"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

November 29, 2006 The sun in shining but it is cold; in the 40s. The sun should get us heated up to about 60s today. We didn’t see too many aliens in Roswell so we drove out to Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge where in 2005 we had spent a week working on drip lines in the butterfly garden. Ranger Steve Alverez was in the office and we had a nice hello. He took us out to the new visitor center and showed us the new video. It was one of the best we have ever seen with video clips of wildlife that were exceptional. If you are in the market for a professional video, check with Blue Earth Films. Steve walked along the butterfly trail with us; we admired the new exhibit signs and newly planted areas. It will be a great haven for butterflies come spring. In Artesia we got a wifi hit so spent some time with that; checked weather. It is going to get real cold tonight, in the 20s. The winds are blowing us sideways so diving is a little slow. The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Carlsbad was ...

November 28, 2006 We pulled out of Alamogordo, NM as the sun was pushing heat through the air of early morning. Our first snow this season was on the highest hilltops in the distance of the Sacramento Mountains. After yesterdays cloud filled sky that dropped rain on the area filling the air with the scent of creosote bush, the s mell of the desert, today is clear and sunny. Three River Petroglyphs is owned and operated by BLM. They have a few campsites with water and electric for just $5 with your NP pass. We spent several hours walking the trails looking a rock art done by peoples archeologists refer to as the Jornada Mogollon, of a thousand years ago. There are over 21,000. We saw Petroglyphs, rock carvings, of circles, circles with crosses, tracks, birds, hand prints, big horn sheep, masks, lizards and shapes. These were done by scratching or pecking through the dark patina, rock formed through oxidation when air meets with the minerals of the rocks surface. Indian Pass at almost 7...

November 27, 2006 White Sands National Monument is at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert in the Tularosa Basin with mountains all around. Two hundred and seventy-five square miles of glistening white sands, the world’s largest gypsum dunes, are preserved with plants and animals that have adapted to their white environment. Ranger Kathy Denton presented Kathy with her Jr. Ranger patch after spending a few hours going over her booklet and talking with us. Is it snowing where you are?

November 26, 2006 After watching the Steelers lose a football game we went to the New Mexico Museum of Space History here in Alamogordo, NM. They have four floors of exhibits that educate, entertain and inspire. We spent hours exploring. The building sits on a hillside overlooking the Tularosa Basin, home of Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range. Among the artifacts was a real moon rock and replicas of Sputnik. There were Space Shuttle “flown” items. Kathy was in here glory. Estes Model Rocket had a few displays too that reminded Kathy of the summers she spent in Russia at the Space Center for Gifted Children in Krasnoyarsk making and launching model rockets. The x-Prize Cup exhibit described the competition that let to the space ship one to become the first manned commercial ship to journey into space and return safely. The International Space Hall of Fame was established in 1976 and commemorates the achievements of men and women who have furthered humanity’s explorati...

November 25, 2006 The Alameda Park Zoo in Alamogordo, New Mexico is a small zoo, just about a mile to walk it completely around seeing the animals twice, once going in and once coming out. The animals were in small comfortable enclosures and visible from all sides. One of our favorites was the capuson monkeys because one little guy interacted with Will who gave him a stick. The ocelot was up walking around, the brown black bear went in the water, the emus came to the fence and picked leaves off the bushes, the spiral horned goat was following the female and standing on the rock pile, and the river otters were swimming. We found a wifi at the parking lot of the Taiwan Kitchen Restaurant and got caught up on the Internet then went to dinner. Back at the Roadtrek we spent the night at the Waldorf watching Family Man

November 24, 2006 We awoke and went to Chamizal National Monument across the street. There they have an outdoor stage, picnic area, walkways and a visitor center. We watched the short video about the boundary dispute between Mexico and the US because of the change in the path of the Rio Grande River. It was decided in 1879 that the boundary would be at the deepest part of the river, but that changed with floods. So President Kennedy made a new border with Mexico that put the river into a cement channel giving land back to Mexico. Land known as the Cordova Island became the National Monument. We received our Jr Ranger badges and patches. The El Paso Zoo like many we have been to have a long walk before seeing any animals. The tiger was a joy; he walked about his habitat then went into the water and saw! We caught it on video; look in the movie gallery. The sea lion played with Will. The taper was interesting, big with what looked like a gray blanket over his black body. Do you know what...

