Thursday, May 4

The 4th is certainly with us!  We somewhat hesitantly departed OKC early this afternoon.  It’s tough to leave the creature comforts of a normal life… but, if there’s anything we aren’t aiming for, it’s a normal life.  Hanging out with Elizabeth, Casey, and their awesome girls was a great break from the grind of driving, camping, driving, camping.

We’re now in the “City” of Sanford, TX, population: 164.  The National Park Service operates a beautiful camping area all around Lake Meredith here, and the area that we are at 1) is free 2) has showers 3) is lakefront and 4) is all we could ever ask for.  We’re perched here, 150ft above the lake with a gorgeous view of it and everything around it.  The red clay contrasts with the enormous bright blue sky amazingly. 

The drive here was far less than interesting, with miles of straight pavement in front of us most of the way. The strong headwind was not helpful with fuel mileage. The most interesting sights were the rather disturbing cattle feed lots. I’ve always been a beef eater, but the sight of these shit-smelling meat farms is stomach-turning enough to make even myself question my eating habits.

Cheeseburgers

Emily and I went on a recon mission around the campground, and came back with a nice bundle of leftover firewood.  There are very few trees around, and absolutely NO dead fallen wood lays around here. We took great advantage of the likely law breaking that those previous campers had done before us. Thanks for the fire, ya crooks!

Not too shabby for a couple of nomads!

Anytown, USA

Industrious

The bad news is we were $9.88 over budget for the month of April . The good news is we have found $.16 in change on the ground so far, a dime and 6 pennies. We’ll be ahead in no time!

Friday, May 5

Woke up here on Lake Meredith this morning with a bright bluebird day waiting for us.  After a quick breakfast, we packed up in search of a hike, and were able to procure a map in the town of Fritch nearby.  We chose a hike through Fritch Canyon near Harbor Bay on the lake.  It’s been so long since we’ve been exposed to the high plains and desert-like terrain, the first half of the hike remained fairly interesting, as it seemed somewhat like exploring Mars, but with water and plants.  Beautiful panoramic views of Lake Meredith contrasting with the red rocks around the perimeter and plains grass with yucca plants and cactus made for a landscape that us Northerners are not used to.

shameless selfie

The second half of the hike began a bit less enthralling, as it was an out-and-back hike, with Cooper insisting on being in the lead, and all of the scenery was on repeat… that is, until we heard it… that sound… like a seizing meth addict shaking a baby’s rattle, and then we saw cooper darting forward and backward.  “COOPER! COME! NOW!” Emily and I simultaneously exclaimed… Yes, a three to four foot Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, in the middle of the trail that we had, just a half hour before, already traveled… in striking position!  We were able to reel Cooper in, likely MOMENTS before he would have been bitten, as he was within a foot or so of the snake, not sure of what to make of it.  We collected our thoughts, and decided what to do next, as that demonic serpent guarded our way back to the vehicle.  Listen, I’ve been wanting to eat snake since I watched cowboys feast on one in some old western movie, but I definitely didn’t have the tools at this time to feel comfortable with dispatching this beautiful snake in a quick and humane way.  A long, forked stick would have made me more comfortable, but here in the high plains, good luck finding a long stick of any sort.  The thought of smashing it with a rock crossed my mind, but I really didn’t want to put Emily through that, and as much as the thought of fire roasted rattlesnake was making my mouth water, I didn’t want to risk wounding the thing.  In the end, we reluctantly went off trail (WHO KNOWS HOW MANY MORE OF THESE THINGS ARE WAITING FOR US OUT THERE) and rock-hopped around the rattler’s station on the trail.  Pretty sure Emily is done with hiking in Texas.

Hey buddy.

After a quick dip in the lake (probably filled with all sorts of toothy critters) we packed up and headed back to our campsite.  And boy, does this area fill up on a Friday night. We’re currently sitting by the campfire listening to the soothing sound of an air mattress pump.. they’ll likely fill at least 4 air mattresses for all of the itty bitty (southern talk) people they have with them… they couldn’t have possibly completed that task in the daylight hours.

G’night!

Saturday, May 6…….3 Weeks!

