Smith Center, KS to North Platte, NE

The weather alarm went off around 2:30 a.m. and again at 3:30 a.m. advising that severe thunderstorms were coming - 60 mile an hour winds, hail, lightning, thunder, and heavy rain. It was very still and then around 5:30 a.m., the wind picked up and rocked us back and forth for quite a while. The wind sounded like a train. Soon the lightning and thunder started then the rain and hail. It was a wild ride and light show for about 20 minutes. We will be glad to get out of Kansas.

The six of us went to breakfast for the last time. Dick and Phyllis were leaving their rig at the factory to be worked on while they drove up to South Dakota to renew their drivers licenses and then swing through Omaha for a See's meeting Saturday with Warren Buffett as speaker (Buffet owns See's). Dick and Phyllis run a See's kiosk in Dallas in November and December and have done it for six years I believe. Their rig is suppose to be done on Friday and they will move back in to it on Sunday when they return to Smith Center. Ken and Kris are still waiting on the work on their rig to be finished. After seeing that the weather looked to be improving, John and I decided to head to North Platte, NE. Hugs and safe travel wishes were shared. A great group of people and we exchanged email address and phone numbers. We might be able to have our paths cross in Arizona over the winter.

It was an uneventful drive to North Platte other than having a headwind which sure doesn't help with the fuel consumption. We saw pheasants, turkeys, and a red tail hawk. After we got to the RV park, we gave Paul at Fort Welikit (our workkamper jobsite) a call to see when we could come in. Paul said we could come in at any time. He also said that almost all of the snow in Custer has melted (good, let's keep it that way) and that he had only four campers right now. The other maintenance person is there already. If we were to drive direct to Custer, it would be almost a 322 mile day. That is more miles than we normally like to travel. We think we will play it by ear and see how we feel when we get to Chadron, NE and then decide if we go on or not.

I got caught up on laundry and we settled in for a little TV. We are both tired what with our sleep interruption by the weather radio and the storm. I think it will be an early to bed night.

Can you believe this is the last day of April already? Where is the time going?

Service Continues - Day 3

When Jack came in, John went to talk to him. Apparently, yesterday Jack noticed that the trim was wrong and said it would be corrected. However, he told John that we were just "being picky". That the hallway was a separate room from the bathroom so matching the pattern wasn't important. Jack said he would only replace the laminate if we paid for it. WHAT!!!! I'm so glad that I wasn't there because I would have come unglued. After John told me what Jack said, someone in the lounge suggested that we get the laminate pieces from Jack and then find someone to install the laminate or John could replace them. When John went back to Jack, Jack said he would give us the laminate pieces. I'm not happy but at least we can get it done the way it should be done.

The six of us went to The Second Cup for breakfast and conversation and then returned to the Service Center. A bit later, John went out to the service bays to talk to Jim about a couple of items. John stuck his head in our rig and said that the laminate had been replaced and that the pattern matches the bathroom, the trim is cherry wood, and the threshold is nickel. I guess Jack had second thoughts about his position as we were paying for the installation; therefore, we had the right to be "picky".

An older couple (approx. mid 70's) came in to the service center and starting gripping about everything under the sun regarding their Excel. This was the first time they've been to the factory but they were complaining. They also seemed to have an opinion on everything and their way was the best. Talk about a negative vibe! Individually, we were put off /offended by their boorish/arrogant attitudes. This sort of reminds us of last year when we were here. The first week, we had group of good natured people who liked to laugh and were very congenial. The second week, we had a group of grumpy, complaining people. You get what you give.

Jim came and got John and I to go over the items on our list that he completed. We were very pleased with the detail of information he gave us as well as the work he completed. John told Jack that we really liked the work Jim did and Jack said he wished he had more of his type. I think if Jim is around next year when we stop by the factory for a check-up, we will request him. Our work is done and we will be free to leave tomorrow.

We got ready to go to dinner and invited Jack to join us. He said he would have liked to but he had to wait for a dealer to come and pick up some materials around 7 p.m. So we headed off to Duffy's for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the lounge to watch Idol and chat. Around 10:30 p.m., we called it quits and headed home. Kris and Ken were able to sleep in their rig last night but Dick and Phyllis were still going to have to sleep in the lounge but with our air bed, blankets, and Kris and Ken's pillows, they were sleeping comfortably.

Service Continues - Day 2

Another early up and at it morning. We have such a nice group of people here that hanging out in the lounge is just enjoyable.

We discussed the installation of the laminate in front of the bathroom with Jack and are going to proceed with the installation. Jim, the technician, has been busy working through the items on our list. By 4 p.m. our rig was pulled out of the bay and was ready for us to inhabit for the night. We checked out the laminate installation and was somewhat disappointed. First off, the laminate was trimmed with oak (we have cherry), the pattern did not match with the bathrooms, and the threshold was gold (all our fixtures are nickel). Disappointed to say the least. John will be speaking with Jack in the morning.

