We've been back at Eagle Nest Lake State Park for about a week. Back to where it is sunny in the mornings and cooling clouds roll in in the afternoon. Temps here have been around high 70's during the day and mid to high 40's at night. A bit cool for mom at night but just right for me.
The lake can be seen in the upper middle of this map. Near the center middle, in the foothills next to the plane is Taos. There are two roads from here to the Taos area, one can be seen going left from the lake. That highway goes from the town of Eagle Nest up and over the mountain pass to the town of Red River which is on the banks of the Red River. The road then follows the Red River down to the town of Questa which is on highway 522, the same road that Taos is on. The other way to get to Taos is to drive the 11 miles from Eagle Nest to Angel Fire (to the right of the lake) and take the road that runs between Angel Fire and Taos. That is the road we take when we go to Taos to shop. There is a Walmart and Albertson and a host of other places to shop. The other day we took the Red River road to Questa and then on to a large tract of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land on the rim of the upper part of the Rio Grande Gorge, which can be seen in the bottom left. There are four campgrounds there and we went to check them out. Here at the lake we have made friends with a woman named Betty. At state parks you can only stay 14 days out of 20. When our 14 days were up last time we went up to Colorado for two weeks, Betty went to that BLM land for 6 days. You can see the Rio Grande coming in from the left, on its way from the Rio Grande reservoir in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, and the small Red River joining into it just downstream from Questa. If you can see the #32 along the gorge, that is where the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is.
Logistics of RV Living
Our rv has three holding tanks. One is our 30 gallons fresh water tank (but really it only holds 25 gallons if that much), the other two tanks, about 25 gallons each hold the grey water tank and black water. When our water tank is empty and the grey and black water tanks are full we go to a nearby rv park and empty the full tanks and fill the empty tank. How often we need to do these chores depends on how fast we use up our fresh water. Yesterday we left the State Park and went up the road to an rv park where we checked in for one night. I spent that day doing 6 loads of laundry in their laundry room and I took a long hot shower in their shower room. I emptied our grey and black tanks and filled our fresh water tank. When we are in an rv park we can and do hook up to their water supply so we have lots of water. While using their unlimited water supply I clean house, including the stove and bathroom, also the refrigerator which needs to be defrosted about every two months or so depending on the weather. The more humid it is the faster the refrigerator frosts up.
So I was very busy but I got everything on the list done and the next morning we moved back to the state park. Sometimes all we do is drive to an rv park and dump the tanks, for a fee, and come right back but this time we left for a day and night.
The New Mexico Chile Harvest is in.
Oh boy the chile harvest is in. The smell is wonderful. The stores are full of fresh chilies and on street corners and in parking lots there are venders set up with their 50 gallon drums drilled with holes roasting chilies over propane fired flames. The smell is pure heaven. So now in the stores we can buy fresh roasted chilies to make our own chili rellenos, and chile sauce yum.
A short New Mexico spelling lesson. In NM it is acceptable to spell chile two ways, chile and chili. I have chosen to use both spellings.
Our favorite brand of chile sauce which we use straight for our enchiladas.
We use to make our own sauce but in an rv it's a little hard and messy
so this is the next best thing.
If you look closely you can see me in this picture.
Morning fog on the lake.
That was a short rundown on our life here at the lake. See you around the next bend.
Evie and Joy
Imma have to correct one teensy thing, according to my New Mexico sources: it is never acceptable to call the vegetables "chilis." I learned this the hard way, and because I CRS, I've had to learn it the hard way several times.
ReplyDeleteI love your photo of the hawk on the ledge. And the gorge shot - just beautiful! :)
ReplyDeleteHawk on the rock....right place, right time. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteWow, you two are certainly in some rugged country. Looks fantastic.
Your photos are wonderful.
Please tell me y'all are paying attention to stars. No doubt you can fully see the glory of the Milky Way. Did you see the recent meteor shower?
Thanks for your blog entries.