A late post; better late than never?

Elephant Butte, New Mexico

It was a short and busy visit to Elephant Butte.  We lucked out and found the Rio Lago Park within walking distance of pretty much everything EB has to offer, plus we made a great friend in the owner John.  John is a retired DoD guy and he was familiar with many of the operations Gari & I supported at WSMR.  We looked around EB for a week then headed out for the Valley of Fires in central New Mexico on the east side of the (Sacramento) mountains. 

Above is our building lot.  The house that adjoins us in the back belongs to an architect from Albuquerque.  It is for sale for a cool $350K, we understand it started at $550K a year ago so a good buy now!  The dark part on the right is an RV garage.  :-)

From our lot we can just see the famous Elephant Butte that rises out of the reservoir.  That is the small double hump toward the right side of the picture below.  We call this our peek-a-boo view.  I think a deck on the roof is in order to improve the view!  We might have to accomplish some pruning too :-)

 This is the view of Turtle Back Mountain from near our lot.

There we are set up next to the General Store.

Right in the heart of downtown EB!

 A less sophisticated dwelling...

 A more sophisticated dwelling, sonmething for everyone at EB!

Flora

Spring is in the air

From a hike down to the lake.

 The RVers drive right down to the lakes edge.  They also launch boats from anywhere!

For now we say farewell to EB....

Back in Junction City, KS

Education; that is precisely what we have had over the two years that we have owned our beloved luxury 5th wheel coach Penelope Pussycat. Some of the lessons have been hard, others easy, and all have been enlightening.  This visit at New Horizons is our 2nd ownership anniversary and is our last warranty service.  As usual we have found ourselves on the emotional rollercoaster as we endeavor to understand the problems and fixes on our complex RV.  We love our RV home and can get quite emotional when our home sweet home has to undergo surgery.  I remember living on the farm, and every so often we would clean out the dogs stall and houses.  They would stand there and watch us with looks of concern, and seem to be asking, "What are you doing with our home?"  We are much the same when our coach goes into the shop.  Tomorrow will be the start of week 5 here, we thought 2 weeks would be all it was going to take this time, but some painting work has taken much longer than expected.  There was a line for the paint booth and we are hoping this week 5 will finish off our work.

One of the great things about being in Junction City is meeting other New Horizon owners. We are all pretty much of like minds and it is great to make all of these new friend connections and commiserate on our very similar coaches.  We learn so much from each other, it really helps in understanding our problems and necessary fixes when someone else has already experienced it.

Most days we walk up the hill to the donkey farm.  Last year when we were here they had 3 donkeys.  This year they already had 10 donkeys when we arrived, and by now there are 12, with at least one more on the way.  We are anxious to return to Rapid City, SD when we finish in Junction City.  We are also planning to meet up with new friends later this summer in Montana.  We are loving the RV life!

This is our hitch connector that was damaged. You can see that top pin out of place; it wasn't making a good connection.  We visitied the local farm store found a replacement plug and accomplished the repair ourselves.

Many coaches for sale at New Horizons.  This is where we stay while getting work accomplished on our coach.  We all call it Camp New Horizons.  We are given very good care while here and are very grateful for it.

Candy gave us a tour of the marvelous 2015 Show Model while we were here.  What a magnificient coach!

We walk up Donkey Hill most days, for the exercise and to see our donkey friends.  They eagerly approach for the daily scratch.

 Our new friends Ed & Lynn joined us on a walk up Donkey Hill.

 It looks like the donkeys are serenading our new friends!

Then the donkey foals started to arrive... this is the first foal we call ND, short for New Donkey.

This is foal No.2 a week later.  We call him Pimilco in observance of the Preakness race there that weekend.

 That's a Brown Headed Cow Bird Pimlico

 This mare carries foal No.3;  I wonder if we will get to see him.  We may call him Belmont.

And that is the Junction City 2015 Scoop from Pullin' Chocks!

Pepe' goes to Carrizozo, New Mexico and sees Donkeys

Carrizo is Spanish for reed grass, and the northern edge of the Tularosa basin had an abundance of it at the end of the nineteenth century.  The area was named Carrizozo in honor of its main resource by a local ranch foreman, who added the extra zo to emphasize its bounty.  The El Paso and Northeastern Railroad built a depot on Carrizozo Flats, and the town was born.  Though EP&N has long since ceased to exist, Carrizozo remains.  There were no cars or real roads to speak of at this time, so railroads were of supreme importance which made Carrizozo an important location.  In 1913 it was made the county seat for Lincoln County, just as New Mexico was admitted to the Union.  Carrizozo, New Mexico is now a small town located near the geographic center of the state  at the crossroads of Highways 54 and 380.

Clearly now the much smaller town is full of artisans who apparently love DONKEYS as much as we do!

Pepe' parked in Carrizozo being watched by Bat Donkey on the roof of Heart of the Raven

Close up of Bat Donkey

Christian Wedding Donkey in the window

Courtyard full of Donkeys and Hosses

 Zebra Donkey on the wall

 Zorro Donkey ready to swoop down from above!

 That's Zorro Donkey up there

Antique Donkey

 For Sale Donkey....can be yours!

 Boot Shop Donkey, a real Jackass kicker!

Double Donkeys on top at the Heart of the Raven

I thought this courtyard wall was interesting

A mural commemorating The Legend of Four.  On New Mexico's flag we see a red sun with rays streching out from it. There are four groups of rays with four rays in each group. This is an ancient sun symbol of a Native American people called the Zia. The Zia believed that the giver of all good gave them gifts in groups of four. These gifts are:
    The four directions - north, east, south and west.
    The four seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter.
    The day - sunrise, noon, evening and night.
    Life itself - childhood, youth, middle years and old age.

And that is Carrizozo and her Donkeys!