Social Interactions

On Monday, after our two weeks in Columbine Campground with no hook-ups or any other amenities, Barbara and I were going to drive over and plop ourselves down once again at Eagle Nest State Park Campgrounds.  While discussing this, we realized that we had just spent 2 full weeks without dumping our grey and black tanks and that if we grabbed a spot at the Eagle Nest Campground, we’d have to pay an RV park to let us get rid of our waste as Eagle Nest, other than water, has no other amenities.

Now, RV parks are not inexpensive, especially around this area.  Probably an average of $45 a night with some being in the high-thirties and others close to sixty.  All of that was outside of our budget, but we had heard some good reports about a little RV park that sat just down the road from the State Park so we opted to at least go and scope it out some.

West Lake RV Park is operated by Glenda.  It’s a small park that caters primarily to about a dozen or so seasonal retired couples who arrive to get away from the Texas summers.  There’s a few Okies and Kansas people as well, but by and large, most are Texans.  They stay there anywhere from 1 - 2 months straight.  Most having been camping there for years on end, establishing long lasting friendships with each other. And of course, West Lake also rents out spaces to the occasional traveler looking for a place to camp, people  like us.  The park has everything to offer except showers; Electrical hookups, sewer hookups, water, Wi-Fi and a laundromat, all for the low, low price of $27 a night.  TWENTY-SEVEN DOLLARS a NIGHT!  Unbelievable…. but it’s the truth.  We bought a couple of nights, found our spot and parked.  Nice.

West Lake RV Park, Eagle Nest, NM

In the center of this RV Park is a huge shelter that has tables, chairs and even 2 porch swings.  It seems this is the spot that everyone wanders over to, to shoot the breeze.  After we had set up our Lazy Daze, we looked over and noticed a handful of people swinging and sitting at the shelter house so Barbara and I decided to walk over and check it out.  Wow.  You’d have thought that we were long lost relatives or something!  Everyone greeted us with smiles and hand shakes and commenced to ask us about our travels, where we were from, etc.  Of course, the subject of fishing came up and one of the guys, Stan, asked me if I’d like to go out on the lake in the morning in his pontoon boat.  Would I??  Heck yeah!  So Tuesday morning I met him, his wife Karen and their friend Dick, launched the pontoon and commenced to slay the Yellow Perch like crazy.  That Tuesday morning we KEPT 86 fish, all over the length of 8 inches. Stan said it had been a long time since they had caught that many on one morning.  I can’t even imagine how many smaller ones that we caught and released.  Of course, all of those fish had to be filleted, de-ribbed and a final trimming.  It went pretty fast with the three of us guys working together.

Stan launching his Pontoon Boat

Karen, Dick & Stan

We went out again on Wednesday morning and decided to throw everything back under 9 inches in length.  We actually caught MORE fish that day but because of our size restrictions our keepers amounted to about 60 additional fish.  Hum.  More fish to fillet.  Nice. 

Stan talked to Glenda and got the okay to have a fish fry on Thursday afternoon, which just happened to have been mine and Barbara’s 10 year anniversary.  Stan and the rest of the gang at West Lake RV usually have 2 or 3 fish fries during the course of their stay there, but because I had helped catch and clean all of those perch he felt is just right to go ahead and have one while we were still staying in the RV park.  As you can see from the photos, the turn out was great, the fish was tasty and the potluck was one of the best I have ever had.  Not ONE dish was duplicated!  It was so much fun, that Barbara and I decided to extend our time into a full week’s stay.  During that time, we had plenty of socializing under the shelter, went out for chicken fried steak (a weekly event for the regulars) and Barbara would hook up with all the ladies and play cards down at the laundromat.

Before the Potluck...

...after the Potluck.

The people and food were awesome!

When our one week stay at West Lake was over, we moved “La Casita” once again to Eagle Nest Lake State Park.  We spent that time relaxing, fishing (of course), going to the local thrift store, and to the weekend farmer’s market where we hooked up with a couple that we met from the RVillage website that I had mentioned in the last update.  Paul and Karen are Camp Hosts at Golden Eagle RV Park.  It keeps them pretty busy but they managed to find time for us.  We met them first at the farmer’s market, which is hosted by Golden Eagle RV Park, and then made a time to meet again the following week.  Paul plays guitar and him and a few others get together for a weekly jam session so we agreed to meet an hour earlier on that day to get to know each other.  The other musicians never showed up so we and a few others were entertained for an hour or so of Paul playing and singing.  It was a good time and once again an answer to our desire to have a bit more interaction with other campers.  Barbara went back to West Lake a couple of times to play cards with the ladies and once, while we were in the Angel’s Attic Thrift Store, she struck up a conversation with a couple who was camped just a few sites down from us.

Chuck and Netti have been full-timers for eighteen years!  They welcomed us into their RV for an enjoyable evening of getting to know each other and with us getting as much practical info and advice on full-timing that we could get.  Before parting, we made plans to connect in a couple of weeks.

A neighboring Chipmunk

That pretty much sums up the last 2 weeks.  Our desire for some socializing with others certainly was fulfilled and along with that, we managed to have some good eats and of course, great scenery here in northern New Mexico.  This state certainly is impressive!