Summer Closure

Today is the autumn Equinox and I can hardly believe the summer is over! Looking back over the weeks I was parked in the New Mexico state parks, I had a very diverse and interesting experience. Today I was rereading my journal and really became aware of the activity I was involved in, even though I thought I was just hanging out, relaxing, and being lazy!
I arrived back in Deming last Friday after spending a few days dry camping and spending one night in the El Paso Camping World compound. In a way it feels good to be here, where I can stay put (at a very reasonable rate) and be with folks I know. I can resume those trips to the Pink Store in Mexico and participate in the weekly potluck dinners.

When I left Bluewater Lake last week, I spent the first night in Pie Town. It's just a small spot on the highway known for its pie festival, which I'd just missed, and the local park where one can camp for free for as long as one wants. There are several full-time residents there. Many RVers stop there as they travel.

On the way to Elephant Butte State Park I visited the Bosque del Apache, just a few miles south of Socorro, NM. It is a bird sanctuary where many come each year to see the birds as they migrate. The day was very warm, and I didn't realize that the driving tour loops were dirt and gravel surface. So my rig was very dirty by the time I completed the tour. I must say I was disappointed that I didn't see much bird life while I was there. I heard that early December will be a good time to see the cranes, so maybe I'll toodle up there then.

The next two nights I spent at Elephant Butte Lake State Park, a very large lake near Truth or Consequences, NM. I was allowed to park without hooking up in a reservation area for both nights, although the park rules allow for only one night. Fortunatley no one reserved the spot for the next night. And as the wind had picked up and the weather forecast called for heavy storms, I was very glad to be able to stay put. I heard on the radio that El Paso had a huge storm with hail and flash flooding. And that was my next stop! While it was quite warm there, I like the beach atmosphere with the sand dunes, breeze (wind) and sun. It was quite pleasant. To me, the only drawback was the proximity of the neighbors - much like a regular RV park.

I'd made a reservation at Camping World to get some work done - have some systems checked out to make sure they were operating correctly. They gave me a Friday appointment, and told me to come ahead on Thursday and stay in their compound so I would already be there for them to start the work. I arrived late Thursday morning, and they told me someone had cancelled out, so they could take me then. I spent a windy, rockin' and rollin' night that Thursday night. In the morning when I was preparing to leave, I noticed that my electrical cord had come apart and the insulation was exposed. They put a new plug on for me before I left. Whew!!!

Since returning to Deming I have been able to get an 'emergency' eye appointment with a doctor in Las Cruces. There isn't anyone to help in either Silver City or Deming, so today I made the 60-mile trek into Las Cruces. A couple of months ago I noticed 'flashing' in my eyes, and a big 'floater' developed in my left eye. Because these can be symptoms of serious eye conditions, I wanted to have it checked out. I am glad to say that there is no retinal detachment or any other serious problem with my eyes. I'm just going to have to live with that big floater...

Last night the Deming weather turned cool and windy, just like Fall, so I guess just in the right time for the Equinox. A new season of harvest after a season of growth. I am grateful.

Heading Out Again

It's been a quiet four weeks at Bluewater Lake...

Well, except for the heavy earth moving equipment with their backup beeps at 7:30 a.m. too many mornings...including Sundays. They've been preparing a site for the camp hosts - I guess for next year, because rumor has it that the park is closing to new campers on Tuesday.

The weather here has been perfect. Warm in the daytime and cool at night, requiring a sweater or light jacket. And it has rained or threatened rain almost every day. Not at all bothersome. In terms of relaxability, my favorite park so far.

The birds have been a joy to watch - bluebirds, nut hatches, sparrows, hummers, Brewer's blackbirds, ravens, woodpeckers, and titmouses. My reward for picking the trash out of the fire ring when I first got here was a bluebird feather. And when I moved to another site after dumping, and picked up that trash from that site, I found a blackbird feather.

I don't know why I'm always amazed at how trashy humans can be, and are! They leave all kinds of debris in the sites. If they brought it, why can't they dispose of it in the trash? Anyway, I try to leave my site better than when I found it, and with others' habits, that's always easy to do.

There has been a camp dog in the area - a stray - that, if I wanted a pet, I would adopt. She has four beautiful puppies, and she is very well-mannered. I haven't heard her bark once. She has been trained by someone in the past as she understands commands, and she lets you pet her. Very polite dog. I have tried not to feed her, but I did give her something twice...others feed her too. That's how she survives. The park staff are aware of her, and may know where she lives. I've never heard.

In the last week I've had the pleasure of the company of a couple of men who are also LoWs. We've had some adventures together - with one who needed to repair his rig, and another who needed a ride to town for some errands. Good conversation, good food too. They will be here another few days. They helped to break up the times of solitude, which I needed, but which also became too much some days.

