To Eagle Nest thru Cimmaron Canyon

It was a beautiful drive to our next state park at Eagle Nest Lake. We had to pass thru Cimarron Canyon State Park on 64. It was an awesome drive. Here are some of the pictures I took out the windshield as Bob drove.




These are the pictures of Eagle Lake as we approached from the canyon.


We found a beautiful lake and site
when we arrived at the park. Bob Gambol was here first by a couple of days and June Genis arrived moments after we did.
These are pictures from our site. What a view to wake up to.

Notice our beautiful flower garden.


And our dining room.

Sugarite State Park

Monday July 6. We left our beautiful spot at Clayton Lake after 3 weeks. Even the ranger's hated to see us go. Stopped at Clayton for fuel, propane, phone calls and a last goodbye to Tim and Mary. 100 miles later we were at Sugarite State Park near Raton. The northern border of the park is on the Colorado line. We took the car out of the trailer and drove around looking for campsites. None seemed to be level or long enough or over a smooth enough 2 mile dirt road to take the rigs.
We opted to park along side the road at a long turnout on the edge of Lake Alice. There is so much vegetation between us and the lake we only catch glimpses of the sparkling water. There is a beautiful lake at the north end but no camping.

Tuesday we drove a scenic route to Folsom.

We saw Folsom Waterfall.
Toured the museum in the town.
We then drove to Capulin Volcano and drove to the top of it. June and Janet walked the rim or parts of it. Janet walked to the bottom of the crater. The rest of us hid in the shade. The bugs were terrible and when we got in the car all of us brought a bunch of them in and we proceeded to kill bugs for the rest of the trip.

Wednesday Bob & I drove to Trinidad, CO. I needed to get a prescription filled at Walmart. We went to lunch at Tequila's a Mexican restaurant. It was the best meal. Seafood tostada.
We then drove thru historic Trinidad and onto Scenic rt.12 to the mountains.

Thursday we got a late start but we drove to Springer to see the Santa Fe Trail Museum. June was there at the same time. We were disappointed in the museum. Mostly the usual old stuff from the local familes. But there was a huge shoe size 37 that was worn by an 8' 9" shoe salesman who ironically died from a foot infection.
From there we took a drive to see Cherrita Lakes nearby. It too was a big disappointment. We headed for the mountains thinking it would be in a pretty valley but instead it was on top of a mesa and was just flat and surrounded by more grasslands. The lake was down as can be seen in this picture. We did 2 geocaches along the way. Back home we had circle. In the evening the sun came out and it was cooler so we did the two geocaches in the park. Saw these pretty bucks on the road to our camp.

Friday Bob, June and I took the guided Mine Camp Hike. I only went part way. It was interesting. In the evening we went to the Celtic music program at the amphitheater. She demonstrated the four harps she had. The music was gentle and soothing. I expected Irish jig type music. We had two thunderstorms today.

Saturday. We went fishing with the kayaks on the big lake. Bob got a couple of bites but no fish. I opted to circle the lake trolling. No bites but I did cross into Colorado and dabbled my feet in the water so I could say that I was the first to start the Win's Cuack tour. (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, Kayaking). Bob worked on reloading the trailer for our move tomorrow to Eagle Nest Lake.

The Rest of the Story (at Clayton Lake)

Every time we go to and from town we pass these mountains called Rabbit Ear Mt. We tried to "see" the rabbit ears but finally found out that it is named after an Indian Chief buried there who had frost bitten ears and was nicknamed Rabbit Ear. Our other view is the green oasis far off in the prairie. That is the state park and it is down in a canyon.
Our campsite is right in the center.
July 1. My birthday culminated with dinner in town. Bob treated June, Janet and me to a great dinner sans cake. Yippee! The wind kicked in big time so no campfire tonight but we made lots of energy.

The next day was a real relaxing day but hot in the low 90's, little breeze. We got invited to a fish fry via "Facebook". The kids we met at Ute, Lindsey & Rich, came up for the holiday and we met them at Mary's flower shop/restaurant, Lindsey's mom & dad's business. We then went to Mary and Tim's house where Rich was cooking a huge batch of fish brought in from Lake Texoma by a friend. It was a great meal and lots of visiting.
Meet Rich, Tim, Mary & Lindsey.

To town around lunch time the next day to get mail, Bob ate lunch at Mary's Back Porch restaurant and we again saw Lindsey, Rich and Mary and met Cecil.

We did our last geocache in the area
at Jack Ketchum's gravesite.