Ken and Kris and Dick and Phyllis will not be able to sleep in their rigs tonight due to the work they are having done. We offered our airbed and brought over the extra blankets we have so they can be comfortable. The lounge is being converted into Camp Peterson.

We all went to dinner at Pizza Hut. We lucked out and got the "senior" discount along with everyone else. Who Hoo!

Came back to the lounge and saw the last few performances of American Idol. After Idol, John and I went back to our rig. We were woken up by our weather radio at 12:30 a.m. advising severe weather (thunderstorms with hail) was heading our way. Sure enough around 2 a.m. it started in. Boy howdy did it ever and it went until at least 5 a.m.

Service Started - Day 1

We were out of our rig promptly at 6:30 and it was pulled in to a bay shortly thereafter. The service manager, Jack, had given the technician our email to go over with us. Of course, we had a few other items on our copy of the list.

While we were cooling our heels in the lounge, the seven of us decided to go out to breakfast to The Second Cup. This restaurant is a local hangout and there were a couple of large groups in there. We ate breakfast, chatted, and laughed for a couple of hours. We returned to the lounge where I spent time on the computer.

From Kris I learned that they replaced their hallway shades with blackout shades. Right now, we attach black felt to help block out the light as we like a dark room when we sleep. I checked with Donna to see what the cost for a new shade would be and she checked to see if they had one in stock. They did so we agreed to purchase it and they will install it. I also asked Donna if she had any rubber grommets for our stove. She scrounged around and found some for me. Yeah! We also asked Jack to give us a price for putting laminate in the hallway in front of the bathroom. This area is a heavy traffic area. Hopefully, it is not too expensive and we can get it done. I would love to have the laminate in our main living area but after hearing about the nightmare and expense Rick and Y experienced when they had laminate put in their living area; we will take a pass. I will get the carpet cleaned when we are in Custer.

When Kris and Ken returned from getting their hair cuts, Kris told us that the beautician mentioned that she knew that the seven of us had gone to breakfast at The Second Cup. We all had a good laugh . . . only in a small town.

All of us signed up to take the factory tour at 1:30 p.m. This tour was better than last years even though there wasn't a lot of rigs being built. We got to see a new model for 2010 that was being finished up.

Later in the evening, we toured each others rigs. Two of the floor plans we hadn't seen before. Then the six of us went to dinner at Duffy's. Jim had gone out for pizza so he declined our invitation to join us. We had lovely conversation and a lot of laughs. Both couples, Kris and Ken and Dick and Phyllis were high school sweethearts and they are both coming up on their 44th and 45th wedding anniversaries. Isn't that wonderful? John and I felt like novices and we will be married 28 years the end of May.

Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday Melissa! We love you very much. After strict instructions not to call too early, we gave Melissa a call around lunch time (our time) and had a nice conversation. She was busy celebrating her birthday with a group of friends at lunch yesterday and then she was going to a girlfriend's house to spend the afternoon hanging out and going to dinner.

We were up and after breakfast headed to the lounge to see if any of our service mates were up and about. Dick had been up since 5:30 (what???) so we visited until his wife, Phyllis came in. After a while, Rick and Y came in to say their goodbyes as they were heading east. We wished them safe travels as there was severe weather warnings everywhere in Kansas it seemed. I spoke with them later this evening and they made it safely to Kansas City where severe weather was still threatening after midnight. Hopefully, the bad weather will dissipate and no one is threatened or has to experience any tornadoes--they scare the jeepers out of me.

After Rick and Y left, we sat and talked with Dick and Phyllis until we broke up for lunch. When we returned to the lounge, there was no one around so I watched the Weather Channel while John played solitaire. Phyllis came in to take a shower but we got engaged in conversation so it took her almost three hours before she got her shower taken.

Another couple (Dick and Kris) from Minnesota came in for service whom we met here last year in May. It is always nice when you cross paths with nice people. Before we knew it, it was 7:30 p.m. and we hadn't had dinner yet. The time has just flown by.

We have to be up around 5:30 a.m. as we have to be showered and out of our rig by 6:30 a.m. with the slides pulled in, and be ready to have the rig taken into the service bay. I know, those of you still working have no sympathy.

More visiting

Yesterday it was 93 degrees when we pulled in. Today the high was 49 degrees and the humidity was 93 percent. It was cold along with some drizzle.

