Bluewater Lake - The Beauty and The Blues

FIRST THE BEAUTY:

Katie and I came to Bluewater Lake State Park in NM because it seemed to be one of the coolest areas I could find.  The first week here was wonderful, and I got one of my favorite sites, overlooking Bluewater Lake:

View of the lake out the couch window:

I set up my little clothes line - this is what I do if there aren't any good trees nearby.  I can hang socks, towels, and/or tee-shirts on hangers.  We had good trees, but they were dripping pine sap, so:

Although the sunsets here are spectacular, sunset in the western sky is often pretty, too:

THEN THE BLUES:

And then the heat rose.  I wasn't expecting it - when I've been here in the past, the weather was always nice.  Wow, it was something!  We had a dry-camping site, no electricity, and of course with the heat, there were no electric sites available.  So, what to do?   Drive all the way back to the Flagstaff area, where it seemed to be a bit cooler?  Or stay here and sweat it out?

My air conditioner, which has always worked just fine, suddenly wouldn't stay on for more than 10 minutes, then it would shut down.  The generator was still on and no breakers were tripped, but I had to wait a while before I could turn it on again - for another ten minutes!  Meanwhile it got up to 97 degrees inside The Palms.  (Note:  I've since learned a few things about the A/C units, and our altitude might have been the culprit.  I'll see when I'm lower.  I thought it was protecting itself and shutting down due to the high temps, but obviously that's when you need the cooling power, so it kind of didn't make sense.  Any thoughts?)

Then we had to leave the park after our 14 days - the 6 days out rule - before we could return.  So we drove down to the little town of Grants, 20 or so miles south, like we always have in the past.  I was still having issues with the A/C and it was SO HOT.  The first night we spent at the Grant's Wal-Mart, and in the morning, the generator wouldn't start.  At all.  It tried, but couldn't seem to catch.

Knowing how hot it was going to be, I made some phone calls and got a reservation at one of the local RV parks for that day - Wednesday.  Then I called a generator repair place in Albuquerque and made an appointment for Friday morning.  They said to come down on Thursday and I could park in their lot with their electrical hook-ups and be there in the morning in case they were ready for me earlier than scheduled. 

I needed to do laundry and couldn't leave Katie in the rig in that kind of heat while I was inside doing laundry in town.  So when we checked into our very nice RV park I found out they had washers and dryers.  Yes!  I didn't need the water or sewer hook-up in our site, but the electricity was SURE NICE, and I got all my laundry done while Katie was cooling her heels in The Palms with the A/C running.  AND they had a beautiful, spotless bathroom with a large shower.  I was in HEAVEN.

Completely 😀 and totally 😊 in heaven 😇 !

The next morning we drove down to Albuquerque, checked in at the office and got hooked up to their electricity.

Unfortunately, with THEIR electrical hookup, the A/C again wouldn't stay on for more than 10 minutes.  It was awful.

Finally it cooled down a bit as the sun set.  Katie and I were exhausted and went to bed early.  At 2:30 in the morning I woke up to gunshots out in the street.  I counted eight shots, got up and peeked out the windows, but didn't see anything.  I heard a yell and then a car slowly passing by, and that was all.  No police sirens...  apparently this isn't unusual in the area.

In the morning I talked to another RV owner who was parked next to me and asked him if he heard the shots.  He said, yes, he got up and got out his gun and slept with it next to his pillow.  He said he talked to another customer who was parked there, and that guy said he was ready with his gun power, too, just in case: a hand gun and a long gun.  Luckily there were no more disturbances.  (But when offered the opportunity to stay another night because my work started late in the day and ended around rush hour, I declined.  I'll take commuter traffic over gunshots any time!)

Katie and I started the trip back to Grants with our repaired generator (a new starter motor).  As I was driving up one of the long hills in that intense heat something in my peripheral vision caught my attention.  I looked in the driver door rear mirror and it looked like the side of the The Palms was coming unlaminated (is that a word?)  The whole side of the motor home was shaking like crazy!!!

Good Grief!  Then I realized it was the mirror itself, shaking like crazy.  I immediately checked both mirrors, slowed down, and pulled over on the side of the road.  As I was pulling over, I lowered the window and reached out to the mirror to steady it, and it came off in my hand.  WOW, I almost lost the mirror.  Another few seconds and it would have been on the freeway in a million pieces. 