Santa arrived on motorcycle in the El Paso Thanksgiving Day Parade! Well, our laptop lost its system 32 file and sat staring at us with its blue screen. We tried everything, but all we got was the blue screen with its gray box telling us of its missing file. We feared we would lose everything, all the photographs, all the journal entries, all our data files and so we called Justin. We needed a Windows XP disk. We found a CompUSA in El Paso, Texas. We had bought the laptop at CompUSA and purchased a 3 year warranty. But we were told it was a software problem not covered by our warranty. Our thoughts moved to saving our data and we purchased an external harddrive and had them backup our system for $100 and three hours of waiting. CompUSA would not use their WindowsXP disk to try to safe our system unless we paid $200 so we rebooted our system. The first thing the reboot does is save your data files! Well, there was a waste of $100, but a lesson learned. Now we have an external drive to s...

November 20, 2006 It was almost noon we departed our parking spot along AZ9. Border patrol past us not giving a look, big rigs past us carrying large new machinery. We sat waiting for the sun to warm the air all around us. It did. Kathy picked a few wildflower, yellow daisy like desert flowers. AZ9 is a small two-lane road that borders Mexico. Grassland with creosote and yucca covers the scene in both direction and we headed toward mountains. A few small towns, a few ranches, a few nests of scatter homes and few side roads of dirt are along the way. Near Hermanas, a town without business or streets, we saw fields of cotton, fields of red chili peppers. The roadside was spotted white with cotton and an occasional pepper. Will caught something, maybe tarantula, crossing the street. We turned around. It was something. It was a grasshopper, really two, one was riding piggyback. They were big! Columbus is a border town that use to be on the southwestern Rail line that is not more. The depot...

We posted four entries today and a movie. November 19, 2006 Our morning walk was shor; we realized we had camped just a half a mile from pavement. We turned around and made coffee. Then we headed to Portal. We had traveled west to east over the mountains. Now we are down below looking up at the massive stone covered with yellow and red lichen. There are more white barked maple trees. We got water at Sunny Flat Campground, an improved area with restrooms, water, paved road and sites all nested under the rock mountains with wildflowers scatter around. We really liked the forest; a great out of the way place to spend time. All of sudden you pop out of the Coranado National Forest and you are in with prickly pines and century plants, homes spread out with dirt roads cut into the earth like wounds. Before us stretches a huge valley. We arrived in Portal, town with a general store and café, lodge and a few houses scatter about. Along NM9 we pulled over and had breakfast; Kathy chatted on the...

November 18, 2006 Up to another beautiful day. We spent the day working on paperwork, printing calendars, making up new business cards, printing and cutting them, making Christmas presents and relaxing. Other campers; ones with children frolicking in the woods, ones practicing their bagpipes and banjo, ones in trailers and ones in tents joined us. We departed about 3pm and worked our way up the gravel narrow National Forest road. We past more dispersed camping areas. The creek has water in it from time to time. Once we even had to cross the stream going across the road. We had to drive slow so we didn’t get rattled apart. That means between 4-9mph. We came to a big crossroads; 18 miles to Portal. We found the road similar to drive in and out of where JMe is buried. The trip up the hill is okay because we are on the inside of the hill We have past a few vehicles and they are on the outside; the straight down fall off the road side. We got up to Onion Saddle, the pass at 7600 feet and be...

November 17, 2006 Kathy didn’t feel well today; Will made her some hot coffee. We spent the morning relaxed inside with the heater on and sipping hot coffee. Kathy read her adventure fantasy book and Will worked his cross numbers puzzles. The sun came over the mountain and warmed the air and brightened the day. We went for a walk the forest road and found that there was water in the creek further up. A Chiricahau Red Squirrel ran up a tree; he has a great bushy tail. Back at camp we had breakfast and settled in playing cards, reading, puzzling and resting. Will worked on printing Christmas cards. Kathy cleaned a pomegranate thinking it would help her feel better. We sat and watched the birds, listened to the bees and flies, and played some cards. Kathy took a nap. It was a good day for hanging out in the woods. Will made Kathy some vegetable soup that was yummy. She was starting to feel better. We watched Lord of the Rings Twin Towers.

November 16, 2006 It was a wonderful day. We woke and sat inside a bit til things outside warmed up. The sun peeked over the mountains then filtered down through the trees. We are parked under a great Ponderosa Pine with Alligator Juniper, oak, pine and cypress filling the forest. Grass grows under the trees and smaller bushes and trees. The bushes are in fall colors; the few maples have lost their leaves and stand white barked to the sky. A dry creek bed borders the dispersed camping area of the Coronodo National Forest of the Chiricahau Mountains. We took our morning walk along the roadway hoping to find the missing $85 hubcap. We retraced our steps through the campground and onto the road. About two miles later Will spied it up on the hill. It had come off just after going over a cow grate crossing. We turned and carried our treasure home. The sun moved across the sky as we read and puzzled, had a meal and played Boggle. Kathy scrubbed the floor and cleaned the inside windows while ...