We basically hung out in the Service Department's lounge and talked. We kind of broke up around 1 p.m. As I wanted to go to the store to get some ice, we decided to stop at Pizza Hut for lunch. We walked in and a father told John that his son (mid-20's) really liked our truck. We chatted back and forth for a while and when they went outside, they really checked out the truck up close. We had just ordered when Rick and Y came in and joined us. We sat and chatted until after 5 p.m.

After a quick stop at the grocery store, we went back in to the lounge for more visiting. Dick and Phyllis went back to their rig while Rick and Y taught us a new game "Pegs and Jokers". It was interesting and there is certainly a strategy to it. It would, however, take me more than two games to get the hang of it completely. The guys won one and the girls one won. We broke up at 11 p.m. See, this is how the day gets away from us. Rick and Y are heading out in the morning . . we will be sorry to see them go as we have totally enjoyed their company.

Early departure to Smith Center, KS

We checked the weather and saw where there were going to be strong north winds tomorrow along with the possibility of severe weather. As we were going to head north to Smith Center, KS in the morning, this got us thinking about leaving this afternoon. We had paid for two nights but by leaving early, we could beat the weather and there is no charge at Excel's Service Department's hookups so we wouldn't be incurring any extra expense by leaving early.

After driving in to Hays to check out the town, go to the grocery store, and pick up a weather radio, we decided once I finished the laundry, we would dump tanks, pull in the slides and head north. The wind was blowing very strong out of the south today so we thought, good, we'll have a tailwind. We left Russell, KS around 3:30 p.m. The wind didn't have any affect on us until we turned east for 9 miles and we were hit side-on with the wind. John was happy when he turned and headed north again. We were almost to Smith Center, when the wind shifted and we had a headwind. John said darn, we were doing so well on the mpg's until the headwind.

We pulled in to Smith Center around 5:15. When we pulled up, we noticed a medium duty International truck sitting in the parking lot. John commented that it looked like Rick and Y's truck. Sure enough it was. We met Rick and Y (Yvonne) last year when we were at the Service Department in May. They are a very nice fulltiming couple that are about our ages. Rick and Y's service work was just about done so we got lucky in crossing paths with them. Another couple, Dick and Phyllis, also came in early like we did due to concerns about the weather. We got parked without any difficulty this year unlike last year . . . experience does pay off. Once we got parked, we came back in and the six of us chatted until Dick and Phyllis went to their rig. The four of us then went up to Duffy's Restaurant to have dinner and sat and chatted until almost 9:30. Luckily we left before the staff had to throw us out so they could close up.

We love our rig and coming to the service center has been a pleasant and informative experience. We have a large lovely lounge with coffee, soda and snack machines, a computer with wifi, two large TV's , bathrooms with showers, washer and dryer, AND are provided electric hook-ups while we are waiting for our service work to be completed. We are left with the feeling that PI appreciates our business and brand loyalty.

Smith Center is a small town and pretty much exists because of the manufacturer of the Excel Fifth Wheels, Peterson Industries. The owner, Vaughan Peterson lives here in town. You can always count on the newest model of Excel to be in his driveway unless he and his wife are out on the road in it. Peterson Industries has suffered during our economic downturn just like everyone but through wise leadership, they have been able to remain in business whereas other brands have not been so lucky. PI makes a great product and as owners, we want them to be around for a long time. We were told that the factory has orders to take them up to July and are producing three rigs a week. In the past, they use to produce seven units a week so that tells you that there aren't as many people working as there used to be.

We will be cooling our heels in the service lounge until Monday when possibly our rig will be worked on. Thankfully, none of the items on our list is serious (we hope). There will be five rigs here in for service for the week. It will be interesting to see if anyone comes in that we met last year or if we get to make new friends. We are planning on being here for the week and cross our fingers that the severe weather they are forecasting doesn't materialize.

Russell, KS

The RV park in Liberal was just across the street from a set of railroad tracks. We had at least three trains tooting their horns during the night. That certainly interrupts one's sleep I can tell you for sure.

We were on the road by 9 a.m. Green fields, cattle ranches, and oil pumps (grasshoppers) were abundant in our journey northward. We did see a red fox near the road as well as a male wood duck enjoying a large puddle.

Most of the towns that we drove through were pretty small (blink and you were through them). We stopped in Great Bend for lunch. Some of their main street was all paved with brick for several blocks. We had a very bumpy ride until we got through town.

We pulled in to Russell around 2 p.m. The RV park is definitely not a destination location but will be fine for two nights.

After getting settled in, John washed the end cap of the rig as we had massive bug splat. It will be nice not having to get up and get moving tomorrow. We will get our laundry caught up, tanks emptied, and water tank filled for a trip to the factory in Smith Center, KS.

Liberal, KS

We got out on the road a little before 9 a.m. The drive was rather uneventful as we drove through eastern New Mexico, Western Texas, and Western Oklahoma. Liberal is just over the border from Oklahoma. On our journey, we saw a lot of raptors and a few antelope.

