Day 24-25 Oliver Lee State Park, Alamogordo, NM
DAY 24
We both slept good last night. Got up at 8:00 and I was feeling better. Teddy also seems to be better. Gina took the dogs for a walk around the park while I got the RV ready to roll. Had our staple of spinach and eggs for breakfast and were on the road by 11:15.
We were finally going to get out of Texas today! The road out of Alpine was as boring as the road in. Nothing at all to note. We started a new audible book “Killer by Nature” and this one was good. It was actually an audible drama where there is not one reader trying to do all the voices but instead different people took on the different roles. Felt like you were listening to a movie instead of one person trying to imitate and old mans voice and then a young girls voice, and then grandma…. You get the picture. Finally got on I-10 and headed west through El Paso Texas listening to the book. Went by Biggs Army Air Field and it was massive – lines and lines of Army vehicles for as far as you could see – listening to the book . We stopped at a Starbucks for a coffee and took the dogs for a much needed pit stop in some remote field. With coffee in hand, we refueled at a Chevron but it was a tight squeeze for the trailer. On the way in there was a steep incline and we heard a loud scraping noise. What Now? We bent one of the scissor jacks – the new one I bought in Tallahassee after taking out the Winding w\Way sign. I have hardened a bit, so I just kicked the thing back into shape and moved on. I will see how it works at the next site. Nothing I can do now.
We headed up State Road 54 towards Alamogordo and Oliver Lee State Park – listening to the book. When we turned off the road and started towards the park we went by some of the most run down old double wide trailers you’ve ever seen. We were thinking why did we pick this place? But up ahead on the hill we could see some RV’s parked underneath this beautiful canyon. Then we entered the park. We went to our site and hooked up. The view down canyon was as nice and the view up canyon. This was a very pretty campground. The nicest so far with the biggest vistas we have had. The book was off by now.
Gina cooked Chorizo and Potato tacos for dinner and we were in bed reading by 8:30. Another limited internet service. I unplugged the water hose because it was predicted to drop down into the 20’s tonight. Learned my lesson on that one.
Day 25
Woke up to another cold morning. Went outside and hooked up the hose. We have water and it is still freezing out. Temp is expected to rise fast so I am not worried about the hose freezing. We had spinach and eggs again for breakfast, then lounged around for a while dealing with some Ocean Tec issues. We also just didn’t want to deal with that cold – it was sunny but the wind was whipping pretty good, making it feel colder.
We finally decided to brave the cold and go hike the Dog Canyon Trail – at the start of the hike there is a sign “Beware this is Cougar Country”, if there is one thing I never want to meet on a trail it is a big cat, especially a Mountain Lion! Well we started up the trail and there is about a 500 ft elevation change in the first ½ mile. We brought Remi but did not bring Teddy. We left him back in the trailer. After the 1st half mile there are some beautiful vistas into the valley but we noticed some dust storms in the distance. Gina commented that she hopes they don’t come this way. Well after another 10 minutes going up the wind was gusting over 40 knots. Gina actually sat down on the trail for fear of getting knocked over. I went ahead about 250 yards to scope out if got any better but it did not, we were walking along a ridge taking the full brunt of the wind. We decided to turn around and do the gentler and milder Nature Trail. That trail just meander up the canyon about ½ mile than back down. It worked its way over to the remnants of Frenchy’s cabin – a Frenchman who settled in this area back in the late 1800’s growing grapes, fig and other fruit trees. Interestingly, Frenchy was found dead of a gunshot wound in his cabin. It was ruled suicide but most people think it was murder. Sounds a lot like Trapper Nelson from our home town of Jupiter.
After the hike we dropped Remi off and went back to the Visitor Center. They have quite a collection of old Indian and Oliver Lee artifacts in the center. Oliver Lee was a guy who settled the area about the same time as Frenchy and became one of the largest land owners and eventual Governor of New Mexico. While touring the cent we met a couple from Minneapolis, Jay and Lauren, who actually just had completed the entire hike. They told us good thing we turned around. The hike got really sketchy at the top, it was only about a foot wide with a sheer drop off on one side. On one part of the path they encountered very large cat paw prints. When I got back to the RV I googled cougars to see how big they get – what I learned was that Cougars are the same as Mountain Lions and panthers. I think if that original sign said “Beware of Mountain Lions” I would not have even gone as far as we did.
Back at the RV Gina did her sauna while I scheduled our trailer tire change for tomorrow and updated the blogs. The wind continued to howl When she finished, we walked the dogs around the loop at sunset. Gina made a Hot Toddy and it mildly offset the cold from the wind. While we walked around we noticed several people in tents. How in the world were they going to manage another night below freezing with winds gusting over 40? We saw a few of them in their cars, maybe that’s where they slept that night because the wind was relentless.
Gina made pulled chicken breasts in the instapot with roasted broccoli, another winner. After dinner the wind picked up so much that in addition to the RV rocking, the slide out was moving in and out. Gina worried that RV was going to tip over. I had to go outside and pack everything away because things were starting to blow away into the cactus! After bundling up inside, we started to hear a loud rumbling sound off in the distance, it would gradually grow louder than disappear. After the second time, I finally went outside to look; there must have been 15-20 blinking lights all in formation coming down through the valley. They were some sort of military aircraft most likely headed to the air field we saw yesterday in El Paso. This repeated several times throughout the night and was actually a reprieve from the howling wind. Gina was in bed by 8:00 and I stayed up another hour to do some blog writing, then outside again to bring the hose in as another freezing night was expected.
