Sightseeing trip to Cibola National Forest

I went for a drive a couple of days last week with Hazel and Cari, my friends from last winter at Quartzsite.  They are great about sightseeing and learning about the surrounding areas and pretty knowledgeable about American Indian history.

A week ago Sunday we drove to the Cibola National Forest and made a large loop through some of the Indian Reservations and checked out some campgrounds in the area.  It was a grey rainy day, so we didn’t get out to walk much, but the scenery was gorgeous.  We left at 10 am and didn’t get back until a little before 7 pm so we were out for a long time.  I left Katie at home, and she did really well, no accidents.  Since I walk her four times a day now, I wasn’t sure how she would do, but she’s a trooper!

I’m terrible about getting and remembering locations, especially if I’m a passenger, so I can’t really tell you where we went exactly.  We went down 40 and crossed the Continental Divide, driving through the towns of Thoreau, Prewitt, Milan and Grants, and visited one of the Visitor Center after Grants.  I got a good driving map of the area at the center to see where I could disperse camp if I decided to.  I can see why boondockers are upset at the new regs.  There sure weren’t many places to boondock in this forest area that were legal. Wow, very few – three or four places in the whole, huge Cibola National Forest.  I was surprised.  The Ranger said each area is different.  I sure hope so. 

We drove through Acoma, Navajo and Zuni Indian Reservations, through National Forests, BLM areas and El Malpais  (Lava Beds).  We took highways and improved dirt and gravel roads.  It was a long, interesting, beautiful drive, but because of the rain I didn’t take too many photos. This camera doesn’t do as well as my Nikon that’s in the shop, but I got a few good ones when we got out of the car.

Some photos from that day trip:

 Arch in the mountain.

 Cari standing on the ledge overlooking a large valley. 

The view was gorgeous.

 This is the same place as the photo above, looking in a different direction.

 Close-up of the photo above looking across the valley.

Cattle sheltering from the rain under the trees.

 Val, Hazel, and Fleur where we stopped to check out a trail head.

Beautiful rock formations in this area.

 Lava Beds – this was driving through El Malpais.

Then on Friday afternoon we took a shorter trip to check out some campgrounds closer to us.  They are near the town of Grants, Forest Service campground/picnic areas. The first one we visited was Coal Mine Campground where you can stay 14 days for $5/day, or $2.50 with the Senior Pass. It was a nice clean campground with good, level sites.  It was small, 15 sites, and in a very pretty area with picnic tables, restrooms, and a nature trail. There was a woman with a car eating at one of the tables, and another campsite had a couple with a car just standing there talking.  No campers.  No RVs or tents.  I would have loved to stay there next, but it was too remote, too empty and had no Verizon bars.  Too bad. 

Then we drove to Lobo Canyon Campground on our way out along Lobo Canyon Road back toward Grants.  It was not as well kept as Coal Mine, and a little further off the road. There was no one there. It would be perfect for a group of people wanting to camp for a reunion or weekend camp out. They’d have the whole campground to themselves.  It has six sites, picnic tables and restrooms, and is a free campground, but the sites are not for big rigs. Better for smaller rigs and tents.

Of all the campsites we drove through last week, we only saw a couple of tents and RVs.  It worries me that these public camping areas aren’t being used – I’d think, especially with this economy, more families would be camping on their vacations. Especially in July, and at $5/night or free!

Hazel and Cari left on Sunday, heading to Arizona to visit a friend.  I’m camped in a different campground area here at the lake than where they were, and didn’t see them every day, but it was nice to know they were nearby.  I’ll miss them both.

Below are photos of the lake during the week, and then during the weekend.  What a difference!  I enjoy watching the rigs and tent campers drive in starting Thursday afternoon, and then most leaving Sunday.  When the shoreline is full, it’s really pretty at night now that we can have campfires.  Almost every rig/tent area has a campfire and it’s nice to look down and see them all lit up in the dark.  I tried to take some photos, but they didn’t come out. (You’ll have to imagine it.) 

During the week, there might be a couple of rigs on the shore, but it’s pretty empty.  This weekend there were a lot of people fishing in the lake from their chairs on the shore, and some were wading in the shallow water.  Lot of kids playing in the water, too.  If you click on these photos you can see just how many rigs and trucks there are.

 Weekend view after I moved up to the site on the hill, Friday, 7/20.

 Weekday view, Sunday,  7/22.

This last weekend, Saturday 7/28.

