Here are a couple of random pictures of the area.


An early morning up at the cliff dwellings before any visitors show up. It's a time to listen to Mother Nature. The sound of the creek below in the canyon. To the birds signing in the trees near and far. The wind as it flows around you like a stream.








A day down by the Gila River about a half mile from where our

trailer is parked. Here the Gila has combined the West and Middle Fork and is

about to add the East Fork before it turns west and heads for Arizona.

Nature's interesting curves. An interesting bit of nature on the hike up to the cliff dwelings. Gnarled but still alive.

A visit to the goat ranch nearby. I was told that these are destined to be meat goats. Can't say that I have ever eaten goat. Are these kids cute or what?

Television in the Hinderlands

As you know R and I are volunteering out here in the hinderlands. It is Saturday evening and we decided to not go into town until Monday this week so we attended a couple of tours in the National Monument today to see if we could learn anything. We did.

I am sending you this blog today from the beautiful stark white laundry room located in the residential area which is located up and behind the visitor center here at the national monument. Currently we have two loads in the very new front loading LG washers waiting for them to be done and into the dryer. The good thing is that there is WiFi (Hughes Net) here so I can do this and so here it comes.

Being in the Outback has it's advantages. Quiet, no traffic, beautiful night skies, terrific scenery, quiet and the animals (including the tufted eared squirrel). But as you can imagine, it also has a few down sides. No cell, no tv,only one redio station and it's Country ( I mean country; my dog died, my girls left me, there ain't no place like this here farm, stay away froom my truck - country) I can't listen to that! To continue on, no stores, extended time periods to travel to anyplace, no shopping. The nearest restaurant is the Breeze Inn which is located at the junction of Hwys 15 and 35 which is 14 miles and 30 minutes away. we haven't tried it yet. Getting to the subject of TV. It is not a necessity. We got along without TV last year at Petified Forest. But we were closer to civilization. The situation here with us being parked 3 miles from the VC and some of teh other volunteeers, makes us feel more isolated. Also, at PF we had cell coverage so we could call and be called whenever. That's more difficult than TV.

But getting to the subject of this blog; TV. At home we were signed up with Comcast Cable. everything was fine. During our time away from home last year, we had the cable turned off. NO sweat. And upon getting home had it turned on. The trouble came when we wanted to turn it off for our second trip. "You only can turn it off once a year." So we dumped Comncast and signed up for Direct TV. I don't know why we went with them over Dish. Thinking about upcoming trips to these far off places, I added an addtional dish to take with us. Again, no problem. In tlaking with the rep when we signed up, I asked, " Can I get local stations when we are in another state, say Oklahoma? " " Sure, no problem. You will still get your local stations.' "I will get Eugene stations even in New Mexico?" "Yup" You know what the real answer to that question is don't you?

We get here, I set up the dish and guess what? no local tv. Surprise, surprise. So I call.

First call: "Sir, you are out of your area, so you will have to pay extra for ABC, CBS, etc at $3.50 each." "OK I have to think about it."

Second Call: " OK I have a question about getting local tv stations. How do I do it?" " Sir we can just change your address and you should get the local stations in your area there in NM." " How do I do that?" " We can do that right here. You just need to reset your DVR when you get back to your RV." Great.

Third Call: " I have reset my DVR and still no local stations.""Sir that's because you can't do that. You will not be able to get local stations when you are outside of your local area. The only thing we can do is send you the paperwork to allow you to purchase a package to get national feeds of the major networks. It will be mailed to your home address. Fill them out and mail them to us and 14 days later you should get the national channels."

So a week later I receive an envelope containing several forms that allows Direct TV to sell me the use of the New York and LA feeds of the major channels for $14.00/month. This is all because of FCC regulations. I filled out the forms, got the necessary serials numbers off my equipment, and now I wait. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I can watch "Days of Our Lives" again.

Top Gear

One of my favorite programs on tv right now is called Top Gear. It's on BBC America. If you are any kind of a car person I think you might enjoy it. First of all it British so that's fun. Then they drive lots of cool cars, Porsches, Aston Martins, and some exotics that I have never heard of and and do things with them like drive them very fast on tracks and great roads. The three guys that are the hosts are pretty funny, too . Oh and did I say they are British? That's funny all by itself. Take a peak and let me know what you think.

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First Week-end Loop

This past week-end R and I decided to "get out of town". Of course we are already out of town, but you get the idea. Here is what I wrote on the morning of day two.