I put the mirror in a safe place, got back in the driver's seat and looked left - as I always do - for oncoming traffic.  But of course, there was no mirror, and with the RV cabin coming out further than the truck cab, I had no vision of oncoming traffic.  There was no way I could pull out.

I went back and got the mirror and a roll of duct tape and went around to the driver's door, as big rigs and cars were pulling into the inside lane, thank goodness, and duct taped the mirror back into place.

Kind of "Beverly Hillbilly'ish," but what're ya gonna do?  😳

Back on the road, I realized it was slipping down under the tape, and pulled off again and duct taped the hell out if it in every direction, then got back on the road.  Luckily, it held until I was able to get something to glue it back on.

I'll tell you, being a full-time RVer takes a lot of duct tape and ingenuity.  Roll with the punches, solve the problems, and keep moving on.  LOL

I had plans to meet up again with JB, my canyon hike friend, and we were going to camp together for a while back at Bluewater, but honestly, I was so worn out from the heat, which was expected to continue for another couple of weeks, and all the issues I was having.  I checked all my weather apps and decided to leave the next morning to head back to Flagstaff.  It seemed to be the coolest place.  So unfortunately I cancelled our camping plans and in the morning, Katie and I drove back to Flagstaff.

I had some friends who were dry-camping near Flag in the Coconino National Forest, Mike and Chris were both at Lake Mary Road, and Jeanne and John were at Bellemont, moving to Willard Springs in a couple of days.  Mike texted that it was nice where he was and Jeanne texted it was nice where she was, so Katie and I first camped at Lake Mary Road for a week, and then moved to Willard Springs.  It was good to see everyone, and good to have temps a bit lower.  Still HOT, but not as bad as it was in New Mexico.

AND MORE BEAUTY:

Of course, the canyon hike I took with my friend, JB, would definitely be under the Beauty category.  I've already posted photos of that day, and here are some of the cool things and critters I got photos of while at Bluewater:

I saw this cocoon, below, on a rock sitting in the sun on one of my walks and decided to bring it back to my campsite to see if anything would hatch.  Unfortunately, nothing happened, so I left it when I went to Grants.

Each evening when it started to cool down, swarms of bugs came out.  They got into The Palms twice!  I couldn't believe I let it happen twice!  I had to get out my step stool and use my adhesive lint roller to get them all off the ceiling.  Took forever to get them all.  When I was done, the ceiling was full of smashed black bugs and I had used half my lint roller's tape.  The next morning, I cleaned the ceiling of all the bug debris.  What a mess that was!  AND IT HAPPENED TWICE.  All I had to do was open the door at the wrong time and in they came. 

Pretty flowers above our site:

Lots of squirrels in the park - they are always so cute:

And of course, lizards.  First, I saw lots of the these guys:

And then I noticed this guy - there were two, this bigger one and a smaller one.  They had beautiful fluorescent blue undersides:

And finally, the sunsets!  I think Bluewater Lake State Park has the most beautiful sunsets I've seen while full-timing.  Here are some of them from this trip, with a full moon thrown in. 

And that's it for Bluewater Lake - for now.  We headed to Flagstaff for cooler temps, planning to be back soon.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everyone!  😎☹🤔💲💲💲🙄🔫😲😏

Bluewater Creek Canyon Hike

A couple of weeks ago, Katie and I went to New Mexico - the temps there were great, and I love Bluewater Lake State Park.

There's a canyon that goes through the edge of the campgrounds and I always walk over and peer down.  Every year I get pictures of the canyon.  One year from the edge I could see a beaver dam, and you can see the water and all the green grasses and bushes.  This year I could see there's more water down there in the creek than in previous years.  Very lush and beautiful!

I've always wanted to hike down into the canyon.  It's not something I'd do alone, though, but this year I have a friend who lives near Albuquerque and he's a big hiker, so I asked him if he'd come up and do this canyon hike with me.  He said that'd be great - he's camped in some of the New Mexico State Parks, but never at Bluewater, so this would give him a chance to check out the park, too. 

