Tour day, meeting a crafty lady, and a road runner.....

Our Location: Elephant Butte State Park, Elephant Butte, NM

A coolish night with the vents and windows open but not cold. We had the big outer door opened by 8:30 am and found it very comfortable. We're loving this weather. 

According to Riley I didn't do a good job of setting the table...~laugh~ 

Since today was a tour day we decided we needed to have something to help us get thru until we were back to make lunch. I made my version of a breakfast burrito. It was excellent. Mushroom, green onions, celery, asparagus, peppers, garlic, salsa, Tabasco, eggs, shredded cheese, all wrapped in a tortilla, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It did the trick. 

Heading into Truth or Consequences, NM

We decided to head out to the small town of Truth or Consequences, NM just a stone's throw away. I don't know what I expected but I was surprised. It is a mixture of old and new, with some original southwest architecture of rounded roof lines, adobe with colourful frames around doors/windows, fake facades, some wrought iron grill work, and bright colour. Mixed in were the new modern clean lines and standard well known signs for MacDonalds, Walmart, Shell, etc. The 'old' part of town had the buildings very close to each other as well as to the street, they were squarish, squat, and brightly painted. The newer part of town was more spaced out, with bigger distances between road and building, the colours were more muted than colourful. The buildings were taller, with bigger windows, and bigger doors, giving the feel of space. The streets while not narrow gave the impression of being 'cozy' in the older part of town, with the newer part being more open and visible. We found only ONE stop light in the areas of town we travelled. A unique little town with a flavour of the old world charm but an air of the modern commerce. Truly a very cute and inviting place. 

Very brightly coloured Bistro.

We toured down the Main Street for a long distance, then came back to the stop light and turned left, taking the street to what looked like the end, turned around and went the entire length of the same street back past the light and to what seemed like the end of town. Added in a couple of smaller back streets and enjoyed the tour. 

This is what I think of when I think of the southwest.

We stopped to give the Dogsled a well deserved drink of diesel for $2.75 a gallon. Washed the dirty windows and got directions to the local laundromat as well. We took the return street (part of old town has two lanes going each direction but they divide for a while before coming back to run beside each other) and tied the big Dog to a pole while we got out and did some walking. It was an interesting little stroll, the buildings were close together, brightly painted, the window displays were interesting and some were inviting, while others were more guess work about what kind of shop it was. 

This is the memorial wall, the black you see running along this wall is full of names of those that have given the ultimate gift to their country. The picture does not show it well but there are thousands and thousands of names on this wall. 

Stopping at the bank to use the ATM before we untied the big Dog and headed out to find the laundromat. According to the lady at the gas station it was located in the U-Haul building. We took two turns around before we actually were able to see it. Parking we went inside to find it very clean, reasonably priced and all front load washers. Bonus!!! We will return to do our duds probably tomorrow. 

Wave, entirely covered in pennies.

We stopped at the Veterans Memorial Park for a while. We didn't go into the museum but did walk around the outside yard. It was very well done, extremely educational, and very moving. A wall stretches for a long distance in an 'L' shape with thousands of names on each placard. I can't describe to you the immense feeling of loss one gets standing there looking at this memorial wall. Nor can I describe the feeling of pride that one feels emanating from that wall either. It shows in the grounds, the displays, the thoughtfulness that went in to this tribute. Also on display is huge purple heart, the last medal a fallen soldier receives, I believe. A very moving tribute, very well done. 

A small section of the pottery on display at the Museum.

In old town we stopped at the Geronimo Spring Water Museum (?? might not be the proper name) for a quick tour. It was a very crammed and packed museum with many artifacts, and displays about the local area and it's history. It had a small display about Geronimo and an educational children's interpretive section. The admission was very reasonable but I don't think we'd tour it again. Too many items made it too hard to see anything or concentrate on any individual display. They had a number of pieces of pottery made by various tribes and peoples over many years, it was an interesting display. Also arrow heads, lots of them, displayed in framed patterns. Personally I thought there was too much for the small space. Still interesting if you're interested in the local history. 

The 'legs' are horseshoes.

A quick trip to Walmart for some groceries and we were off home. An interesting idea at Walmart, the parking lot appeared to have shade covers over the parking slots but in fact it was solar panels, lots of them. Raised to a clearance height of 13', must have 6 or 7 rows of them covering the entire parking slots in the middle of the lot. Outer edges didn't have any panels. Neat idea, they offered shade from the sun and protection from the rain, while making electricity. Not sure if it fed back to the grid or if Walmart used it exclusively. Very neat idea though. 

Nice flower box outside of a little shop

A quick trip through the town of Elephant Butte but we didn't find anything to stop and explore. Perhaps another day later this week we will return and check it out a bit better. 

Solar panels covering the Walmart parking lot.

Back home we put away our purchases, and set about making lunch. Riley bbq'ed today. A green salad, Hawaiin chicken breast, Italian spaghetti squash, and dilled potatoes. Good stuff!!

 

This roadrunner is just sort of ambling along.

After cleaning up we were heading out for a walk when the lady next door dropped by. Her name is Patricia, she's a Native and an extremely talented, and friendly lady. She's new to her 2008 Cougar travel trailer and as we too have a Cougar she wanted to ask a couple of questions. It seems this nice lady has lived in a 1947 travel trailer, I forget what brand she said it was, for 17 years. It had no kitchen, no bathroom and she used some kind of stove to heat it. She had some pictures, it was certainly different. So this new to her trailer that she's had for a week is a big step up for her. We showed around the Igloo and explained a few things such as water pump use, water heater use, and so on. She then took us to her TT and gave us a tour. It's nice and she's getting things settled. She does a lot of craft work with beads, paints and buffalo hides. So we gave her the little bits of information that we had and answered her questions. She was very enthusiastic and appreciated our willingness to talk and answer questions. 

He's moving a little faster now.

After Patricia left we headed off for a walk, remembering our walking sticks this time. We took the small walking trail behind the campground which basically went in a big circle but covered a quite a bit of ground. We didn't time it but the walking was a good work out in the rolling sand. 

Green Salad

Yummy Italian Spaghetti Squash, Dill Potatoes, and Hawaiin Chicken Breast.

Back home we sat down to read for a bit, and I managed to snap a few pics of a Road Runner that was ambling along the way. At one point he was less than 10 feet from our picnic table. Had plenty of time to get some good pics of this fella. Although the click of the camera made him move off a bit quicker than his original stroll pace. 

Patricia's hand painted boots.

I slipped over a few sites to an empty site which allowed me to catch the fiery sunset. Truly an amazing sight, the sky turned from yellow to fire yellow, then to a pink and finally a bright red. A perfect end to the daylight hours!!

This was earlier in the day, see the sun peeking between the clouds?

Back tucked safely inside the Igloo once more, editing pictures, getting ready to write but a knock on the door brought those things to a halt. Miss Patricia from next door was here and wanted to remind herself of a few of the answers we'd given earlier to her questions. She came prepared with a pen and paper. We chatted for about an hour but very little about the 'questions' and 'answers'. She's an interesting individual with unique thoughts, ideas and beliefs. She brought a pair of cowboy boots over to show us, she hand painted them. Truly a work of art. 

No enhancements, this is the actual colour, a bright fiery yellow.

I've been working on editing, and writing since she left. It was a great day, we enjoyed it a great deal. Tomorrow looks like a return to Truth or Consequences to do our laundry as I think the baskets are about as full as we can get them. 

 

Next came the fiery reds, no enhancements.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. Always nice to hear from folks. 

The last red of the night, no enhancement.

Until next time...be safe, take care.