( Writing this from Bluewater Lake on May 30. )

On May 18, the day after setting up camp we went to Gallup to do laundry and look around. We stopped at the Red Rock Canyon State Park for a look-see. It was a cloudy day but I have to show some pictures anyway, wow!
We  then went to Grants and visited the Malpais National Monument Information Center and found that there are nine mapped out driving tours in the Grants-Gallup area. ( the map below gives an idea of the tours ).  Over the two weeks of camping at Bluewater we have taken all the tours.  Just awesome!

We have never seen a campground that had it's own
​US Post Office.

This is Churchrock at the trailhead.  You can see that many of the camp sites had horse stalls behind them.

These would be a lot prettier with a blue sky.

And driving home on I-40, this is what we encountered for about a five mile stretch.  At out camp it was dry.

This is definitely a park to come back to, beautiful scenery and lots of room  between sites and good internet!!!

On May 12 we took a day trip to Taos, NM and did the Enchanted Circle Drive passing through Quanta, Red River and Eagle Nest, with a side trip through Cimerron Canyon.

Our next move on May 10 was to Hyde Memorial State Park, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we stayed for seven nights. There are several campgrounds along US-475 that make up the state park. The small campground with electric sites was at 8300 ft elevation while other rustic camps continued up to the ski area at 10,350 ft elevation. And that elevation was at the bottom of the ski lifts. 

On May 8 we moved camp to Clayton, New Mexico just across the border from Texas off US 64.   We only stayed two nights but really, really want to come back to this camp.  Off the beaten path, without any phone or Internet service but really beautiful.

The first picture though was during our drive east.  Now that's what I call a dip in the road!

Clayton Lake State Park has a public viewing site of a Dinosaur Trackway.  It is very beneficial to stop first at the visitor center to watch the ten minute video of the history of the trackway.  Then you take the short quarter mile walk over the dam to see the tracks and enjoy the gorgeous views of the lake and campground.

On May 4, while staying at Lake Meredith, we did a day trip to Palo Duro Canyon south of Amarillo.  It is advertised as a smaller Grand Canyon and lives up to the name.

On May 3 we moved camp from Santa Rosa, New Mexico to Lake Meredith north of Amarillo, Texas in the Panhandle. Here are pictures of several of the campground around Lake Meredith.

On April 28 we went on the north Shoreline hike at Santa Rosa State Park.  Beautiful one and a quarter mile walk with tons of picture taking. 

While camping on April 26 at Santa Rosa State Park, we took a day trip to Roswell, NM and visited the Air Museum and the Roswell Museum and Art Center.  Great day.

We spent hours at the art museum, these are some of my favorite pieces.

( Writing this from Santa Fe, New Mexico on May 14.
                                       Happy Birthday tomorrow to Robynn!!! )

A day trip on the 24th of April took us up to Manzano Mountain State Park about fifteen miles outside of Albuquerque .  This was a campground that we would consider camp hosting in the summer when going north gets to be to much, very much our cup of tea.

This is the Dam control tower at Santa Rosa State Park.

Tucumcari is east of Santa Rosa, and both are on the Historical Route 66.   While camped at Santa Rosa State Park for two weeks we took several day trips to surrounding towns.   We did Tucumcari on April 22.  First are some pictures of some of the old signs on 66.

After cruising Main St. we toured the Mesaland Dinosaur Museum.  Many of their fossils are excavated from their field nearby.  Very good collection.

From the museum we went to Ute Lake State Park to eat our lunch and lucked upon the Chuck Wagon Cook-Off Event.  the cook-off was the next day but the day we were there was the wagon judging.  There were eight wagons at this event and all the owners were eager to share details of their  hobby.

Great day, hope to catch a Chuck Wagon Cook- Off again they are held all over the US.

On April 19, the campground site we found at Santa Rosa was just as nice.
​We really loved the library in Santa Rosa, the Historic Route 66 Highway had lots to look at and we found great Mexican restaurants in town.  
​The one drawback was the poor internet signal at camp which turned out to be a blessing since we got the chance to know the staff at the library in our two weeks stay. 

   To close out the day, we drove to Dog Canyon to look at the small campground there, not something for bigger RV's but a beautiful drive.

April 13, we left the Temperate Zone RV Park in Deming for Brantley State Park in Carlsbad, NM, taking US-375 to US-180.  
A lake view site with electric and water hook-ups was $14/night.  Our Annual pass covered $10/night  of the cost.  We stayed for six nights and stayed super busy the whole time.

At the shower building a Says Phoebe was nursing her young.

​On the 14th we spent the day at the New Mexico Living Desert and Zoo.  All the animals were rescue animals that live in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Ocotillo coming into bloom.

For the first half of April we got the rest of our possessions out of the Vineyard Storage in Deming. We went to a car show, saw the movie Zootopia (loved it), had Easter dinner with Vickie and James and the other campers at our park and enjoyed two Saturday night get-togethers at the club house. 

Fun times in the club house.  One Saturday, homemade salsa and guacamole for the taco dinner.  The next week Doug brought homemade tamales for everyone. Doesn't get any better than that.

I'm trying to get caught up to present day so the next couple blogs will be long.  Hope they aren't to hard to load. Let me know in comments at the end of the blog if you are having trouble.

Leib drove out to Deming from Michigan to help us install the solar on the Arctic Fox.  He arrived on the morning of the 11th and after his tent was up we went to the Deming Rock and Mineral Show. The next day we drove up through the Gila National Forest to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, over 8000 ft elev.

First the mounting station had to be re-worked for the new trailer.  On the left is the finished panels . The one at the front is stationary. The bigger one can be tilted 0-90 degrees. Each panel has it's own set of marine deep-cycle batteries and has different functions inside the trailer.