Kathleen's Window: New Mexico- Old Favorites, Elephant Butte and Rockhound!

Friday, October 17 to Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Leaving Datil Well on Friday morning, we were immediately stopped by a road construction flagman who told us we might as well shut off our engine while we waited for a pilot car and make a bologna sandwich for ourselves and one for him, too! The white haired and bearded man turned out to be Don Hargis, who along with his father, spent their lives as country music performers. They played with Buck Owens and other country musicians, mostly out of Bakersfield, California, which apparently is a hotbed for country music. Who knew? He told us he had been to Maryland and the roads were so narrow that people sitting on their balconies could have handed him a cup of coffee as he drove by. We've driven through old Western Maryland towns like that!

Datil Wells camp

The pilot car finally showed up, he switched with the driver and drove us to the next stretch of highway. That portion of road took us past the Very Large Array. We made a quick stop at the scenic view pull-off and decided not to go on the tour. We toured it twelve years ago when we, plus our daughter, the aspiring scientist, were the only visitors that morning. We were able to visit the control room and happened to be there when the scientist in charge was given the rare order to re-position the huge dishes. We got to watch through the large windows as the discs turned to a new direction to seek radio waves from space. Very cool, and not likely to be repeated that morning. Instead we had a good conversation with an RVing couple from Phoenix who were stopping at various sites that the wife found in the book, “1,000 Things to See Before You Die!” We shared the joy of living the spontaneous life as nomads, and we left in opposite directions on the highway to pursue our spontaneity!

The Very Large Array was contracted into a compact formation instead of spread out for many miles.

We made the decision that with the short time we had left before we needed to be back in Maryland, that we would visit some of our favorite places in New Mexico. A lot of people prefer Arizona over New Mexico, but for some reason, the later resonates more with us. Since we were in need of laundry and showers, we headed down I-25 to Elephant Butte State Park at Truth or Consequences. We didn't renew our annual pass this year, but at $14 a night for water and electric, it's still a good deal. The park has lots of sites, but we were informed that the snowbirds had arrived early due to cold weather farther north. Coming in on a weekend gave us fewer sites to chose from, but we found a good site in Quail Run, our favorite section.

Chillin' at Elephant Butte and T 'r C

Giving Thanks in New Mexico

Elephant Butte camp

This Ruby Crested Kinglet supervised us closely all weekend.

Looking down at Elephant Butte Lake

Saturday we headed to the laundromat and then had lunch at Maria's Mexican restaurant nearby. Back to camp and just chillin' for the next few days. We had some rain at night, one rainy day, and a dramatic storm one afternoon, but plenty of time to walk and relax. Elephant Butte Park is good for that! Greg spent time talking to insurance reps to try and get our windshield replaced. The crack from the “gravel attack” in Montana has spread, but we finally left on Tuesday after never hearing back from the glass replacement business in El Paso. (Just as well, we got another big chip in it while crossing Oklahoma...)

Maria's had a great reward for finishing the laundry!

Thunderstorms moving in from the south

Lots of dramatic lightening, thunder, and heavy rain.

We could see the double rainbow from end to end!

Tuesday morning we finally gave up for the moment on the windshield and left Elephant Butte for Deming and Rockhound State Park. I think this park is definitely one of my favorites. We spent last Thanksgiving there, after sitting out the snow at Pancho Villa State Park near the Mexican border. Links to previous posts. But first we were on the hunt for Green Chile Cheeseburgers! Getting off the Hatch exit from I-25 we went looking for Sparky's. We had our first GCCB here and found them closed the last time we came through here. Since it was a Tuesday, we figured we would be fine. What!? Closed again!? Greg searched the internet and found good reviews for the Valley Cafe, also in Hatch, so we drove there.

Roof covered with drying red chiles

After the recent rains, the dry lakes weren't!

We had decent GCCB there, and drove on, knowing that the Holy Grail of GCCB still awaited us at The Patio in Deming. Greg had his birthday dinner there last year. We arrived at Rockhound State Park in mid-afternoon and were surprised to find the park full. The host said that the snowbirds had arrived early, (again!), and he could offer us a space in the day use picnic area. We still had a covered picnic table, but no hook-ups, which of course are no big deal to us, so we stayed. Our view wasn't quite as good, but we were happy to be there.

Overflow camp at Rockhound day use area

We walked the nature trail to reacquaint ourselves with the cactus and other greenery, and had a quiet night gazing at the stars and the lights of Deming below. (My favorite part of this park!)