The RV park in Liberal is only a couple of years old with long pull-thrus. We had a nice chat with the owner. They owned several thousand acres of farm land and when their daughters left home, they decided to sell off some land. Then they decided to put in a RV park with 12 sites. When those sites filled regularly, they put in 16 more sites. Sounds like they are setting themselves for a nice retirement.

We drove in to town to go to the post office and fill up the truck. Liberal was a cute little town. They have Dorothy's House, a farmhouse that was built in 1907. It has been carefully restored and furnished with antiques of the period to replicate Dorothy's house from the Wizard of Oz. The story goes that a local businessman was on a trip when a waitress asked him where he was from and he said Kansas. She replied "Kansas, that's where Dorothy's from". The businessman realized that Dorothy didn't have an official hometown so Dorothy's House was born. The house was recognized as the official home of Dorothy Gale in 1981.

There's the replica of the famous storm cellar Dorothy couldn't get into.
Dorothy and Toto

Here is a shot of the Tin Man. Oh yeah and my honey. The Tin Man was a school sheet metal project that left John impressed.

Their street banners say Oz-Some Country. I thought that was clever.
There were severe storms north of us that made for a pretty sunset.
I really like this shot of the windmill and sky.

Tucumcari, NM

It was an easy getting ready to go morning. All we had to do was bring in the slides, raise the rear jacks, hook-up to the truck, do a safety check and we were ready to go. We were told that we all needed to be off the park grounds by 10 a.m. Good luck at that. We stood outside saying goodbye to our neighbors as we were all preparing to head out. While we were talking to Don and Bev, a peregrine falcon flew a circle above us. That was neat. It was also an interesting sight seeing all of the rigs leaving when we did heading out in all directions.

We were on the road a little after 9 a.m. The trip was rather uneventful until we got close to Tucumcari. There had been a fair amount of road construction and in one section, we saw a very sobering sight. There was a truck and fifth wheel that apparently had rolled and each vehicle was a mess with bits and pieces of the fifth wheel strewn about. We heard from a Rally attendee who overnighted in the same RV park as we did that friends who drove past the accident around 5 a.m. said that the driver and the passenger both had to be cut out of the truck. The truck was indistinguishable as to the brand. We pray that both of them are going to be ok. It was a terrible sight.

With 50 amps, I took advantage to do a week's worth of laundry. John socialized with our neighbors and found out that all of us had a Sacramento connection. One couple was a new full-timer from Galt, one woman was a 1961 graduate of El Camino High School, and then us. It was nice to spend the evening with all the conveniences.

Day of socializing

We went out and got fuel and paid $2.08 a gallon. I thought it would be interesting to see that in New Mexico that diesel is less than mid-range gasoline. It is not that way in California that is for sure.
We got up a little before 7 a.m., got dressed, and went outside and got to see the balloons take off with their paying passengers. They were a beautiful sight.


After enjoying the balloons floating over, we took another run out to the exhibits and spent a few bucks on a couple of items we wanted. We got back to the rig and decided to sit outside and enjoy the afternoon. Our neighbors came back from lunch at El Pinto and declared it as the highlight of the Rally. We told you it was good.

Soon there were about ten of us sitting around laughing and carrying on. We sat out there until about the show entertainment to begin. We opted not to go as it was 50/60's beach music with Papa DooRunRun. Instead, we went to El Pinto for our last chance meal here in Albuquerque. I had Posole and John had a burrito with green chili sauce.

Tomorrow we will be back on the road.

The Rally continued

I wrote yesterday about how the septic tank trucks were really tearing up the lawn at the end of our row. The park/rally workers got it cleaned up last night. Then the septic tank trucks started working this morning. After about the third pass, this is what the ground looked like. What a mess! Still some of the vehicles down our row still came through this area. No way, we drove down to the other end of the row. We weren't going to take a chance on getting stuck.

John was putzing around with the rig so I took a walk around the park. On my walk, I discovered that we had another Prather in our row.

Here is a picture of the Balloon Museum.

Here is a shot of what Lot 1 looked like. We heard that there were roughly 2,800 rigs attending. A true sea of all types of RVs.

The entertainment for tonight were the Osmond Brothers. The show started a little slow but it certainly was entertaining. We were pleasantly surprised.

Balloon Glow

Here is a picture of the what the front of the truck looks like with the Ranch Hand Grill Guard. We hope we will never have to use it but if we do, we hope our six radiators have a fighting chance.

