Ursula Leaves the State, Day 5: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Well, it was time to finally leave Las Cruces and do the second leg of the trip. We got Ursula all ready to go, then we split up. Lee went directly to Alamogordo, while I drove over to the Las Cruces rodeo arena to see Guy’s horses. I do like the equines, you know. He has two horses right now, one old one, who is the horse he won all the roping trophies with, and a much larger and younger one who he hasn't competed on yet because of Guy's hip problems. The hope is that when he gets his second hip replacement in January, he will be able to compete again

This is the younger horse, with Guy. He is very big.

I enjoyed getting to pet and talk to the horses, especially the one in the next stall to theirs, a black filly who was incredibly sweet and friendly. There were also very cute calves for roping as well as some goats. Guy does goat roping, apparently.

The calves had on horn protectors so roping wouldn't hurt them.

We took Guy’s horses out to run in the roping arena and they had so much fun. Guy worked with them a little, but mostly they just ran and pestered each other and exercised. 

Hooray, we're free to roam the arena!

I have to say I was tickled at the sight of Steve walking a horse. He did not appear all that comfortable with it. I never would have guessed my cerebral musician and linguist friend would end up with a rodeo dude. Of course, I never would have expected I’d have my own ranch and donkey! You just don’t know what the future will bring.

Steve intrepidly leads the older horse, who Guy's had a long time.
He looks like he is thinking up something naughty to do.

I got some eggs from their chickens, plus a cool old horseshoe Guy found, and headed on to Alamogordo, passing some more lovely mountains, and then the plain with the White Sands Missile Range on it. There was a blimp in the sky there, too, plus a Border Patrol stop, where I admitted I was a US citizen and they let me go on.

I managed to find the Boot Hill RV Resort all by myself, and Lee was all set up by then. This is the same park we stayed at last time in the rental RV. It is not overly scenic, but clean and kitschy. The whole set-up is in the shape of a boot, for example. Plus it is across the street from nuts.

Our parking spot. There ARE mountains behind it.

Sunset over pistachio. Everyone says it reminds them of Georgia O'Keefe.

The World’s Largest Pistachio still beckoned, and the space we had, which was the closest one to the office, was made even more special by the fact that it was also the closest space to the horse corral, which contained two horses, and their poop. 

RV Park horse.

Still, it was fine—we weren't there for the scenery anyway.

Right after we got there, we went to have lunch with Lee’s niece, Jan. It was a late lunch, but since she works at a Ford dealership selling cars, she could lunch whenever she wanted to. We had yet more Mexican food, which was fine but nothing like that place in Deming. We discussed our plans for Thanksgiving, which were complicated by the lack of propane accessibility in Ursula. Then we dropped by her house, which has a wonderful mountain view, and re-met her three youngest (of 5) daughters, Jayme, Katie, and Tara. Tara immediately friend requested me on Facebook.

Cute Greco girls.

I would not complain about this view from my house!

On our way back from lunch, just before reaching the RV park, we saw a LOT of emergency lights. Thank goodness we spotted them in time to take a back road and make it to the familiar boot and pistachio. We saw the Life Flight helicopter and knew it was a bad one. Traffic was stopped for a LONG time going both ways. We were sorta bad and went and gawked, along with another guy, for a while. 

Saving a life, we hope.

Then we realized there was no better time to go to the pistachio store across the street than when all traffic was stopped, so we ran over to get coffee, pomegranate wine, and pistachios. I sure liked the lemon lime ones. The pistachio farm also makes their own wines, including a bunch of fruit ones. I find then fun for dessert or after dinner, so I planned to stock up later.

We were tired, so we settled in and watched a movie in the evening. We watched Brave one night (loved so many aspects of it), and really liked it. Another night we watched The Election, which was pretty funny. Oh yeah, and watched an oldie but goodie, ET.

Lesson Learned: Always have an escape route.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 4: Monday, November 19, 2012

What an amazingly beautiful and diverse day. We’d originally scheduled to leave for Alamogordo today, but because we were having so much fun with Steve and enjoying the KOA site so much (and had wasted most of Saturday on repairs), we stayed on. What an extremely fun day we had, too!

After coffee and relaxing, we went and got Steve, and first dropped by his church, which was right by his house. It's a liberal Lutheran church (yes, there is such a thing). Nearly all the current staff are gay or lesbian, even! They had recently renovated the sanctuary area, and wow, this was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places of worship I have ever been in. 

The stained glass cast beautiful shadows.

The altar, rail and many other ritual areas of the sanctuary were custom made by an artisan out of mesquite. They were incredibly warm and beautiful.

