The last entry that I made was of our one day visit into Alamogordo to watch the Veteran’s Day parade and take in the Chili Cook Off, but there were quite a few things that took place before and after that one day. Let me get you caught up with our adventures as we moved between Elephant Butte, Oliver Lee, Balmorhea, Monahans Sandhills and Brantley campgrounds. It seems like it’s been a whirlwind kind of month!!
While at Elephant Butte State Park near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico we visited the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Sanctuary for a tour led by John and Betty, volunteers at the park. We had already attend one of their tours earlier on, which I had already posted about, but wanted to go back when there were more birds to look at. If you remember, our friends Mark and Judith were also volunteers up there as well. To make what could be a very long story shorter, while out on the tour Betty mentioned about the Thanksgiving Dinner that was being held for all of the volunteers and when we mentioned that we had heard about it from our other friends, she piped up and said that we were invited to come up as well. Not having anything else to do on Thanksgiving Day, we readily accepted but later on we had Mark and Judith reaffirm our invite, just to make sure we weren’t going to be party crashers. It was a great day of visiting our friends and talking to the other volunteers…. and oh yeah… the food. Yeah, the food was great too!
In that month of December, we jumped back and forth from Elephant Butte to Oliver Lee State Park in Alamogordo. While in Alamogordo before Thanksgiving, we visited the Three Rivers Petroglyphs at Three Rivers, and the Monjeau Fire Look Out Tower (9600 feet!) up in Ruidoso.
Jornada Mogollon Rock Art. There are over 21,000 throughout the park!
After our Thanksgiving at Bosque del Apache we headed back to Oliver Lee SP in Alamogordo and a day later Mark and Judith came down to camp with us. While they were there, we enjoyed a day out at White Sands National Monument making sand angels, taking photos and goofing off. It’s a very beautiful and interesting place, that’s for sure.
We made Sand Angels! LOL
Judith having fun!
The next day, we drove the twenty miles up into the mountains to Cloudcroft for our first day of snow! There’s something quite satisfying about being able to look at snow from afar, knowing that you only have to experience it if you really want too. Nice!
Mark and Judith were making their way to Florida to spend the winter with family and friends, so our two RVs headed into Texas to spend one last day together. We parked at Balmorhea State Park and spent the time playing Dominion and also a full day of exploring the McDonald Observatory over in Fort Davis, TX. It was a cold, cloudy, rainy and sleet filled day but the Observatory had plenty to keep us busy. Oh…. and Mark brought along Dominion for us to play in-between activities. LOL
The next morning, we said our good-byes as Mark and Judith headed east and we headed back west. We probably won’t connect with them again until next fall but have promised to keep in regular contact with one another. Thats just the way it works in the full-time RV lifestyle.
Barbara and I headed “La Casita” toward Monahans Sandhills State Park near Monahans, TX. It was a pretty cool place to stay for a few days. I explored the dunes a bit and even found a “lost” ball. For some reason, that always makes my day. :-) While there, we explored the area some as Barbara’s dad was once stationed near there at Rattlesnake Bomber Base near Pyote. That was back in 1944 so the base is all but gone. In Monahans, there is a museum that has a hanger filled with the history and memorabilia of the base, so we spent several hours there before heading north and back into New Mexico to Brantley State Park near Carlsbad. We spent an enjoyable afternoon visiting with some friends that we had met earlier in the year and made plans to return the week before Christmas to observe “Christmas on the Pecos” and a Christmas Dinner that is held at their RV park. Looking forward to it!
We are now camped back at Oliver Lee in Alamogordo with awesome weather and beautiful mountain views.
This bouncing all over was fast (for us) and fun but also a bit wearing. It’s nice to be set in one place for a couple of weeks just to rest a bit. We’ll need it. We’ll soon be back to Carlsbad for the Christmas activities and then head our home on wheels toward Arizona after the first of the year, if not before. That should be exciting for us!
Thanks for reading and as always, your comments and thoughts are much appreciated as well as any updates on you and your life.
Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year!
Bud and Barbara
Downtown Cloudcroft
Mountain Snow, Elephant Butte
Photos from Oliver Lee State Park
The End