This morning Katie and I walked down the hill and kept walking around the lake to the last rig you can see in the photo.  That’s as far as the RVs can go.  I don’t know how far you can walk, but I know you can’t drive all the way around.  I couldn’t believe all the trash on the beach left by the campers. Some of the rock fire pits were full of bottles, cans and garbage.  Who do they think cleans up after them?  Broken bottles on the sand – I found some big pieces and put them next to large rocks so no one will walk on them or drive over them. I didn’t have any bags big enough to take them back to the dumpster. It sure would be nicer if people picked up after themselves – and didn’t bring bottles to the beach. 😦

I asked the Ranger if the same people came from one weekend to the next, and she said they are usually different. Some people who live close by come back from time to time, but for the most part every weekend has different people.  I guess that’s why people leave so much trash – they aren’t coming back and don’t care how they leave the beach.  And although some are tent campers, most are RVers.  I think we’re usually a good group as far as leaving our areas as we found them, or better.  I’ve seen the campground workers down there almost every day checking the area and picking things up. It’s an on-going job, that’s for sure.

This little bunny has been visiting our site lately. He’s pretty small and very cute:

 

And finally, here’s a photo of last night’s sunset.  There were rays of sunlight streaming up into the blue sky from behind the clouds. It was beautiful.  

From Me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone! 🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Waking up to horses, Bluewater Lake, NM

I’ve been so lazy!  Just haven’t felt like blogging but Katie and I are really enjoying Bluewater Lake State Park.  I woke up to horses in my site this morning.  They are so quiet I didn’t know they were there until I opened my shades – and there they were, eating grass.  So cool!

Then they walked down the hill to the fields by the lake, where two younger horses started horsing around:

They didn’t look like they were fighting, just playing.  Then the rest of the group, seven of them, walked up and they all sauntered over to another little grassy area to eat.  Fun to watch!  They are beautiful, shiny horses, very healthy looking. This area must provide all the food and water they need to stay in top shape.  I haven’t seen the whole herd for a few days. 

Here’s my camp site, above the lake.  It’s a big, clean, clear site.  Very pretty:

This is The Palms – photo taken from down where the horses were playing:

 These photos are from last week after I moved up the hill to my current site:

I think this is my favorite place to be since I started traveling.  The weather has been really nice – and by that I mean MY nice.  Which is sunny and warm, not hot, then cloudy and rainy and lightening and thunderstorms.  I just love this weather.  I got my first lightening photo, couldn’t believe it when I actually got one.

 Looking out at the rain.

I have so many photos – I’ll post more tomorrow.

Have  a great Sunday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Back at beautiful Bluewater Lake State Park, NM

On Sunday’s post, I welcomed Campers4Lifex2 and didn’t see any information about a blog, so she left a comment with her blog address.  Click on her name above for Campers4Lifex2.  Thanks for the info, Camper! 🙂

Well, it’s been an interesting, frustrating couple of days!  Long days!  So this is a long post, sorry.  But keep reading – there are wild horses at the end. 🙂

We left our campsite at McPhee at 8:00 am on Thursday – was that only yesterday???

I finally got a photo of a rabbit at McPhee – I doctored it in one of my programs to look like an oil painting and liked the way it looked.

 
We stopped to get water and empty tanks and then took off.  I was told gas prices in Colorado were a lot higher than New Mexico – my destination, Navajo Lake State Park – so I decided to get my gas and propane tanks filled after we crossed the border.

We had a nice drive, enjoying the countryside.  We drove past the fire area that we saw on our way into Delores. At that time it was behind the hills, but later the fire came over the hills, right to the highway. Everything was burned and the ground was covered with ash.  This looks like an oil painting, too, but it’s not.

Beautiful sunflowers along the highway.

I liked this shot.  Looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with a Raven topper.

We stopped at the Walmart in Durango, and on the way into the parking lot, I saw these Prairie Dogs.  I’ve heard about them and seen them running across the road, but I’ve never seen them up close where they live.  There were LOTS of these little guys, having a good time running around, playing, in and out of their holes. Someone told me about a park that has lots of Prairie Dogs right in the campsites but I forget where it is.  Anyone else know?

 They’re so cute when they sit up like this:

So….  we drove and drove.  Finally we crossed the border into New Mexico, and there wasn’t a good place for gas – just one tiny town with expensive gas, and I thought I’d wait until I got to a bigger town with cheaper gas.  After that, no towns, no gas stations. We finally got to the sign, “Navajo Lake – 1 mile” and I had to keep going.  I had to have enough gas to run my generator, and enough propane for the gas stove and fridge and to heat the hot water tank.

There is a small town down the mountain, not too far, but still – far enough. When I got there, I filled my gas tank, paying more than I would have paid in Colorado!  That was not a good plan.  And they didn’t have propane, which I needed to get before I reached camp.  I was tired and ready to quit driving for the day.