Altar close up. They also have someone do calligraphy on the readings each week. Beautiful.

After chatting with their interim minister (we aren't the only ones going through changes) we then took the ole Malibu all over southern New Mexico. It is quite desert-y but beautiful in its own way. There are so many different mountain ranges to look at, and so many different terrains, all with their own fauna. The first place we drove to was Rockhound State Park, where Steve had never been before. It is a neat place that apparently has a lot of geodes and semi-precious stones. I found a bit of jasper and some rocks with quartz crystals in them. Mostly we enjoyed the views, though. You really could see a long way.

Really nice adobe welcome center for Rockhound State Park

As advertised, there were rocks here.

Looking off toward Mexico and the blimp. What a sky!

We also were SEEN a lot. We were near the Mexican border, so there was this eerie spy blimp in the sky watching us. Well, it was probably more interested in other people. And there were helicopters and people on horseback, too. Wow. Those scofflaws better watch out! We fled the rocks and found the town of Deming, where Steve had been before to do some gay rodeo stuff (Guy is a cowboy and has won lots of trophies and even a fancy saddle). 

We took a chance on a Mexican restaurant we saw. BEST GAMBLE EVER!! I do declare I ate the best Mexican food on earth at this poorly decorated totally unpretentious place. It had random cowboy, Native American and Mexican stuff on the walls, clear plastic over the table cloths, and an incredibly friendly server. AND a dish of grilled chicken over sautéed onions, with strips of grilled green chiles on the chicken, covered with cheese. OMG. I want to cook that every day. Plus the refried beans were freshly made and nice and chunky, seasoned wonderfully. THEN the danged guacamole was by far the best I EVER ate. It was very fresh and chunky, and to me tasted like it had only lime, garlic and black pepper in it. So delicious. I want to try to reproduce that, too. The server said that was the only recipe the cook would not share. Secret recipe!

Oh yes, they also had local wine that was very interesting—I wish I had the chance to get more of the NM wine, which was not bad at all.

We did stop eating at last and moved on to another scenic area, perhaps the most beautiful of the trip. But first, we drove a long way through some scrub. There we visited and then re-visited Highway 61! No Bob Dylan in sight.

Yes, as a matter of fact, we ARE in the middle of nowhere.

We drove through the mountains and the Gila National Forest. Once we turned off to the other highway, up and up we went, and the scrubby desert was quickly replaced by small trees, and then by BIG trees, huge even. A wonderful variety of pines and hardwoods. Wow, it was wonderful. And there was even water in the streams! This was just a magical drive, and I was so entranced that I really didn't take many pictures. The ones I did get were spectacular, at least to me! 

I hate it when all the good views directly face the sun.

Sotol, the coolest member of the lily family.

I loved the bright colors of the lichen.

Oh my. We are WAY up in the sky here. It's like you can see the whole world. Photos never do vistas like this justice!

One of the huge pines in the forest. There were all sorts of trees, some very large. Just a few miles from the Highway 61 sign. Impressive.

Sure am glad we decided to take the long way back, even though it meant Steve barely made it to his appointment that evening. 

One reason we cut it a bit close getting Steve back home. There were cattle in some really weird spots on these mountains. I didn't know they were THAT sure-footed.

Lee and I just chilled Monday night—my eyes were literally exhausted from looking at beauty, and he was tired from mountain driving.

Lesson Learned: The Earth, she is amazing.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 3: Sunday, November 18, 2012

We were up bright and early, so we enjoyed coffee and read for a while, since there was a rare rainstorm.

We never got tired of looking at the clouds on the mountains. This was the rainy day.

Then we set out to get stuff we needed for comfort and joy. I say joy because we got some goofy snowflake gel things and a string of LED lights to make Ursula all festive. We also got two heaters, one for the front and one for the bedroom. They worked out great for the rest of the trip, since it would get chilly at night when warm up nicely while the sun was out. We also went to Target and Lee got some pants and I forget what else.

By the time we were finished, Steve called, so we went to his house. By then the rain had cleared up, so we dove to La Mesilla, which is a very old part of town, to explore and have lunch.

La Mesilla square, with craft vendors

Basilica on the square

There was shopping, so I was happy. Lunch was at a very old restaurant, La Posta.

That's one OLD restaurant

While waiting for our table, I picked up a lovely tin bluebird to hang in Ursula, and a new checkbook cover with a tree on it. My old cover had “only” lasted ten years, which is actually pretty good for the cheap on they give you when you open an account.

So, the restaurant was quite the quirky masterpiece, and featured very loud parrots, and many interesting, ancient rooms.