We woke up this morning and dealt with something we have been avoiding. Ryan had put down some pergo flooring before we left, it looks great! While traveling one day, our butcher block fell and made a hole in the floor. We didn’t think much of it since my bee rug covered up the dent. But overtime I shake the rug out, there is a dark wet stain on the underside of the rug. The stain happens to be where the hole in the floor is and hole in the floor happens to push up dark liquid every time you step on it. We pulled up the pergo and cut out a square of the linoleum, the plywood is soaking wet.  Now what? We are hoping the Texas heat will dry it out a little. 

booooo

(Afterthought note from Ryan: I remember when we pulled in to our Virginia home, one of the drain point valves had lost a pin on the bumpy NY highways, and I believe a few gallons of water had made its way out… likely where the water came from. Hopefully no real damage has been done…. RUN IT!)

In an attempt to keep our minds off our rotting camper, we drove around looking for touristy things to do. We drove around in a canyon, checked out the amphitheater, walked to a river, and headed home.  We met a local couple at the amphitheater. They are building a screen for outside movies that the National Park will start presenting for free at the end of the month. Nice folks, gave us some ideas for NM. They seemed a lot like us minus the 5 children. He said, “We like the taste of dirt” meaning, they like to be one with nature. We can get on board with that.

River.... I think?? Red Clay makes the water absolutely opaque.

The “campground” closest to us is the last place we explored. Man, wish we went there earlier! It was on the beach! Why didn’t we go here earlier? We went back home, only 3 minutes down the street, picked up our LayBags and went back to the beach. We floated for about an hour, a much needed pick-me-up. No one else was really in the water. It is 90 degrees outside but the lake must still feel cold to these texans. To us New Hampshirites it sure felt good! We even saw people wake surfing…..with wet suits on!  Made me miss home a little. 

Doin' some floatin' on our UST SlothSaks

It’s 7pm, the sun is still high in the sky and it’s still in the upper 80’s. The wind makes it comfortable. We had left over chili thanks to Elizabeth, glad to not have to slave over a stove today. The sun will set around 8:30 and it will cool down real quick, I’m looking forward to it. Packing up tomorrow, headed towards Taos, New Mexico

Happy Birthday to Bubsie, my Dad! Sounds like he had a great day today. We miss and love you!

Also, we finished our first roll of toilet paper today! A roll never lasted more than 2-3 days at the house, this one lasted 3 weeks! Granted this toilet paper is like negative ply and we try to use other bathrooms at all costs.

Sunday Funday, May 7

It fracking stinks in Texas, let’s get out of here! (The gas pump stations around here let off a nice odor, not unlike flatulence) We pulled out of our Sanford Yake Campground site around 8:30am and headed west towards Taos, New Mexico. The landscape changed pretty immediately once we went over the border. A lot more trees and a lot less oil derricks. We drove straight towards the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. What a beautiful sight. 

Eagle's Nest, NM

We had found a free campsite online in Carson National Forest. It was only .55 miles off route 64 into Taos so we figured we would try there before anywhere else. We decided to take our bicycles down the dirt road instead of getting the camper down there and not having a place to turn around. Campsite #1 was taken, campsite #2 had a family hanging around it and the rest of the sites were either soaking wet or too difficult to get the camper into. On the way out, I asked the family if they were sleeping over. They were not, but it was obvious they were in no rush to move along and let us set up camp.

So instead we drove closer to town to see if anything else was available. I guess we are here too early in the season, all the other places were behind a locked gate. We decided to stop into Taos Mesa Brewing to think over the next move. Mmmmhmmm! Good choice! After a couple of beers at an altitude much higher than we are used to, we agreed to take our chances and venture back to our original campsite.

Good news! It was available! It’s a nice spot, certainly will do as base camp for the next couple of days while we do some exploring.  We’re in a valley of sorts, with thick evergreens on our side of the road, and a steep field and thin mixed forest on the other side, with Elk sign everywhere - it looks almost like a pasture!  We have hopes of waking up to some Elk in the area, but it’s somewhat doubtful, as we’re parked right in their stomping ground.

We'll take it!

It’s nice to be in the mountains again! 

You’ll be happy to know we found $.12 more cents on the ground today!