November 15, 2006 We had another slow morning; we are really into retirement! Spent the morning shopping. Along with food we got some new DVD’s. After McDonalds for breakfast we did the town, Douglas, founded in 1901. It is a cultural crossroads and gateway to Mexico. The police station is in the old El Paso Southwestern Depot. The stainglass dome is a work of art. Sonoran row houses, the Douglas home, Queen Anne cottages and period revival buildings take you back in time to the early 1900s. US191 is a two-lane road up the center of the valley. Sotol yuccas are along the roadway as one might expect to see wildflowers. In each direction the grassland stretches to the mountains. We made our way up to Chiricahua National Monument, established in 1924, is a land of standing up rocks. We entered a mountain island above the grassland sea. The cactus and mesquite trees begin to give way to woodlands. 27 million years ago Turkey Creek Volcano spewed ash over the area that formed years of gray ...

November 14, 2006 We woke to a calm cool day. Looking down to the lake we observed it to be clear and blue reflecting the trees so that up was the same as down. There was no sound. The birds must have left early; we never heard them go. We enjoyed breakfast, did some clean up and readied to depart. We had already overstayed our visit by a day. Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Area has 3-nights free parking. Up in the sky, far up beyond the clouds we spotted fireworks, swishing stars, no they were Sandhill cranes coming in. As they turned and the sun caught them they looked like white specks moving. Watching we could see them soar, drop, and fly. We could hear them call to one another, to the ones already on the ground. The grounded Sandhill cranes were calling too, maybe yell, “stop here, here we are.” The winds picked up. The lake was brown; the winds pushing up little waves against the shore. We walked to the near spit and observed the Sandhill cranes roosted there. We could see the gr...

November 13, 2006 Watch the movie of the sandhill cranes at sunset in the Movie Gallery. It was cold morning. We heard the birds take off before the sun was even up over the hills. We stayed under our covers until it warmed up a bit. The day was hazy, cloud covered and cool. Late morning we watched the sky turn black with Sandcranes coming in. They came in groups and swarms and long lines. They put down their legs as they approached the shore and settled in. Many landed on this side of the lake there were so many. We were giddy with the view, so many coming in. By noon they were settled and only a few stragglers came. Will worked on the 2007 calendar; Kathy journaled, read and crocheted. The day past quickly. We watched a hawk; we called him ours as he seemed to hunt in this area regularly. The sky was red when we walked out to the view area. We could hear the sandhill cranes across the water. They were making an unusual amount of raucous. They were flying off at the time they should b...

November 12, 2006 Happy Birthday Shawn. The day started early with the sound a large truck making donuts in the parking lot, tossing beer cans about and shining spot lights in our windows. Will called 911 and was talking with them. The truck sped away. Light filled the sky and so did the sound of thousands of Sandhill cranes. We watched as they took off in long strings, vee formations and clusters of hundreds. We walked down to the spit and watched, looked at them closely through binoculars and as the sound subsided we walked back to the Roadtrek for coffee and breakfast. Later in the morning we walked again. This time out we walked a dirt road that lead around the lake. We came to a spot where we could get above the tall grasses and see the cranes. They were coming back from their morning graze time. New ones were coming too. The came in groups of hundreds, or groups of two. They fell from the clouds, circling downward. As they approached their landing area they dropped their legs and...

November 11, 2006 About 5am the sound started, the sandhill cranes were waking and calling to each other, honking about places to head off to with good grazing for the day. The sound came from the far side of the lake and worked its way over filling the air. As the sun was working its way over the horizon the birds took flight in groups of five or fifty and flew off looking for good grazing grounds. We said goodbye to our friends, Karen and Herb, and settled into some reading and puzzling. We walked down to the lake and out the little spit to a deck with viewing binoculars and observed the sandhill cranes across the lake. Will made us a yummy chicken and stuffing for dinner and we past the time playing Boggle. The birds arrived back in swarms to settle for the night. We watched Mist as our evening movie.

