Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Great People

 Like most RV'ers, we have the standard Winguard TV antenna for receiving over the air TV. Since we don't use Dish Network or Direct TV, we rely on our antenna at parks that don't provide cable hook ups. We've also found that when you have 200 channels of nothing to watch, network TV really isn't all that bad, and heck, it beat paying for those 200 channels of nothing.

Ok, on to the reason for today's post, it is to tell you what great folks the owners of the Boot Hill RV Park are. You see, when we pulled into our spot and got all hooked up and settled in, it was time to tune in the TV. Well after the standard channel scan we ended up with 1 channel, when it felt like coming in......what the heck??? Tryed a couple of more times with the same result, even the bedroom TV fared no better??? Ok, figured it was a bad day for TV and tryed again the next day, same results.....darn. Everything worked fine in El Paso so I know it wasn't our system, so I stopped by the office and chatted with the owners. He was stumped also, but he did remember someone a couple of spots down from us had the same issue, so it seems that here along the back fence, the Winguard antennas just have a hard time picking anything up.
 So here's the great part, the owner says, since you guys are going to be here for a month or more, 'll just take down the digital antenna on the office roof and hook it up over at your rig and see if it does any better. Of course I said no, you don't need to go through all that trouble, 'll work something out. He still insisted and said give him about an hour. Well less than an hour later, he was knocking on our door and telling me to try and retune the TV and see what happens. Darned if he didn't come over with a ladder, climb a pole, mount the antenna and hook it up to our rig, before I even knew he was out there. Ok, long story short, the TV comes in great now., What a great person to do that for us, it wasn't like he had an old one laying around, he actually took it down from the office to give to us to use...........We just can't say enough good things about them. So if you are in the southern NM area and need to stop for a visit, we highly recommend this park!!!

That's it for today, so keep on lovin your life as we do ours!!! See you next time.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Boot Hill RV Park, Alamogordo, NM

 Saturday, we decided to leave El Paso (we really needed a change of scenery) and head back to Alamogordo. We had planned on going back to Holloman AFB Campground, but they were full, so plan "B" it was. We remembered a nice RV park on the north side of town, so that was our destination. The Park had plenty of spaces and you just can't beat their prices at 225.00 per month (metered elec extra). The park also has an old west theme and feel to it.

 We chose a site on the back row, away from the highway and with great views of the mountains to the east. This park is out in the country away from town, so it's pretty quiet, There are no trees to speak of, but the sites aren't bad and the owners are great.

As you can see, the owners also have a bit of a sense of humor to go along with the parks name "Boot Hill" We also chose this park over the ones in town and around the area as there are no homesteaders with trashy trailers and junked up sites as most of the others have. We're glad we made the move as things have changed once again, so with a long story, looks like we'll be postponing our travels for about 6 weeks. Being here on the north side of town and close to the mountains again, we'll be getting out and sight seeing some of the sights we never got around to before, so stay tuned for those.
  Ok, adios from Boot Hill, New Mexico and see you here next time!!!

Friday, August 19, 2011

City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico

 Yesterday, we had to take a ride to Silver City, NM. to correct some paperwork on our old trailer so the new owners could register it in their name. On the way back, we thought we'd stop by the City of Rocks State Park, just north of Demming, NM. The City of Rocks is a large outcropping of rocks and boulders in the middle of an otherwise barren area of the desert. The rocks were formed from a volcanic eruption, as the lava and ash cooled, it split, along with years of erosion, this interesting formation came to be. In the photo above, you can see the formations just above the sign and the park is approx 1 square mile in size.


 It was named the City of Rocks for the wide areas between the rocks which resemble streets and walk ways through a rock city.



 There are several balanced rocks throughout the park, however we really liked the one being held up by the small rock underneath.




 There is also a nice drive up to a lookout area with great views of the surrounding desert and mountains. We visited the park for a couple of hours and just had a great time scrambling around the formations. However time was getting on and we needed to start heading towards home.


 When we got into Demming, it was 5:00 and our tummies were growling from our adventure, so we decided dinner was in order. Since we had never actually stopped in Demming before, we settled on just grabbing some fast food. However when we got into town, this little place on a downtown corner caught our eye. It's a local brewpub, which of course brews it's own beer right on the premises, which of course I had to try!!! They also serve only local New Mexico wines. We split a sandwich and Sheryl had a glass of chocolate infused wine. We also shared a desert of fresh mini apple turnovers drizzled with caramel and topped with fresh whipped cream. Sheryl was in heaven as her eyes rolled back in her head with every bite!!! yes she liked them that much!!!