Thus began a wild goose chase that lasted all day, starting with the owner of the station where I got my gas.  That was the first of the wrong directions.  From town to town, following directions from gas station attendants 15 miles to one town, actually it was more like 20 and the manager was gone, no one to fill the propane tank.  They said go to another town, not far away – Right!  Got there, no one knew of anywhere in town that had propane.  But they directed  me to the next town.  Went into a Giant gas station where the counter person and a customer agreed the only place in town was an RV park right down the road.  Drove down there – the big propane tank out front had a big sign, “NO PROPANE.”  I really couldn’t believe it.

Now I’m thinking, maybe someone is trying to tell me something.  I checked my GPS and it was 50 miles to Navajo Lake, and 20 miles more to Bluewater Lake in the other direction.  Something like that.  I decided to continue on to Bluewater Lake. Funny thing is, when I drove through Thoreau, less than 10 miles from the lake, I got gas and propane easily. 

I arrived at Bluewater Lake State Park in the late afternoon.  My friends Hazel and Cari had been staying at Bluewater, but I wasn’t sure if they were still here.  I drove to the electric loop where I knew there would be, and there they were!  I met Hazel and Cari at Quartzsite last year and have been in contact with Hazel since then.

I settled The Palms into the only available electric site for the night.  It was reserved the next day, and I wanted to find a non-hook-up site.  I went to my old site in the morning that I liked so much when I was here in June and got settled in there.  As I was looking out the window, I thought, that site across the street – if someone comes in they will ruin my view, so I checked on line to see if it was reserved.  It was taken most of the next two weeks.  Bummer.  

The site next to it, though, was a non-reserveable site and right on the ridge over the water, so I drove The Palms down there and got settled again.  I put out my chair and sat for a while enjoying the view of the water, the beautiful pines overhead.

Really nice.  But I couldn’t get The Palms level, and kept thinking I needed to level it more. So I got up and tried to get it level.  I tried everything, even scooped up bowls full of gravel to make a little hill and put my leveling blocks on top and drove up to the middle of the pile.  Still not level.  Got a big flat rock and drove up on it to the middle, still not level.

I moved the picnic table to the other side of the flat BBQ/eating area and drove The Palms in the other direction, straight into the middle of the eating area.  The Palms was just short enough to fit that way.  Still not level.  I’m not OCD about being perfectly level and The Palms is short enough that I can almost always get level enough without using my leveling blocks.  This just wasn’t working. Anywhere in the site, facing in any direction, the site just sloped too much.  Bummer. 

So I packed it up again and drove around a couple more of the loops.  Didn’t see anything good.  There was a campsite overlooking the lake right by the road down to lakeside.  It’s kind of off by itself and I would have liked it, but it was taken, so I drove down the road and got set up on the lakeside.  This is the “primitive camping area.”  I wanted to camp here in June but never did, so this time I thought I’d try it out.  I got a spot and loved it. A beautiful lake surrounded by mountains out one window and a field of wild horses out the other.  Smelled like the ocean, breezes coming through the windows.  I was a happy camper.

I took a shower and washed/dried my hair.  I felt like a million bucks and was so glad to be here!  I looked out my front windshield and guess what I saw?

They were trotting along at a good clip, heading for the water.  So fun to watch.

 See the two small boys?  They were caught by surprise and made a dash for it. 

The horses didn’t care that the boys were right there, they just ran in.

The white foal was slapping his feet in the water, splashing. 🙂

See the little white foal above?  Below is that little baby right after it was born – this is a photo I took on June 6.  It’s really grown and filled out since then.  There were three new foals in June, and now they are all so much bigger.

 

I wondered if this little foal was going to make it – it’s so frail looking. 

After they were done drinking, off they went – running back to the field.

Running and kicking up dust:

That was a really neat experience, seeing them all so close.  There were around 24 horses, 3 foals, and some yearlings and the rest mares and stallions. Watching a horse run is pretty cool, watching 24 horses running together in a herd is awesome!

It gets really busy around the lake on the weekends.  Little by little the rigs and boats came in.  Hazel and Cari came to visit, and Hazel said if I didn’t get some rocks to block off my “area,” someone might drive in between me and the lake.  That would have defeated the purpose of being here, so we set up some rock lines from the rig to the water.  Good thing, too!

Soon I had a truck right on the rock line on one side and a big rig on the other rock line.  I was starting to feel kind of hemmed in at that point.  I looked up the hill, and the site I wanted was empty!!!  I grabbed Katie and her leash and fast-walked up the hill to make sure the site was empty and they were gone.  Yes!!  Hurried back down the hill, packed up The Palms – AGAIN – and drove up the hill – into the site.