This is where we were going - a close up from the edge of the canyon:

This is a normal shot without using the zoom lens:

The canyon cliff:

It was actually an easy hike up and down the canyon, and along the creek to the dam. The only problem was that the very nice temperatures at Bluewater changed after I was there a week, and when we hiked down into the canyon it was really super hot.  We also visited for a few hours after he arrived and the time got away from us - so we left on our hike a little later than we should have, at 11:30.  That was a mistake!  It would have been much cooler if we had left at 8:30.

Being a resident of the Albuquerque area he was used to the heat and the altitude, and he hardly broke a sweat, but I was really feeling the heat and the high altitude!  By the time the day was done, I had logged in over 10,000 steps on my GarminVivofit.  And I was HOT and TIRED! But it sure was fun.

He brought his hiking poles and suggested that I bring mine, too, and I was glad I did.  When I was climbing down the canyon and over the creek on the rocks and logs I really needed them!   Good grief, look at my feet - they really aren't that big!  That's funny...  😁

Isn't this beautiful?

Crossing the creek - I was really concentrating.  Thank goodness I didn't fall in!

There was a path, but sometimes the terrain looked like this, and we had to slog through water.  My shoes were wet and muddy, but that was okay because the water was cool and felt good!

And then we saw the dam in the distance:

And closer:

We got closer and closer and got a lot of pictures:

It looked like there were some patches on the wall of the dam.  There's lots and lots of water over on the other side.  I was happy that it stayed there:

When we got this close to the dam, he wanted to climb up to the top and get a closer look at the stone house up there and see if we could walk across the dam to the other side, which was close to my campsite.  He went over to check the difficulty of the climb up in case I wanted to check it out with him, but I decided to stay where I was.

I needed a rest, so he went up and in a while I could hear him talking to some people - he said later he was talking to a family floating in a boat on the other side of the dam.

I wondered what that red thing was - I've never noticed it from the other side of the dam.

He got some good shots of the little house up close and let me borrow them for this post...

...and also some shots of the top of the dam. As you can see, there's a locked gate there, which prevents people from crossing over into the campsite area.

It was so beautiful and peaceful down there, I wouldn't hesitate hiking down again - earlier in the day, or on a cooler day - but I still wouldn't want to go alone.  Anyway, it's always more fun to walk or hike with a friend, right?  :)

Thanks for coming up and visiting and taking the canyon hike with me - it was really fun!

And by the way, we saw where the beaver's dam had been in past years.  It was kind of broken up, but I got to see a beaver dam!  

I have two more posts after this of our Bluewater Lake SP visit which I'll publish this week, hopefully.  As usual at Bluewater, we had some gorgeous sunsets.  But then, unfortunately, the heat drove us to move again.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everyone!   😊😎😅

Aw, Geez! Two flat tires? And an RV mod I've been needing :)

While at Pickett Lake, off Lake Mary Rd, Jeanne and John and I went out one day to scout some new boondocking areas.  Off we went in Jeanne's car.   Jeanne had heard of a couple of good areas - lots of trees with fields, perfect for boondockers with solar panels.   One of the areas we checked out looked good, but was really rocky.  Suddenly Jeanne's Tire Pressure Monitoring System went off.  We were already out of the rocky area and driving along the good dirt road, but obviously something was wrong with the front left tire, so she pulled over.
 
We all got out and looked.  This is what we saw:



Brand new tire - she had just bought four new tires the previous week.  As we drove down the rocky road, one of the rocks on the side of the road must have been really sharp and punctured the sidewall as we drove past it.  It really deflated fast.

John immediately got the right tools, figured out the jack, and took off the lug nuts and the tire.  Jeanne and I, two very independent, self sufficient women, stood back and watched.  LOL  Then Jeanne fitted the spare onto the wheel and John tightened the lug nuts.  Later we agreed - IT'S SURE NICE TO HAVE A MAN AROUND!  Guys, sometimes you just know stuff that we ladies have to take a little time to figure out.  I haven't changed a tire since I was 15 years old in Driver's Ed.  We would have figured it out, but John just knew what he was doing, so we let him do it.  Sure was nice!

Here's Jeanne fitting the donut spare on the wheel, with John watching:



After Jeanne put the spare on, John tightened everything up and they loaded the flat tire into the trunk.  We piled in the car again and drove to the Sam's Club in Flagstaff where Jeanne had purchased the tires.  Unfortunately it wasn't repairable and they didn't have that one in stock.  She would have to wait two days for one to be ordered and arrive at the store.

