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!

Moving on out–Moving on in!

Whew, it has been a long hot summer! We have been busy packing up and moving out. We have sold a lot of stuff we will not need in the MotherShip… like a spare queen bed, a few recliners, medium format cameras, my collection of USA Pottery (all around circa 1950’s), gave away more than we sold. I gave away at least 100 empty picture frames all various sizes!  We both donated a lot of items to Paws and Claws, the local resale store that helps support the local Humane Society. Now it’s pretty much down to give away or throw away! We should be in the MotherShip in a couple of weeks and start the deep cleaning here so Emily will be moving into a new, clean home. For those of you who don’t know, Emily Ogle, a friend and fellow camper, has bought our home. She has lived in New Mexico before and her son lives in Socorro NM (about 100 miles north of here).


This is one thing I will miss!  I started this SW Bird of Paradise from a seed.  Out of 12 seeds banged around in a jar 1/2 full of water and a handful of pebbles and shaking the holy heck out of that jar every time I passed by for about 2 weeks, one seed bloomed into a real plant!  Now, almost 2 years later, I rejoice at the beauty everyday!  But God one upped me!  I worked so hard to get this lady going and He gives me 2 wild ones almost as big and pretty as this one!  He gets that last laugh!



Last summer, while RVSue was visiting us in Zion Utah where we were workamping, she gave me a small dish cactus garden!
Well, it outgrew that small dish! I put them in a big pot and they are loving stretching their roots and have grown even bigger since being planted a few months ago! Obviously, this is too big to come with us, so we will leave it here for Emily to enjoy!



Chuck has been busy too!  As you can see, we have no grass. Our yard is hardscape, all rocks and no mowing! But we have weeds that pop up anyway so Chuck takes his yard flame thrower and burns the weeds. Yep, that’s smoke you see on the left!  The baby yucca caught fire. First he took a pitcher of water over to it, nope! The he took a bucket of water over to it, nope! Finally he takes the hose over to it (5 feet to short) but yep, that does it! Fire out!



Radar pursues lizards into the bushes, his tail causing a mild breeze with it’s wild wagging in anticipation!  Of course he never catches one, but hope is still there!



DoogieBowser on the other hand looks at me like , “What the heck is that crazy Radar doing?  Nope not me! I’m staying on the porch in the SHADE!”
Moving is hard! I never want to do this again!  We have been packing, stacking, donating and tossing for at least 6 months now and Whew! I am ready to be done.  I would say that we are at least 90% empty in the mobile home and 90% full in the MotherShip!  We are down to the bare necessities here now. We have even sold our bed and sleeping on the 2 futons!
Parting with my “stuff” has been hard! I’m not gonna lie to you! Sometimes it even hurts real bad.  Al Bossence from The Bayfield Bunch blogged the other day that he was copying every slide he has ever made.  I considered that, heck I have done that in the past.  This time I just let myself get all melancholy as I sat and looked at each page of 20 slides and as a tears slid down my face, I tossed them, page after page until they were all in the trash! Same with old photographs. They all got tossed. I save some old family photos….  hard to let go of mom and dad even though they let go and passed on years ago. I have a small 3 ring notebook with a few plastic pages and my few photos I couldn’t let slip away.  Clothes too. Dang, I had 4 different sizes in my closet! After my lapband surgery I went from size 24 to size 16 before the band slipped and emergency surgery was needed to remove it!  So now I am back to size 24 with no effort on my part at all and a ton of smaller sizes I will never fit into again!  They left my closet easily! But even so….
 You know, once everything was in the trash and gone a few days, I was glad it was done and over with.

Gonna miss all the finches playing out front!

I am gonna miss all the flowering cactus too in our yard!


 
And I am gonna miss this beautiful purple flowering bush! Don’t know it’s name, but Oh My! It smells heavenly!



We have cactus living the left side of our drive way that were full of yellow flowers a few days ago! OOPS! Missed those!



And we have what we jokingly call “Lake Hajek”



It sits beneath the water spout and catches all the Monsoon Rain!  Complete with wooden duck! I’m sure Emily and Jim will enjoy sitting out in front of Lake Hajek !!!!

Ann and Bill Condron bought a new RV. Ann designs and builds stained Glass windows for the doors of RV's. When they bought their new RV, Ann made a new window for it and sold us their old window! We had it installed last week! This is as seen from the outside....