This is the fourth site we’ve been in today – fifth counting the electric one we woke up in.  As I told Hazel and Cari this afternoon (before the move back up the hill to this site), I’m getting pretty hard to please.  But I have to admit, I like the challenge of finding the perfect site. I hope this works for the next three weeks.

I’ll post photos of my new site next time.  I’m hoping, since I have a good close view of the lake, that I’ll see some water birds.  When Hazel and I drove around the campground yesterday afternoon, we saw a Great Blue Heron, then he took off and flew over the lake.  I ‘d love to see him again.

And now I’m off to bed – I’m pooped!  You probably are, too.  Congratulations on making it to the end of the post!

From me and Katie, who is already sound asleep, have a good night, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Last day at McPhee Campground in CO

WELCOME to our new follower, Judilyn!  Judilyn has a Lazy Daze motor home named Dorrie Anne, who her blog is named after, “Adventures of Dorrie Anne.”  She takes great photos, today’s is of a couple of slices of pizza that look soooo good!  Judilyn, I’ve seen your blog before, I remember the bird house photo, which I loved, and left a comment.  I’m looking forward to more beautiful photos!  Thank you for following along with me and Katie!  Welcome aboard!

Today is our last day at McPhee.  I’ve really liked being here, as I said in the last post, there’s nothing negative I can think of, for me, at this campground.  Last night was our last paid night, but I’m expecting an Amazon package today, so I’m extending one more night and we’ll leave tomorrow.  I started thinking about the New Mexico State Campgrounds that I have an annual pass for, and thought, why not head south a little to use that pass?  So, tomorrow morning we’ll head out.

Here are some final photos from McPhee:

 Mom and Baby

 Darling Fawn.

The deer just hang out in empty campsites.

This little guy kept coming to the window feeder.

 He would knock the seeds all over until he found one of these, 

then he’d fly off to eat it.

Grosbeak at the handing feeder.

 This Jay figured out a good way to get the seed!

Finally got a pic of a hummer. 🙂

And finally, a big black bird – there aren’t many of these birds in the campground, like there were at Bluewater Lake, but occasionally one soars over.  This was a lucky shot this afternoon:

Okay, unless I get a great photo that I want to post, that’s it for McPhee Campground pictures.   

My package hasn’t arrived yet, but I’ve already taken in the bird feeders and my American flag and holder.  Tomorrow it’s just unplug the electric and bring in the TV antenna and door mat, and we’re ready to go.  

Next stop, Navajo Lake State Park!  I’m going to find a site with no ants – that’s what drove us out last month.  

 From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Katie has a friend. :)

WELCOME to our new Follower, Campers4Lifex2!  I don’t see any blog info on you and there isn’t a profile I can access, so let me know if you have a blog I can check out.  Thanks for following along with Katie and Me, I hope you enjoy traveling along with us! 🙂

WELCOME also to Heather Applegate!  Heather, your photos are gorgeous, but I guess they should be since you are a professional photographer. 🙂  Heather is saving to buy a trailer, and has a link on her blog that you can click to add a dollar or two to help her reach her goal.  You know what they say, if you don’t ask…  I wonder how that’s going.   I love this, on her blog, “When I’m having a bad day, I take the change from my pocket and toss it on the ground, so someone will find it and have a better day than me.”  I like that idea!  Good luck getting your trailer, Heather, I look forward to following your blog to see if you reach your goal, and thanks for the beautiful photos.  Welcome aboard! 🙂

I went into Dolores with Debbie and Gayle and Jim Thursday evening.  It’s a cute little town, and we went to the brew pup there on the town square.  It’s a little place, and was crowded and loud.  You go to the counter for service, and it was quite a wait to get our orders in.  Then we waited for maybe an hour for our food to be delivered.  This is definitely a place you want to go during slow times.  But when my pulled chicken sandwich arrived, it was super good.  I ate about half and had the rest on Friday for a late lunch. Almost as good warmed up!

When I got home Katie was waiting at the door. I’m sure she was sleeping while I was gone, and she did just fine. We always worry about our pets when we leave, but just like little kids in preschool, they make you feel guilty when you leave, and then immediately after the door closes, they’re fine.

The other day while Katie and I were walking by, Debbie invited us into her rig, a Lazy Daze with a gorgeous interior. Here she is with Katie’s friend, Elliott:

Elliott and Debbie

I was surprised when I went in, it’s really homey and cozy inside, and Debbie said when she got it, she wanted it to be as close to her sticks and bricks home as possible. I’d like to have The Palms look  this good, but they are just different designs and colors, totally different. Love your house, Debbie! 