We had a tremendous amount of rain last night. When we came back to the rig from going through the exhibits/rigs at the fairgrounds, the end of our row was a little mushy. John said he wanted to a avoid that section until it dried out a bit. As the day progressed, we had septic trucks going up and down our row and they badly rutted up the ground. We were standing out talking with our neighbors amazed that The Rally personnel had not closed off that end of the row because of the mushy, rutted ground when one of the septic trucks came around again. Well, don't you know that not only did he nearly get stuck but he rolled up the sod under the front end of his truck. What a mess. The driver then acted like he hadn't done it (oops, too many witnesses). The Rally people got involved, all of the septic truck drivers (4) came to straighten out the sod, a heavy vehicle was used to flattened the sod down, and a stamper was used to compact the sod and dirt. They actually got the mess looking pretty good. To our amazement, once again, they didn't restrict traffic from coming down the row from that direction. Soon, it was getting rutted again. We didn't get any pictures as we were all standing watching the spectacle and no one thought to take pictures.

Rita Coolidge was performing tonight but we opted not to attend as we wanted to see the Balloon Glow that was starting at 8:30 p.m. It was great! We were able to walk right up and around all of the balloons (7). What a beautiful sight they were.

After stretching out the balloons, they then blow warm air into the balloons to get them somewhat heated. Check out the sky in this shot, those round specs in the sky are stars in the sky.

Then they start really putting the heat to the balloons to get them upright. John was amazed at how close the flame gets to the nylon balloon.

The balloons glowed but when the hot air hit them, they truly glowed.
Here is another pretty shot.

Out of the give balloons, only one of them wasn't having hot air being blown up into the balloon. The balloon baskets were all tethered to vehicles to keep them on the ground.

The balloon glow was so beautiful and we were very happy that we got to experience it. If you are in the Albuquerque area the first two weeks of October, you are treated to nightly Balloon Glows and daily lift offs of over 800 balloons of every shape and size. That has to be spectacular sight.

Rally events

With our 6:45 a.m. wake-up call (generator's starting up), we got up to start our day.

One of our propane tanks ran empty so one of our first stops was at a propane company to get the tank filled. While we were driving away from the propane company, it started to SNOW! What the heck is this? It was 43 degrees out so nothing stuck but it was pretty chilly. It snowed on and off most of the late morning and early afternoon. You can see snow on the Sandia Mountains where there was none yesterday.

We then drove over to the Expo fairgrounds to check out what the vendors were offering and to look at some new RV models. Anything and everything that you could want for an RV can be found here. There are more RV specific vendors here than there were at Quartzsite. I spoke with a MotoSat technician and he is going to come out to see why the satellite will sometimes just stow itself (when it is suppose to be searching for the satellite) with no error messages. The technician was really surprised that I wasn't getting any error messages. Thankfully I had John there to back me up. The good news is that there will be no charge for the visit. Yeah! Now that is customer service.

The evening entertainment tonight was Neil Sedaka. I must say that tonight's entertainment was so much better than last night's. Neil is quite the prolific songwriter and many of his songs were easily recognizable. Neil turned 70 this year. As so many artists lose their voice as they age, I'm happy to report he sounds exactly like he did in his prime. Neil said he sold 50 million records between 1959-1963 and then a group came on the scene...The Beatles. He said he then retired. In the past 45 years, he has written many songs that were performed by other artists. He said there is nothing more satisfying than performing your own music. He seemed to really enjoy himself. As I grew up with two older sisters, I was exposed to many of the late 1950' s and early 1960's music so I have many fond memories. Here's a link to some information about this very talented man Neil Sedaka. He has lead quite the life.

The high today was 44 degrees. It is now raining and some areas could still receive more snow. Thankfully it is not as cold as it was and sunshine is in the forecast for late tomorrow. Warm weather is on the way. Yippee!

Truck addition

We were woken up at 7 a.m. with the sounds of generators starting up here in the dry camping section at Balloon Fiesta Park. We dozed until getting up around 8 a.m. and our generator joined in the hum.

We were out the door around 9:30 and headed out to Clark Truck Co. to have the Ranch Hand Grill Guard installed. Brrr...it was cold and windy. Many conversations have been had about the dangers of running into deer, elk, cows, etc. As we are heading to Custer where white-tail deer are like fleas, we decided we better take the plunge. John spoke with someone at Tombstone Territories RV Park and was told that he had his installed in Texas and what the price was. I did some searching on the internet regarding distributors and John did some calling. We actually found a dealer in Albuquerque who had the best price and we didn't have to go out of our way to get it installed. We showed up, they installed the grill guard, we paid, and were out the door within two hours. We feel the grill guard is like insurance. Hopefully, we will never need to use it. We then headed out for lunch as we didn't have any breakfast and we were starving.

