Datura. Remember Carlos Castañeda?
Our old friend opuntia
Ocotillo
Yucca (?)
And how can one guy make this much mess?
Friday, May 20, 2016
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Rock Hound
I'm set up at Rockhound, which by now is very familiar territory. This is the same spot I had in March: number 15, right up at the top of the park.
Yesterday was quite a day. I left Valley of Fires, not knowing exactly where I'd wind up. My first stop was a place called Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, managed by the BLM. Here's a YouTube video about this site. I have a reasonable acquaintance with rock art from my river guide days up in Utah, so I was curious about this site. The reviews I'd read mentioned that the site had some RV spots, including two with electric hookups, so i thought maybe I'd just spend the day there looking at petroglyphs.
Didn't. The two RV sites were occupied; I hung out for a while to watch and have a snack, and I tend to think the occupants of those sites were workers engaged in building a new visitor center. The rest of the area was essentially a parking lot with picnic tables.
The petroglyphs were, as they always are, fascinatingly obscure. I wasn't fascinated enough, I guess, to spend a whole day there. And the weather was beginning to close in, so I moved on. Here some snaps of what they're like:
I had my eyes on staying at a New Mexico state park in Las Cruces... but it turns out it doesn't support camping of any kind, let alone RV's. I was considering just pushing on another hour or so and arriving a day early at Rock Hound, but just then the severe weather alert on my phone went off, and some ugly looking radar images suggested I hole up somewhere quick. Walmart, where else?!
Just as I got settled there and checked with Customer Service, the heavens opened!
I watched the show and followed the progress of the storm system on the radar app, made some dinner, read, and crashed. This morning (Thursday) I drove a little over an hour to Rockhound, and here I'll be until I leave for Tucson tomorrow.
Yesterday was quite a day. I left Valley of Fires, not knowing exactly where I'd wind up. My first stop was a place called Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, managed by the BLM. Here's a YouTube video about this site. I have a reasonable acquaintance with rock art from my river guide days up in Utah, so I was curious about this site. The reviews I'd read mentioned that the site had some RV spots, including two with electric hookups, so i thought maybe I'd just spend the day there looking at petroglyphs.
Didn't. The two RV sites were occupied; I hung out for a while to watch and have a snack, and I tend to think the occupants of those sites were workers engaged in building a new visitor center. The rest of the area was essentially a parking lot with picnic tables.
The petroglyphs were, as they always are, fascinatingly obscure. I wasn't fascinated enough, I guess, to spend a whole day there. And the weather was beginning to close in, so I moved on. Here some snaps of what they're like:
I had my eyes on staying at a New Mexico state park in Las Cruces... but it turns out it doesn't support camping of any kind, let alone RV's. I was considering just pushing on another hour or so and arriving a day early at Rock Hound, but just then the severe weather alert on my phone went off, and some ugly looking radar images suggested I hole up somewhere quick. Walmart, where else?!
Just as I got settled there and checked with Customer Service, the heavens opened!
I watched the show and followed the progress of the storm system on the radar app, made some dinner, read, and crashed. This morning (Thursday) I drove a little over an hour to Rockhound, and here I'll be until I leave for Tucson tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Travel day
It's time to leave the Valley of Fires and continue southering. ("Northering" seems to be a word, so why not?) Today a short hop down to an interesting-looking petroglyph site near Tularosa, and then on down to Rockhound state park just south of Deming for a couple of days. Perhaps a stop at the White Sands Missile Range museum along the way. Saturday, a long-ish haul almost due west for home in Tucson.
As expected, the weather has been a factor the last few days. Cool, windy, cloudy, intermittent rain. Occasional thunder. For this solo traveler, that means lots of time curled up with a good book and NPR or music. Having unlimited electricity and water is so great!
I don't have unlimited data for internet access via the laptop, but I do have unlimited ATT data for the phone. That meant that I spent almost all of my on-line time on my iPhone. Today I have enough data left in my plan, which provides 10 gigs a month, to use the laptop a bit. And tomorrow, the plan "recharges" and I get another 10 gigs to pay with. More than enough to get me home in a few days!
The grey, lowering skies aren't what I'm used to here in the Southwest. Last evening, the darkness got to me, so I turned on almost every light in the rig. Felt much better! So did using the Beast's built-in "furnace:" Gas-fired forced hot air. Neither of these would be a good idea running off just batteries, to say the least!
