New Mexico amigos

Arrived in New Mexico Saturday, January 2nd after an uneventful trip. Since neither one of us has ever been to New Mexico we were awed by the scenery during the drive in. Many experience RVers take the smaller highways rather than the interstates but it is all new to us and we are more comfortable driving on the better roads. Someday we may feel the same. We finally found a campsite that is really nice located in Las Cruces which is just over the Texas border. The sites are large and made of compressed gravel as opposed to dirt. The facility offers a continental breakfast and has a nice lounge and hot tub. There are alot of larger motorhomes here and it appears many use this RV resort as a stop over on their way to Arizona. It seems everyone is going to Arizona.

We were able to get one round of golf in at the New Mexico State University Golf Course. It was a pretty ugly round based on our performance but the course was nice and we were thrilled to finally have a day where the weather cooperated.

Spent another day at the Village de Mesilla which is within walking distance of the site. It is the older part of Las Cruces with many unique shops, a Basilica & restaurants. That day the square was full of local artist with their creations.

We have met several nice couples here and had dinner with Ken & Julie from Litchfield Illinois. Everyone either looks at your license plate or the T-shirt or ball cap your wearing to strike up a conversation. You do meet interesting people...this couple owned Schutt Manufacturing, a sporting good company that provided bases and helmets to all to major league baseball franchises. They designed the bases for the All-Star game in St. Louis.

The highlight of our trip was our visit to the White Sands National Monument. It is 275 square miles of white gypsum sand, which is so white that from a distance it can be mistaken for snow. It is a registered national park and very uncommericialized.
There are 3 trails and we chose the 1.5 mile self-guided tour through the dunes.

This beautiful desert is surrounded on 3 sides by the Organ, Sacramento and San Andres Mountains. Over millions of years, gypsum washed off the sides of these mountain and has formed the worlds largest white sands desert.

Wildlife abounds in the night but foot prints of kit fox, roadrunners, pocket mice and various lizards can be seen during the day.

We completed our day with a Sunset Stroll guided by a park ranger. The temperature during the day was in the mid 50's but was so dry it felt much warmer...until sunset and then it was very cold.







Not sure which mountain range this is. White Sands is surrounded by 3 ranges.


Ron next to a desert pedestal. Rosemary mint is the foliage on top.




The start of sunset


Sunset


Ranger guide during Sunset Stroll. Do I look cold? I am!!!



Hope all is well.

Ron & Joan

Holidays

We had a great time visiting with John, Kandy, Ali and Jack over Christmas eve and Christmas day. We missed our traditional events with Ron's family on Christmas eve and Ann & John on Christmas day, however, feel really fortunate to have been able to spend the holidays with family. Especially our first holiday away from home.

Last Saturday we had our first overnight guest. Jack spent the night and part of Sunday with us. We have a sofa sleeper that expands to a RV Queen. , We played games, (I think Jack beat Ron at Backgammon, but I was afraid to ask). Sunday morning we enjoyed a pancake, scrabble egg & bacon breakfast,attended Mass, stopped for a burger & milk shake at Freddy's (much like Steak & Shake) then went to watch Ali play volleyball. It was a practice scrimmage not a game, but we were able to see her play in 5-6 games. She is very, very good at all positions. I love volleyball...it brings back good memories.

Our plans were to leave early this morning, but they were predicting snow & ice in the direction of our destination, so we decided to lay over another day. We also, wanted to have our furnace looked at again....I'm not a hvac expert but I'm still convinced it is not cycling the way it should.

The repairman came out again this morning and of course everything worked just the way it was suppose to for him. He was a little late getting here and the weather here is rainy and dreary, so we decided to stay again tonight and leave tomorrow.

We are trying to get to an event in Quartzsite, Arizona by January 22nd....at this rate we may not make it.

Hope all is well!

Joan & Ron

Holiday Lights

Over the weekend we met John, Kandy, Ali and Jack for dinner at Rudy's. We have been wanting to try this infamous barbeque spot. The food is good and the atmosphere casual and fun. You order your meat by the pound and it is served on butcher paper.

After dinner we took a tour of a couple of neighborhoods to view the holiday lights. One subdivision has a contest for the best of many categories including the best decorated mailbox. They go wayout....