We stopped at Target and Lowe's to pick up some supplies. One stop shopping as they were next door to one another. John made the comment that it was really nice being in a town with shopping choices; oh, how I agree.

By the time we got home, it was relatively warm so we decided to sit outside and watch the world go by. It wasn't long and a couple stopped to chat who were walking their cute dog. Soon the conversation turned to the Ranch Hand Grill Guard. I ended up giving them the company's name and phone number as they were interested in getting one. We were then joined by our neighbors Loren and his wife, Linda (from Colorado) and Don and his wife, Bev (from Oregon). The six of us sat out there for almost three hours just chatting and having a good time. Again, we were asked about the Ranch Hand Grill Guard. Goodness! We only had it installed for a few hours and we've received this much interest. I will post a picture of what the truck looks like in the next few days.

We had a quick bite before heading up to the entertainment tent for the live entertainment for the night. The band is local 50's-60's cover band called the Hub Caps. They weren't great but they weren't that bad either. However, I don't think Simon Cowell would be very complimentary. When we left the tent around 9 p.m., it was cold, cold, cold with a strong west wind. We had anticipated it being cold so we wore double layers on our topsides. Still it was a very cold walk back to the rig. I think we could even get a dusting of snow tonight.

Albuquerque & Good Sam Rally here we come

Today was suppose to be a very windy day (again) so when we woke up a little before 7 a.m., we just got up and got going. By 8 a.m. the wind had started up with gusto. We were done at the dump station by 8:30 a.m. and on the road. The trip to Albuquerque was uneventful and we were helped by a tailwind.

The directions to Balloon Fiesta Park was a little off and we missed one turn. We went down the wrong road for a few miles and then turned around. We drove past this Mexican restaurant called El Pinto that had a large parking lot. I told John we would need to try them before we left the area. We got to the Rally area promptly at the designated time of 1 p.m. We've got to give the Rally volunteers credit in their parking organization. It was amazing how they worked everyone in from two different roads. We will put a picture on the blog in a day or two as to what the park looks like from a good vantage point we found. The number of rigs is amazing and everyone isn't here yet as the Rally officially starts on Friday.

We got set up and caught the shuttle over to the Expo (their fairgrounds) where we completed our registration process for the Good Sam Rally. We can either drive ourselves to the Expo where the vendors are and where seminars will be held or the Rally also has provided buses to take us over to the Expo that run every 20 minutes. That is very nice so we don't have to deal with traffic if we don't want too. There will also be evening entertainment here at the park each evening starting tonight. For those who are John and my ages or older , they will recognize the names of the entertainment . . . more to follow on this subject later.

We were starving after we got back to the rig so we decided to go out to dinner and stop at the grocery store. We stopped at El Pinto and found the place to be terrific. It was a very good decision. John said he wouldn't mind going back before we leave if that tells you anything. John stopped in the restroom on the way out which gave me an opportunity to look at some pictures on the wall. They had pictures of Mel Gibson, Barack Obama, and Senator McCain with Gov. Sarah Palin (taken while they were vote stumping) . We thought that was pretty cool.

It was nice to get home, get groceries put away (found a REAL grocery store . . . it was wonderful), and settled in to watch Idol and read over the information regarding the Rally's seminars and such.

Hope everyone got their taxes done and in the mail!

Morning surprise

We got up this morning and were greeted by a species of Quail that we hadn't seen before. These are called Scaled Quail. They are also known as "Cottontop" for their variable tuft of white feathers at the top of their head.

A little later, John looked out the window and he saw these colorful birds out with the Red Wing Blackbirds.

Here is another shot of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
I like this shot as it shows the bird's interesting wing patch.

We guess these birds were flying over and noticed the Red-wing Blackbird feeding so they decided to join the group. The Yellow-headed Blackbirds were here for about 10 minutes and then they were gone.

The rest of the day was spent picking things up and storing them for traveling tomorrow. We went down to Ed and Pat's to say goodbye and then settled in for an evening of TV. We've enjoyed this state park as the sites are wide and long and well separated from your neighbor but we are ready to move on.

Pictures to share

As we haven't had anything interesting to write about, I thought we should share some of our animals that have entertained us from our windows.

Here is our little bunny friend munching up bird seed that got scattered when the wind blew the feeder off the hook. He/she started on one side and then rounded the corner continuing to eat until he/she was stuffed.

Here is one of our female house finches getting ready to take advantage of the hummingbird's nectar. Who knew they had a sweet tooth. It reminds us of the Lorikeets that we feed while at Pacheco Peak State Park in Arizona.

Here is nice shot of our female Broad-tailed Hummingbird. She always sits so prettily and is very calm when eating her nectar.

Here is an unusual shot were two hummingbirds are going to share the feeder as the same time.
We believe this is a female Black-chinned Hummingbird - nice in air shot.
Black-throated Sparrow enjoying a water break.