Friday I went into Cortez with Gayle and Debbie to do shopping and laundry and send off some packages.  I got my replacement Sirius XM radio and got the signal set up so I needed to send back my original radio.

I’m also having a problem with my camera, the Nikon S9100.  It seems to be a common problem with this camera.  When I engage the zoom lens, it often freezes and I have to shut off the camera and turn it back on again.  I have to zoom really slow to have it work right, but it still doesn’t always work. I’ve lost a lot of good photos with that stinking, oops, I mean sticking, zoom lens. The auto focus is also off.  I’m having a problem focusing on an object – often the photo has the subject blurry and the background in focus.  This didn’t  happen when the camera was new.  It’s under warranty, so I’m sending it off, too, to be repaired.

Jim and Gayle have the same camera and sent theirs in for warranty work, and it took two months to get it back.  I hope I get mine back sooner. Too bad, it’s been such a great camera, but since these problems have started, it’s been a pain.

I’m now using my older camera, an Olympus Stylus-9000.  It has a 10x zoom lens, and boy do I see the difference.  I just can’t zoom in close enough to get the photos I want, and the colors aren’t as good – everything is darker and I have to manipulate them on the computer to lighten and brighten them.  I’ll be happy to get the Nikon back!

I’ve visited a couple of times with Debbie and Gayle and Jim at G and J’s campsite.  Debbie’s dog Elliott and Katie get along so well.  I think Elliott is Katie’s first friend – she really plays with him.  Katie won’t start it, but if Elliott runs, Katie is right behind him.  She loves to “chase.”  They stirred up so much dust, they were filthy when they were done, especially Elliott, who has long hair.

He’s just the cutest, sweetest dog!  I can see why Katie likes him so much.  Here are some chase photos:

 Katie loves Elliott.

They had so much fun, and we all had fun watching them run around; they raised so much dust we had to get off our chairs and move back out of the way.  They were pretty happy when Gayle brought out a bowl of water for them.  Katie was first, letting Elliott know he had to wait, and he was a gentleman and let her go first.

My new friends left this morning for points north.  Katie and I took a loop walk at noon, and they were gone.  Katie spent some time sniffing around Gayle and Jim’s campsite.  It was kind of sad, but when we got to Debbie and Elliott’s site, Katie sniffed all over the brush and didn’t want to leave.  I know it’s silly, but she seemed to know Elliott was there and is gone. Sniff…

It was great meeting you guys and spending time with you all.  Thanks for including me in your activities, and Jim, thanks for the computer help. I’m still working with the program, and think I pretty much have it down.  And Gayle, the rhubarb pie was delicious!  Thank you.  I hope we will meet up again down the road!  🙂

I really like it here at McPhee Campground.  We’ve moved to an electric site – spoiling myself, for sure!  Katie and I are staying at least until the middle of the week, and may extend our stay further.  We’ll see. The Verizon signal is 4 bars, Internet is good and I’m getting 92 channels with my TV antenna.  Deer and birds, nice trees and brush, sun and rain, clouds and thunderstorms intermittently.  I can’t think of anything we’re missing, so I don’t have the itch to move on yet. The only thing negative is that with the electric, I’m paying $13.50 a night, but…  that’s a bargain when you think what an RV park would cost, and it wouldn’t be in the middle of a forest.

Speaking of deer, I got some good photos of the doe and her fawn the other day, and will post them next time.

From Me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Photos around the campsite

Some bird photos at my seed feeder.  The Black-headed Grosbeak seems to “get it,” and has enjoyed eating seeds at the hanging bird feeder. I think this feeder was made for smaller birds. I do have another one that attaches to my window, I’ll have to see if I can find it for the Jays.

She is able to perch on the feeder securely and reach the feeding holes.

Then she enjoys the seeds she gets.

Yumm, chewing away (or whatever it is they do).

But the poor Jays just don’t get it.  They look at the feeder, fly to it, try to hang on, and half the time they don’t grab on and drop to the ground.  If the Jays do make it to the perch, they poke at the seed hole, knock some out, then drop to the ground to eat the seeds.

What IS this thing?

Okay, this is working.

 Lets’s see what’s in here.

   Hey, not bad – seeds!  I like it!

Oh, Oh!  This isn’t working!

 Help, I’m falling!

And down he went!

I got such a kick out of watching them.  After a bunch of tries, most of the Jays got the knack of it.  Today I moved my rig around in the site, and I had to move the bird feeder so I could see it out the window.  It’s like we’re starting all over again, and they are checking it out again.