I in turn, spied something on the brewers list that was uniquely New Mexican. Green Chili Lager beer, the waitress served me up a sample and I was hooked. Wow, I was surprised at just how good it was, it had a hint of green chili aroma and background flavor. Just an all around good beer. After filling our tummies and enjoying the atmostsphere, we were off toward the house.
What started as a chore (3 hour drive each way) turned out to be a really great day spent out exploring and experiencing new delights.

Thats was our day out, we had a good time and are looking forward to many more as we hit the road again soon. Ok, take care and Love Your Life as we do Ours!!!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

New Pillows and a Camera

 Along with redoing the valances in the trailer, Sheryl had some fabric left over. The new couch we picked up came with a couple of pillows, which of course didn't mach our new decor. So Sheryl broke out her sewing machine and went to work. She recycled the old pillow stuffing and zippers and created three new pillows, so now the rig looks even better and more put together. I think she did a pretty darn good job and we are very happy with the results.

Many moon ago when I was in my late teens/early twenties, I decided I wanted to get into photography and picked up a very nice 35mm camera. Of course this was back in the days of film and all the setting were manually adjusted on the camera lens. I got pretty good at it until one day in Florida, when a large wave crashed over the rocks and soaked the camera and thus sent it to an early grave. Well at that time a couldn't afford another one, so my hobby kinda went by the wayside. Then the age of digital came along, and all the pictures you could take for free!!! I still wanted a nice camera again, but just never seemed to find the money for it as life just kept happening, so again it just went by the wayside. Ok, getting to the point, I started longing after a nice camera again, so we pryed open our bank account and picked one up. We found this Nikon D3000 at the Base Exchange for a good price (compared to in town) and with no tax, just sweetened the deal. Now I know it's not the top of the line model or the latest in camera tech, but it's a big jump over the point and shoots I have been using for some time now.  It will also allow me to (hopefully) be a little more creative in my shots. First I have to figure this thig out, it's pretty user friendly, just have to get used to all the controls being in the camera and not on the lens (old habits are hard to break, even after 30 years!!!)

That's it for this episode, looking forward to creating some good pictures during our travels and just Lovin Our Life. Take Care and see you here next time.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

NM 28 and Some Preventive Maintenance

 Yesterday we headed back into New Mexico for a doctors appointment, we usually just head up the interstate as it's a 20 min drive that way. I like the new signs the state put up welcoming you to New Mexico.

 After the appointment we decided to take the scenic route back. We headed over to NM 28 just south of Las Cruces and started back. NM 28 is a very scenic and popular drive between El Paso and Las Cruces. The road winds its way through pecan groves and rich fertile Rio Grande Valley farmland. When we came through here last year during the winter, all the trees were baron and the farmland just dirt. It was nice to drive through green tunnels of Pecan trees covering the road.


 Many of the fields were rich with flowering plants. It was very interesting to see the green valley backdropped by the high desert mountains, what a contrast. Didn't take many pictures as there are several from our last posting of our trip north on NM 28 from last year.It was nice to just take a relaxing drive back and enjoy the scenery.


Today, I woke up early to get a early start on a project I have been wanting to do. When we bought the 5th Wheel we knew it had some issues (as most pre owned rigs do), one was the cracking between the the end caps and the rubber roof. The roof is fine, just seems the joint between has seen better days. We picked up some rubber roof repair tape at Camping World the other day, so today seemed like a good day to take care of it. As you can see in the first pic it was looking pretty shabby, so after a good cleaning, out came the repair tape. A little taping here and the little caulking of the seams there and I was finished in about two hours. I had previously caulked the seams pretty good (when we first got the rig) so today's adventure was just preventive maintenance and another layer of protection from possible leaks.

Well that's been our fun for the last couple of days, staying busy and getting the rig ready to hit the road in a couple of weeks, can't wait!!! That's it for now, so we'll see you fine folks on the next go round.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Busy Girl Again



Well, we've been here in El Paso for over a week now and not really doing a whole lot. We have been catching up and finishing up medical appointments and they are just about over. Other than just living life, Sheryl has been a busy girl. She finally found the right material to redo the window coverings and has been hard at it. As you can see from the pics, it gives the rig a much more updated look (from RV designer yuck to simple elegance) and we are very happy with the results. I've also been busy, removing some old stickers from the rig and generally getting it cleaned up. The stickers we're pretty stubborn about coming off, but with alittle adhesive remover and a razor blade scraper, the job went pretty quick. We are thinking about having a professional come in and give the rig a good wax job before we head out. We'll let you know how that goes, if we do it. We both have a few more projects lined up we want to accomplish before we head out. Speaking of which, it's looking like (barring the river don't rise and the barn don't burn) we'll be heading out at the end of the month. So excited we'll finally be heading out on the adventure again.
I also picked up a new toy I'm still figuring out, so more on that later.

Take Care all and keep Lovin Your Life as we do ours!!!