Emily and Family Arrive !

Finally the day we have all been waiting for arrives!  Our mobile home is empty and clean waiting for the new owners to move in!
Emily and family are from Kansas and Emily is moving back to New Mexico where she was raised. They are meeting us at Walmart with a U-haul packed to the max!

I am excited as I see them coming up the hill, Emily at the wheel!


Emily and her housemate Jim peer out….


Chuck takes over the U-Haul as Emily rides with me. Jim, her son, follows with his car as Juno, her daughter follows driving Emily’s truck as we arrive at Emily’s new home on the hill! Chuck backs the U-Haul in from the alley. It’s a tight turn and uphill!


Housemate Jim relaxes under the Mulberry tree as Juno’s dog, Buster, keeps an eye on Juno!


Things are quickly unloaded!


Emily and her son take a break as he tries to locate the insurance company on his cell phone.


Juno takes the opportunity to relax on the futon.
She has decided to take this one back with her to Kansas.
So it’s all over now but the signing of the paperwork!


This is the RV Park where the MotherShip is temporarily docked.  Agua Vista RV Park in Elephant Butte NM and Elephant Butte Lake is in the background. Nice, small park with 30 roomy RV slots, friendly folks, most stay several months at a time. Rent is very reasonable at $200 a month plus electric!  Great big salt water swimming pool and showers and laundry!
Owner Mike is a super nice man and we have enjoyed our stay here. But we will be leaving as soon as all the paperwork is signed and headed to Florida to see family and friends. We are now truly full time RV’ers!

The water in Elephant Butte Lake has risen about 17 feet due to all the recent flooding here in NM. It all ends up in the Rio Grande and from there into Elephant Butte Lake where it is dammed up and released in the spring for the farmers. Colorado  got all the press and their flooding was  worse than what we had here, but there was loss of life all over NM. We lost 2 lives right here in Sierra County! They were calling it the 100 year flood!

Ralph Edwards Park sits next to the Rio Grande River and it was totally flooded! Downtown Truth or Consequences also suffered a lot of flooding but the worst happened in southern Sierra County. Ranches were flooded, homes were severely damaged or totally ruined by the flood waters.  However, all this water helped put a dent into the severe drought situation that has had a strangle hold on New Mexico for the past 5+ years!

Life goes on and so do we.  We will be leaving soon.  Chuck and I will miss New Mexico, but we will be back.  We are looking forward to seeing our daughter and Glorianne and her husband Chaz and our 4 grandchildren Kyle, Ryan, Annesley and Aubrey!

That’s the news from the MotherShip!  Signing off, Geri, Chuck and the K-9 Kids DoogieBowser and Radar!

Chuck and Geri are moving to Florida!

WE FINALLY DECIDED!

 

After much discussion, Chuck and I have decided to move back to Florida. We have a wonderful daughter and son in law and four wonderful grandkids living there. Family is important!
So is good seafood! All they have out here is frozen seafood, and it just does not taste anywhere near as good fresh Gulf of Mexico, Franklin County Seafood! Yum! Looking forward to fresh shrimp, oysters, grouper, scallops and flounder!
 

We already have a buyer so that detail is taken care of, now we are busy sorting, discarding, donating and packing!  But today, Chuck finally got busy removing the 2 sharp, spiny Cacti growing out of the gutter.

 

 

These 2 have the longest, sharpest spines we had ever seen on any cacti!  Chuck needed to take extra care removing them!

 FINALLY! SUCCESS!

He was lucky, not a single scratch!Both cacti are now safely planted!  We have been trying to clean up and get ready for the new buyer to take over.  There are many things we will miss about living here, we really like this quirky little town of Truth or Consequences New Mexico.  We will miss seeing landscapes of blue mountains in the horizons, we love the scenery out here! But to be truthful, I think we have better Mexican restaurants in Florida! I have never gotten used to flat enchiladas served with a fried egg on top!

 

 

 

 

This is a South West Bird of Paradise  that I started from seed last year!  I started with about 6 seeds and only this one sprouted! The South West version of the Bird of Paradise is very different from the tropical variety!

 

After getting the cacti down from the gutter, Chuck rakes the gravel with his fancy folding gravel rake.

Not to be outdone, I planted 2 varieties of lavender in the big pots. They grow well here, surviving the dry climate and the winter frosts and they smaell so beautiful! By this time next year, both pots of lavender should fill these large pots and probably be overflowing!  I hope the new owner will like lavender!

 

We will be heading back to Florida around July. We will just sort of meander our way there as there are a lot of friends to visit along the way and some favorite stops to hang out for a few days.  We are in no hurry to arrive in Florida mid-summer!

