Aliens, Aliens, Aliens

Nov. 8, 2011
Today we arrived in Roswell, New Mexico!  Aliens everywhere!

This guy just begged for a picture together

Visited the National Aliens Museum and Research Center.

Captured one!

Help, Mark!  They want to take me to their leader!

And of course we stayed at our local Walmart!  The Aliens begged us to stay.

After setting up camp at Walmart we headed for the local golf course and played 9 holes in the wind.  Four down, 46 to go!

On our way to Carlsbad we caught our first glimpse of cotton fields.  Another first on our list.

Where are the cotton pickers?

Fat Man and Skinny Man

Nov. 7, 2011

Today we visited White Sands Missile Base.  Wow!   I couldn't resist taking a picture to show a size comparison of how big the bomb was that dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, wiping out the entire city.  Really amazing.

FAT MAN AND SKINNY MAN 

FIELD OF MISSILES AT WHITE SANDS

We found out they had a golf course here and wanted to play but the course is closed on Mondays and we were here on a Monday!!! Our bad luck.  We will try to hit it in the future...get it?  Hit It.......oh well, on to White Sands National Monument.

White Sands National Monument is out in the middle of the desert and all of a sudden there are all these blindingly white sand dunes.  Amazing.  Of course, the first thing Mark wanted to do is make a snow....oops, sand angel.  You could rent sleds to sled down the white dunes.  On sunny days the dunes just about blind you from the whiteness.  They let you drive through them and have a picnic area at the loop at the end of the drive so of course we had lunch at the dunes!  The tables had guards installed behind them and we were not sure if they were guarding you from blowing sand or the glare and heat in the summer.....probably a little of both.

He's an Angel all right!

Parked at the picnic area at White Sands National Monument

It is kind of a spooky place.  We are probably close to some alien activity here.  Roswell is not far ahead of us.

Las Cruces, Here We Come!

These are pictures of an "award winning" rest stop in New Mexico, about 20 miles outside of "Truth or Consequences" New Mexico.   I loved the old volkswagon van parked by the little casita.  There were about 10 casitas that people could park next to and have some lunch at the picnic tables inside.  It was too windy and cold for us so on we drive.   We stopped in Truth or Consequences for Diesel and a little lunch in the motorhome in a nearby parking lot and then off we go again.

This shot is parked at the award winning rest stop again.  Just wanted to show that our baby is alive and doing well and also show the beautiful New Mexico skies.

My maintenance man is having a quandry over the fact that "JJ" (short for Johnson's Journey) is spitting all over his Jeep.  We keep getting a fine spray of oil on the passenger side of the Jeep.  Apparently from the crank case vent  which is exhausting some oil.  Mark needs to install a jar/container over this vent outlet so that the fine mist is contained.  This is a fix which Mark found on a forum for RVers.  Mark won't let me just buy a peanut butter jar and empty it out.  He wants to find the appropriate sized container already empty it.  So, we get intermittent trips to local Walmarts looking for the right sized container......

Santa Fe Skies

Nov. 4, 2011

Woke up in the Durango Walmart parking lot.  Mid 20's and again our first conversation is, "We gotta go south!"  So, first order of business is a quick shower and some breakfast.  I take the first shower and suddenly an alarm starts sounding in the clubhouse (our new name for the coach).  What is that?  We quickly discover that is the LP Gas Leak Detector alarm which detects explosive gas is alarming!  What the heck, am I going to explode?  I start to panic and Mark is less so.  We silence it a couple of times but it continues to go back into alarm mode.  I run outside and close the propane valve.  It finally quits but we are not sure if the steam from the shower activated it or what......then, the Carbon Monoxide alarm in the bedroom starts alarming!!!! I am freaked out at this point and want to call a local RV dealer or the local gas company......  Mark is calm, of course, and keeps saying that these alarms are way to sensitive.  Must have been the steam from the shower and the fumes from the generator which we were running in order to get electricity for the microwave and hair dryer.  An inversion from the cold weather?  Who knows.  Anyway, we did not blow up and we ate our oatmeal and quickly forgot the entire incident.....  Haven't had an incident like it since.

Arrive in Santa Fe and a storm is approaching with high winds so we stay in the "Santa Fe Skies" RV park.  We are lucky enough to arrive on Friday, and several of the old town museums are free Friday night so we head downtown for museum night.  Then we get to have dinner out at the "Tortilla Flats Mexican Restaurant" and it is fantastic.  Everything comes with red and green chili sauce.  The green chili sauce is out of this world and my chicken flauta meal is one of the best I have had.  When you order and want both sauces, you ask for "Christmas style"  which means red and green sauces on your plate.

Next day we wake to snow and another stormy day.  We tough it out and go to old town Santa Fe and see the oldest church in the US, the oldest house in the US and a miraculous staircase, what an interesting history down here in Santa Fe.  You get no pictures with this entry because it was cold enough and I didn't take any pictures.

No golfing in this town although they have some nice courses.  Too cold.  We gotta go south!

Oh My Aching Arches!

Nov. 2, 2011

Today was spent hiking around Arches National Park.  Staying in Moab, Utah.

Feeling like hercules....

The crack checker.....

Thursday, Nov. 3

Drove to the Four Corners and had to take a picture just like my Dad did years ago.  I was in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at one time.  Boy I love to travel!

Drove to Durango, Colorado.  Turns out they grow a lot of dried beans there.  Who would have thought?
Stopped at Mesa Verde National Park on the way.  It is an amazing place where the Pueblos lived hundreds of years ago.

Snowbirds?

Our first night in Moab, Utah, woke up to Snow?  I think Snowbirds are supposed to avoid the snow.  We are not doing things quite right, yet.

Three Down, 47 to Go!

October 30 and 31, 2011

St. George, Utah!  Finally got some warm weather.  Golfing was first thing on the agenda.  Green Springs Golf Course was the obvious choice for the "Mean Greens", traveling in their "Green Machine", don't you think?  It had beautiful red ravines that we had to shoot over.  I think it probably rated #1 for most beautiful course we have golfed on.  Yes, Mark lost a few balls but he took it quite well......yes, I was joking, Mark was a little grumpy but I still get my sticker for Utah.

Mark had a chance to use his new convertible pants he bought off the clearance rack at REI for $1.95.  We just had to fix the leg zipper at a cost of $5.00.  He is ecstatic over his great buy!

We went to Tuacahn Outdoor Amphitheatre to watch a Halloween show, Thriller.  It was great and very beautiful.  This picture is shot from our seats.  Just one side so not great but gives you a feel for it's beauty.