Here is a shot of our male Black-chinned Hummingbird. In the light, the area under his throat is a deep purple.

I like this shot of the female Broad-tailed Hummingbird that shows her beautiful tail.

Here is one of resident male House Finches taking a break on our satellite. His mate joined not soon after this picture was taken.

We have had such strong blustery winds that I wish I could have gotten a picture of the quail as even their top notches looked like they were having a bad hair day. It was somehow reassuring to see that even the birds were having issues with all the wind.

We hope you enjoyed our pictures.

Back on-line

Wind, lightning, thunder, wind and even more wind! That has been our lives for the past week. It was so nice to go to sleep last night with no sound of wind. Even the coyotes were happy as we heard them just before nodding off. Friday night around midnight we were woken up with lightning and thunder that went on for better than two hours. In addition, we had campers come in around 2 a.m. (yes, 2 a.m.). They were loud and left their truck running while unhooking their boat and their fifth wheel. Needless to say, our neighbors didn't get on our good side from the start. It didn't get much better on Saturday night as they left their dog outside. The dog barked on and off all night long. I don't blame the dog for barking as it must have been rather unnerving. Leaving their dog tied up outside was pretty stupid considering there are critters around that wouldn't mind making a meal of the dog. Finally, around 4 a.m. they brought the dog in.

On Friday, John came in and said you better make up some hummingbird food. It seems that he was buzzed by a hummingbird which then looked at each of our windows for a feeder. This is the first sign of hummingbirds we have had. We have a pair of Black Chinned Hummingbirds and another unidentified male that are hanging around. They are quite entertaining to watch them zip around and chase off one another. The House Finches have discovered the Hummingbird feeder hanging from the Ramada. The finches must have a sweet tooth so they are enjoying the nectar.

John went out for a bike ride this afternoon and as he headed out to the main road, he noticed a big bird with a white chest sitting on top of a telephone pole. He stopped to get a better look. Soon the bird took off carrying his catch . . . an Osprey with a fish between his talons. John interrupted his dinner. The camera was at home, of course.

Nothing much has been going on with all this wind. We've read, played video games on the computer, watched TV (even the Masters golf tournament yesterday . . that is how bored I was) and played card games. Our bird friends and other critters also helped to keep us entertained.

We were so thrilled with no wind today that we spent most of the day sitting outside. Wait, we also washed the truck so it is looking good once again. We will be heading for Albuquerque on Wednesday but unfortunately, the wind is due to return tomorrow (20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 30 mph or more). All we are hoping for is a south wind as we head north on Wednesday.

Breezy day

We had an early morning visit from one of our local neighbors; a road runner. Our camp hosts have named them all "Beep Beep". They always bring a smile to our faces with the way they walk and the way their top notch and tail stand up and go down.

I mentioned yesterday that the park isn't very full. The loop that we are in is empty with the exception of us and the other loop is empty. All of the other rigs are back off the main road. John took a picture showing how alone we are. We look like we are out boondocking all by ourselves. Everyone at the potluck on Sunday laughed at us when we commented about being all alone. They said they were back where it wasn't as windy. John thinks they get the same amount of wind but that their orientation is more head on whereas ours is more sideways to the wind. When we move, we are going to do something about that.

I had signed up for a Webex training program through Workkamper.com on a campground reservation system. While I was tied up with that during noon, John went for a bike ride. He came across what he thought at first was a dog but soon realized that it was a coyote crossing the road. John must have startled the coyote because John said the coyote tucked his tail between his legs with his rump down as he ran across the road just like a dog would do if scared.

Once I had finished with the course, we had to run into town for some groceries. By the time we got back home it was 4:30 p.m. Where does the day go?

As the clouds had rolled in, we were treated to a pretty sunset.

About ten minutes later, this is what the sky looked like. Beautiful isn't it?
As we are due for 50 to 60 mile an hour winds again over Wednesday and Thursday, the satellite will be down so that means there will be no journal entries. Not that anything interesting will be happening when you are just trying to hang on.

Bosque de Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Having another beautiful day, we planned to take a trip north to visit the Bosque de Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is the winter home to roughly 17,000 Sandhill Cranes as well as a multitude of geese, other waterfowl, and raptors. Thousands are drawn here to watch the cranes fly out to feed and the fly in to roost. It must be an amazing sight.

The refuge has a 12 mile, one-way graded road, with two additional loops to tour April to October. As the cranes have long been gone from the refuge, we were treated to shorebirds and waterfowl. The refuge seems to be intelligently run using water from Rio Grande through channels where they can flood fields or dry fields for planting of corn and alfalfa. The Visitor Center was interesting and they played us a 15 minute video about the refuge that was very interesting.

