Paradise on the Pecos

Well you probably know by now that we did get that RV. Bigger, faster, cheaper to drive. I won’t go into details, but we sure do like it and it does everything we want it to do and a little more.
We missed Joshua Tree National Park and the Sulton Sea. It had to do with taking possession of the RV outside of California to avoid sales tax. So we went directly to Yuma. We spent a week or so there. It may not be the “snowbird” capitol of the world, but it’s got to be in the rankings. Many, many RV’s of all types and “park models“. From there we went to Quartzsite and spent a few days just parked in the desert. That’s one of the big features of our new Winnebago Sightseer. It allows us to boon dock (stay without hook-ups to water and electric) more. So that’s what we did. Quartzsite has a reputation as being the boon docking capital of the world. In January thousands of RV’s show up for an annual convention of sorts. Many vendors, RV dealers, and lot’s of crazies. We’ve not done that yet. Maybe sometime?
Then it was on to Phoenix. We spent a few days visiting and shopping with Kat’s daughter and then spent four days parked (boon docking) at the Gila River Indian, Wild Horse Pass casino. The in-laws, Blair and Vickie Steelman, came through and spent a couple of free nights with us. They are traveling in their RV too and we happened to be crossing paths. We visited with old Post Office friends Paul and Pam Harris. They are doing well and happened to be having a birthday party for Paul’s father who’s birthday was April 4. I mentioned mine was the 3rd so we got to celebrate my birthday with Paul and Pam. We drove thru the Petrified Forest,/Painted Desert National Park and now we’re in New Mexico.
We’re at what is called “Paradise on the Pecos”, Lake Sumner State Park. We just left Santa Rosa Lake state park a few miles north of here. We’ve been enjoying the sun and solitude. And there are plenty of both. No Wal-Mart, no TV, very little radio. We’re thirty seven miles out of town and town wasn’t much. The Paradise part may be a stretch, even for someone born and raised in New Mexico. I guess if you add a lake that will dry up some years to Pinon Pine and Yucca, it becomes Paradise? They’re in the middle of a drought here, and if that isn’t bad enough the wind has been blowing for thirty days. The camp host at Santa Rosa is a nice old Texan gentleman and when we first got here we needed the campground reservation phone number for N.M. We knocked on his trailer door and I said that I was “curious” about the reservation phone number. Typical of an old curmudgeonly Texican he replied, “are you curious about it or do you want it.” Kat asked if the wind was going to let up and he said “no ma’am, been blowin’ like this for 30 days and ain’t going to quit anytime soon.” Later we talked to the park ranger and he said they really didn’t have much of a winter this year. It had been replaced by “Winder”, just lot’s of wind and no rain.
But we’re here for three nights and not complaining even a little bit. Just taking a few walks, riding our bikes and feeding and watching the birds. We even put a couple of new birds on our ‘seen-it’ list. The same Texan campground host also feeds the birds. We were talking about that with him and later in the day he came over and was showing us his bird list and worked his way around to asking us if we wanted to camp host here for a month or so. He needs to go home to San Antonio for a medical procedure. I think he is concerned more for the birds than anything and ask us because we had shown interest in birding too. But we had to politely decline because of other commitments. Still it was nice to be asked. And it is something we might consider under different circumstances. Like having the car with us. But we didn’t anticipate buying a bigger RV and staying out so long, so the car is in Oregon.
Last night we were treated to a small herd of deer. I guess it’s a herd, not a gaggle or a swarm anyway. The camp host here feeds them. Maybe he has a salt lick? But there were six or seven mule deer at his site and we were nearly trampled by four others when they came by our rig heading over to be fed. Trampled may be a little bit of an over statement, but they did come by quickly and I’m glad we weren’t in the way. Maybe the wildlife makes it closer to Paradise?
We haven’t been bothered or threatened by any of the fires you may have read or heard about. So no worries! We are both well and enjoying what we do. I hope that is conveyed in my letter. Now it’s time to get on down the road.
Texas awaits!