November 10, 2006 We had a slow morning even though Will was up about 5am it was not until after seven when we started our day. We drove south past the pueblo style housing plans to the ore traditional suburban styles and then to the scatter homes in the rolling hills. We are still in the Sonoran desert with prickly pear cactus, ground cover and sage bush dominating the vegetation. In the higher elevations we saw more grassland and mesquite trees. In the hills the grass was rich and full. Cattle grazed along with the pronghorn antelope. Century plants and stool yucca dot the hills. Although it is fall, even here in the hills, some yucca burst into bloom as all around them the dried seedpods are sending out dried seed to find their own spot to send forth a new plant. The ghost town, Fairbanks, is being restored by the BLM. The school is almost finished and the mercantile building which housed the post office until 1970 has a new roof and side wall. The town was in its heyday during the ...

November 9, 2006 Will had come to bed late and got up early. At 6am he turned on the radio, the speaker is right at Kathy’s head, as a wake-up call. We got breakfast at the Walmart McDonalds and drove over to the Solar Store where we had an 8am appointment. We met Chad and had a nice talk about putting in a solar panel on the roof, but we still needed to do some homework like getting a schematic from Roadtrek for the wires and control box and specs on the battery. We learned a little though and met a really nice guy. They would not be able to do it for us until Thanksgiving so it is a little mute at this point anyway, but we are a little smarter. It was a day of laundry, posting blogs, shopping and getting ready to depart the big city for a while. We stopped at Colossal Cave and got there in time for the last tour of the day. Helen, our guide, took the four of us, a young couple also went along, down the hundred and eighty or so steps into the bowls of the earth. This is a dry cave wit...

Sorry it took us so long to post; we have been out of cell phone and wifi range, but enjoy the last weeks posts. Starting with November 2 and we are all caught up. New postings to the movie and photo galleries will come later. November 8, 2006 We woke to a cool morning that quickly warmed as the sun burned through the morning haze. We sipped coffee, had breakfast and started our day. The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge was a 40-mile detour from getting to Tucson, but we decided to take it. The day was young and we felt fresh. We drove though the lush grasslands with spotted mesquite groves to the visitor center. We didn’t go to the woodlands of Brown Canyon below Baboquivari Peak, but took the Arivaca road east. We picnicked among the Cottonwoods. We walked the Cienega Creek Trail looking for signs of wildlife; all we found were grasshoppers, lots of grasshoppers. You could see them jumping and here their jumping to get out of your way as you walked. At the visitor center we had ...

November 7, 2006 Kathy woke to golden sky that faded out to the eastern horizon. Will woke shortly after to see the pelicans ready for a day of fishing. On the abandoned harbor light sat an osprey looking for his meal. We walked the waking streets of town along the water and into the back streets. Small sinderblock homes sat fenced against bypassers. At Santana’s, a Mexican version of Starbucks we had our coffee and sent out an email. How did you like seeing a message right from internet Mexico to your desktop? Will got himself a new teeshirt from Puerto Panasco’s Santana coffee shop and we strolled back the streets of town. Back at the van we ate a little breakfast then prepared our journey north. First we took the sand packed road to La Choya, a housing plan near the bay. It reminded us of pictures one sees of homes in Greece on the hills. We past the new high-rise condos and new building projects, the golf course of green amongst the desert sands, and found The Reef, a restaurant, R...

November 6, 2006 Last night we watched the stars come out, all twelve of them and Kathy had gone to sleep leaving Will on the computer. We are getting about two hours on a charged battery for the laptop. That was good since there can be no generators used in the NP campground and we had company. This morning the moon was over the mountain setting in the west as the sun came up in the east. We hiked the Alamoso Trail to the ruins of an old ranch and corral. Back in 1978 it had a roof; when it joined the national park they took the roof off and let the elements take over. It was a nice hike of about two miles through the saguaro cactus and organ pipe cactus along a wash. After puzzling and reading time we drove past the saguaro cactus with a face and on to the visitor center where Southwest Association Member Janet Castro helped us. She gave us information about traveling through Mexico to Rocky Point on the Gulf of California. She showed us a spot in Sonoyta to get good food; her friend...

November 5, 2006 Will slept in; Kathy made coffee and went into her fantasy adventure book. It was about noon when we left our spot on the side of the mountain and made our way back up to the visitor center. Inside we asked questions: Why have they demoted Pluto as a planet? This is discussion since its discovery because it is so small and now new planets that are larger are being discovered. The story is not over yet as astronomers all over the world are protesting it being reclassified as a dwarf star. What of planet X? We know it is larger than Pluto, but before the naming agents will agree the must first come to grips about Pluto. Why are there so few astronomers here? The full moon makes for not the best viewing time. We were told that the night would be a cloudy one and with the full moon it was not going to be the best time to spend $39 to view the heavens. Even Saturn will not be visable until early morning. We worked our way back down the mountain and continued west on AZ86. t...