That scary saint dude is trying to hug Steve, and Lee is scared some piece of decor will come get him.

The food was fine, but my mango margarita was superb. We also had lovely sopapillas for dessert. Hey, it’s vacation time, and I lost 50 pounds! Fun can happen!

We walked around La Mesilla, and I picked up a lovely coffee mug with a donkey on it—it is some famous pottery, and really heavy and nice. It is my official “Ursula Mug.”

Donkey mug!

I also got an inexpensive Mexican blanket and got Lee a nice walking stick, made, I think, of mesquite. We also got some cool coffee from a place that roasted it right there. I hope to give some to my friend Mike, who roasts his own, to compare.

Once we were done with that, no more shopping! It was time to see the Nature. So, we drove to the foot of the mountains outside of Las Cruces, the ones we could see from the KOA. We had a nice time taking pictures of the plants and the amazing clouds on top of the mountains. It was really beautiful. We walked to where we could see a cave where a hermit once lived—there is a lot of interesting history in the hillsides!

A fish-hook cactus and its fruit.

The sky was an amazing color.

The hermit cave is there at center right.

The clouds were just sitting there, hugging the mountains

We returned to Steve’s so we could have a wonderful dinner with Steve and Guy. They had made a beautiful brisket, delicious beans with very tasty salt pork in them, cornbread with chiles, and totally amazing chile rellenos. OOOweee, those were good. I ate a lot of them, though not too much of the other stuff. It was so nice to get to see them again and catch up on what was going on in their lives.

We took them this very interesting local liqueur. It is supposedly flavored of honey, but it is NOT overly sweet. Glad we got some, too.

And what was even sweeter was that we could go home to our cozy Ursula and read and relax. It’s nice to take your own home with you when you go visit people.

Lessons Learned: Space heaters are nice. 

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 2: Saturday, November 17

We awoke and set out early, only to discover that neither the headlights nor the turn signals were working. Great. We knew what the rest of the day would be spent on—RV repairs! But first, we had to journey through scenic El Paso and make it to Las Cruces, our first holiday destination.

Our little squirrel is intimidated by El Paso

Hooray, we finally got out of Texas!

That involved a lot of traffic and a bit of a scare when the cell phones welcomed us to Mexico—guess we were closer to Mexican towers than US ones for a bit! There were lots of signs of our new border security—many new checkpoints that all vehicles had to go through.

After some challenging construction ups and downs, we found the Las Cruces Enterprise car rental place, where we picked up a bland silver Chevy Malibu, to be our touring vehicle—a car is much less harrowing on mountains, and with a car we could leave Ursula all set up at each stop. I had been sure to rent a full sized vehicle to make it easier for Lee to get in and out, with his bad knees, but this car was still hard on him. Oh well.

Before the Malibu got covered in dust from various scenic locales

Once we had the Malibu, it was time to find our first RV Park. I had made reservations at a KOA campground that had nice photos on its website. And since we were on vacation I splurged and got the deluxe campsite. One look at the site, and we were pretty sure we wanted to stay three nights rather than two.

The campsite at KOA, with nice covered patio and pine trees

Patio with Ursula re-parking

The view was a striking panorama of Las Cruces below the hill we were on, and the mountains beyond it. And next to us the long-term folks had set up really nice bird feeders, so we could sit on the patio and decide whether to look at birds or mountains.

This cool feeder is just a huge lump of bird seed.

Warblers and house finches in action. Not sure what that top bird is up to.

We also had some nice pine trees and very pretty landscaping. It also had a gas grill, which would have been nice if we had a chance to cook.

Trail view from the KOA RV park

These crystals were in one of the landscaping rocks

Once we got set up, we called my closest friend from grad school, Steve H., and he came up to see the site and discuss our plans. We chatted while Lee called a mobile RV repair guy that the KOA folks recommended. 

View from campsite

Scenic Steve-n-Suna

Steve and I sorta tried to go to lunch, then decided it was too confusing, and he went on back home to get ready for the evening. The RV guy was really nice and competent. He determined our problem was that our three smaller batteries had gotten too old and dried out. Oops, must add water to batteries. He and Lee went off and got batteries. Wow, did Ursula’s slides work better with fresh batteries! The bedroom slide went all the way out, and we could use the drawers! Repair Guy also determined that the power issues must have blown a fuse and messed up the lights. The headlights came back, but unfortunately, we could never find the fuse for the blinkers. They looked all over the danged RV, too. Very frustrating! We will have to get that fixed when we get home.

