Changes coming?

I've gotten into the habit of reading YOUR posts before writing mine.  Honestly, I follow so many people and it's easy to get right into your activities.  Then I'm done.  Of course, if anything interesting was going on in or around The Palms, I'd write mine first.  But...   

I have moved.  I'm still in Elephant Butte, but I've been wanting to do more RV Park living with full hook-ups this year and this is the first time I've made a conscious decision to stay a month in an RV Park.  I've spent three different months in parks in the last four years, but those times I had to for various reasons. 

This time I plunked down the credit card for a month's stay because I wanted to.  Because I have a plan.

A blogging buddy, John Hedges, left me a comment that he's here in Elephant Butte and to come by for a visit if I'm in his area.  So I did.  I wanted to meet John, and also check out where he was staying.  We had a wonderful visit; John has been on the road full-timing for eight years now, and he has a lot of information to share.  (Lately when I visit with other full-timers, I feel like I should bring a notebook with me, you know?  After four years I'm doing very well, but there's so much more stuff I don't know - there is always something old I haven't heard yet, or some new tip that's really helpful.)
 
John gave me a tour of the park - and it's large, clean, and fits the budget.  It has a kitchen, laundry, super clean restrooms with showers, library, very good free wi-fi, beautiful back patio with a bar-b-que, etc., all the usual RV Park amenities.  And a very nice, helpful staff.  No pool.  No spa.  No pickleball.  That keeps the prices down, and I wouldn't use those facilities so I don't miss them. 

After our visit I went back to my free (with annual pass) dry-camping site at Elephant Butte State Park, packed up and drove over to EB South Monticello Campground where Annie and The Furballs and her sister, Connie, were staying.  I stayed there two days and caught up with Annie, met Connie and took some nice walks with them and Jake.  Then I packed up again and drove to the RV Park.

I've been here almost a week now.  The first few days I wasn't sure about this.  Our sites are fairly large, but still, there are lots of RVs around me, out each window, and I'm not used to that.  There are other sites I could move to that don't have as many neighbors, but I'm going to try to tough it out and see how I do.  It's kind of like going from living in a house on a large lot to a condo, and I've done that before.

You all know I love dry-camping and it fits my frugal lifestyle.  But I've been thinking for a long time about having a home base, even if it's just paying an annual fee at an RV park that I can live in and travel from.  I'm just not sure that would suit my gypsy genes, so this is a baby step in that direction.  Plus, if I decide to do that, I want to try out some different areas to see if I can find a location and an RV Park that would work for me. 

I'll let you know how it's going.   :)

Some Elephant Butte State Park critters - I love this first one:

There was a nest in the bush right in front of The Palms and the Curve-billed Thrashers would come and go all day long, first peeking out, then flying away.

Views of and from our EBSP campsite:

The weather is so changeable here.  It will be sunny and calm, then the clouds come in and the wind whips up.  If we're lucky we get some rain.  Then it all blows away.


There was a beautiful full moon over the lake:

On Thursday night we had the worst (best?) thunderstorm we've been in so far.  We were here in the RV Park, and it went on for a bit, then it was right overhead.  When the thunder rolled, it just kept going.  Then the lightening CRACKED! right overhead.  WOW.   If it wasn't raining so hard, and so windy outside, I would have gone out and unplugged the rig.  I turned off everything electrical and unplugged the computer and TV from their outlets.  I love storms, but jeez, this was a STORM!

When we've been here a bit longer I'll get some photos of the RV park and show you where we are. 

That's about it for now - from me and Katie, have a great Saturday, everybody!  :)

Roadrunner on the Beach

I'm always on the lookout to get shots of my favorites - and the Roadrunner is at the top of my list.  I know they are here at Elephant Butte state Park in New Mexico and have gotten some good shots of Roadrunners in the past right around this spot.

Yesterday I put Katie in her stroller and we did our afternoon 1.2 mile walk up the road and back again.  As we returned to camp, I saw our Roadrunner running across the road and the sand on it's way to the beach and water below.  I got a quick shot.