It's kind of nerve wracking driving on a small spare tire but luckily the speed limit out of town and then along Lake Mary Road was 50 MPH, so that fit with the speed the little spare was supposed to be driven.   Two days later she went back to town and had the new tire put on.  Luckily it was all covered under the warranty, and she only had to pay for the installation.  Darn rocks!

So, the next day I drove The Palms into town to get supplies and gas and propane and water, etc.  As I arrived in Flagstaff, MY Tire Pressure Monitoring System went off just as I was pulling into the Giant gas station.  My right front tire was losing air.  I got all the tasks done and checked on my GPS for a Discount Tire in town. There was one on the other side of town, so I started driving, keeping my eye on the TPMS.  It was slowly going down.  My tires should be at 70 PSI in the morning, and of course the pressure goes up as I'm driving.

The front tire was going down fast now - I'm driving through city traffic, watching the TPMS, stopping at red lights.  It was kind of stressful, to say the least.  I could have stopped and called a tow truck, but I was only a few miles from the tire store.  It stayed at 24 PSI for a bit, then dropped to 21, then 20.  The Palms was driving fine, and everything felt fine.  When I pulled into the driveway at Discount Tire, the flat tire showed 19 PSI.



I drove in and parked and an employee walked right over.  I told him I had a flat tire, and he said, Yes, the right front?   They could all see it as I drove in.  I didn't think it looked that bad, but what do I know?



He took all my information and my car keys and Katie and I sat down to wait in the customer waiting room.  As I was sitting there waiting for the verdict, I texted Jeanne - "You're not going to believe this..."

Less than a half hour later he was back.  I looked up and The Palms was parked outside waiting for me.  Turned out the tire itself wasn't flat, the valve stem was coming loose, allowing the air to leak out. So they repaired it, or replaced it, and we were good to go.  No charge.  Discount Tire is so great!  I sure recommend them.

Can you believe we both had flats one day apart?!?  Hopefully we're both good now and won't have any more flats!  And again I have to give a 👍👍 for TMPS.  We might have felt the flats, but our systems warned us before we knew anything was happening.  And who knows?  That red light and beeping sound might have prevented an accident.

Now, on to the RV mod that John did for me - this is the happy part of this post.

So...  I have a really nice awning, it's brand new.  I've never used it - NEVER in six years.  But it doesn't have a cover over it, and I camp where the sun's shining and the temps are warm.  My poor awning started fraying along the top of the roll a couple of years ago, the part exposed to the sun almost every day for the last six years.  When it first started looking bad, I got some awning tape, cut off the little threads and pieces that were coming apart, and taped the whole awning across the top.  It looked great!

A year later, with more sun and lots of sand and dust storms, the awning was not only fraying again, it had some pieces of awning tape hanging off it, and it was now a brown color from all the dust getting under the tape.  Brown sticky tape hanging off the white awning fabric.  Honestly it looked awful and was embarrassing.  So I bought some cheaper clear tape and taped it up again.  That tape didn't last at all, and before long I was again spending almost $75 for three rolls of clear awning tape.

Well, when I was camped with Jeanne and John at Pickett Lake, off Mary Lake Road, John mentioned that one day recently, he was sitting inside his fifth wheel, his awning was rolled up as usual (he doesn't put his out either), and the wind picked up and grabbed the awning, the material rolled out and was tossed over the roof of the RV, flapping up and down and all around.  Wasn't much he could do with the wind blowing, until things calmed down.  When he was able to check it, he saw the awning was ripped from flapping on the roof.  So what he decided to do was take the awning down.  Not the whole thing, just the fabric.  And that's what he did.  I walked over to see it, and it looked great, neat and clean.

I had been planning on taking my whole awning off - all the hardware - when I got to San Diego and asking my son to store it for me, so that if I ever sell The Palms, we could re-attach it for the new owners.  But John's solution was so much easier, and could be done NOW.  I'd lose the eyesore awning and keep the hardware intact on The Palms.  If I sell, the new owners can leave it that way if they don't use their awning or they can have a new awning installed.  It was a perfect solution!  And the frosting on the cake was that John offered to cut the awning off for me.