First Trip

It’s Sunday morning, March 14, 2010. I’m sitting on the bed of the cabin we occupied last night. We are in the village of Glenwood, NM which is located on Hwy 180 in western New Mexico. Yesterday I got up on attended the weekly staff meeting at the monument while R got ready. Steve, superintendent uses it to keep everyone, employees and volunteers like, informed on what has happened and scheduled to happen in the National Monument. It’s a chance to share ideas and Steve’s latest baked good. Yesterday it was both banana and zucchini breads. Yumm. During the meeting, it was announced that part of the Catwalk was going to be closed for a month due to bridge repair. We had heard visitors talking about it so we wanted to see it. So mentally our route for this weekend had been decided.

After the meeting, we drove back to the trailer and we loaded the girls and our luggage and headed for town. An hour and a half later we were in town and talking to my sister on the cell. She does not have email so has not heard from us for two weeks. When we said goodbye, we headed for Billy Casper (see previous blog) for an hour in the pool. Then it was time spent at a table in front of a deli in downtown Silver ( that’s what locals call it).

So it was 1:30 ish when we headed out of town northwesterly on Hwy 180. I think that it may be the route we use when we leave here. Originally, I had planned to retrace our route on 10 back to Tuscan and then to Phoenix, to Q to LV, etc. 180 will get us to 191 to I-40. Anyway, back to yesterday, the trip was generally unremarkable. This area is semi-arid ranching with almost no settlements and snow covered mountains to the east. Coming down the hill, there’s a sign that says, “Glenwood, a town you’ll never forget.” I must say that despite the smallness and “averageness” of it, we have had a nice stop.

Day two dawned with mostly blue skies and so we headed north on 180. The topography and scenery gets a lot more interesting from Glenwood north. Mountains and trees abound. Turning east away from 180 and heading for the county seat of Catron county, Reserve, NM. Catron County is one of the larger counties (6800 sq mi.) in NM and the least populated (3800+). So to drive through it, means a lot miles but not a lot of towns.

Driving northeast you move from trees to brush to scarce vegetation. You encounter the Plains of San Augustin. It is a huge flat area surrounded by mountains. The town of Datil is an oasis in the middle of it. R and I stopped for lunch and a nice spot named Mary Mac's. It is a small cafe in a shady spot just off the highway. Parker and Ann Fillion run the restaurant with good food and pleasant conversation. I asked Parker about the name of the town Datil (pronounced DAT {like fat} ul) DAT ul . He said that some people found trees that they thought were dates in the area so they named the town Datil. Hmmmmm...

After lunch it was 15 miles down the road to the VLA. Remember the Jodie Foster movie "Contact"? It was filmed there. VLA (Very Large Array) consists of 27 very large dish antennae that send out radio waves into the skies. The data they recieve back are converted into pictures of our universe. The pictures coming back are totally different from those of visual telescopes. The dishes can be all bunched together to get a high precise picture or moved out on railroad tracks on any of three directions in a "Y" pattern. Each arm of the "Y" is 13 miles long allowing the formation of an antenna the size of Washington DC. It was pretty amazing. From VLA it 20 more miles on Hwy60 to I-25 to Socorro , groceries at Truth or Consequences, and a long curvy drive via 152 to 35 to 15 home.

Silver City, NM

Yesterday we drove into town. Forty miles, how long can that take? Well, how about an hour and a half? The road is a paved highway, New Mexico #15, but it resembles the path a snake would take through a briar patch. When you drive north out of SC (Silver City) you start to climb and pass through Pinos Altos, which is an old mining town (future exploring trip) and then, still climbing, into the forest. You leave private land and enter the Gila National Forest and for about 15 miles wind left and right, up and down on this paved, 1 ½ lane road (with no center of edge lines) as you travel generally northward at a blistering pace of 15-20 mph. Your eyes are ever watching for oncoming vehicles, especially on the curves, (some being 180 degrees), not to mention, water running across the road, and animals. On the way home last night, we saw a total of 5 deer in three locations, a herd of 12 elk, and numerous squirrels and rabbits.

About halfway on the trip home Hwy 35 intersects Hwy 15. From there to the monument the road becomes a road normal width and striping. But it also becomes more vertical as it traverses over a pass of 7440 ft. In 14 miles the roads rises from 6000 ft to 7400 ft and back down to 6000. My stomach was in my throat on that first trip with a 12000 pound fifth wheel hooked to my pickup. We were advised to bring our trailer here by way of Hwy 35 to avoid the narrow part of Hwy 15. I’m glad we did. Yesterday, I stopped and talked to couple in a 38ft motorhome at the intersection of Hwy 15 & 35. They had just come on 15 with that rig and were checking the map. I was amazed that they were able to come that way and still be able to smile so I told them about the rest of the trip. A piece of cake after what they had driven.