This is from the inside looking out!

 

We love our new window, it helps to make our RV our home!

If you would like a window for the door to your RV, please contact Ann, she does beautiful work, here is her link:

 

 www.littlehousestainedglass.com.

Well, that’s it for now. We have 7 – 10 weeks left in New Mexico before Emily gets here to officially take over and we head to family and friends in Florida! Thanks for dropping by and sharing a moment of this moving moment!

P.S. WHOA !!! HOLD ON A SEC!

Apparently I have given the impression that I am sad about this move!  NOT!  Absolutely NOT SO! I am really excitedly looking forward to seeing family and friends and Chuck and I are going to spend time exploring the wonderful Florida State Parks and we want to visit and explore GA, NC, TN and AR!!!  
YES I was sad about the PURGING as my friend Fay Cope called it in her email to me, but I am not sad about moving into the MotherShip and sailing off to family, friends and new adventures!
So PLEASE don't think I am sad or upset because that ain't so!
"Nuff" said?????  OK then, I am ok, you are ok we are all OK!

DETAILS ABOUT DATIL

 

Funny thing about Datil New Mexico is that we have gone through here twice last year and 4 times this year! Always just kinda blew through town, thinking a blink and it’s done! This is our 4th visit this year and finally we have the details on Datil!  First of all, it is pronounced DA-TIL, rhymes with rattle! Like the big snakes they got around here. DATIL !
Well, seems we ran out of some milk, bread, cereal and eggs! We have been camping a few more days than originally planned. We asked the camp host here at Datil Well campground where we could find a store so we could resupply our cupboards. All we had ever noticed in the rush to get through Datil was the blinking light and the gas station in the middle crossroads of town.

Basically, this is what you glance at as you buzz through town without blinking!  HOWEVER if you read that sign closely, it says: “Eagle Guest Ranch, Café, Grocery, Motel, RV Park, Gas.” and in the blue section with the yellow letters “RAIN BABY RAIN”! So it ain’t just a gas station, in case you blinked! This is the whole danged town on one corner!

Pretty cashiers and long shelves fully stocked with all kinds of food goodies, soda pops, beer, ice cream, deer heads and would you take a look at the rattle snake skin hanging on the wall to your left!!!  It must have been 20 feet long and big around as your leg! Sheeeeeesh!

This grocery store has everything from Asprin, to Jack Daniels, spagetti sauce to snowshoes? Yep, that’s a snowshoe on the wall, and another view of that rattle snake skin!

Now off to the right of the grocery store is the first dining room. Yes, I said first because there are TWO dining rooms here!

The first dining room has a big, beautiful old rock fireplace to grab your attention, complete with a huge long horned steer over the mantle! If that doesn’t grab your attention, maybe the javelina on the left or the goat on the right will make your eyeballs perk up! Chuck and I ate 2 of the best ever ribeye steaks there on Friday night! HUGE! Probaby a good inch+ thick and it covered our plates! Chuck managed to finish his but 1/2 of mine came home with me! I even ordered a slice of the homemade very berry pie to go.  Oh Man Oh Man Oh Yum, I actually managed to take a photo of it before I gobbled it all up! Before you ask: blueberrues, blackberries, raspberrys, cherrys!

There is also a full bar for your pleasure……. and home made ice tea……. to wet your whistle!

Chuck got his good ice cold beer just before dinner!
Look how frosty that beer glass is!

Last night when we were there, both dining rooms were packed! AND we got some good bluegrass music too!



The Lost Howlin’ Coyotes were in town to entertain and they were good!  Lots of foot stomping and hand clapping going on in Datil NM last night, let me tell you!
Then we get home to The MotherShip and there’s that big old SUPERmoon coming up at the sunset. I handed Chuck the camera and he came up with the beautiful shots below!


We have really enjoyed our visit to Datil this time. Glad we took the time to explore this tiny town. Full of good, honest, hardworking, FRIENDLY folks! We sincerely hope you won’t blow through this town like we did the first few times. Datil is worth a second look! We didn’t realize until last night that there was a second RV park in town with 32 full hook up sites, conveniently located right next to that wonderful little café with the amazing home cooked meals! Datil is on Highway 60 west of Socorro and about 70 miles east of Arizona!
We hope you enjoyed your visit!  Geri, Chuck, DoogieBowser and Radar reporting from The MotherShip!