It was a nice day today.  It’s 6:00 pm and the thunder just started and the clouds are moving in, so we might have some rain tonight.  I just saw some lightening.  I’m going out for pizza tonight, and hope Katie will be okay – she doesn’t like the thunder. 😦

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Walking in the rain… just waaaalking in the rain.

Katie and I took a walk on a trail today.  This is the first time since I’ve been traveling that I’ve taken a “trail” walk.  We took the one that starts behind the restroom near our site that has all the resting benches.  It’s a well defined trail and was a very easy walk.  We got to bench five or six, the one past the Indian ruins/sign, and it started sprinkling.  We kept going anyway, I was hoping the rain would stop, and I wanted to see as much as we could.  Then it started really raining, big drops, and we had to turn around.

I was surprised to see a little sign describing an old rubble pile from the home of some prehistoric Native American Indians.  Not much left, but you could easily make out the “Tower.”

 Rocks from the Tower

We jogged part of the way back. I was really surprised I was able to jog, considering there are times I still can’t catch  my breath in this 7,400 foot elevation, but I was fine.

When we started out on our walk, we caught the trail behind our site, going through the trees until we met the trail, instead of walking down to the restrooms and starting at the beginning at the first bench.  We were soon at the second bench and I realized this part of the trail really isn’t very long.  I guess it gets harder past the spot we turned around.

Katie doesn’t like rain, but she just kept walking, shaking off the water, walking, shaking off the water.  Where we caught the trail behind our site is in the middle of the trees, no trail or anything, and I had no idea where it was, so I figured we’d just walk to the beginning and go back out by the restroom, right down the road from our site.  As we were walking along, Katie suddenly turned of the path into the trees.  There was nothing familiar that I could see, but I thought I’d follow her and see where she took us.  I started recognizing tree stumps and other things, and she took us right back to The Palms, exactly the same way we had gone into the forest to catch the trail. I thought that was pretty cool. I guess she has a good nose!

This afternoon I was pouring some Jelly Bellies into a little jar and dropped one on the kitchen floor and it rolled down onto the rug where she was. (No comments on how level ARE we, anyway?)  She looked at me and picked it up in her mouth.  I never give her any of my food.  She has kind of a delicate stomach, and I don’t want her begging or grabbing my food off the table if I walk away.  She knows she’s not supposed to eat anything except what’s in her bowl.  She just sat there and looked at me with her mouth closed tight around that jelly bean.  Then she came into the kitchen and sat at my feet.  I reached down and tried to open her mouth, she wouldn’t open her teeth, but I could see the jelly bean.  I told her she could have it, and she ran back to her blanket and ate it.

It sounds silly, but I felt she was asking me if she could have it.  I guess it didn’t hurt her, because so far she’s okay.  I was pretty stunned, though, that she didn’t just gobble it up while she had the chance.

WOW, am I ever glad we came back when we did!  As I’m writing this, it started raining again, then hailing!  The rain was so hard it came into my MaxxAir vents, the first time that’s ever happened.  I had to close all my vents.

 Really neat hail storm.

 Hail on the ground and my chair with the umbrella in the background.

Thunder, heavy rain, hail – I love it!

We met a full-timing couple who are also bloggers, Gayle and Jim, shown below with their gorgeous Lazy Daze RV.  They have been traveling in Colorado for a little while, and we e-mailed back and forth a few times about this park I’m at now – McPhee.  They decided to stop at this campground for a few days, and I’m glad they did.  It was really nice meeting them, and we’ve chatted the last two days, and taken some short walks together.

They are traveling with another full-timer, Debbie, who has a really nice Lazy Daze RV, too.  She also has a really cute dog, Elliot.  Next time I’ll have a photo of Debbie and Elliot and her rig, too.

They all went to Mesa Verde yesterday to see the Indian Architectural Ruins, and said it was really interesting.  Check out Gayle and Jim’s blog for info and photos on that, I didn’t travel up the mountain to see them, so I’m going to enjoy their post on that outing. The post about Mesa Verde isn’t up yet, but it should be the next one. 🙂

After we got back from our walk, I put Katie’s muddy feet into the sink and cleaned the mud off, and wiped her down with a towel.  She was so hyper after that, running around back and forth in the rig, playing with her “baby,” and wanting to play ball.  Notice another smiley face!

From Me and My Dog, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Baby Pictures

This morning I saw one of the does walk across the street and she was acting different.  I watched for a minute and suddenly out of the trees bounds a little fawn – running and jumping and prancing across the street to it’s mom.  It was so cute!  The mom would move forward a little and then the fawn would prance to catch up.  It was just darling.  I grabbed my camera and was able to get only one pretty good shot of the fawn as it was crossing the street. Then there were too many trees in the way to get a clear shot.  So cute.  I hope I get to see them again.  I just talked to the camp hosts, and they said a camper in the group camping area saw the fawn being born last week, so this little critter is only a week old! 🙂

Fawn running across the street.