Then I put away the stroller, put Katie on her leash and we walked up to the top of Dillard's Circle where I had a full view of the hillside down to the lake.  And there was our Roadrunner.  Just standing there with a lizard in his mouth.

I'd gotten a quick, blurred photo of him before, heading back the other way, getting ready to cross the street, and he had a lizard in his mouth then, too.  But it was a bad photo, not blog-worthy, darn!

But yesterday I had all kinds of time to get a good, clear shot of him on the beach with dinner in his mouth.  He was a little distance away, so I had to zoom in quite a bit, but I got him!  And here he is:

Here's the first photo, when he was zooming along on his way to the top of the hill - before he went down to the beach:

And there he was.  Look at those eyes, looking down at his lizard:

And homeward he went.  I wonder if he has babies in a nest.  I thought he would eat the lizard, but he just held it in his beak.  So maybe he's bringing it home to feed other little Roadrunners.

Made my day, for sure!

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

Moving on: Saguaro Co-op Escapees Park, Caballo Lake and Elephant Butte

Since leaving San Diego, Katie and I have been traveling east to New Mexico and we're finally here.  We stayed a couple of nights at the Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA, then traveled to El Centro to stock up on food, gas up and spend a night at Wal-Mart.  We drove onward toward Benson, AZ, spending a night at the Love's Truck Stop in Gila Bend. Next we traveled to the Saguaro Co-op Escapees Park in Benson, AZ where we spent a night in their dry-camping lot, right next to the office.

While we were in Benson, we met up with Judie and Gary, fellow RVers, from Sierra Vista.  We've been trying to get together for a while and finally things worked out.  They came to get me and treated me to a wonderful dinner at Mi Casa, Gary's favorite restaurant in Benson.  I had a wonderful time - they are the most interesting couple!

After dinner we came back to the The Palms and spent a couple more hours visiting.  The evening came to a close, and I hated to see them go - they might be traveling to the New Mexico State Parks this spring/summer and I hope we will meet up again.

Thanks for your visit and a great dinner, Judie and Gary.  I'm so happy I finally met you both - see you soon!  :)

I got some photos of a few birds at the Saguaro Co-op park -

and my first cactus blooms of the year.  Some of the toughest looking cactus have the most delicate flowers.

There were a lot of "babies" in one area of the landscape - this is one of them.  I was surprised how many were ready to blossom at this tiny size:

This Escapees park is beautifully landscaped with different kinds of cactuses and little signs telling what kind they are.  Not a weed in sight - they do a great job.  It's a very nice, clean park.  I have been thinking about spending a month or more there in the future.

The next morning we headed to Caballo Lake State Park in New Mexico.  I have to say, I don't enjoy driving like I did in the beginning.  It's still exciting to get behind the wheel heading toward a new destination, but after about two hours of driving, I'm ready to stop.  That's one reason this area is so great.  Caballo Lake and Percha Dam State Parks are very close to each other, and Elephant Butte State Park is just 30 minutes down the road.  And Truth or Consequences (T or C) is right up the road from there, and it has a Wal-Mart in addition to other stores and restaurants.

We've been here at these state parks for the last four years, and taking photos isn't as high a priority as it used to be.  Most of the sites, birds, flowers, etc, have already been snapped and posted more than once.  I did take one photo, though, at Caballo.  We camped in the parking lot above the lake and boat ramp for three nights.  We had a great view of the lake, blue and  beautiful, then changing to grey as the clouds came in and the wind started up.  We had some rain, too. 

When the wind whipped up one afternoon, the lake below was sparkling with diamonds.  It was so pretty, there must have been little whitecaps all over the surface of the water and the sun was hitting them just right.  I snapped a photo to see if it would show the "diamonds," and it wasn't bad:

We caught a mouse in the trap under the driver's seat the first two mornings.  I got out my flashing solar light strings and put one in the engine compartment and one under the seat in the cab - and that did the trick; we didn't have any more mice.  :)

Then on Sunday I decided to head on to Elephant Butte, do some shopping at the Wal-Mart in T or C, then get a free dry camping site (with my annual pass) overlooking the lake.  We got here in the late afternoon and there were NO sites.  There are not many designated dry camping sites here, but there are two I know about that I've used in the past, and I was able to grab the last one.  The lake is so high I actually have a lake view from this parking place.  And super good Verizon and TV channels.  I was planning on staying at South Monticello, but just might stay here for the 14 days.  We'll see.