Boondocking in the White Mountains of Arizona

SILVER FIRE

 

We had been planning a trip to Arizona anyway, but this Silver Fire as seen from our front yard was not a wildfire to ignore! It was over 80 miles away, but still very imposing!

 

 

We packed The MotherShip, filled our bird feeders and headed off to Arizona!

Our first stop is only 2.5 hours from Truth or Consequences, but it is a great little boondocking campground at Datil Well, just off Highway 60 west.
$5.00 a night for non-geezers and $2.50 a night for geezers! It gives us a chance to "settle in", put things in proper places. Seems we always leave in a bit of a frenzy, so having a nice cool place in the mountains to stop and re-organize a bit makes it nice!

BOONDOCKING 101

I have always been a fan of boondocking, tucking myself away in some corner of my world, like I spent my early camping days. Chuck.... not so much. He has always preferred campgrounds. But I think RVSue and I have changed that idea a bit. Datil Well is step one... It's a campground BUT it's dry camping! NO UTILITIES, but they have good clean pit toilets and a place to refill your water jugs.

Last year, we took our first positive step towards boondocking more often!

 

We had a big metal box welded to the frame of the MotherShip!

 

 We then installed our Honda i200eu generator and 2 propane tanks.  Chuck had the generator converted to propane because he didn't like the idea of carrying gasoline around with us everywhere!

 

Propane is definitely the way to go for us, it lasts a very long time. We are still on the little tank and it has been a week now since we left home!

 

After we left Datil Well, we went up to I-40 and camped at Homolovi State Park near Winslow AZ.

$25 for full hook-ups. We wanted to fill our water tanks and use their dump station. I understand the ruins there are worth the visit, but we got there late and left early.

 

One sad note, as we got close to Flagstaff, we saw an elk doe carcass on the road. I have been wanting to see an elk for years.....  but not this way. Bummer!

 

Finally we got to Sheilah and Chuck's home in Paulden. They have quite a farm going there! BIG garden and fruit trees and bee hives and lots of yummy things from the garden. I am sorry, we were so into visiting after so many years.... I forgot to take pictures! But Sheilah decided to try and make Navajo Pizza like we had in Bluff Utah. Her daughter Alana came to visit with her two sons so we got busy in Sheilah's kitchen.  Sheilah made the frybread while Alana and I loaded on the tomato sauce, cheese, onions, avocado, asparagus, & elk meat! YUM!

All 7 of us pigged out on amazing Navajo Pizza!

 

If any of you would like to learn how to make fry bread, here is a link to an earlier visit to Shiela's kitchen where she taight me how to make frybread!

http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2008/10/az-day-2-and-navajo-tacos.html

 

When we left Sheilah and Chuck's great company, we headed to Camp Verde to meet our old friend John.

We went to a very fancy campground where John used to workcamp! Distant Drums come complete with pool, spa, laundry facilities, and gym with a high price tag too! Distant Drums was $39 per night but well laid out and a fun Casino across the way!  John tried hard to get off work... but as it turned out, none of his co-workers would cover for him at his current workamper job in Apache Junction and (as much as we love you John)we didn't want to get involved in Phoenix traffic or heat! So we left Camp Verde after one night of leaving the Yavapai Apache some of our hard earned $$$ at the Casino!  We headed east down highway 260 through the mountain towns of Strawberry and Pine on to Payson and Star Valley. We ended up in a beautiful pine forest in the White Mountains.

 

 

We are tucked away comfortably, lots of room to play!  We took Young Road off of highway 260 and within the first few miles found this lovely site!

 

 

 Doogie Bowser and Radar love being off leash and raising the dust level in the forest!

I think they would both add a huge hip hip hooray for being free of campgrounds into FREE campgrounds!

 

In fact, it's so nice here, at noon temp is all of 74 degrees, the trees are gently blowing in the breeze and we have the whole place to ourselves! We have decided to stay one more day!  YaY!

 

So that's it from the crew of the MotherShip, Geri and Chuck with our K-9 kids DoogieBowser and Radar!  I sure hope we boondock like this more often!  Thank you RVSue for being such a good influence! For those who have never read her blog...   take note! rvsueandcrew.net  She writes a fun blog about her life choice of life, living in a Casita and boondocking full time!