After seeing Mesa campground on Robert's lake yesterday, we (mainly me) wanted to camp there for a few days. It was at a lower elevation, so we knew it would be warmer than we wanted in the day, but they had electrical sites. We got there about 10:30, and all the electrical sites were taken. So much for that great plan. We decided to take a regular site, and deal with the heat. We didn't set up completely, still hoping for a site with hookups. About noon, no one had left, and it was 85, so we decided to go to the city of rocks state park. It was even lower in elevation, but they also had hookups. We got there about 2, and found a site. They are only $14 for water and electric sites. We even had cell phone service! A thunderstorm came in as we ate lunch, so I read a book, while Shelly played mahjong. We watched a movie, while waiting for it to cool down. Shelly talked to Erica, while I hiked in the rocks, and took lots of pictures of the sunset. 
Site#8
Shelly and I hiked in the rocks, and watched the sunset. Flower in a bush
Big skies and big rocks
Grasses and rocks glowing at sunset 
Grasses and rocks glowing at sunset Sadie playing king of the mountain 
Sunset
Another sunset
Reflection of the sunset in our Airstream
Moonflower
Wednesday, July 22
I woke up early, about 4:30, and wanted to see the sunrise in the desert. I made coffee and hiked in the dark up to the rocks. The sky was overcast enough to obscure the stars, but it made for a pretty sunrise. There were lots of bats flying near my head, and the coyotes started howling at the first light. It was a neat experience, but I was sleepy all day. We drove to Silver City and walked around downtown. We checked out several junk and antique stores. (Is that redundant?) We didn't buy anything, but enjoyed looking. We ate at Jalisco's Mexican restaurant for lunch, and both thought the food was bland, and slightly overpriced. We bought gas and groceries at Walmart, before going back to the state park. It was warm and windy, so I relaxed and read more of my book, State of Fear, by Michael Chrichton. We hiked in the rocks again, but it started sprinkling again, so we watched another movie.
Thursday, July 23
We packed up and left the state park just after 9 and drove toward Cloudcroft. We got stopped at a border patrol checkpoint, but were told to have a good day, and waved us through. We stopped for a restroom break at white sands national monument, but decided not to go to the dunes again. The temperature was 92 in Alamagordo, and dropped to 72 in Cloudcroft, only 17 miles away. We checked all three campgrounds, and found site #12 in Saddle campground to be a great one. Apache campground was where we stayed 12 years ago, but was crowded. We put out two chairs to claim the spot, while we went to dump, ($5) and fill up with water. We paid for 3 nights ($20 / night), but will probably stay longer. We cut and split some firewood, and sat by a fire until dark, enjoying a perfect evening.
Friday, July 24
We drove into Cloudcroft, and got lost in a residential neighborhood, but survived, as evidenced by me still writing. Cloudcroft doesn't take as long to check out as Santa Fe. We stopped at a resale shop, and I bought two books. We drove around looking for the small store that we bought cider from 12 years ago, but decided it has closed since then. No one else had any either. We ate at Big Daddy's diner. The food was good, but again, overpriced. We drove down to Mayhill, where Shelly and I went deer hunting 30 years ago. The area burned several years ago, and nothing looked the same, but Shelly still remembers the chipmunks sharing the tent with us that night. And the creek being frozen the next morning. Ahh, memories! It rained a little back in camp, but was thundering almost constantly until dark. We built a fire anyway, and listened to the thunder, but never got wet. At least until I noticed the awning was sagging, and pushed up on it. After dowsing myself, and laughing hysterically, Shelly realized what I did, and joined in laughing at me. Brr, the water was cold. Where is a video camera when you need it? We played cards until almost 10.
Saturday, July 25
We drove to Ruidoso, to check it out, since we have never been there. We drove up hwy 244, through the Apache reservation, and drove through town. It seemed to be a cross between Bransom, and Fredricksburg, except cooler. There were lots of tourists, and the traffic to go with it. We went back to the casino on hwy 70, and I lost $15, but Shelly broke even. That only took about 30 minutes, so we decided to try Inn of the mountain gods casino. After about an hour there, I was down $10, and Shelly was down $5. Ouch again. It's almost like the slot machines are rigged in their favor. Oh well, it was fun, and the coffee was free and good. Almost too good, because I got wired up, and jittery. We decided to eat at Schlotzsky's, so back through town we went. Only this time, the traffic was worse. We looked for a grocery store on the main drag, but didn't find one, so we figured we could wait and go to Cloudcroft tomorrow. It was raining most of the morning, but had quit by the time we got back to camp. The rain had cooled it down to 55 degrees, but yesterday's firewood was wet, so I cut and split some more. Shelly tried to tell me to cover the wood, but I didn't listen. Do I ever? We sat by the fire, until dark, and played cards again.