When Katie and I were walking yesterday, I heard lots of chirping and rustling in the grasses along the road.  We waited, and out popped a baby Black-headed Grosbeak.  It looked too big to be a baby, but I’m pretty sure it was.  It tried to fly when it saw us, but couldn’t and hopped back into the grasses where it hid. It was making a lot of noise. We finally walked on so it wouldn’t be afraid.

Can you see him hiding in there?

 

He saw us and then he went back into the brush. 

When we got back from that walk, I put out my bird feeders, the seeds and hummer feeders.  We already have a hummer that keeps coming by, but he’s fast!  Not a particularly pretty guy, pretty much brown, unless maybe the sunshine will bring out more colors.  I haven’t been able to get a picture yet.

This morning I heard a tussle coming from the tree where I hung the seed bird feeder.  There were a couple of Blue Jays and three Black-headed Grosbeaks on the various branches chirping away.  They finally flew away. Venita said at her feeders there’s one Grosbeak that rules – if any other birds come by, he scares them away.  This is the one left in my tree when the rest flew away, but I didn’t see anyone getting seeds from the feeder.

I also put up the little finch feeder, but I don’t think there are any birds in the forest that will try it out.  The only place it worked was in the Distant Drums RV Resort.  They  had lots of finches and that’s where I bought this feeder.  I keep trying it in other places, but so far, no takers.

Lots of rain and thunder yesterday.  So far this morning it’s been cloudy and cool, perfect. The sun pops out once in a while.  I really like this weather, and I don’t have to feel guilty loving the thunder and lightning as long as there’s rain with it.  Just in case lightening strikes and starts a fire, hopefully the rain will put it right out.

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Enjoying McPhee Campground

WELCOME to our new Followers, Sandra and Crystal!

Sandra has two blogs, one is in another language that I can’t read, I and the other is about quilting.  The quilting blog is in English, and then again in the other language that I don’t think is Spanish, but looks like it might be one of the romantic languages.  [NOTE: Per Bob and Gypsy, it’s Portugese. That’s where my maternal grandfather was born – on the island of Pico in the Azores. :)] If you scroll down through the posts, there are some interesting things to read other than quilting, one is how to easily stretch tight shoes.  So easy, but I wouldn’t have though of that method.  Thanks for joining Me and My Dog, Sandra!

Crystal doesn’t appear to have a blog, but from her Google + page, is definitely a dog lover.  Katie and I are happy you are traveling along with us, Crystal.

Welcome aboard to you both!

This morning I woke up to sprinkles on the roof.  Such a nice way to wake up.  When I go to bed at night, at least lately, Katie is in her bed and it’s too warm to cover her up.  Usually when I wake up she’s sitting on her brown and white blanket right below me, looking up waiting for me.  I usually ignore her and she goes back to sleep on her blanket.  I think she’s a little cold, so after I’ve felt guilty for a little while, I climb down and cover her up with a corner of the blanket, and she’ll sleep for another hour or two, nice and warm.

This morning after her potty walk, she snuggled right back up into her blanket and I covered her up again.  She is now sound asleep, warm and snugly in her blanket.

It feels cool in The Palms this morning, although it’s 72 degrees.  I actually had the heater on for a few minutes to take the chill off.  It’s raining really good outside right now.  I’m in heaven. The weather forecast for the next four days is for thunderstorms and at least 30 percent chance of rain.  🙂

I was so sorry to hear that Donna and Russ’s wonderful dog, Rusty, died yesterday.  He would have been  15 years old this month, and was one of those super special dogs that made their lives a happier place.  I was lucky to meet Rusty when I visited Donna and Russ at their home last year.  I was in tears at the end of Donna’s blog post about Rusty’s last day – I was very stoic when I put my last dog and cat down, but for some reason Rusty’s death really affected me.  Rest in peace, Rusty, and my best wishes go to Donna and Russ.

Here are some photos I took yesterday at our current location, McPhee Campground.

Lots of Blue Jay’s around here.  I think this one is a Western Scrub Jay, a juvenile according to my bird books, because his head isn’t blue yet (I think) :

Our first deer sighting – I think she was as surprised by us as we were by her:

There’s just something about having deer in your yard, you know?

This is a bush with weird spirals growing out of it – not a flower, but…?  I’ve never seen anything like this.