The clouds have parted, and sunrise is happening. Time for a short pre-breakfast stroll, leaning into the wind.
As expected, the weather has been a factor the last few days. Cool, windy, cloudy, intermittent rain. Occasional thunder. For this solo traveler, that means lots of time curled up with a good book and NPR or music. Having unlimited electricity and water is so great!
I don't have unlimited data for internet access via the laptop, but I do have unlimited ATT data for the phone. That meant that I spent almost all of my on-line time on my iPhone. Today I have enough data left in my plan, which provides 10 gigs a month, to use the laptop a bit. And tomorrow, the plan "recharges" and I get another 10 gigs to pay with. More than enough to get me home in a few days!
The grey, lowering skies aren't what I'm used to here in the Southwest. Last evening, the darkness got to me, so I turned on almost every light in the rig. Felt much better! So did using the Beast's built-in "furnace:" Gas-fired forced hot air. Neither of these would be a good idea running off just batteries, to say the least!
The clouds have parted, and sunrise is happening. Time for a short pre-breakfast stroll, leaning into the wind.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Valley of Fires
Near Carrizozo NM. I'm running out of data on my Verizon hot spot, so posts will be brief and less frequent for a while.
Friday, May 13, 2016
In White Rock NM
What?! Doesn't everyone travel with their pet orchid?
The trip down to White Rock from Navajo Dam yesterday was uneventful. The road just out out of Navajo Dam goes roughly east, through Dulce and Chama, before heading south. It's high country up there; the road goes along between 7500 and 8500 feet. Maybe the elevation has something to do with the fact that the gas mileage for this stretch was worse than the preceding days?
It's wonderful seeing old friends Doug and Dotty here in White Rock. I'll decompress here for another day and then head south to Valley of Fires near Carrizozo, NM. The weather forecast isn't ideal for the next few days: thunderstorms and high winds. But so far my roof maintenance seems to have done its job, and the new tires feel like they're gripping the road pretty good. So on we go.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Listen up!
OK, boys and girls, it's time for our afternoon field biology lesson. There will be a quiz in the morning.
Where we are now is in one of the most common biomes in the Southwest: the piñon-juniper woodland. Its characteristic plants are the piñon pine and the juniper. As I looked up from my book just now, there they were right in front of me:
Juniper berries are one of the starting points for gin!
Although this isn't what most people think of as cactus country, it's pretty common to find little beavertail cactus (genus opuntia) hanging out with their bigger siblings:
Most people who come in contact with glochids are pretty unhappy:
If the glochidia are allowed to remain in the skin, a dermatitis may ensue that will persist for months. It may help to treat the affected area with a topical corticosteroid.[ However, since the presence of glochidia is the inciting factor, removal of these minute spines would seem to be a more rational approach.
The thing is, they're really hard to remove. Go read the Wikipedia article referenced above!
Class dismissed. It's cocktail time for me!
Where we are now is in one of the most common biomes in the Southwest: the piñon-juniper woodland. Its characteristic plants are the piñon pine and the juniper. As I looked up from my book just now, there they were right in front of me:
Although this isn't what most people think of as cactus country, it's pretty common to find little beavertail cactus (genus opuntia) hanging out with their bigger siblings:
The big old spines are the most obvious reason to avoid blundering into one of these guys. But the lasting misery if you do comes from the clusters of glochid hairs at the base of the spines. As Wikipedia observes:
Most cacti possess spines, some large enough to cause serious wounds. Glochids however, though smaller, commonly induce more troublesome, more persistent, dermatological manifestations in humans. Though minute, glochids commonly are barbed and once they have penetrated the skin barbed glochids are practically impossible to dislodge without leaving scraps of foreign material in the wound.
Most people who come in contact with glochids are pretty unhappy:
If the glochidia are allowed to remain in the skin, a dermatitis may ensue that will persist for months. It may help to treat the affected area with a topical corticosteroid.[ However, since the presence of glochidia is the inciting factor, removal of these minute spines would seem to be a more rational approach.
The thing is, they're really hard to remove. Go read the Wikipedia article referenced above!
Class dismissed. It's cocktail time for me!
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