Here you are in the middle of nowhere out in the New Mexico desert and low and behold here is all sort of wetlands.

We spotted this little buck feeding.
Here are some herons and cormorants just enjoying a beautiful day.
This guy is a Cattle Egret (a new bird for us).

We really enjoyed the refuge even though the "stars" have gone north. If we are ever in the area November through mid-March, we would certainly stop in the area.

After the refuge, we headed north to Socorro in search of food. We drove past a Mexican restaurant that had a number of cars in the parking lot so John pulled in. Actually, the meal was good and they served sopapilla's with the meal. Sopapilla's are fried dough that you open up, put honey inside, and eat. So good (not good for you) and we really enjoyed them. We ate ours for desert but they were meant to be like bread for the meal.

From there we headed to Elephant Butte to see if our mail had arrived which it had. It is always fun see what the mail brings.

Thankfully, I have put our meal in the crock pot before we left for the refuge so dinner was taken care of after we got home. I'm am still enjoying the sound of silence but soon we will be back with strong winds revisiting us.

Our time here in Elephant Butte is almost up. As there is no place in New Mexico safe from the winds and we don't need to be in Albuquerque until the 17th, we have decided to stay here for another week as the rent is cheaper than we could get anywhere else. We will need to pack up, go to the dump station, and pick out a non-reserved site for the next week. We are hoping to chose one that won't have us side on to the winds. We need to move as our site is reserved for the weekend. It appears that all of the reservable sites are booked for the weekend so it should be interesting to see this place jumping as more sites are empty that they are full.

Silence . . . yahoo!

We woke up to silence. Oh, what a wonderful sound.

Our camp hosts had invited us to a pot luck at noon today with some other of our campers here in the park. The food was bountiful and the company was very nice. Most of the campers knew one another from prior years and we were the only newbies. The other Excel owners were there so we got to meet them which was nice.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazy around outside enjoying the warm sun and NO WIND! Early in the evening we got caught up with Melissa and her busy life. Just as we said our goodbyes and hung up, John got excited when he looked out the window and saw a large raptor fly in and land in the bushes down near the water's edge. As it was getting dark, we stepped outside with our binoculars and I told John that it looked like the shape of Great Horned Owl. He agreed and about that time, the owl flew out of the bushes down toward the water and out of sight. That was a nice treat.

Nearly blown away . . . again

The wind started in again by noon with a vengeance. All day long and into the evening, we had constant winds in the 45 mile per hour range with gusts up into the 60 mph range. Then around 1 a.m., we were both woken with even stronger wind gusts. Now, it is really something when John is waken up. Boy, did we rock and roll even more severely than before. We later found out that there were wind gusts up in the 70 to 75 mph range (hurricane wind range). I was ready to pull in the slides but John thought that was overkill and that we would be fine. He was right, we survived it but it sure wasn't fun.

Saturday was a repeat of Friday night but the wind gusts were only in the 50 - 55 mph. I can hardly wait for this wind to stop (if it ever does). If the wind blows here, it pretty much blows all over the state so there is no escaping.

If you are finding all of this boring, imagine how we are feeling. Let's pray that good weather comes to New Mexico soon.

Birthday Boy

Today is John's 55th birthday. John got calls from Melissa and Bonnie and Butch. He also got a call from co-worker Brian who coincidentally called on John's birthday - nice timing Brian.

We woke up to a beautiful calm morning. After our showers, I went to bring up the satellite and my computer wouldn't connect to the router. Worked perfectly yesterday; how can it all go south in between? I ended up calling MotoSat and Linksys for assistance and after three hours, and $40 everything was working as it should.

John decided he wanted to try a Mexican restaurant we saw in Truth or Consequences. When I got outside, John was talking to our neighbors. We stood outside chatting for a good hour. Our neighbors told us that while we were eating breakfast, we had a roadrunner, quail, doves, and red-wing blackbirds all outside our rig. Guess we missed the party. Linner (lunch/dinner) was okay but not great. Once we got home, we sat outside in the glorious sun and slight breeze and simply enjoyed the afternoon. We need more of these kind of days!!!!!

Not an exciting day but a nice one nonetheless. Happy Birthday Honey.

Nearly blown away

Holy cow! I thought we have been in strong winds before but nothing compared to today. We had constant 40 - 50 mph winds with long gusts over 50 mph for over 12 hours straight. We rocked and rolled that is for sure. Finally, after midnight, the winds ceased. Oh, the sounds of silence. As we knew the day was going to brutal, I stowed the satellite. Thankfully, we were able to catch Albuquerque stations from our regular TV antenna to help pass the time. Tomorrow is only suppose to bring a breeze. Something to look forward to.