 

Wish us well!  We are looking forward to the new adventure of being full-timers (living in our RV full-time) and not being tied down with "stuff". Chuck is so lucky...  he cast off most of his extra "stuff" before we met! Me, on the other hand, I am sooooo attached to the things I have collected over the years! I have family heirlooms that Chuck's daughter has graciously accepted for her home. But I have so much art! I have been collecting SW art for over 30 years! Kachinas, pottery, Navajo rugs, photography.. oh my!  But the local art gallery is having a special show of sorts, everyone can bring their own art or can, like me, sell the art that has been collected over the years. The sale at Rio Bravo Fine Art Gallery will be May 3rd and 4th!  This should be the best way to find good homes for my art.

I hear other folks talking about how hard it was getting rid of their "stuff" to, but after it was all over, they survived and felt lighter, more free than before.

I am hoping for that feeling soon, right now, it is painful! I am so glad Chuck is so understanding about it all and helping me through this! I have been procrastinating, just because it is so hard for me to do.  If any of you have advice.... I'm needing it!

 

Happy Trails from the crew of the MotherShip, Geri, Chuck, DoogieBowser and Radar!

 

 



Truth or Consequences, New Mexico USA

OUR HOMETOWN, T or C NEW MEXICO

Last October, our friend Sue, from RVSue http://rvsueandcrew.wordpress.net/
described Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
(known throughout the southwestern USA as T or C)better than anyone I know!

" It’s hard to explain. Take these ingredients: a cup of Southwestern, a cup of hippie, a cup of arts and crafts, a cup of cowboy, a cup of honest-to-goodness down-home, a cup of vagabond, and a cup of hot springs. Mix it all together and season to taste with a whole lot of what Chuck characterizes as ”laid-back.”

Chuck and I fell in love with our town Truth or Consequences NM when we came here in 2009 to workamp at Riverbend Hot Springs. I will admit, our first impression wasn't all that great. We came to learn that the people of this area is what makes it great! But then the whole town grew on us and we both are very glad we bought a small place here! We want to introduce you to this quaint little southwestern town!

Chuck and I love a lot of things, but we love eating out, so I wanted to show you our 3 favorite restaurants!

GROOVY GRITZ CAFE

Wow! Nothing fancy on the outside, but on the inside the dining area is divided into 2 sections. On the left you have your Hippie 60's style, complete with Sierra County's largest lava lamp!  On the right side, it's all cowboy !!! The owners, Joyce and Rob are the reason, Joyce is the hippie chick and Rob is the cowboy! Most weekdays the menu consists of mostly amazing sandwiches and incredible salads and yummy home made daily soups! But Friday nights, Joyce gets busy in the kitchen with yummy specials! Filet mignon with huge shrimp, or Tuna Ahi, or Salmon ... heck she has to show off her culinary skills right? She taught at the University of New Mexico culinary school in Alburquerque for 20 years! She and Rob retired to Truth or Consequences NM and opened up Groovy Gritz Cafe! If you are ever in our town, do yourself a favor and pay them a visit! You won't be sorry!  http://www.groovygritz.com/

 HAPPY BELLY DELI

Our favorite place for breakfast!  Happy Belly Deli is a small restaurant, maybe 6 or 7 tables inside and about the same on the outside patio, but the food is great! Huge breakfast burrito and they have our favorite, green chili bagels! They offer 3 kinds of coffee which you pour yourself from the pot. It's a homey place, you feel like you are in your own kitchen! Local art on the walls changes often. It's just a fun place to go wake up! The staff is always friendly and they take time to walk around talking to their customers.  They also serve a great lunch but they close at 3 pm. Friday and Saturday nights are pizza nights and their home made crust is yummy!

MARIA'S MEXICAN

Chuck and I love good Mexican food! Maria's is another small restaurant with momma cooking in the kitchen! YUM! Their green chili sauce is soooo good on about anything! We go to Maria's about once a week and have never suffered a poorly fixed meal!

PAINTED TOWN

T or C is full of art studios and artists on every corner! These artists have left their mark on many of the buildings around town!

PAINTED BUILDINGS

This is the old 1923 Public School! Beautiful murals on either side of this building that has become the Sierra County Administration Building located on I-25 business loop.

If you look at the photo below, you will see a seal with a 1937 WPA embossed in the wall. The original school was built in 1923!

The designs are the same on both sides of the building, just one is brown and the other is blue. Notice the painted water tank behind the school?

This is the White Coyote Cafe. We have never eaten here because we can never find it open! Of course, Sunday morning when I am out alone taking photographs, the cafe is open!  Maybe Chuck and I will go there next Sunday and give it a try! We love the paint job on the cafe! You can see this one if you take the I-25 business loop from the north through town!

Above, a fun mural on a local motel on Austin Street!

This mural belongs to a cactus nursery! You can see this one if you take the I-25 business loop from the south!

