comments

btw (by the way) - I love to get comments on here. It's really easy to do - at the bottom of each post is a spot that says "0 comments" (or 1 or 2). Just click on it and it'll bring up a new screen where you can type in your comments.

If I don't see comments for a while, I start to think that I'm "talking" to myself, and well, that ain't a good thing. LOL So even if you just say "hi" - that'd be real cool. If there are pictures you want to see, or things you'd like me to (try to) write about, let me know. I'll try my best!!

latest greatest

We've done some great riding the past couple of days. However, our campground doesn't have wifi, so it's hard to get online. We're currently sitting outside a visitor center using their signal. LOL So this post won't be long, just enough to say we're here (New Mexico still) and safe and having fun, and you'll see more pics soon! Maybe I'll even post about the non-fun stuff, such as our bike tire that got screwed, and our RV tire that did the splits. {giggle}

a different kind of fun

My good friend Carrie asked if I brought along my scrappin' supplies. So as proof - I did a LO (layout) last night. It's probably one of the quickest LOs I've ever done on my own! hahaha I normally take many hours, even days for one. This one was maybe 4 hours, a quickie for me.

The story: I went with some CNH (Case New Holland) folks to a Brewers game. They wanted to show an Italian coworker the basics of baseball in Milwaukee. Of course that includes tailgating. Apparently it also includes doing shotguns, which I had not known previously... To make a shotgun, you poke a hole in a beer can, then put the can to your mouth, open the tab top, and the beer just shoots into your mouth. ;-o

Jemez Mountains

We rode the bike through the Jemez Mountains. omg, how beautiful! And I was again amazed at the diversity of the area. The Jemez Mtns are a volcanic range, and over a million years ago this caldera was formed - it is a 12 mile wide collapsed volcanic crater.

Up in the mountains it sure got cold... yep, that's snow you're seeing. Yep, in New Mexico. Brrr....

I am in complete awe of nature. And I see nature's power in rocks, cliffs, etc. That's why you see so many of my pictures focused on that type of scenery. The following four photos were taken within probably 30 miles of one another. Just look at the different colors, structures, materials, etc. It's all so awe-inspiring to me - even looking at these pictures takes my breath away - all so beautiful in such different ways.

Santa Fe

Everybody always says "you have to go to Santa Fe" and/or "Santa Fe is great," etc. It IS a neat town, nestled in the mountains - very scenic. And the old town is cute. And yes, some very old buildings still stand. But it's so commercialized, it seems like it's only a tourist town (aka tourist trap). For blocks, it's pretty much shopping and restaurants, which I guess is ok if you like that kind of thing. For this non-shopping gal, it wasn't quite my cup of tea. And Greg seemed quite bored - been there, done that attitude. However, and this is a big however, Santa Fe is a mecca for artists and artist-want-to-be's. Which is cool. Very cool! There were little stands all over with people selling their wares, and neat shops too.

In this picture, in front of the long low building artists are selling their items, mostly jewelry, but other stuff too. Each morning there is a lottery to determine which lucky people will be able to have these prime spots. This has occurred every day for the past 400 years!! Because it's such a high-profile spot and it's a lottery, etc., the Tribal Council and the city of Santa Fe research and completely back all the vendors who sell from that location. It's guaranteed to be as stated (silver, copper, not plated, real turquoise, etc).

The Loretto Chapel is a beautiful church. I wanted to go inside to see the staircase. Some say it's miraculous, I'm not so sure about that. But it is amazing. There are no supports - nothing on the inside, nothing on the outside, it isn't supported by the wall. It's basically free-standing. And yes, it is completely usable.

I did find the church itself to be very beautiful also. The arches and the altar just seemed to flow together perfectly.

The San Miguel Church is considered the oldest church structure in the U.S. It was built circa 1610!

The house below is officially the "oldest house" in the U.S.

In many places in New Mexico, particularly tourist areas, it is common to see ristras, strings of chiles, hanging. This is how the chiles are dried for later use in cooking. Ristras are considered good luck, so there are real and fake ones hanging in homes, stores, even cars!

odds and ends

Odds: We stopped at an "attraction" called Tinkertown Museum. It's in our book called "Roadside Americana." The book lists all kinds of unusual things to see. Well, I can see why this was in the book. Odd all the way!! A guy started carving stuff in the '60s, and making scenes and buildings with his carvings and with found stuff (ie bottles). The museum is all in buildings he created mostly out of bottles and cement.


