North of Albuquerque

For the past week we have been staying outside Albuquerque taking care of business.  We've gotten the oil changed in the Honda, gotten my haircut and also a pedicure.  It is warmer here that we like so we have been using our air conditioning a fair amount, good thing it works well.  I also have had the time to do a couple of DIY projects.  

The first project was cutting some camo screen I bought at Walmart.  Swandie Wheels had made screens for her van with this netting so I bought some myself.  Since I don't have access to a sewing machine I just cut it and hung it up using little "command hooks".  Although my windows are tinted having the screen gives a little more privacy.

The other project was to hang two 'flip up' tables in my bedroom, one on each side of the bed.  Sorry these pictures aren't better but you can see this table in the down position and the piece of screen hanging on the inside of the window.  I had to buy better scissors and will be trimming the screen even across the bottom, soon.  At the top of the first photo you can see my curtain rolled up and clipped to the side.  You can also see outside the enclosure around our picnic table, and the front of the Honda.

This is why I installed these little tables.  To can now put my fan on them.  Do you see those two pieces of white tape above the window.  Those are pieces of Command velcro strips that I use to hold a panel of Reflectix window insulation that I hang up when it is hot, to keep the sun out.  I just use one panel and move it from one side to the other when needed.  

While I was typing this I looked outside and there was a Roadrunner bird on the hood of the car looking at a plastic snake we have on our dashboard.  Can you see him?

Tomorrow we move from this campground which is on the north side of ABQ and go to the south side of ABQ.  I'm have some dental surgery on tuesday and my cousin will be taking me and she lives south of ABQ so our move will make it easier for her to pick up and return me to the rv.  Later next week we will come back to this campground.  This cg is run by the city of Bernalillo, it is very inexpensive $20 a night vers $35 for the cg on the south end of town.  And this one is further from the freeway so it's nice and quiet.  

Catch up with you later.

Evie

A Geography Lesson, Logistic and Chilies

Geography Lesson

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

The Continental Divide

We've been in the Rockies for about two weeks, sometimes without internet so this update is long in coming.

We have spent that time driving the Honda all around and over the mountains.  In one day we crossed four summits, three of them on the Continental Divide.

Monarch Pass is on US Highway 50.

Also spent some time wading in the headwaters of the Arkansas River.

Look closely, there's gold in this sand.

Nice dry camping spot along the Arkansas river.

One day we drove about five miles on a dirt road into the national forest looking for places to dry camp.  Dry camping is where you camp out in the national forest without any hook-ups or picnic tables, fire rings or rangers.  The next two pictures were taken on that road.

These two pictures were taken from the same location.

Still lots of wildflowers blooming.

We are now at Lathrop Lake State Park in southern Colorado slowly heading south back into Northern New Mexico.  We are just kicking around following the cool weather but it is possible to go to high where it is getting into the mid 40's degrees at night a bit to cool.  That was up about 10,000' near Leadville, CO so down the mountain we came.  

We are doing well and are still having fun.  The Winnebago is running good and so is the Honda.  We have spent several days in a row without internet and I lived through it.  

See you around the corner.

Evie and Joy