When we awoke we found that the weather forecast was correct. It was snowing at sunrise and sticking not long after. Our weather station in the Invader indicated an outside temperature around freezing when the sun came up. At 11 it was still snowing little bitty flakes and the weather station indicated 35 degrees, 96% humidity and a trend guessing at more of the same. Fortunately, we have an electrical hookup in Brantley Lakes State Park and, consequently we can run both indoor electric heaters and the furnace comes on every couple hours when the t-stat is set to 70. This staying in a 5th wheel trailer sure beats tent camping, particularly when the weather is shitty.
Good day to catch up on the filing, computer entry, maintenance and romantic wrasslin’ if I can catch Peggy. Her options for escape are not good in a 8’x33′ space. I’ve slowed over the years but my reach and grip remain undiminished so Peg’s ability to remain untouched for long is slim.
I also figured it would be a good day to rest our legs since we took a good, long walk in the cavern yesterday. As it turned out, resting our legs was pretty unnecessary because most of the way we went yesterday was flat and my legs felt fine.
Very cold at night – 26 degrees.

Started the day in the park’s shower facility. The showers are quite nice with ample hot water and gimp stalls with both overhead and hand-held water nozzles. The clear weather of yesterday is gone; overcast skies.
Peg & I drove the 35 miles or so to Carlsbad Caverns so we could give it a sniff. We were not disappointed. As a matter of fact, this is a destination for the bucket list.
In the visitor center we found that since we bought the federal access pass (way back in Gold Beach in July 2014) we again got to go in w/o charge. It is only $10 a head (for entry over three days) which we discovered is about one of the best ways to spend money, bar none.
The caverns are truly magnificent. We started the excursion with a 750′ ride down a shaft in a freight elevator that moves along at a nice clip. I think the ride down takes less than 2 minutes. There is an airlock door system to the elevator lobby and once passing that one emerges through to an underground snack bar, small gift shop and restrooms in a side tunnel.
Peg & I took off from this subterranean lobby on a trail of the Big Room. The Big Room is pretty big – the loop pathway (Portland Cement Concrete paved with stainless steel handrail both sides) is a bit more than a mile back to the elevators. The cavern trail winds along the edge of the cave offering lots of different views of everything. The lighting installed is gorgeous although you can see some panels and wiring installed on the surface throughout the cave. The conductors on the ground and the panels do not interfere with the spectacular views in this wonderful place.
I cannot adequately express my wonder at this place so I won’t try. I could go into the Caverns a lot and still be happy. I tried to take pictures but I do not know if they will turn out. Exposure times were long and I stupidly did not bother to carry a tripod. A flash is basically useless in the caverns because the spaces are truly enormous and items close to the lens are overexposed to the point of arc welding.
Once we finished up our circuit of the Big Room (which took us 3.5 hours) we re-boarded the freight elevator for the trip up. The elevator cars do just as well going up; less than a two minute ride to re-emerge at the surface. Peg snagged a few postcards in the gift shop and we departed the building. It was quite a bit colder than we we went in when we emerged. Glad we bought propane yesterday because it is going to be cold tonight. We speculate we will lay low tomorrow because the weather report says snow’s coming tonight.

Departed Stinky Lakes because the nifty smell and because, other than the stenchwater, there is little here to recommend. We drove about an hour and a half south to Carlsbad, NM. Roads were good all the way south from Roswell to C’bad.
Set up the trailer for three nights at Brantley Lakes State Park N of C’bad. It is another NM state facility and costs the same as Oliver Lee and Bottomless Stench; $10 for tents, $14 for W&E and $18 for W,S & E. We then drove south for 10 miles or so to C’bad for a look/see. We initially stopped at the C’bad Ford dealership so we could buy two new windshield washer nozzles which miraculously both failed within about 5 minutes of one another while I was breaking stuff under the hood in Oliver Lee a few days ago. Then we found a laundromat which we will need to visit in a few days.
We also found a Wallyworld and a place that sells propane, which we needed because we were empty on one cylinder and the weather is supposed to turn cold. It is about 77 degrees today, depending on which bank sign you believe. We found a drive-in called “Becky’s” where we decided to eat.
Becky seems to be a male, dentally-challenged 43” tall curmudgeon who alleges he makes everything himself. There were other employees at Becky’s who seemed to have their noses to the grindstone so I wonder if Becky is a liar, a megalomaniac or missing other senses.
In any event, Becky’s served us chicken-fried steak strips, complete with a cup of gravy, fries, ketchup and Texas toast which is merely a thick slice of ordinary toast. It was pretty good despite the stature of the operator.