Sunday, July 26
Every morning here has been spectacular. Blue skies, sunny, and cool, with the scent of pines to top it all off with. Every afternoon has been the same, with clouds building up by noon, and thunderstorms rolling through. They are usually through by evening, so we can sit by a campfire. Today, we drove back into Cloudcroft, to check for a laundromat, and buy milk and ice cream. We can't run out of ice cream! We drove around the residential areas again, and then back to camp. Just about everyone had checked out today, but by evening, the campground was nearly full again. Everyone we talked to agreed we have the best spot in all 3 campgrounds. We have been putting out a hummingbird feeder in every place we've been, but this place has the most we've seen. We filled up the small feeder four times today. There is always four to six hummingbirds waiting their turn, and sometimes up to 15 hovering near the feeder.
We watched a movie "little kidnappers" during today's thunderstorm, and played cards at night.
Monday, July 27
It is hard to believe we've been gone a month already, but with the exception of mom and dad's experience going home, it has been a great month. I hiked the Fir trail down to Fir group campground, and back. 
A neat fossil
It is about two and a half miles, and a nice hike. Our neighbor came over to apologize for their generator noise. ( we could not hear it because of the host's loud generator on the other end of the camp) Donya and Scott Lide are from Cleburne, and visited with us as we sat by the fire. It was thundering all around us for hours, but it didn't rain. More hummingbirds.
We watched another movie, The Wild Stallion, and played cards again. Tuesday, July 28
Another beautiful morning, with blue skies, and temps in the 50's. We drove to Alamagordo to do laundry, and check out the town. It took about 25 minutes to get there, going down the steep hill. Once in town, the temperature was 88, and got up to 94 by the time we left. We stopped at a pistachio farm, and got to see them growing. We stopped at several thrift and antique stores, but only bought one book and a tshirt. We washed clothes at a laundromat, and bought a few groceries at Lowes marketplace. It is a fancy grocery store, but with reasonable prices. We could see a huge thunderstorm in the mountains, but it was sunny all the way back to camp. Donya and Scott told us it rained and hailed hard while we were gone. We noticed huge puddles of water in Cloudcroft, and Shelly found an area where pea sized hail had washed into. It still had not melted after two hours. The temperature had fallen from 94 in town to 63 in Cloudcroft. Another thunderstorm came through our camp in the late afternoon, so we watched Fury on DVDs.
Shelly, Sadie and our campsite #12
Shelly, Sadie and a few hummingbirds.
Shelly, Sadie and a few hummingbirds.Wednesday, July 29
The morning started off drizzling, but soon cleared off to the clear morning we have come to expect. Shelly and I hiked down the road and on Fir trail. Shelly said I should have kept the fossil I took the picture of, so we went back to find it. She usually looks at me like I'm crazy when I collect rocks, so I didn't keep it the first time. At least it is small, and hopefully we won't end up like Lucy and Ricky in the Long, Long Trailer. Especially going down the hill toward Alamagordo. 
Two more shots of hummingbirds
We visited with Donya and Scott again, and sat under our awning during the expected thunderstorm. Later, we visited with them at their camp until dark. Thursday, July 30
This is the second drizzly morning, but it quit while we loaded up. We said goodbye to Donya and Scott, and drove to Valley of Fires, just west of Carrizozo. It is a strange area of lava flow, with similarities to Hawaii. The campsites ($18 /water electric) are on the edge of a hill overlooking the lava flow area, and you can see where the lava once flowed around the hill. 
The interpretive sign says the lava didn't flow from a volcano, but from a vent, and covered an area 45 miles long, and several miles wide.
We drove to Carrizozo for a few groceries. It started pouring down while we were in town, but was only sprinkling when we got back to camp. We fried bacon outside, taking advantage of the electricity. I hiked in the lava area, and explored the small caves and sinkholes looking for treasure. I found an aluminum Coors can, with no pop top, and only 11 ounces. There's treasure everywhere! We played farkle, and Shelly whipped me severely. I think she felt sorry for me after a while, and let me win a few games. Erica kept us informed on their flight status, by texting. They had changed gates twice, and the flight ended up getting delayed again, when they grounded their plane. They got another plane, and we got a text after midnight saying they landed safely.
You can see our camp on the ridge.
Sunset at Carrizozo
I was trying to get a shot of the bats flying in front of the nearly full moon, but they wouldn't cooperate.
