Alone again

Sunday, July 12

Beautiful sunny morning again, and a great way to wake up. Mom and dad are going to start toward home. Shelly and I are going to wash clothes, so they followed us into Santa Fe. We stopped at Walmart and exchanged some clothes, and decided to check emails at Lowes. We stopped on the side of Lowes and noticed an urgent care right in front of us. Shelly's  finger had started getting infected from a pine cone splinter, and we didn't want it to get worse, especially Boondocking in the middle of nowhere. We checked emails while waiting to be seen at the clinic, and the doctor prescribed antibiotics after seeing her finger. Mom called while we were waiting in the clinic, and said they were at the rest stop near Santa Rosa. She said everything was good, and they were doing fine. We decided to eat at the Mexican restaurant we like, and split a fajita dinner. A mariachi band was playing loud in the restaurant, so we didn't hear the phone. We walked next door to goodwill, and soon got a phone call from Erica, saying mom had been in an accident. They were all right, but said the Airstream was totaled. They were going to stay in Santa Rosa for the night, and said there was no reason for us to go there tonight. We washed clothes, and posted on Airforum that we would be a day late getting to Gila forest. We'll go early tomorrow to Santa Rosa to check on mom and dad. 

Monday, July 13

We left camp about 6:30, and got on I25, but missed our turnoff to 285. By the time I figured out I missed it, we had to stay on the interstate about 10 more miles to the next exit. We rechecked the gps, and this time it said to stay on I25 to hwy 84. It turned our to be a much more scenic drive, and not much further. We met mom and dad at McDonalds, and then drove to the Silver Moon wrecker service.

We scavenged what we could out of the Airstream, but realized it is totaled. We said our goodbyes, and drove back to Santa Fe. We talked with Nancy Eklund,  and they were waiting to decide if they were going to the original destination, or try a different camp since they had gotten so much rain here. We decided to stay one more night here in Black Canyon. I hiked up to the top again, and talked with Ann Pustejovsky back in camp. She had just gotten back from a western tour of the U.S.. Another Airstream was parked in site #34, and I visited with them for an hour. Rich is the manager for Bishop's lodge, and was escaping to relax from the renovations going on at the Lodge. He invited us to see the lodge when we get back. 

Tuesday, July 14

Shelly is getting tired of getting up early, but we did it again. We drove through Albuquerque and Socorro on our way to Quemado. We saw the "very large array" , and had to agree that it is very large. Nancy had left a message telling us they had changed camps to Piñon campground on Quemado Lake. We made it there around 1, and were alone for the first few hours. They had gone rock hunting, but all came to say hello when they got back. We visited for a while, and then went hiking and looking for rocks and stuff until dark. We met Jan and Ed from California,  

Chris and Carla, from Taos, but formerly from Austin, Maggie from Normal, Illinois, Glen and Estrella from Florida,  Brent and Connie from Buffalo, Wyoming, and Ray and Nancy. We built a fire, and visited until about 10. 

Wednesday, July 15

We drove to our original destination about 30 minutes south of lake Quemado, and down a dirt road about a mile. We hiked up a small hill, and started finding chalcedony. (Pronounced kal sed' uh nee.) I was planning on picking up only a few pieces, but between Shelly and I, we ended up with a gallon bag full of them. It was addicting, but fun. After we had been hunting for several hours, it started raining lightly. We all started back toward the trucks, and by the time everyone got to the trucks, it was a steady rain. The road was turning to mud. Ray stopped to check on a path around a mud hole, and when he said to come on, I didn't slow down until I got to the gravel road. After waiting on the others for a few minutes, we started walking back to check on them. We only got a short distance, before they got to us. Glen almost got stuck, but was able to rock the truck to get out. We got back to camp, and washed the chalcedony off to see what everyone found.

Ray said the previous rains had washed out the rocks, and was the best hunting he had ever seen. We visited with everyone until dark. 