I'm moving on tomorrow, heading to a little intersection known as Pie Town, about 100 miles from here. Their claim to fame is their pies. There is a free parking area for RVs, with no hookups. So I'll be on the battery for the evening. Then I'll head down I-25 and make a couple of stops along the way, finally parking in Deming for the Fall and holiday season later in the week.

It's hard to believe that I've been gone for four months, and that the summer is almost over. Don't know yet what I'll do next summer, but I've loved the weather in the New Mexico mountains!

Mind Traveling

So you think it's exciting, romantic, and adventuresome to travel around in an RV - be free to go where you want and do what you want? Well, today I'm going to tell you some of the down side to all that. First of all you can only go as far as your money will go. And you must do at least a little planning for where you want to go.

This summer I've been staying in the New Mexico State Parks. An annual park pass is $225 for an out-of-state 'resident', and that allows me to park either free, without an electricity hookup or for $4 a night with electricity. Not too bad. Depending on which park you're in, you either have water at your site where you can connect your hose, or you come to the park with water in your fresh water tank. Only the first time you arrive you don't know whether there is a hookup or you need to come full. So in a few places I've filled plastic jugs from the water spigots that are located variously within the parks. And there are usually electric sites that are first-come, first-served; or you can to make a reservation, for a fee of $11 per reservation.

The parks have beautiful locations; however, many of them are old and not in good shape. The infrastructure is minimally cared for. For instance, at Santa Rosa it was hot, and almost everyone who had an electric site had their air conditioning on, myself included. I don't have a voltmeter to test my voltage, but I'm going to get one - the low voltage at this park damaged my air conditioner, I don't know to what extent. I haven't had it on since July 4 weekend. At another park there was a brown-out for the entire area, and I heard that this happens frequently. This all has driven my decision to have solar panels installed on my rig this winter. So the summers will necessarily be spent in a higher elevation, either in New Mexico, or another beautiful state where I won't need AC.

Then there's the consideration of gasoline - when towing I get about 9.5 miles per gallon. Now, I know I have some issues with my truck, so there will be some expense to address those, and maybe I'll get 11 miles per gallon afterward. One reason I chose to stay in the parks is so I wouldn't have to travel many miles to experience different locales. New Mexico is beautiful. What I didn't realize is that all the parks are about 10 to 25 miles from the nearest town - so I don't do a lot of sightseeing. Repairing my 10-year old truck is still cheaper than buying a new one, so I'm babying it - not making it go very far at a given time.

Since Don passed away, and his financial support of our lifestyle fell away, I have reordered my finances. I receive 'early' social security and a small pension. Setting aside my necessary insurances and credit card payments (I'm still paying for last year's trip to Oregon for repairs to the truck and trailer), I live on less than $800 a month. So that money has to cover my 'rent', gasoline, food, telephone and air card, Medicare Part D (that I enrolled in to avoid a penalty for late enrollment) and incidentals (like non-food items, water filters, batteries, etc.) Now that I have Medicare, I finally have insurance after five years of retirement, without any insurance, and it's lowered my net income by $125 per month.

Another way I shifted expenses was to change my 'legal domicile' to South Dakota and pay less for vehicle registration and insurance. That change is saving me about $500 a year, beginning next year(I have to go to South Dakota to get a new driver's license, and I'm not taking the rig to do it - so I'll take the bus next month.)

I'm not complaining - this is just the way it is. I'm grateful that I can stay at the New Mexico parks for a small amount, relatively speaking. The parks are much more beautiful than the higher-priced RV parks with all the amenities, where one is parked 10 feet away from one's neighbor on a concrete pad, with no shade. And now that I have my LoW lifetime membership I can stay at the ranch for half of what I paid last year, which was very reasonable.

What I AM saying is that living full-time in a travel trailer, as my home, my house, my shelter, and retreat, is not the same as going for a weekend, or a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months on an adventure, and then returning to a house or apartment. Living simply is an ideal some people have, but don't necessarily practice. Living simply sometimes requires really living without things that others take for granted. I'm still getting used to doing it by myself. The world is generally ordered into pairs...when you're not paired, you learn to be creative about things you would never have come across otherwise.

And finally, I am learning a lot about myself, and my requirements for my life. I understand myself to need a lot of solitude - getting used to that is a bit of a challenge. I can go for days without speaking to anyone, and then having conversations as I walk about. I'm liking my own company, and yet I sometimes would love to have an intimate conversation with a friend, over dinner perhaps, at a decent restaurant...A hug would be nice, too.

Most of the time I'm quite satisfied with things. Today I just want to say some truth about what I've been experiencing. I've been moving about New Mexico since early May. It's now four months later, and I think I'm feeling the need to get back to the ranch and some folks I know, and those Monday potlucks! And I think I'm going to try traveling with one or two others this winter to either Texas or Mexico.