The view from the RV park at night

We thought that the propane issue was fixed, because we were able to light the stove. HA. The heater did not make any warmth that night! Good thing it was one of the warmer nights of the trip.

But at least this round of repairs would get us through the trip, and we could start having fun. Steve had gotten us tickets to the New Mexico State University production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, where he was playing piano in the band. 

Rocky Horror Time!

He came and picked us up, and we were joined by his spouse, Guy, and his rather delicate cousin, L. The show was NOT to her taste, and I am still not sure why he encouraged her to go—but then he was always one for encouraging me to test my own limits (we have been friends 32 years, so a lot of testing to do). In any case, the show was a real hoot, and the rest of us just loved it. Some of the acting was a bit uneven, and the lead character had some pitch issues that drove me nuts (the curse of the pitch-focused singer, I guess—I am sure they were all better than me at singing and dancing at the same time. And of parading around mostly naked! The near-naked doctor and the tiny perfectly formed gymnast Rocky were most enjoyable! (Here is where I sheepishly admit that, despite having a roommate who went weekly in college, I had never seen the movie or play before.) Other than sound/microphone issues, the production was really good. 

Thus began the fun part of the trip! We were pretty dead when we got home, since we were still on Central Time, so we went to bed, resolving to get portable heaters in the morning

Lesson Learned (later): Sometimes the repair dude doesn't know everything. We did eventually find the propane switch. Still no clue about the blinkers.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 1: Friday, November 16

While it is true that we hadn’t taken Ursula out in a few months, I think we made up for it this past week.

Lee and I finally went on a real vacation and RV road trip not involving a funeral or wedding! We had decided to re-visit New Mexico, which we had enjoyed on a much shorter trip in a rented RV in 2010—we used that trip to decide to get Ursula. I am writing this on the way home. To avoid long posts I will break the trip up by days.

Our plan was to leave Austin as soon as I (Suna) could get off work. That got delayed a bit, but eventually I got in. The, I had to take pictures of the progress on our back yard renovation.

Back yard awaiting a new fence

Had to.

Due to his stuff, which included issues with the lovely new subwoofer and a recalcitrant generator, (there were a few issues with our patio remodel to look at, too), Lee was just getting to the grocery store as I was getting home, so I went along with him. I got all the food loaded while Lee did the necessary, as they say in India (in this case it means he took a shower).

At least we were confident in the engine, since that had just been checked. Gosh, if only they had remembered to turn the propane back on when they were done!

Anyway, we played with the neighbor kids a bit, talked to our kids, etc., and finally got out a bit before sunset. Lee decides to take 29 out to eventually hit I-10. That is always a bit of a harrowing drive after dark, even more so in a huge RV. Luckily the deer were otherwise occupied and we miraculously did not kill the cute raccoon family that was crossing the road.

We drove and drove through the night until we finally found a rest area near Balmorhea (we think), wherever that is, and we stopped there. We could not put out the slides. All sorts of light blinking and sputtering occurred when we tried, so we decided to deal with it tomorrow and just zonked out. We realized at some point that the heater was NOT heating. And it got pretty cold! Hooray for blankets.

Lessons Learned: Just because you had the oil changed and engine serviced, it does not mean everything is hunky dory. Ursula has a near-infinite supply of systems that can go wrong!

Sunrise from the rest area in West Texas

Where Has She Been?

Wondering where Ursula has been lately? Well, she was in the shop a LONG time, but now has a fancy new air conditioner in the rear of the cabin, a fixed closet door, and a nice new TV antenna.

Suna spent three weeks in Canada, and had to leave Ursula at home then. She saw bright lights and lovely scenery.

That is the CN Tower in Toronto, as seen from Suna's hotel room.

And yes, this is the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Pretty!

Once Suna got back, thousands of church/music events and other interruptions prevented going much of anywhere in October, though Ursula did rumble back to the farm when Lee's dad had his most recent procedure. He now has them every couple of months. They clean him out, give him some chemo, and send him home.

In good news there, Oscar will now let Suna pet him and feed him delicious grass. Lee's dad works with him a lot.

Still World's Cutest Donkey. Only bigger and friendlier.

Not to leave Ursula out, here is an interior shot from Suna's new iPhone, featuring Cowgirl Suna ready to go out partying in Kenedy, Texas.

Suna in Ursula, via Instagram

The good news about this trip is that there were no major malfunctions, just a bit of frustration trying to get the TV up and running. It's ready to go now, though Lee has a plan to put a "sound bar" in it for lovelier sound.

That will be good, because Ursula has her first lengthy trip coming up. And she will even get to leave the state! Stay tuned for Ursula's visit to the desert!