I put the seed container under there to keep it out of the sun, and a couple of the birds have come by to check it out.

Today the bunny came by and tried to figure out what was going on with these seeds he couldn't get, and I just had to photograph his dilemma.  He was very entertaining. :)

How do you get this top off?

It's on there too tight.

Okay, let me think about this.

He walked around the container a couple of times, climbing up, sniffing the lid, you could almost hear his mind working.

Can I get it open from this side?

Then he sat down and scratched his head, and gave up.

Well, I just can't figure it out.

And away he went into the bushes.

I'm taking my cotton tail and going home.

WELCOME to our newest follower, Becky! She and her husband bought a trailer and are planning a trip to Alaska this summer.  Her blog is not an RV blog - yet - but it looks like she is pretty crafty. I went back a way in her posts, and she even made scrapbook digital kits.  They look really nice; I used to lurk all over those sites, looking for just the right thing.  Becky, we are happy to have you along on our travels, Welcome Aboard!  

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