The Wind Began To Switch

2012 Apr 26

Crazy Wind!

The wind that was supposed to arrive yesterday is now here! Earlier this afternoon, after lunchtime, the wind began to pick up. At 3:30 pm I checked the local forecast and the winds were blowing around 25 mph. They predicted that over several hours we would experience high winds and gusting up to 50 mph. It is currently 5:00 pm and those gusts have arrived.  

The space we are in is on the windward side of the hill and it is a little unnerving when the motor home begins to list from side to side. And it is a warm, desert wind. We experienced something similar when we were camped at White's City RV Park, only then it came during the night.

Poor Greyla is totally stressed, which is kind of surprising, since she doesn't normally react to thunder storms, or fireworks, like some dogs we've had. Still, this is wind stuff is pretty new stuff for her. For a little bit she huddled under the dinette table, while Raymond & I were playing with our laptops. Then a massive gust blew through the dinette wind and with it came loads of dust. Now, with the window closed, and the dust cleaned up, we're   just trying to wait out these blustery conditions and keep our doggie calm. 

So glad we decided to stay here at Lake Cochiti for two nights. Who knows, if the wind continues tomorrow, we may stay put for an additional night. I definitely will not drive with these type of gusts happening. Too easy to lose control of the vehicle. Besides, this is a very lovely Park. More about that later.

Land of Enchantment

2012 April 15

When we were driving through Texas, Raymond kept calling it "Big Sky", and I kept telling him that's what they call Montana. Well, now here in New Mexico, I keep thinking how big the sky is. Last night I took Greyla out for a walk around 11:30 pm and was astonished, once again, by the number of stars I could see with just my unaided eyes! It was cool, since the wind event we experienced most of yesterday was still underway, and the temperature was dropping into the mid 40s, but the sky seemed enormous, and the stars closer than they have at any point before on this journey. We are camped in Whites City, NM, just 7 miles from Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Our RV is the last one on the left, seen from the area of the General Store, in Whites City RV Park, NM

The winds of yesterday diminished somewhat around 5 am, which was a welcome relief, since some of the gusts were as high as 45 mph, and the constant wind was around 25 mph. The sunrise this morning was lovely. 

 Sunrise from our "yard" @ the RV Park, in Whites City, NM

Unfortunately, the winds are currently blowing at 22 mph, but the local weather assures us that this kind of wind event happens a few times a year. Apparently we just have odd timing. In any case, even this wind hasn't diminished my initial love of New Mexico. The state motto is "Land of Enchantment". I totally get that! The colors of the blooming ocotillo flowers, the deep blue of the sky, the intensity of the green desert plants against the soil colors ranging from tan, to brown to reddish and deep red, along with the deep velvet sky sprinkled liberally with twinkling stars, are more than enough to allow me to see the enchantment of this place. If I am so taken by this brief visit in the far south eastern corner of this land, how will I feel when we reach what they refer to as "the enchanted circle" north of Santa Fe?

From One Thousand Trails to Another, Texas Style

2012 April 03

Today we drove from Bay Landing Thousand Trails in Bridgeport, Texas to Lake Whitney thousand Trails in Whitney, Texas.  Both these TT are located just outside what they refer to locally as the "metroplex". That's a Texan way to say, cities (Dallas/Fort Worth, as well as Frisco, Plano, Garland, and Denton, Arlington, Irving) with sprawling suburban bedroom communities. 

We drove from Point, Texas to Bridgeport on Saturday around noon. We chose to drive along their freeway, at the mid-ring of their beltway, because it was Saturday and we mistakenly assumed traffic would be lighter than during the week. Big mistake! Construction abounds! There was massive funneling from four lanes, to two, which then merge with an entrance ramp. The whole thing was nightmarish! And, as if all that weren't enough, it turns out that all those Texans who heretofore have been so friendly, have transformed when behind the wheel, into a combination of New York and Virginia drivers, whose response to our lane change indicator, is to speed up. And no one was getting anywhere, anyway! We were crawling along at 2 miles per hour. When we finally did manage to get over, we got honked at! I was very proud of my self control; I simply ignored them, although I did mention to Raymond that it was a good thing I didn't have a gun :)

Our "yard" at Bay Landing Thousand Trails

The Thousand Trails in Bridgeport, Texas, Bay Landing, was off the beaten track. And in true Texas style, it was HUGE! Very spread out, and none of the campsite were near the Ranger Station, which would've been a problem if we had stayed for an length of time. When we arrived we spoke with a woman in the Ranger Station who explained which areas had water, sewer and electric, which had no sewer, which were near the recreation hall, and which were near lakefront. She wasn't sure which sites were available, as it was first come first served, but wanted us to call her when we picked a site so she'd know where we were. Well, if everyone before us called, wouldn't she know which sites were occupied? Or at least which ones were unoccupied?  Oh well…off we went in search of the perfect spot. After much riding around, we decided on a spot very near the recreation hall, bath house, and lake, with full hook ups. Site number 110. 

Our view at Bay Landing

It took a little doing to get backed into the site and get the motor home level, but we did it. Then we got the water, electric, and finally started on the sewer when we made a horrible discovery. We had thrown away the sewer hose that I had inadvertently run over way back at Cedar Pines, in Pace, FL, in mid-March. We have been using only one section of hose since then, even though we have a second section. Our horrible discovery was that when we threw away the crushed sewer hose, we also threw away the connector! We were the proud owners of two sections of sewer hose, but no way to connect them. After a call to the Ranger to find out if they perhaps had one for sale, we decided to move our site. Really, thinking about it now, we should've simply stayed put, because the site we moved to was in another section of the park without sewer hook ups. Sometimes I am amazed by how stupid we can be! As it turned out, the winds were very strong, and we decided that three days there was our limit, anyway. So it wouldn't have mattered if we had stayed at site 110, even without the sewer. Maybe it was all the Dallas, excuse me, metroplex traffic and of course, the heat. We really weren't thinking clearly.

Pretty little wild flowers

Wild stuff :)

Wild succulents

On the plus side, I will say that the night skies were amazing. Also, the wild flowers were prolific. Even though the mid-days were incredibly hot, the mornings and evenings were perfect. Thank goodness for air conditioning in the afternoons!  For our last two nights in Bay Landing, the winds were howling and rocked our motor home, while we tried to sleep. We decided to move on to a Thousand Trails south of the metroplex, about halfway to Waco.The TV weather guys were calling for rain and storms, but as we prepared to leave Bay Landing, the sun was shining. We took this as a good omen. As I mentioned, we weren't obviously thinking clearly. More about that later.