Back at the campground we rested and read, had circle then headed to town around 7 for the Street Dance. Vendors selling sausage and corn on the cob fed us our dinner and we had a great time dancing. Huge crowd. Most interesting was how young the children are who are dancing. I mean couple dancing and doing a great job. Kids are started out young in their parents arms and graduate to real dancing. Not running around. Two-step type. We found out that at age 5 thru 6th grade there are lessons and an Old Time Western dance contest for them and it is taken seriously. Another oddity was the men dancing with spurs on their boots. Glad we didn't bump into one of them. We saw our friends Mary, Tim, Lindsey & Rich.

July 4. To town early for the parade.

We wondered if Rich was driving his unit like this in the parade in Amarillo. We then did the laundry at Mary's laundry. One of her kids came and said we were invited to go with them to the BBQ at the park. We had already bought tickets and readily agreed.
Little Ricky really enjoyed his chocolate chip cookie. Mary & Tim have 4 grown children and have adopted 7 more (the oldest almost 18 and the Ricky almost 2) They are a wonderful family.

Afterwards we came home and promptly took naps in our lawn chairs. In the evening Bob and I went in for the rodeo. It was great fun. We had been to BIG professional rodeo's but this was local and lots of kids. It was great fun. It rained while we were there but we were undercover. Left early when we got cold but went back to the fairgrounds for fireworks. Brad and Janet were there also and we parked next to them. It was raining so in order to talk we had our umbrella's open out the window. Fireworks were good. Then it was home for a nightcap and visit with them.

Up early the next morning to shouting boy scouts as they packed up to leave. This troop was twice the size of the last one so lots of noise.

Bob packed up the garage for our move to Sugarite. Near us was what we called the Flintstone picnic table so we had our picture taken by a neighbor.
You can see the storm beginning to build. The Ranger came and said we were in for a bad storm with 60 mph winds and 1/2' hail. We had the winds and promptly put down the dish and brought in the slides. No hail. We then were treated to the most beautiful double rainbow that lasted for almost an hour followed by the prettiest sunset we have had here. It's hard to leave but we will come back in the future.

Second Weekend At Clayton Lake & Beyond

It cooled down and was very comfortable this weekend. The weatherman predicted T-storms so it appears not as many weekender's showed up. We did have a big 5th wheel next door. Who moved to an electric site the next morning. We have awesome sunsets most every night.

Bob and I took a 2 hour hike back to the nature trail and a geocashe we had missed our first time there at Balanced Rock. Along the way we picked up 3 bags of trash along the road. One bottle he picked up wasn't 50' from the trash bin. Since it was a glass bottle we knew it hadn't blown there but had been thrown there. Why do people have to be so trashy.

We were able to get work done. I cleaned inside the rig and repaired the chair that fell in the fire last week. Bob rebuilt the macerator pump that was leaking. Brad even painted the living room of his trailer with our comments.
There was little wind so we had to run our generator to bring the batteries up since 2 of us are using them.

Sunday again was a beautiful day. We launched the kayaks and went along the shoreline around the lake gathering trash. After filling 2 Walmart bags we met some people on shore who took them and left us with a big black garbage bag which we proceeded to fill also. The Ranger's are glad we are here and cleaning up the park and lake. Circle was here and we started a campfire because I wanted hot dogs cooked over it. Bob had Italian sausage. We wrap them in tortilla wraps. A lot less calories.

Another beautiful day in paradise. Bob and Janet went into town early and golfed. Brad, June & I drove in 2 hours later and met them at the Pizza Hut. After lunch we split up into 2 groups and ran errands. Bob got a haircut, we went to the library for more paperback books, checked mail and picked up a few groceries. Janet wanted to ride her bike back to the lake and got about 5 1/2 miles of the 12 miles before calling Brad to pick her up. It was up hill most of the way and in the high 80's low 90's. We had an afternoon rainstorm and afterwards Bob and Janet again headed to town for more golf. The $10 price was good for all day. I went for a walk with Brad and then we watched the sunset. I started a fire in the can and we all sat around and watched the lightening show in the clouds. We ooohed and awed like at a fireworks show. Great fun with friends. What a life.

We went into town today to get the supplies Bob needed to make the ladder golf game. While there we again had a delicious lunch at Mary's. We played a couple of games after circle and Bob won both of them. Can't believe it but we had two days in a row where the wind quit in the evening and we were able to have campfires with lightening shows.

Wednesday was my 69th birthday and I was up at 5:30 am. After I had a cup of coffee I went fishing. Janet was suppose to be there but she slept in. I did manage to get the line so tangled I think I will sell the dam thing. If I am going to have to undo tangles it will be in needlework thread so I actually got out my needlework and worked on it. Bob repaired the leaks in my kayak (we hope) and worked on adding books to the I-Pod.