That's about it - just driving east and hitting a few spots along the way.  Now that we're in New Mexico we'll settle down a little and hopefully have a nice summer.

And one more thing:  I wanted to let you know - Discount Tire/America's Tire has never gotten back to me after that first e-mail.  I didn't want anything from them, except maybe paying the extra to exchange my four tires for the four I originally thought I was purchasing.  I'm disappointed; I thought their customer service would be better than that, and they dropped the ball.  :(

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

Exciting new RV upgrade/mod - Part 3 of 3

Here we are, ready for the...

The pantry box with the hinged door attached was ready to be attached to the wall in The Palms.

This is the "before" photo showing where the pantry will be.  It's a perfect size and place for the pantry.

Tom put it on the wall to be sure it still fit after he inserted the top, center and bottom interior cross boards, and it still fit.  He leaned it against my closet and went back for his tools.

Next, fitting the pantry between the floor and the two finish strips on either side of the wall space.  He nudged it a little here and a little there, and then started drilling in screws on the top corners and bottom corners and the middle section on both sides.  There weren't any studs inside this wall, so he double-screwed the center and each corner and it's very secure.

 

Next step was attaching the four "double roller catches with spear spikes."  The catches were screwed to the inside of the Pantry wall.

Some of these pictures were taken after the pantry was in use.

Then attach the four spikes to the inside of the door.

Next was inserting the "spoon" cabinet shelf support pins into the drilled holes and laying the selves on them.

These are the original cabinet handles in The Palms.

Tom had this knob in his bag of cabinet hardware and it was such a close match, I decided it was perfect and we used it.

Here it is, all done and full...  very full!

View from the dinette:

It is only four inches deep; the room I lost was so minimal, I don't notice it.  The cabinet is 75" tall, 20" wide, and 4" deep and has 11 shelves, counting the bottom of the pantry. I took out one shelf to get a taller space - they are adjustable for the things I need to put in there. And as you can see, Tom matched the stain color perfectly. 

The Roadrunner knot in the wood is on one of the shelves.  :)

And that's the Pantry upgrade mod install.  I can't tell you how much

The morning it was finished, Tom headed up to Disneyland to meet up with his family spending the day there and I took off east to wait for a week for my next doctor appointment.  When I stopped at Viejas Casino, I was beat, but got super energized as soon as I got things settled in the rig and walked Katie.

I started putting things inside the pantry and filled it completely.  I was on a roll and had so much room in the cupboards now, I was able to move things and re-arrange some of the spaces. I totally cleared out my shower (so now I can just jump in and turn on the water), and threw away bags and bags of things I no longer needed or never used. I had four bags of "good" stuff to give away, and did that when I went on to Hot Springs.

The funny thing is, from the first day I filled the pantry, I've never accidentally reached up for the cupboard that used to hold most of my non-refrigerated food.  All my spices are in the pantry, dry goods, canned goods, sweets, grains, oils and vinegars, etc.  It holds a ton of stuff!

When I drove back to San Diego for my last doctor appointment, Tom took me out to lunch and picked up a few things that I needed him to store for me, and he looked in the pantry.  "You've really utilized this space!" he said.  You bet, every available inch, and I can find everything.  I used to have my spices in a small decorative suitcase in the cab of the truck, and the canned/dried foods four deep in an upper cupboard in the kitchen.  I didn't realize I had four cans of re-fried beans!

All that reorganization led to a major cleaning frenzy, too, in the rest of The Palms.  Funny how one thing leads to another.

THANKS, TOM! for doing all that work for me, spending so much valuable time on my project, and picking up the cost.  Win/Win/Win for me, and I so enjoyed spending the time with you and watching how you work.  I'm so proud of you and the way you handle yourself, your work ethic, and all your skills.  And the pantry is

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