Headed out ...

I don't think the flowers will look like this just yet ... 

At last.  Headed first for Rockhound State Park near Deming, leaving Tuesday. I only have a week or so right now, so I may just hunker down there for a few days and collect rocks. (They let you!)   There's a couple more NM state parks nearby: one is down near the border: Pancho Villa, and the other I've been to before, City of Rocks.  Pancho Villa looks and sounds pretty unattractive; I guess the major appeal is that it's 3 miles from the border and walking across and back is simple and fast.  City of Rocks is cool!

I have my bright shiny new New Mexico state parks sticker, which means that I can dry camp for "free" at any of the NM parks, and a site with electricity is $4.  These parks are all part of the NM online reservation system, but only a fraction of the RV sites are available through the system.  The rest are all first-come-first-served. I talked to the manager at Rockhound, and he said it's a busy time of year for them. I plan to arrive about mid-day, and in the worst case I'll spend one night in a "dry" site and then move over to one with electricity.  If I want.  It's sunny and warm over there right now, just like it is here in Tucson, so the little solar panel will probably do a good job of keeping the lights on and the electronics humming.

Image lifted from Bucks' web site

The Beast went in to Buck's for an oil change and general pre-trip checkover.  The big bad news is it needs new ball joints before longer trips this summer.

Cost at Buck's will be about $1000, and then an alignment at one of the few places in Tucson that can do alignments for RV's.  Oh, well: what are income tax refunds for, anyway?

It's things like this that make me glad I have a mechanic I trust. I've said it before: these guys have been in business here for years and years.  They have a solid reputation, and I trust that when they say something needs doing, I do it.  This piece of maintenance should help me get more miles on the tires: I'm expecting that a new set of tires will be one of the major expenses in the next couple years. Yeah, ouch!

I've been making lists.  Actually, making up a whole sheaf of departure checklists, so I can avoid forgetting something.  Yeah, right.  Well, it's been a way to amuse myself while I wait for a long enough stretch of free time to get away.

Next bulletin should be from over there.  And I'll tell you what I forgot.