Month: December 2018

Tripometer –  13,230 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

Election Day

Our number one priority for today was to send off our absentee ballots for the mid-term elections. We had submitted our requests for and received our electronic ballots a couple of weeks ago but had procrastinated printing out the ballot files due to sheer laziness. At lunchtime today we ran into Deming to the library to print the forms and then to the post office to mail them with today’s date. On the way to the post office we passed the office of the Republican Party of Luna County. Neither of us could figure out why a skeleton wearing a republican party t-shirt felt like the right decoration for them to use on election day. We had hoped this might be a premonition of the election outcome.

As soon as Kelly could tear herself away from work this afternoon we ran up the mountain for one last shot at Thunder Eggs. When we went searching for rocks on Tuesday we were so taken by the beautiful agates that we almost ignored the possibility of finding thunder eggs. Today we spent a good bit of time trying to figure out what to look for and which specimens to keep. This entailed a good bit of smashing rocks with the hammer and against one another to determine what types of rock might contain crystal pockets and which don’t. The odd part of this activity is that we were actually spending our time smashing rocks together looking for essentially what amounts to glass. Not a safe nor very productive activity. Paul, as designated rock cracker, was always fairly diligent about wearing his reading glasses while smashing rocks together, but at one point near dusk a shard of crystal material broke off of a smaller rock and sliced his hand open enough to embed itself in his palm. After seeing what was possible and judging his Walmart reading glasses to be insufficient protection from THAT, we retired with the samples of rock that we think might have larger pockets of crystals. It’s frustrating to bring home rock samples with no idea of what lays inside. We had discussed taking the possible thunder egg samples to the delapidary down the hill but decided that was a good way to get waylaid talking to the old fellow for the rest of the evening. We will likely purchase the equipment necessary to cut these specimens open when we get home. For now we’re saddled with carrying 20 pounds of potentially useless rock around with us until we get home.

We’ve included a picture of our top 5 potential thunder eggs above. The eggs are formed by gas bubbles in lava and each of these samples displays signs of bubbles on the surface but we really have no idea if our observations mean anything until we get them open using something other than a rock hammer.

The second we returned to the trailer tonight we turned on CNN’s election coverage and set up for a night of watching the election results roll in. Dinner of pork and beans was all we had patience for preparing this evening. Wolfe Blitzer had our rapt attention until long after our bed times.

Tripometer –  13,203 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke this morning to stronger winds on the mountain than we have experienced to date. Kelly worked for most of the daylight hours inside the trailer rather than at the lovely little gazebo we have over our picnic table due to the wind. Periodically during the day we saw dust storms in the distance moving their way through the valley at our feet. We were extremely thankful that we decided to stay a couple more days in this campground. Driving the rig in this wind would have been downright dangerous. Paul spent his time today working on the blog and cleaning the rig for our move across the country to Louisiana.

We have always wanted to visit New Orleans. Up until this point in our lives we have reserved a New Orleans vacation for a special occasion. Perhaps time or monetary constraints would prevent a long or expensive vacation, we held New Orleans as an easy and affordable vacation destination for just such an occasion. Now that we will be travelling through the area, we have decided to splurge on a nice long visit to the Big Easy. Today we booked 10 nights in an RV park located a mere 6 blocks from the heart of the French Quarter. The old motto holds true: Location, Location, Location. We decided that the location of the RV park in NOLA warrants the hefty cost of $105 – $150 per night. We are tremendously excited.

 Tripometer –  13,187 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

After a lazy Sunday morning of coffee and breakfast at the Deming Denny’s, we set off up the mountainside in search of gemstones. The wind has not diminished much since yesterday, but we also decided it isn’t going to kill us, so off we went in search of our fortune. The temperature today was a perfect 60 something degrees and the strong New Mexico sun made it feel like a warm summer day. We were ecstatic to be outside enjoying the weather.

The mountainside most easily accessible from the campground has obviously been worked over very well. Evidence of other rock hounds bashing at rocks is everywhere. Piles of broken rock, chipped boulders, and even a couple of smashed thunder eggs littered the washes where rain water cascades off the mountainside. We immediately started finding agate in a variety of different colors, but most of it was either too small to work with or firmly embedded in rocks too large to move or even break up. No surprise. We were able to find a few really nice specimens and were really excited by the sheer quantity of gemstone quality material that we were finding. Above is a picture of some of the nicer agate samples that we pulled off of the mountain.

We have been trying to take Ranger along whenever we do outdoor activities. He has no problem staying in the trailer for a few hours when we can’t bring him along, but if we’re going to be hiking up a mountainside we naturally default to bringing him with us. Today we brought him along for our climb up the mountain but the quantity and variety of cacti on the mountainside above our campground made this a huge mistake. Ranger still has gained no respect for ‘plants that bite back’. He blunders along paths and between cacti with reckless abandon. During the three or so hours that we spent on the mountainside today, we probably pulled thorns from him every 15 minutes or so. Naturally this made us feel awful about bringing him along and we cut our time short to get him back to the safety of the paved roads and sidewalks of the campground. We will definitely leave him at home next time.