There were actually whole miniature scenes of various times/places, including a huge group of buildings from the Old West. This picture shows about one tenth of the Old West section.

There was also this huge miniature three ring circus, with all the typical circus activities going on inside. It was truly amazing.

Ends: The end of the day's journey... We found our way to Riana Campground, a state-run campground on the edge of Abiquiu Reservoir. These first two photos were taken while we were walking around the campground.

And this was taken from our campsite, obviously at the end of the day.

Trinity Site

For those of you new to my blog, fyi - this isn't just for our current trip. I've been doing this for almost 4 years now. It isn't just pictures and brief descriptions of where we've been, etc. Sometimes I start rambling on about something that intrigues me...

While we were riding down to White Sands, we were near Trinity Site. That is what they now call the area where they exploded the first nuclear bomb. I would have loved to have gone to the site, but it's only open two days a year. wtf?! The bomb had a major impact on world history; shouldn't the site be open for visitors?!

rockin' awesome day

Today was a rockin' day for biking! We put another 440 miles on her... and the weather was great. Although it did get a tad bit warm - up to 93 degrees. whew!

We saw some interesting varieties of scenery... many miles of this...


Then we were in the mountains enjoying this...


We hiked through a bit of Valley of Fires National Monument. Very neat. Reminded me alot of Craters of the Moon in Idaho. The lava at Valley of Fires was not from a volcano - it was from vents. It is a huge swath across the land - miles long! If you notice the chunk in the right corner of the first picture, that is the same chunk I'm climbing in the second picture.


Later we visited White Sands National Monument. Wow - immense. And kinda freaky - they have to plow the sand off the roads! Our first glimpse of White Sands was while we were coming down from the mountains - it looked like a thin layer of cottony white over miles of land.

New Mexico

We spent a couple days near Truth or Consequences, NM. For some great biking roads, we went west a bit, through the Mimbres Mountains and Gila National Forest. Fun!!

I had hoped to head east to check out the Valley of Fires Nat'l Rec Area and Roswell (yep, the sci-fi freak in me loves the weird stuff!) a different day, but it was just too windy for me to enjoy the motorcycle.

We were at "the Rally" Fri - Mon in Albuquerque. Holy cow, lots of RVs!! This picture does not do justice to reality - I believe there were approx 2200 rigs in the camping area. We went to a lot of seminars, trying to learn as much as we could. Since we're total newbies at this RVing thing, it's great learning from folks in the industry and folks who have been doing this for years. We also checked out all the gidgets and gadgets in the vendor booths, as well as drooled over the newer RVs - someday we want to get a diesel pusher. As Greg says (in his best Tim Allen - Home Improvement voice) "more power! {grunt}"


Something cool - one night there was a "balloon glow" at the camping area, which was the Balloon Fiesta grounds. They kept the balloons tethered, and turned their gas on/off to make various balloons glow at different times, in different patterns. This picture just happens to catch most of them lit.

And yes... this next picture is us, on a Tuesday afternoon, relaxing after lunch. (yes, I'm really there, in the shade, by the door) Life is good!

wide open spaces

Monday was another fab day. Weather was fantastic, as you can see, bright and sunny, temps ranging from 55-95, depending on time of day and altitude. We enjoyed a nice length bike ride, 419 miles through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park and other scenic roads in the area. These are just a few of the pictures I took along the road...





We stopped for lunch before entering BBNP, as there is only one restaurant in the park. This was just the cutest place, and the BBQ was nummy. Good smoke flavor.


I kept seeing hints of Canyonlands NP, the Badlands, Arches NP, Capitol Reef NP and even Monument Valley. But then the landscape would remind me - "hey, this is Texas. Everything's bigger in Texas."

Remember the Alamo

Friday was a glorious day, high maybe around 80, sunny. We rode into San Antonio to check out the touristy things.

First stop was the Alamo, of course. What a piece of history. I never really knew a lot about it before - I wasn't exactly "into" history in school. I had assumed we (the U.S.) won the battle at the Alamo. We didn't! Mexico won. But then "Remember the Alamo" became the rallying battle cry, and we eventually won the Mexican War. Mexico conceded to the U.S. territory that eventually became Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. WOW!