We also toured Incarnate Word High School (where Ali attends) and the University for their light show.


There really is a mailbox in there somewhere!


I bet the letter carriers love this.

Hope all is well!

Joan & Ron

GOLF...finally!

Last Friday was a beautiful day....70 degrees and sunny. So we re-arranged our plans and hit the golf course. We played at La Cantera Resort. We teed off at 2:00 pm and was able to get in 17 holes before dark. We were thrilled to finally swing a club.

The course is beautiful with more than enough hazzards. Even at this time of the year when most of the foliage is dormant, I like the rock and cactus.




When you get in the rough....it is really rough


Taken from the elevated tee box. Six Flags amusement park in the background.



Sunset at La Cantera. We had to find the club house in the dark. Why don't they put headlights on these carts?

Hope all is well!


Joan & Ron

VISIT TO LBJ'S RANCH

We've been spending a lot of time Christmas shopping just like the rest of the world. San Antonio is a great place to shop with all of the stores we are familiar with plus many more. The challenge is trying to wrap the gifts on a 3 ft x 2 ft table. We can always use the floor but it's a long way down and the ceramic tile is cold..

Spent a day at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Park and Historic Site. Ron loves history but it was never my favorite subject. I did, however, enjoy this attraction. I never knew how influential LBJ was in so many amendments & laws that are still in place today. And I always like to see how people use to live.

We toured his 2700+ acre ranch, which consists of his grandfathers home, the school he attended at the age of 4 years old, a display of his convertible cars, Texas White House, the family cemetery & the Secret Service office and barracks.


One of many in LBJ's classic car collection. This is his aqua car. He use to take visitors to the Texas White House on a tour of the ranch in this car, then suprise them by driving into the river.


LBJ Family Cemetery. Lyndon's grave is the large marker on the right. The flowers on the left is the grave of Lady Bird Johnson who died in 2007. Of course Ron had to ask when a marker will be placed for her. The ranger thought it would be sometime next year but would not comment on why it has taken so long???




His home is referred to as the Texas White House. He conducted many of his presidencial functions here and is the only remote white house in history.


Texas White House


In a film we viewed prior to our tour, showed LBJ at this same well

It still is a working ranch with the family owning about 2000 acres and the rest was given to the National Park Services by Lyndon & Lady Bird.

We also toured his boyhood home from the age of 5 in Johnson City about 14 miles east of the ranch.

Hope all is well!

Joan & Ron

One good thing about the rainy, gloomy days is we get some things done around the coach instead of going out. We spent the day doing laundry and cleaning. Although our 440 square foot coach doesn't take very long to clean...it gets messy a lot faster. Our "yard" is mud and no matter how hard we try, we seem to bring alot of the outdoors in.

We did take the afternoon off from our cleaning spree to attend our great nephew - Jack's- Christmas pageant. It was a holiday performance by the 5th-8th graders at his school. It was fun to watch the kids play the drums, guitars, bells & sing. As you can see from the picture below, Jack wasn't too terribly enthused. We did finally get him to smile for a picture with his sister , Ali, and her friend Gaby but only after it was over.


Not a happy camper having to sing Christmas carols.





Hope all is well!

Joan & Ron

Where's the Sun?

Several days this last week were cold, damp and gloomy. Although the temperature is warmer than St. Louis...it is still not the weather we were hoping for.....how much further south do we need to go to find sun?

They keep telling us this is very unusual for Texas and when we tell them we're from Missouri, we get accused of bringing this weather with us.

We haven't routed our next destination yet, but from what I'm reading we may have a problem finding a campground in New Mexico & Arizona. I thought with the economy today that more RVer's would stay home, but seems it has not stopped the snow birds.

We are still waiting for our furnace to be repaired. Actually, the furnace was repaired and re-installed but the repairman could not get it to ignite, so he ordered a new thermostat. That was over a week ago. Ron called to get a status update only to find out that he has the flu. I don't like to hear anyone is ill and we hope he is feeling better soon...for him and for us. We took for granted having a relationship with our house repair/service providers. Ones you knew and could trust. We are flying blind with this furnace guy.

Need to wrap a few more presents & finish up on some Christmas cards.

Hope all is well.

Joan & Ron