Excited by our limited success today and looking forward to a busy work week for Kelly, we decided to book a couple more nights at this lovely park. Another factor that weighed heavily in our decision to stay here a few more days are the shower facilities located about 50 feet from our trailer. For the first time in many weeks, we’ve found a heated bathroom with truly hot showers. Thankfully the New Mexico State Park authority is less worried about scalding people than they are about providing lovely hot showers for their guests.

Special Note: Although Ranger has yet to start avoiding cacti, he has developed a response to thorns. Whether he steps on the tremendously painful small ground stickers or runs headlong into a larger cactus, his response lately has been to come to one of us with the injured appendage for thorn removal. He has melted our hearts more than once when he stops walking, turns around, and lifts his paw with a worried expression. Please take this out?

 

Tripometer –  13,160 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

With the work week behind us, we intended to do some serious rock hounding today. Being almost absolute novices at rockhounding in the Southwest, and certainly completely ignorant of the rocks and minerals to be found in the state park, our first stop was the visitors center in the state park. The visitors center was constructed in the early two thousands and it was clear to us that they designed the displays specifically for rock enthusiasts. Our camp host, the same woman who helped us get into a site two days ago, was also behind the counter and our chief source of information on the park and the rocks to be found within. Once again we were impressed with her knowledge and willingness to help. After speaking for quite some time and gathering all of the information that she was willing to give, we decided to visit the lapidary just outside the park entrance.

We have driven by the little rock shop at the base of the mountain a few times since we’ve been in this park and have joked a couple of times that the shop is more of a “de-lapidary” than a lapidary given its appearance. As it is the only rock shop within a mile of the state park, we figured they would likely be an excellent source of information on the rocks to be found up in the mountains here. Rock people are a special breed. The owner of this shop was no exception to this rule and as expected when we walked into the place we were waylaid for almost two hours discussing everything from the tremendous selection of geodes and thunder eggs on display in the shop to religion, politics, food, weather, geological processes, climate change, the sexual revolution of the ‘70s and, of all things, railroads. We don’t think the old fellow in the rock shop gets many visitors, but he was certainly interesting to talk with!

We left the delapidary with instructions to climb the washes in search of both agate and ‘thunder eggs’. This area is known to be a rich source of geodes. Thunder eggs are formed by the same process as geodes but instead of being hollow rocks with crystal formations lining the inside, thunder eggs are solid structures that have been completely filled with crystallized material. The delapidary had many sliced open thunder eggs on display and for sale and they were gorgeous (and also tremendously expensive). Possibly the most frustrating aspect of looking for thunder eggs and geodes is that they appear to be normal looking roundish rocks with no striking exterior features. There are two ways to find out if you have a gorgeous specimen – 1) smash open the geode with a hammer thereby destroying the beautiful interior OR 2) cut open the sample with a rock saw or the like… which we don’t have. The folks at the delapidary told us that if we found a single thunder egg on the mountain we should consider ourselves lucky. Not the brightest outlook.

The weather on the mountain today was extremely windy. We returned to camp in the late afternoon with every intention of climbing the mountain in search of the perfect thunder eggs, but were put off by the sheer force of wind whipping around the mountain. When we set up the trailer we have what look like four car jacks, one under each corner of the trailer to minimize movement caused by people inside the trailer and the wind. With as much movement as we were experiencing in the trailer today, it honestly felt as though we hadn’t put the jacks down at all. Instead of braving the wind on the mountainside we decided to spend the rest of the evening in camp reading and watching a bit of TV. Our campground is located just high enough on the side of this mountain that we have excellent TV reception. Something we haven’t had in quite a while.

Tripometer – 13,139 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

There came a knock at the trailer door this morning at 8am. The camp host came out of the campground to let us know that our future campsite had been vacated and she had put a lawn chair in the site to reserve it for us until we could get our trailer up the hill and into the site. What a nice thing to do!

We quickly got all set up in the campsite and Kelly got to work with an excellent cell signal in the shade of a picnic table gazebo in our site. The backdrop was spectacular. Paul cleaned up the trailer and put in some quality time on the trip blog.

After work, Kelly ran into town to restock our groceries. On the way she ran across JB’s Barber Shop and RV Park. We both thought this was such a funny business plan, we had to share. Ranger and Paul took some time this afternoon while Kelly was shopping to familiarize ourselves with the state park and some of its trails. A quick hike around the perimeter trail showed that the hills were absolutely covered in prickly pear. We have seen lots of prickly pear over the past few weeks but neither of us recall seeing it be the predominant species across such a wide area. It is beautiful.

After putting in a long day of work and chores we decided to take an easy evening in camp to watch some TV and read books. We’re both thrilled with the amenities at this little state park and we’re both looking forward to spending the weekend here.