Hi There New Mexico!

Sunday, June 26 - Happy birthday to Ron today!  And yes, we are a little excited about leaving on a road trip to Utah!!!  We ended a great weekend at Fentress with Amy, Aiden and James and even a visit from my cousin Susan. What a send off!

Aiden told us bye! Not sure if he understood we won't see him for 4 months!

Our destination was Lake Brownwood State Park, about a 3 hour drive away.  We haven't been here in about 25 years, but it was a great place to start our trip.  Full hook ups meant I could catch up on all the laundry from the weekend and our guests.  We enjoyed a quick swim in the lake and a good hike off of our camping loop.

Lake Brownwood

Check out these flowers along the trail!  Beautiful!

We struck off Monday morning for the New Mexico border.  Although we are retired and have all the time in the world, truth be known I had made us reservations starting July 1 so we wouldn't be stranded over the July 4th weekend.  So, we felt like we wanted to get on down the road a little quicker. 

We stopped in Post TX at Holly's Diner. Great lunch in a dairy mart atmosphere, complete with carhops. 

Cheeseburgers are recommended!

We found a really good campsite at Oasis State Park outside of Portales, NM.  There is a really small lake here. Lots of locals fishing.  We took a hike over the sand dunes.  Great sunset. Beautiful stars. Yes, we are glad to be retired and living the dream!

Welcome to New Mexico!

Our campsite at Oasis State Park. Sites are great!  Electric and water cost only $14 a night!

Hiking along the sand dunes.

It may look like water, but it is more like salt.

The captain on his walk.

How about that sunset!

Small but pretty lake.

The next day found us headed toward Santa Fe.  We stopped off at Pecos National Historical Park.  One of our goals now is to take the time to stop and explore any historical park we come close to.  There is so much to see and do.  And it's not any fun to just drive all day without seeing/doing/exploring somewhere you haven't been before. The park is located at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.  It has a history of 10,000 years of Pueblo and Plains Indians, about 2,000 inhabitants.  After our tour at the park, we drove on to Hyde Memorial State Park for the night. Didn't really realize that you had to travel through Santa Fe downtown to get there.  Quite an adventure.  I don't really recommend this park if you have a big rig. The electric sites are right on a highway, that dead ends at the Snow Santa Fe Ski Resort.  Never could figure out why so much traffic!  It is pretty and there are all kinds of hiking trails in the National Forest.

The remains of a very large church built at the location.

Our park service busy at keeping up with restorations.

Inside the remains of the church structure.

Found this teepee on a hike at the park that evening. Seemed to be currently in use.

On the road to Ski Santa Fe.

Sangre De Cristo Mountains

Don't think you could lose this RV!

One of the items on my bucket list is to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park.  The problem is is that there is not a good campground anywhere close by.  There is a campground at the park, but you have to realize it is a long bumpy road to get there and not recommended for mid to large rigs.  So, we decided to drive on up to Aztec and take in the Aztec Ruins National Monument.  Pretty awesome place.  From the late 1000s to the late 1200s the Pueblo people planned and built a settlement here that included large public buildings, structures and ceremonial buildings.  It was a pretty cool master plan that was set out by the first builders. It is near the Animas River.

The Great Kiva was a sanctuary and a place for people to meet for community events.

Look at the detail!

One of the Kivas

Inside the great Kiva

This T-shape doorway is one of many that connect rooms directly to the central plaza.

They built things according to the sun and moon.  This wall is designed to have the summer solstice shine directly on it.

Stay tuned!  The next post will be all about Chaco Culture National Historical Park!

Good-bye Garner State Park - June 20, 2016

As our time at the Frio River and Garner State Park came to end, we managed to get our easy volunteer hours in while visiting with friends new and old and have our annual family vacation trip on the river.

!

Liz and Lucy at the pavilion getting ready to dance

Papaw and Aiden

Liz, Lucy and Courtney enjoying that cool Frio River!

Liz and Lucy enjoying a snack!

Lucy after her hike up Old Baldy.

With the recent rains, the river was really great for floating.  I tagged along with our friends the Gregurek's and Lingo's one day for a good float from Seven Bluffs to Frio Country.  The best I had seen the river in years.  Our kiddos also did a little floating from our camping loop down to the Pavilion.

Some years back while we were camping at Mager's River Camp, we met 4 of the most interesting ladies.  They each had their own tent, equipped with a cot, chamber pot and pistol. These friends obviously knew how to have fun and we have enjoyed seeing them through the years.  Gayle and her husband Mike happen to live in Concan.  While here we got to share a couple of meals with them (and wow is she a good cook!).

One of the reasons we chose to host at Garner before heading out of state was to allow for our traditional family vacation.  The kids started heading to the river on June 10.  The trip included fun times in the river, experiencing the dance for the first time, and a surprise birthday party for Papaw and Lucy and Aiden.  It was so fun to watch the kids learn to dance.  And how special when your grandson comes and asks his Nana to dance with him!!!  Garner was a great experience, just glad to be able to leave when all the crowds start showing up.

All of the birthday kids!

The grand kids had glow bracelets on. Sure made it easy to find them!

Having fun at the dance!

Courtney and her 2 buddies!

We left Garner for our favorite spot - the San Marcos River at my cousin's place.  But, Liz, Lucy, Aiden and me had to take a detour to Sea World first!  Such a fun time!  Hot!!!

I think Liz had more fun on this ride.  They are in the front row.

The grandkids had so much fun!

Guess who!!

What a fun day at Sea World San Antonio!

Don't we look like sharks?

Kids are in the back.

This tree on the San Marcos River sure got twisted in the flood.

The river is still on a rise.

This is where you will find us in the evening.

We have now been on the road for 6 months. Time flies when you are having fun!  So we have 2 tasks to complete while here at the river.  (1) Do a purge and (2) Clean. The water at the state park was horrible.  It is funny how much you don't need to live high on the hog and have the best time of your life!  We are also looking for a good, small travel trailer to use next year on our epic trip to Alaska, so we went looking. Used is hard to find in a small size!


Fathers Day was spent in Sweeny with Amy and James.  Enjoyed crawfish one night and visiting with family and friends.  Enjoyed our church family at Iago, especially since I got to play the piano.

Yum - my favorite!

Ron and his crawfish and beverage!

Mud bugs

 

This is how we all feel after all the fun we have had!

We leave for out west June 26! So excited! Stay tuned!