Maggie, Nancy, Ray, Connie, Glen, and Jan

Thursday, July 16

Jan and Ed, and Brent and Connie left this morning, and we said goodbye. We drove toward slaughter Mesa, off of hwy 32, and then on to forest road 4000g. We walked from there about a mile to a private cabin. We were checking for signs of Anasazi, because Ray had said they were everywhere around here. We had found signs all along the road in, when Ray told us he had found several pit houses toward the mountain. I saw an elk antler across a ravine, and claimed it. It was a nice 6 point, and searched in vain to find the other one. We hiked about a quarter mile up the hill to the pit houses, and were amazed how the Anasazi lived. There were several pit houses in the area, and one of them had four sections to it. They were all along the edge of the ravine, which is dry now, but in wetter times, it probably had running water in it. The day was warm, until it clouded up, and was threatening rain. Estrella had been missing for a while, so Glen went to look for her. We were almost back to the truck, before Glen's honking found Estrella. She said she was never lost, but just waiting for us to return. Ray, Glen, Chris, and their wives took the gravel road back to the camp, while Shelly and I went toward Quemado. I had seen the sign for Fox mountain lookout several times, and decided to find out what was there. The road went on for about five miles, and got steeper, rockier, and narrower as we went, until Shelly's nerves told me to turn around. We ended up in Quemado, and bought gas for $2.95. We were hungry, so we bought beef jerky and bugles. We called mom and dad to check on them, and they were fine. We called Erica, but kept getting cut off. The phone showed 5 dots, but we couldn't get messages or emails. We'll have to wait to check on the world. Back at camp, we visited for a while, and started planning on a Wyoming trip next year. 

Friday, July 17

Everyone else packed up this morning, so we said our goodbyes. Shelly and I drove back to the area we went to yesterday, but stopped on forest road 4010. We drove about a hundred yards before it started getting muddy. We stopped and hiked back to the area of the pit houses to see if there were others in the area. We didn't find any others, but enjoyed the cool day and hiking in this beautiful area. We started walking back down the road we came in on, but when we got back to the gravel road, we realized we had missed the turnoff to where we parked. We walked near the road about a half mile back to the truck. We drove the gravel road back to camp, which took an hour instead of the half hour on hwy 32. It was scenic, but rough. Back at camp, we decided to move to a single campsite #58. 

Shelly and Sadie

Site #58

We played cards until dark and called it a night.

Saturday, July 18

I wanted to find a camp I had stayed in with mom, dad, and my sisters 45 years ago in Arizona. I knew the area it was in, and looking at Allstays, it looked like Alpine campground south of Springerville, Arizona. I can remember tent camping, and waking up to a cold summer morning. I hiked up the mountain that morning and soaked up the sun to warm up. Jeri, Karen and I hiked up a trail to a walled in cave, possibly Anasazi. Back to the present, Shelly and I drove through Quemado to Springerville, Arizona. We stopped at McDonalds to check emails. We couldn't get their wifi, but used the iPhone as a hotspot. After checking emails, I decided ice cream sounded good, so I ordered two. After 15 minutes, I finally asked how long it was going to take to get the ice cream. She Apologized and said she forgot. Good thing we weren't in a hurry. We stopped at a moving sale, and got an electric burner for $3. We also went to a thrift store and an antique store. We drove south into the mountains, and found the campsite I was looking for.

It still looked pretty much the same as I remember, but it was pouring down rain just as we got there, so we couldn't walk to see if the walled in cave was still there. We drove back to camp, and relaxed. I hiked across a ravine to the hilltop on the other side, and enjoyed the peaceful evening. We played cards again.

Sunday, July 19

Left Quemado lake about 9, and drove south through Silver City, to Mimbres.

A thunderstorm in the mountains

Clouds building up north of Silver City

We checked into mountain spirits Rv park, in Mimbres. They are nice side by side sites and $25 a night. We drove back to Silver City to Walmart to buy groceries. Back at camp, we decided to wash clothes, but the dryer was out of service. The owner said we could use the clothes line, so we did. I fried bacon and sausage outside using our "new" electric burner, so we could put in the freezer for later. The clothes dried in about the same amount of time as they would have in the dryer. We checked in on the world since we had wifi here. 

Monday, July 20

We drove to Gila cliff dwellings and got there about 10:30.

We watched a short video in the visitors center, and learned about the dwellings. The hike up to the caves was about 15 minutes, and almost strenuous. 

On the way to the top

The first cave with the valley in the background. 

The second cave and the Anasazi style "t" door

Shelly about to go into the cave

Shelly afraid of falling off the walkway

An idea of how high the dwellings are

Shelly being brave

A look at the caves from below

Done with the tour. 

We enjoyed the Gila cliff dwellings, but we both liked Mesa Verde much better. I don't remember them from when I was a kid, and thought this would jog my memory, but it didn't. Funny that I remember the Alpine campground, but not this. On the way back, we checked out Mesa campground on Robert's lake. It has full hookups, and in a pretty area for only $15 a night. We're planning on coming back tomorrow to stay for a few nights. Back at the Rv park, Shelly cut my hair in the camper, and decided to wash the few dirty clothes we had.