I should have gotten "before" photos, but just picture a long white awning with dust covered tape coming off here and there.  It was really bad.

Here's John on the roof, or at least his shorts and shirt, cutting each portion of the awning loose as he unrolls it.



Finally down to the last part:



And the last piece is cut off!




And here's The Palms with the awning hardware intact, the roller across the top looking clean, with nothing messy hanging loose.  It was such a relief to have the awning gone, and not have to spend $$$ on tape again!  If I had known about this "fix" I would have had it cut down years ago.  And saved a bunch of money on awning tape.  Who knew?



Here's my beautiful awning - never used, this part never even exposed to the sun.  It was a shame, really.



BTW, John doesn't like his picture posted, so I never show his face.  He's helped me with some other things and I love to give him credit, but I always crop his face out out of the pic.  Some of you know Don "donhalfaface" - well, this is John "johnnoface."  LOL

Thank you, John!  I can't tell you how much I appreciated you doing this for me.   I don't think I could have done it by myself.

And here are a few photos to finish up my time in Flagstaff:

I caught this guy perched on the top of a pine tree - he looked like a blackbird, but he has a grey collar and a grey beak.  There's also some grey on his chest.  I did some research on-line to find out what kind of bird he is, but there was nothing I could see.  Anyone know what kind of bird this is? 



Flowers in bloom along my walking trails:






FINALLY, I've gotten my wish - I'm tall and thin!  And I have the picture to prove it:



Just look at those long legs!  LOL

From me and Katie, have a great weekend, everyone! 😲😟😊😎😘😀

Flagstaff, and camping near Lake Mary Road

Well - you know the old saying "We make plans, and God laughs at us?"  Or something like that...

I left Utah because of the cold, and guess what I woke up to in Flagstaff?

I drove to Flagstaff, did all my shopping, took care of tanks, had Katie's nails clipped, etc., etc., etc. and over-nighted at one of the Wal-Marts.  In the morning when I woke up The Palms was covered in snow.  What a surprise!  It was really pretty and started melting as soon as the sun came out.

My friends Jeanne and John had their rigs camped right next to Lake Pickett, which is about 22 miles south of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Flagstaff.  I headed down to meet up with them for a week or so.  It's a very pretty location, except on the weekend when the ATVers zoomed back and forth along the road, creating clouds of dust.  Then they left and on Monday it was peaceful and beautiful again.

A pine tree view out the kitchen window:

And this is the view from my dinette:

Laurelee and her dog Libby arrived the day I did, and Gayle and Jim came in a couple days later, so we had a nice group.  Gayle took a pic of the RVs in camp:

And another picture of the ladies when we were outside chatting - from the left - Laurelee, me and Jeanne, and Gayle's shadow:

Thanks, Gayle, for letting me use your photos!

When I drove along Lake Mary Road on the way to camp that first day, I saw Great Blue Herons along the shoreline of Upper Lake Mary.  I pulled over and walked down closer to the water to get some shots.  These are the three that were closest to me:

Our little lake, Lake Pickett, dries up every summer and it wasn't deep at all.  We didn't think we'd get any water fowl in our lake, but we did see some a couple of times.  Hunting for frogs?

One morning I was walking with Jeanne and John, and spied this horny toad - I didn't have my camera, so Jeanne got a shot with her phone.  Thanks, Jeanne!  Isn't he a cute little round guy?

We had lots of grasshoppers on the ground, some of them were pretty good sized.  Katie had fun chasing one, and unfortunately she caught it.  When I noticed, she was playing with it and I made her leave it there, before she ate it.  Ugh!

Here she is, sitting in the sun on the back of the couch.   Looking inside from the doorway.

And finally, I snapped this picture one evening as I was boiling water in the tea kettle for a cup of decaf.  My new "Clever Coffee Dripper" makes the best, richest coffee! Like an upgraded Melita Cone dripper, but much better.  The kitchen looked so cozy and warm.  In fact it was.

Other than the above, I know - kind of boring, not a lot going on.  Sometimes that's just the way I like it.  Relaxing and enjoying life.  But in my next post, more exciting things are happening.  Some good, some bad.  One's an RV mod I've needed for a long time, but didn't know how to fix the problem.  Done and done now, and I love it!  I'll tell you about them next time.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everybody! 😊🐾☕☃😎