NOTE:  Per Gayle on 7/15/12 this plant is Mountain Mahogany.  She saw it at the Anasazi Heritage Center, “where many of the trees and shrubs along the trail are labeled.”  Thanks, Gayle! 

 Close-up of the feathery spirals.

We have taken a few good walks so far. Venita, our camp hostess, said our loop is one-half mile, so if we do that a few times a day, we’re getting in a lot of steps for an altitude of 7,400 feet.  At least it’s good for me.

There is a sign near one of the nearby restrooms pointing to a trail, so last evening Katie and I went that way for a little bit.  The sign said it’s a one-half mile walk which doesn’t seem like much, but it said it’s a very strenuous walk, and it probably is.  It ends up at the boat ramp which this campground overlooks, so there must be some pretty steep areas.  There are four or five rest stops with benches at intervals along the way.  Katie and I only went to the first bench, which was pretty much right behind the restroom. 🙂  Really pretty views from there, though, of McPhee Reservoir.

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left.

This is the first bench.

Sunset walking back to The Palms.

From me and Katie, have a great Saturday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Settled again – at McPhee Campground, CO

We got everything necessary for our departure done yesterday, and I woke up early this morning raring to go.  I had to get Katie out of bed for her morning walk to the dumpster with our little garbage bag. That might have been a first. We were on the road before 8 am and stopped in Cortez at the Walmart for some food, a tall Cosco 3-step stool and lots more chew-toy treats for Katie.

We were soon on our way to McPhee Campground, which wasn’t a very long trip.  So far I like this campground; it has lots of trees and bushes.  There is a lake nearby that we saw on our way in, but I can’t see it from the campground. There are some electric only sites, some full hook-ups, and lots of dry camping sites, which is what I have.

 View from my kitchen window of our picnic table area

I drove around one of the two loops, then the other and chose a site.  Good Verizon here, The Palms is pointed West for my solar panels, and pretty much in the open.  Our picnic table area is behind us, with a nice tree west of the table, so if it’s hot, the table will be in the afternoon shade.  Lots of Restrooms and water spigots around the loops.

We got settled and paid for four days (in this loop, you can only pay for four days at a time in the “open” – not reserved – sites.  I like that best, anyway, because if I want to move, I’ve only got four days in the site.  The Camphosts’ names are Venita and Spanky Bear, they are the only bears in the campground.  They said no problem, they are slow this summer and there will be lots of empty sites.  If I DO have to move because someone else wants my site on the fifth day, I’ll just find another one.

Female Black-headed Grosbeak

I can receive UPS packages here, so I’ll see if my daughter can mail my Sirius XM radio here.  They don’t have US Mail service, though, just package shipping companies.  I need to get the mailing address from Venita.

Female Black-headed Grosbeak

There are deer here, I’ve already seen one walking through the neighboring campsite, and the birds above that I snapped at Venita’s bird feeder.  She said there are doves, pigeons, hummers, lots of birds. When I saw the Grosbeak, I knew what it was because of the one I snapped at Mesa Verde, but this one looked a little different, so I looked it up, and yesterday’s was a male – black head – and this one with the white on her head is a female.

It’s cloudy and there has been a lot of thunder, and we just had a nice rain.  I’m hoping for more.  I was told the Mancos Fire, the one I drove past on the way to Mesa Verde, has been put out, so I think the area I’m in is safe, fire-wise.

With my Senior Pass I’m paying $8.50 per night, a much better rate than the $14.63 per night at Mesa Verde.  There is a 30-day limit.  I don’t know if I’ll stay that long, we’ll have to see how it goes. 

Here’s the recipe for the croutons, it’s a great way to use up the end of the loaf of bread:

Homemade Croutons

6 slices bread
¼  cup olive oil plus a little more
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

Slice your bread into 1/2” pieces. (Or into quarters if you’re doing snack squares.)

In a large skillet, heat your olive oil. Add the minced garlic and saute for 1 minute, or until the garlic has started to brown. Add the salt and bread to the skillet, making sure each piece has plenty of room. (If you crowd the bread, it won’t brown correctly.) Let cook 2 minutes, gently shaking the pan every once in a while.

Turn each piece of bread over and cook an additional 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown.  (The oil never seems to be enough for me, so I always take out the bread, add more oil, and put the bread back in, trying to make sure they are all turned over.  You could toss the pieces in a bowl to coat both sides before putting them in the pan.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the coated cubes onto a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes.  (I usually then turn off the oven and keep them in there a while so they get pretty crunchy.)

This doesn’t make a LOT of croutons or “crispy toast squares,” so I usually make two batches.  I keep them in a sealed baggie in the cupboard. 

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  🙂

“Me and My Dog” dewelldesigns@blogspot.com