Driving day. We drove over a 7500’+ pass on our way out of Alamagordo up Hwy 70 to Tularosa, Ruidoso (home of Ruidoso Downs Race Track at about 7000′ elevation) and then east to the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation and on through Roswell, NM to Bottomless Lakes State Park.
Although we thought we got a good deal on fuel in Alamagordo, we were subsequently mildly disappointed when we saw diesel for $2.049 on the rez. Since we did not need fuel at the time, we passed the good deal.
Bottomless Lakes are not actually lakes but water-filled sinkholes although they exist right adjacent to the Pecos River. Water is fed into the lakes underground through limestone/gypsum deposits so the water ain’t too potable in some of the holes. They look neat and the adjacent cliffs are a work in motion as they collapse. The sinkholes are believed to be collapsed caverns.
One strange notation about this place: WHAT IS THAT FART SMELL? The stench of farts or pig shit or upwind cattle feed lot operations permeates the place. I was going to blame it on Peggy because I couldn’t remember farting but even when she took a stroll the stench remained so blame was out of the question. We could not see any pig farms or cattle lots around so we finally figured out it was the lakes. Maybe they should rename the place “Bottom Lakes” or “Turdfondler Shores” or “Stenchville.”
We went to the visitor’s center for the park and met Jim, the docent. Since nobody else was there, he took us through the place and showed us the good stuff. He is quite a character and reminded both Peggy and me of Peg’s dad, Sam. He has some strange little props to greet you at the desk like dollar bills folded into little frogs, a tennis ball that he squeezes to make it talk and alleged alien turds. He also pointed out to us a secondary road we could drive to see most of the lakes w/o getting out of Charlotte so we drove all of it.
This park is another NM park and cost $14 a night for W&E and $18 per if you want sewer. The highways coming in are a bit bumpy.

Popped into Alamagordo to catch the Space Museum. It has stuff my folks worked on when at JPL shown (Viking) and a shitload of military rockets out front. The museum looks medium-sized from the outside but is even smaller once you get into the building. It is only $6 a head so it is worth every penny but, considering the size of the building the displays are pretty sparse. The stuff they have is neat but you can easily be in and out in 2 hours. Most of the inside of the building’s space is cleverly wasted on neat sloping ramps running diagonally through the center of the structure such that there is some display space and a myriad of views through enormous glass building walls to the outside.
The museum does have a bunch of rocket engines on display which I found fascinating but may not have had the same effect on Peggy. They also have an Apollo capsule, a tail section from a V-2 and a cutout of the ESA’s space station and a bunch of other pre-1970 technology.
From the museum we popped into a Valero for fuel and Wal-Mart for entertainment prior to returning to Oliver Lee State Park. Once there, we visited the visitor’s center, took a look at the creek behind Frenchy’s cabin and had a possible lebanese woman give us a tour of the old Oliver Lee ranch. This house was almost entirely restored from almost complete ruin so most looks pretty new but the stories about the owner are pretty good. There are rumors of escape tunnels and a pretty good guess he smoked a few folks. Pat Garrett wanted him but was disappointed.