I thought the contrast between the buildings was fascinating - a major piece of American history, right in the middle of a "new" downtown area.

Then we headed to the Riverwalk. San Antonio is famous for their Riverwalk, and it has become a model for many other cities. It was great - we took a riverboat tour, saw cute shops and restaurants, saw some park area, and had a fun tour guide to boot! The Riverwalk is already quite long, and they plan to lengthen it even more, with more parkland.
Our last stop in town was at the Spanish Governor's Palace. It shows how the wealthy lived in the late 1700s. Not so nice, I have to say. Although for the time, I'm sure the place was considered huge, especially in the wild west. The furnishings are not original to the house; it had been stripped clean by prior owners, so everything in the mansion has been donated. I do not know if there would have been more or less decoration IRL (in real life). Some of the detailed wood pieces were amazing!
Saturday we had a nice long ride lined up through another part of Texas Hill Country. We were on some twisty turny roads, and we were on some that follow the ridge tops. However, it was quite chilly, and threatening rain, so I cut our ride short. I spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying some time reading - that's what camping is about!
The picture below shows, if you can see it (click on the picture for a bigger view), a spot in the road where floodwaters cross. There is a marker (the white stick) on the right showing how high the flooding is. These flood crossings were all over. Good thing for us it's been dry, or we'd have been in trouble trying to ride the bike through rushing flooding water.

No, this pose isn't exactly common for Greg. He drives the lion's share. But this photo was taken during one of those times when I took my turn at driving. ... oops, who took the picture?!
Today, Sunday, we drove the big rig over to the western part of Texas, to Fort Davis. That's our home base for the next two nights. The day is beautiful, around 65 and sunny. However - there's a wind warning again. Winds 25-40mph, gusts up to 60. ACK!! I'm sitting in our MH (motorhome) right now (parked at our new home), and it feels like it's going to tip right over, and it's really noisy!

Near Alpine and Fort Davis, it became quite beautiful. The scenery was not really what Greg or I expected. What state do you think it reminds us of? Hint - it's one of my favorite states, if not top dog.

No guesses?? Utah. Love Utah!

Enjoy your day - Life's a trip!

at last

... biking freedom!!

Thursday was a scorcher down here, almost a record high, approx 95. We enjoyed the completely sunny skies while checking out the Texas landscape near San Antonio.

Some areas looked like this, mostly flat and dry. Greg thinks it's boring. I kind of like it - big wide open spaces. And actually, these pictures aren't even the most flat and boring - we were in Texas Hill Country!



This was a neat road - kind of the Texas version of a tree-covered road. Sure the trees aren't lush and green, but they definitely have character.


The next picture was definitely taken in Hill Country. We were driving along the top of a ridge and you could see into the valleys on both sides at times. And yes, GREEN vegetation! This was pretty even to Greg's standards.

Being Hill Country, there were also curvy roads. wahoo! This was definitely a "Greg road" - with the twisty turnies. I thought it looked funny with the left arrows then the right arrows - doh - which way are you supposed to go?!

Out in the middle of nowhere Texas, a dude decided to erect his vision of Stonehenge. Yes, he calls it Stonehenge II. It's about 2/3rds the size of the original. It's in a book we have about roadside attractions.

That same dude apparently decided that his Stonehenge needed a couple Easter Island statues to protect his Stonehenge. LOL Not sure why he added two of these, but they're kind of fun too.

We ate at a tiny little roadside BBQ place - ok, maybe it wasn't tiny, I think there were about 10 tables. All the walls were decorated as you see, with pictures, letters, articles, and of course the inevitable deer heads. Oh yeah... the BBQ was quite nummy.

The great RV park we're at right now is a members park, but they allow Passport America folks to stay if there is availability. It's normally very peaceful, and it's really pretty, right next to a lake, lots of trees, etc. There are deer that roam freely around here and are seemingly quite ok with humans. This first picture shows the back corner of our RV, and the second picture is from the little window in our dinette.

We decided against riding the bike to Houston to tour the Space Center. It's over 3 hours each way, and many reviews ripped on it, saying that only kids and space buffs enjoy it. We're neither. We obviously weren't around for the first space missions, and don't remember much from the heyday of the space program. So we decided to tour around San Antonio more and relax a bit.