The trip each way, took us about 80 minutes which I think is good considering it was our first trip and I was not trying to push it, although I would not want to have been in the back seat. SC is worth the trip. It has all the necessities, three grocery stores, auto parts, car dealers, etc. plus a quant old town downtown. We were happy to find a gym/rehabilitation center that had a pool that has some scheduled water aerobics classes plus free swim times so we can do water exercises when we go to town.

The town owes its history to mining; gold copper and some other metal which you will have to guess. We have yet to visit Santa Fe or Taos, but I bet the feel would be the same. Driving down Bullard St, you see an occasional empty building, but mostly brightly colored shops, galleries and restaurants. In Yadda Yadda Yarn Shop we found several members of the local spinning group that meets there on the first Sat. of the month. When I mentioned that I had a wheel, I was invited to join them next month. One of the members told me that there several weavers in a storefront across the street. So, of course, we went to see and were welcomed there as well. I was told that there isn’t a weaving group, but instead the fiber arts council meets once a month at the college. One of the weavers had a scarf made with sock yarn which she is entering in a national contest. Upon examining it, I asked her about the way she “finished” it, meaning kept the weft from unraveling. She showed me an article in a weaving magazine that showed one method. I will have to Google it because I am not satisfied with the way my scarves are “ending” right now.

After a short trip through some of the residential areas of SC, we went to Albertson’s for supplies for next week. We wanted to leave town about 5ish to avoid driving that road in the dark. Shopping took a little longer than we anticipated, and we got back into the truck about 5:25, so it was nearly 7 and dark when we arrived back at the trailer. Lots of hoofed mammals were seen in the dusky light on our trip home. A long but good day.

Gila Cliff Dwellings First Days

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

The First Days:

We arrived here on a sunny Saturday afternoon. (“Here” being the RV park where the Park Service pays for the space for our RV during our stay.) As RV parks go Gila Hot Springs RV Park is not the worst place we have seen, but it is definitely not the best either. We do have sewer, water, and electric. There is a building with 2 showers and even a hot springs heated hot tub. The park service hooked us up to a large propane tank so that is taken care of also. The park is located on the site of a previous airstrip. The sites lie lengthwise along either side of a dirt road that probably once felt the tires of a Piper Cub. There are quite large trees that are growing at the edge of the road so it has been quite some time since this field was active. Currently there are four rigs that are occupied by fellow volunteers and two old single-wide mobile homes parked along the road with about five empty spots that occasionally are occupied by a visitor to the cliff dwellings.

Dawson (Doc) Campbell at one time owned most the land in this valley and the family still owns a large part including this park and the hot springs resort area across the street and down to the Gila River. If you read the history of the area, you will find that Doc was “custodian” for the Gila Cliff Dwellings during the 1950’s and 60’s so the Campbell family are a big part of the history of this area. They keep horses, sheep, and goats some of which are grazed in the pastures next to the RV park so we are exposed to the sights, sounds, and smells of a ranch.

The National Monument is located 3 miles north of the RV park on highway 15. Driving those three miles you will pass from Grant County to Catron County, be in land that is managed by the State of New Mexico, US Forest Service, and finally the National Park Service (the National Monument). Law enforcement, fire fighting, and just general management issued are made complicated because of the checkerboard arrangement of the area. Then throw in some private land ownership to the mix for added fun. At the end of the road, you come to the VC ( Visitor Center) which is a modest but nice building with the requisite lobby, book store, maps on the wall, museum, and small theater for showing the 15 minute video about the park. When you enter the VC you will be greeted by a uniformed person and see several others at desks and walking around. Unless you pay close attention you would think they are park employees. Chances are good that most of them are volunteers. There are only a handful of permanent employees, some Park Service, some Forest Service, and one for the bookstore which is run by an independent, nonprofit organization. Some of the volunteers have been here longer than the “employees” so they know about the park and the surrounding area.

Up behind the VC is the residential/maintenance area. There are two duplexes and several apartments and dorm for volunteers and employees. The dorm is a long ranch style house with a living area in the middle and bedrooms on each end so that singles of both sexes can live there. There is a large kitchen with two stoves and refrigerators and three bathrooms and a laundry. There are an additional three washers and three dryers located in buildings nearby that we volunteers who live in the RV parks can use so that’s good. Because of the remoteness and topography, there is no cell coverage, no matter what company you have. Computers only work for email and Internet, etc. because the park has Hughes Net at the Headquarters/Visitor Center and at the residential area, so email can be checked while doing the laundry.

Next week R and I start our “regular” work schedule. I smile because of the small staff and just the nature of the place, schedules are subject to change. Anyway, next week March 9-12 (Tu-Fri) are our 4 days on for next week. We will be working some days at the VC and some at the cliff dwellings. We are somewhat trained for either, but training is just that. The real thing is always different. Look for future blogs.