Friday, July 31
We left Valley of Fires about 8:30, and drove to Albuquerque, checking in El Rancho Rv park about 11:15. It is mainly a mobile home park, but has lots of shade trees. ($35/ night) They wanted both our ID's, and to fill out a rental agreement on an 8&1/2" by 14" sheet. Their wifi was almost impossible to log onto, and once on, it was sketchy at best. We drove to Comfort inn where Erica and Damon were staying. We took their rental car to Santa Fe, and ate lunch at the Tune-up cafe. It is a small non-descript diner that Erica had found. The food was El Salvadoran and great. Shelly ordered Chicken quesadillas, and I got pupusas with flank steak. Both were delicious. Erica ordered banana leaf wrapped tamales, which she said was ok, and Damon also had the pupusas. From there, we drove to Black canyon campground to show them where we camp, and then to the overlook near the top. 
We kept missing the rain, only getting sprinkled on occasionally. They also wanted to see the miraculous staircase, so we parked near it, and walked. They barely got to it in time before the 5 o'clock closing time. We walked around the square, doing mostly window shopping.
Makayla was in a great mood all day, and was getting lots of compliments from everyone. We stopped at Trader Joe's for a few groceries, before heading back to Albuquerque. There was an accident on I25 midway, that slowed traffic to a crawl for about 15 minutes. It started pouring down after that, and we could tell the downpour had been going on for a while. Water was rushing in the normally dry creek bed, and was about 8" over the northbound lanes of I25, and about to come over the southbound lane as well. We called it an early night, and went back to our Rv park.
Saturday, August 1
Our air conditioner blower motor bearing decided it needed oil about 5:30, and screeched until I turned it off. I was able to use wd40 to lube it, and quiet it down. We finally got the wifi in the park to work by sitting under the antenna by the office. Erica and Damon came by to eat breakfast, and we went to the Rio Grande zoo here in Albuquerque. ($12.50 / person) Grace and Gary met us there. The zoo is set up nicely, and has lots of shade, so it wasn't too hot even though the temperature was in the low 90's. Most of the animals were taking a siesta, so I guess they were waiting for it to cool down.
Makayla wanted a siesta also, and slept about half the time we were there, but seemed to enjoy the zoo. Damon had to be at the rehearsal at 3, so we went back to check on Sadie and the air conditioner. Both were fine. We bought a pepperoni pizza from Little Caesers, and ate on the way back to the camper. We went down Central Avenue, and checked out several antique stores, but only bought a dvd (I dream of Jeannie series). Erica and Damon were back at their motel room, so we stopped in to say goodbye, before going back to the Rv park. Shelly beat me severely at farkle, and seemed to take pleasure watching me lose.
Sunday,August 2
We had a lazy morning, and still checked out by 10. We stopped at a rest area just west of Santa Fe, for a break and to use their free wifi. We made it to Black canyon campground about noon, and had our choice of sites 30 or 35. We had reserved 30, and decided to try it, since we have never been in this site. It offers more privacy, but lacks the sun for solar that 35 has.
After eating lunch with the flies, we set up our screen tent to avoid them. The park was only about a third full when we checked in, but nearly filled up by night.. Most were tent campers, which is great, because they rarely use generators. Saddle campground in Cloudcroft was the worst campground we have stayed in, as far as generator use, with over half of the campers using them every day. But they abided by the generator use hours, and the scenery made up for it. The people in site 34 were in an Airstream Interstate motor home, and came by to visit. Jim and Athena Stenson from Eddy, Texas. They both worked for the VA hospital in a Temple, and are now retired. We ate cherry cobbler he had made in a Dutch oven, and visited more that evening. Shelly whipped me again at farkle, and didn't feel sorry for me. She's getting mean.
Monday, August 3
Woke up in the middle of the night to rain and thunder. In the morning, the water was running in the normally dry creek bed, and sounded pretty with the small waterfalls and water still dripping from the trees. The temperature got down to 48, and the skies had cleared. I hiked up Black Canyon trail to the top, and then hiked a little up the creek by our camp. 
Morning walk up black canyon trail
Misty trees
Shelly and I drove to Big Tesuque trail, and hiked up the trail to Aspen Vista road. Sadie enjoyed the hiking, and we had cell phone service there. Erica texted saying they were back safely at home,, and that Makayla likes airports, airplanes, and flying. 
The afternoon was one of the few rain free days on this trip, and we tried to build a fire. The wood was still too wet, even after being covered for the last week. The fire was too smoky to enjoy, so we put it out, and walked around the park.
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