Final Days at Holloman AFB

Well it's been a good run Camp Hosting here at Holloman, but all things must come to an end. We are in our final days and plan on heading out on Thursday. You may have noted a post or two back that we had planned on heading north to Kansas for a stay at the family farm. Well as all things are not set in stone in this lifestyle, it looks like we'll be headed to El Paso for a month. Sheryl is having some real problems with her back that needs attention, which will take about that long, as well as myself having a few VA medical appointments. So a change in plans was in order, it now looks like we'll be headed south through Texas. The general route (once again set in jello) will be to head out of El Paso to Marathon (with possible side trip to Big Bend). Then on to Del Rio, Canyon Lake TX, Austin, and into Dallas for Thanksgiving with our kids.

As you can see above Sheryl has been trying to take it easy, but has a hard time doing so, as she wants to be up and doing things which is not helping her back at all.

Ok, well we are excited about moving on from here, even if it is just down the road. So Let The Adventure Begin!!!

Cibola National Forest, NM.

Last weekend, Kirk and myself decided to explore the Cibola NF in West Central New Mexico. The original plan was to take a group of folks to Monticello Canyon who had never been there before, however they all bailed out the morning of the trip. This actually worked in our favor (as we've both been to Monticello several times) we were able to change our plans on the fly and explore some new areas in the forest. A plan was made and we were off. We entered the forest on FS226 off of I-25 North of T or C and travelled several miles before actually entering the forest.

Once entering the forest we headed west toward the mountains

The foothills had several dry creek crossings.

We travelled several miles through beautiful scenery and slowly gained elevation into the higher mountains.

After traveling up into the mountains we dropped down into Monticello Canyon at the half way point.

The big draw for off roaders in the canyon are the numberous stream crossings, not to mention the amazing scenery. In several places the stream actually becomes the road.

After exiting the canyon, we headed north on NM 52 for a few miles and then east into the forest again to find a camping spot for the night. We had planned on staying at one of the NF campgrounds, however they were all full, so we found a nice spot in the woods away from everyone. We got in pretty late, so dinner was made (Faitias, yummmm) and we spent the evening chatting away around the campfire.

The next morning we headed out, again we changed plans on the fly and took a side trip to a fire lookout on top of Mt Wilkerson. The side road was a narrow rough shelf road 4 miles up the mountain.

We arrived at the top and the veiws we amazing and well worth the side trip.

The lookout was locked up but you could walk around the cat walk of the building.

We came down from the lookout and headed west down the mountain into the valley.

On the way down we took another side trip and ran across this abandoned homested. It is still in very good shape, along with several out buildings.

You could also see the VLA (Very Large Array) you may remember it from the movie Contact.

Once we hit NM 60 and headed east toward the town of Magdalena. After gasing up, it was east toward the next Forest Rd. We again turned into the forest on Torreon Springs Rd. This would be our final rd before heading home. The road was 19 miles through the foothills back to I-25. This turned out to be a great drive, and the wildflowers were out in force.

Toward the end of the road, we came to a narrow canyon full of "S" curves, deep sand and high walls for approx 1 mile.

After the high canyons and a brief area of foothills it was a long stretch of flat desert road out to I-25, were we headed south toward home.

It was a great trip and and weekend out. We love our Jeep for it's ability to get us off the main roads and into the back country.

Life is Good!!!

What more can I say, Life is Good!!!

18 Days and Counting

Ok, not that were counting, but we only have 18 more days here at Holloman AFB as Camp Host....yeaaaaaa. Not that it hasen't been a good job, it's just we are so ready to start traveling. First stop, El Paso TX for a couple of weeks for the last of our medical appointments. Then off to SW Kansas for a couple of weeks to visit family and stay at Sheryls family farm. The farm is a special place for Sheryl as she spent a lot of her childhood there. No one is currently living there but it is being kept up by her brother who lives near by. We are looking forward to spending some time there with the place to ourselfs and no one around for miles.

The campground here has been staying pretty full, so not really a whole lot to do. Seems as if folks are spending longer at one time than they were earlier this year.

Last weekend, I took some folks that had just moved here up into the mountains to show them around. We did some of my favorite trails and took them to a little known water fall. Their 2 year old twins had a ball stomping around in the water where the creek runs over the hiking trail.

Thats all for this issue, stay tuned for more as we continue to Love Our Life.

Holloman AFB, NM. Backroads

Today Sheryl was taking a nap as she wasn't feeling up to par (migraine) so I thought I'd find something to do and get out for a little bit so she could rest. I didn't want to go very far, then I remembered one of the RVers here at the campground told me of a high speed test track out on the Holloman Reservation that was open for veiwing. So I struck out in search of. Like any military base in the desert, you head out into the wide open desert.