This is another old school that have been renovated into a Civic Center. Local artist Delmas Howe painted desert flowers all around the building!

PAINTED WATER TANKS

This water tank sits atop a steep hill overlooking
T or C. This is the water tower you saw behind the Sierra County Administration Building. It is really hard to get a good photo of this tank, even though you can see it from every place in town! Well, maybe if I had a good telephoto lens it would be easier!

I found the road that took me to the top of the hill to the tank! Here you get a better look! But so did I! Wow! What a view of Truth or Consequences from up there! The photo of the town at the top of this blog was taken from here!
We have two painted towers in town. The one above sits right in the middle of downtown! The one below sits just past WalMart, west of Interstate 25!

This water tank is much easier to get to than the downtown tank! Well, at least I got two sides of it!

Below is the story of the area, the painted tanks and the artist!

If you go just a bit further west of the painted water tank above, you see some of Sierra County! If you are into 4-wheeling on mountain dirt roads, Sierra Country is the place you should visit!

BOONDOCK CAMPING

For those of you who are not campers, Boondocking means camping without any hook-ups No water, no electric and no sewer! Right between T or C and Elephant Butte and right on the Rio Grande River is a great little campground that is a part of the Elephant Butte State Park system!

Covered shelters are provided with a picnic table and a fire ring for $8 per night.



Looks pretty sad right now, but in a few weeks, those sad looking Cottonwood trees will be full of bright green leaves and in the autumn the leaves will turn a brilliant gold! This is a beautiful little park with about 20 shelters, a nearby restroom with showers and as I mentioned the Rio Grande River and a great riverwalk trail!

Maybe these directions will help you find this great little. The boondocking campground is very easy to find. Not sure if you are coming in from the north exit 76 or the south exit 75 off of Interstate 25, but either way will get you to the campground on the Business 25 loop. We have 2 traffic lights in town. One at WalMart right off the I-25 north exit and the main one at Highway 51/ 3rd street. Turn there and go past the Elephant Butte road. In fact, go 2.1 to the first bridge and the second bridge crossing the Rio Grande River is at 3.1 miles and as soon as you cross the second bridge on your left you will see the campground!

We have pretty adobe gates...

We have old rusty cars and hilly streets...

We have a great old movie theatre...

We have a wonderful grocery store! Inside there is an amazing butcher shop with all local NM meats, home made sausage and a great little bakery that I manage to walk past almost everytime! Also a wonderful selection of everything from produce to coffees to liquors and prices that compete with WalMart prices!

We have a very active Senior Center...  Chuck and I are not Seniors yet ! We are still young!

We have a Veterans Memorial Park...

Complete with our own miniature Memorial Wall with the names of those young men killed in Viet Nam!

WE RECYCLE !!!

We have the coolest ever, drive thru recycling center. Bins are all set up and labeled, we just drive up to the bin we need and toss in our recycle items!

Is this cool or what?  I have never seen a recycle center like this one and it is very popular with locals!

Sure saves space at the county dump when everybody recycles!

PROOF! THERE IS A TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES NEW MEXICO !

We have a real post office, TWO in fact!

And we have a beautiful metal sign welcoming you into our town!

We have street art......

We have a police department...

We have a Welcome Center that has a sign out front that says,"Hello There, We've been waiting for you. Welcome to Truth or Consequences,New Mexico USA"

We have a great local museum, the Geronimo Springs Museum. Geronimo was a local hero and his relatives still live nearby. http://www.geronimospringsmuseum.com/

We even have super cool old RV's still on the road exploring!  Truth or Consequences is such a unique place to live and visit! I haven't even mentioned the hot springs we have here! T or C sits on a huge aquifer of hot mineral springs and we used to be named Hot Springs New Mexico because of all the health spas that flourish here! 

Wikipedia says... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico

Our two favorites places to soak are Riverbend Hot Springs  http://www.riverbendhotsprings.com/  

and The Blackstone Hot Springs, http://www.blackstonehotsprings.com/

You can look them up on this blog as I have done several blogs about them all ready!

Here is a yahoo link to the hot springs:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AjZ6wRYHXiScjfmlL5dUxGWbvZx4?fr=yfp-t-701-5-s&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=truth%20or%20consequences%20nm%20hot%20springs

 

 

http://www.sierracountynewmexico.info/attractions/truth-or-consequences-hot-springs/

 I hope I haven't bored you with our quirky little town, but maybe you can get a bit of the urge to visit here and see it all for yourself! You won't be sorry!

The MotherShip is still getting repairs done, the electrical problem has been repaired but the repair man discovered a cracked grey water tank that was cracked and leaking! Hopefully Evergreen will cover that under warranty. The Evergreen people have been so good to deal with whenever a problem arises! Well, guess I will sign off now....

Geri, Chuck and the Hound Herd!