Drove into White Sands National Monument. The place has a wonderland of bright white dunes maybe 30 feet high consisting of gypsum sand. Apparently hard rainstorms in this area wash available gypsum down creeks into a giant basin when the water ponds and promptly evaporates, leaving the gypsum behind to be blown by the prevailing wind into the dunes. The dunes are pretty active because we drove about half of the way from the highway to the end of the road in gypsum sand that now covers the road. It was a bit damp so it splattered all over the truck and dried into little gobs of weak plaster on the fenders, chrome and running boards.
The dogs we saw in the park were quite delighted to run around in the sand but, unfortunately the owners were being bad because unleashed dogs are supposedly verboten. I must have seen 20 dogs and maybe three were leashed so maybe enforcement isn’t a big issue. I liked the look of the unleashed guys best.
We took a spin through Alamagordo after the park and found it just as unremarkable as Deming. They both do have outstanding sunrise and sunset light shows and maybe that is the magnet because Alamagordo proper is plain.
One redeeming feature we did find in Alamagordo was diesel for $2.399/gallon, definitely the cheapest we have seen since June 2014.

Driving day. We drove over a 5700′ pass to Alamagordo, NM, home to Holloman Air Base, White Sands National Monument and Oliver Lee State Park. We set up in the park which is about 12 miles south of town.
Very few places in the world exist where you can see more than you can from one of the park’s camping spots. Plainly visible are Hwy 70 running SW back to Las Cruces, White Sands Nat’l Monument, a mountain range clearly visible some 60 miles away and spectacular cliffs at your back. The sunset was truly spectacular when lighting the bottoms of cloud banks 50 miles away. Definitely worth the $14 a night camping fee.

Drove into Deming over the same mud road to the 7 mile long other road that takes you to the road that will ultimately put you in town. At first and second and maybe subsequent glance, Deming is quite unremarkable but they do have a really neat Luna County Museum in the old Armory. The museum collection includes a horse-drawn hearse that is in superb condition and quite beautiful despite the somber purpose. Too bad we weren’t here yesterday so we could have missed the rain although the weather is nice today: maybe 55 degrees and a few wispy clouds.
Spent a part of the PM putting in the Barbarian Invader’s other gooseneck weather strip but found an improved method involving a screwdriver.

Drove to Deming NM in rain. The last 1/2 mile into El Rancho Lobo campground is normally dirt with some gravel but when we got there is was mud with little ruts and snowing big flakes. Trailer setup was quite brisk and very gooey. The park host (Charlie) spotted us into our site in such a way that all exterior cargo hatches, the Barbarian Invader entry door, the hitch area and both side doors of Charlotte were located directly over large areas with scant gravel but abundant glutinous mud that formed a strong bond to our Vibram soles.
Cold (freezing some) at night in this part of the world in mid-January. Elevation is still about 4500′.

We (Jed) decided we should go to Sierra Vista’s Environmental Operations Park to see what he believed would be abundant wildlife. The facility is a series of basins where treated sewage water is impounded to drain back into the aquifer, which sounded like a sound policy. Don’t know about the policy but the wildlife was a bust. We saw less than three birds but we believe we heard some others. It would be a good bird viewing area for the blind but we were underwhelmed.

From the EOP we drove over to the canyons running out of the Huachuca Mountains to give them a sniff. We went up a canyon called Miller and ran out of decent road at a place called Beatty’s Guest Ranch. It really isn’t a ranch but it is an amazing bird-watching area.

The ranch is actually a house that the woman owns and she rents out one room and serves breakfast to occasional tenants making her place a B&B. If you arrive at the right time, you can get a parking place and donate $5 a head to the plastic jar on the gate, walk about 35 feet and take a chair on her veranda/broken flagstone or cozy up in the sunshine on a garden terrace. The lady (Mary Ann?) that runs the joint is an avid bird-watcher and camps on the porch to describe what you are seeing. She is quite savvy on the species which is good because there are about 100 types of birds that visit her tiny back yard. Perhaps it is because she has a bunch of feeders and sticks halved fruit in the trees for all to enjoy and they birds know the stuff is here. The place seems to be just about halfway between the lowlands and the highlands so she gets most of the birds from both places. Saw a Pyrraloxia (sp?) which seems to be a cardinal except it is beige with separate red chunks of crown on his noggin. Never seen one before. Even non-birders should try this place out.

Still cold at night. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since we are about at 4500′ elevation.