After several miles I finally found it, there is no photography of the track and test area itself, but they do have some outdoor displays. I've been looking for a way to get a little extra performance out of the Jeep, think these folks could help.....lol

The outdoor display area, they did have more, but again no photography in that area. Interesting how the vehicles attach to the rail, basicly just a few clamps to hold the rocket or what ever they are testing down. Today being Sunday, they were not open, so Sheryl and I will plan a trip out later in the week to get more info and hopefully catch a tour and launch.

On the way back I spotted this old observation building. Since there is not any information on it, I thought it may have been to observe the atomic blast from the Trinity Site since the windows are facing that direction.

Then I noticed the are three of these obsevation bldgs and one was positioned next to this old ramp. After further investigation I determined they were to watch test rockets and such launched from the ramp.

Old rails on the ramp.

At the end of the ramp were the remains of a tower and steps to the top.

While looking around I found a old foundation with 3 old footings, wondering what they were, I looked down and in the center of the 3 footing I found this marker dated 1948.

It's amazing what you can find when you get out off the beaten path and look around alittle. In case any of you military folks are wondering, there were no signs stating Keep Out, Controlled or Restricted Areas or No Photography, except for the Test Track, and no pictures were taken there.

We'll report more when we explore a little further and the Test Track is open. Thanks for visiting.

Replacement Chairs and Stuff

A few months back, we had bought Sheryl a folding outdoor rocker from Camping World. Well the other day I sat down in it and rrrrrrrrrrrip it went (the chair not my pants). These chairs are made out of pretty cheap material, that being said you would think they would last more than 4 months. So, we'll have to see if Camping World will take it back. After that, Sheryl said she'd like to have a couple of those reclining chairs and thought they'ed be pretty comphy. I said, you know that sounds like a good idea, so in search of I went. Long story short I found a nice pair at Big 5 Sports here in town, and what do you know, being the end of summer they were on SALE!!! so I was able to pick up a nice pair for cheap. Sheryl was right they are nice and comphy, and will be a nice addition to our travels.

Also, with Sheryl taking her new quilting class, and wanting to do more blankets and such, she needed a new sewing machine that would handle the job, the old one was just not cutting it. We were able to sell her old machine pretty quickly and used the money to help buy her a nicer one that could handle the thicker material. So she'll be quilting fool pretty soon!!!

Surprisingly the RV park has been full all this week, first time all summer. I guess folks are getting ready for the cooler temps to be here and heading out. I hate having to turn people away, but I guess thats just all part of it. Soon there will be one more site open, OURS!!!, and we'll be on our way, can you tell we're excited!!!

Ok, until next time, keep Lovin Your Life as we do ours.

Busy, Busy Girl!!!

Two weeks ago Sheryl decided to take a 6 week quilting class being put on by a local church group here in Alamogordo. Since it's 6 weeks long and that just so happens that how much longer we'll be here, so it worked out just fine. Above is her first attempt at quilting, and I (along with the her instructors) thing she has done a great job so far. She is making the quilt for our little grand daughter in FL. She still has the border and the actual quilting part to go, but she enjoying the class and getting out.

Sheryl has also been quite busy with her crocheting and trying to get cought up with all the projects she has made for herself. This one is for our daughter in AL.

Here she is just as busy as ever, crocheting away, while enjoying the cool evening air and the red sunset glow on the mountains. And yes, those are Whinny The Pooh socks she has on (still a little girl at heart....:)

Alittle update from a few posts ago, if you may remember we had bought a generator for use while boondocking as needed, and mainly to run the A/C if needed. You may also remember, I couldn't get it to run the A/C, boy I was upset and heartbroke. Well after a month or so of racking my brain (yes it takes me that long sometines....lol) it dawned on me that while attempting to run the A/C I was also running the water heater on elec., so while Sheryl was away at quilting class, I broke out the generatorm shut everything down (including the water heater this time) and fired it up, went in hit the A/C on switch and she ran like a champ!!! I was so excited I actually did the happy dance (glad no one was watching....not a pretty sight....lol) Needless to say, we are both releaved and one less thing to worry about.

As of today, we only have one month to go as Camp Hosts here at Holloman AFB, then we will truely be off on our grand fulltiming adventure. We both are so excited and are really looking forward to getting on the road. We will have been here 6 months, (not that we haven't enjoyed it) but thats just way to long to be anywhere when there is so much to see out there.

Thats it for now, Thanks for reading along.