Second week at Clayton Lake

Ah! The weekender's left and we had the place to ourselves once again. More R&R. Resting and Reading. Tried our hand at fishing but I don't care for casting. I grew up on Lake Ontario where we hooked a worm on, watched until the bobber bobbed and yanked in a beautiful black bass. All I seem to do now is get the line tangled up casting. I guess I will wait until I can trail the line behind the kayak.

We went geocacheing on the Sante Fe trail.
Bob went to this one as I had sandels on and didn't want to walk 600' in that grass.
Pretty cactus in bloom.
We continue to have wind. Making so much energy that Brad moved from the electrical $4 site to next to us and runs an extension cord. He has been having problems with his charger but may have a loose wire that he and Bob are working on. We did have one rare evening without wind.

Thursday we went to town so Bob could get blood work done for his cholesterol check. He had fasted so we went to breakfast, post office for our mail, fuel fillup and hardware store run. At the visitor's center we found a geocache and picked up some information brochures.

Back at the campground we picked up June and did a big loop drive to the Dry Cimmaron River Canyon. Saw these elk. The road runs along the border of Colorado. Beautiful scenery and lots of red rock. We stopped at the town of Kenton, OK. Looked for the Virtual Geocache there but the museum was closed. We took the picture to prove we were there. Stopped at the "Merc". It was the old general store/snack shop. Stopped at Clayton for a P-Zone at the Pizza Hut before heading home. For this beautiful sunset.

Weekend at Clayton Lake

On weekends we have learned to go to town and let the townies have the park. So off Bob, June and I go to do some yard sales. Luckily they changed to the yard sales to garage sales as it was pouring rain. After find a few purchases for all of us we went to the Herzstein Museum. It was a free (donation only) museum and we had a guide. We learned how the area was settled by homesteader's given 160 acres and promptly "busted the sod" to grow their crops. The big drought caused the dust bowl and here is a picture of the dust just above town. The dust blew clear across the country and as far out into the Atlantic as 500 miles.

The towns other claim to fame is the hanging of Black Jack Ketchum, a train robber in the area. He was caught and hung but he had gained weight while in jail and when he was hung he also was beheaded.

I guess this is another good reason I am on Weight Watchers. BTW I have lost 35#.

The most interesting item was this table brought here from Italy. It's inlaid and the top removes to reveal a gaming table.
The lowest level is roulette.

On Sunday we went geocacheing here in the park. Found 3 of the 4. One was thru a beautiful area with cottonwoods and these pretty cliffs.
Bob had to go alone to this one as it was high up on a cliff. We continued to have circle at our place.
Don't we have a pretty view.

On Monday we went to Amarillo (130 miles one way) to retrieve Brad's driver's license that was left behind at the Big Texan when Janet took him out for his birthday the day they took Chuck to the airport. None of us opted to eat the free 72oz steak but 60,000 people have tried to eat it in an hour. Only 6500 have succeeded the youngest was 11 and the oldest was 84.

The manager gave us 25% off the meal and a free dessert each. The dessert's are meals in themselves and run around $8 each. This is what Bob and I had. We had our picture taken in this chair to show how little we are even if we ate that big dessert.

We then did a Walmart run before returning home.

Clayton Lake

After Bob got his Reiki treatment we spent Tuesday morning at Tucumcari with the group and seeing the Dinosaur Museum.
A floral fossil. Donna in a footprint.

A sea creature.
10 of us went to lunch on Route 66 then we said our goodbyes, did a little grocery shopping and went back to the campground and left for Clayton Lake. It was a very boring drive thru the plains. As Bob says you get to see a lot of nothing a lot further. Flat doesn't describe it. We arrived at Clayton Lake and found Brad waiting at the top of the hill. He called Janet on the walkie talkie and she came up and drove us around the campgrounds to find a spot for our now longer rig. The ranger station was closed so we weren't able to ask where we should park but what sites were available were too small, too unlevel or just inaccessible. We ended up parking on a point of land near the boat ramp. There is a sign nearby that says day use only but we parked there anyway. Janet, Brad and Chuck sat out in the shade with us and we had a beautiful sunset.

The next morning Bob talked with the ranger and he said where we are parked is just fine and we can stay here thru the holiday. Yippee. We still have the wind and we are making lots of electricity. The storm clouds rolled in and we had to put the slide in and the internet dish down. It cleared off enough for us to have circle but then kicked up again. We don't have cell service so we use Skype internet phone to contact family and friends.

Thursday Janet had to take her friend Chuck back to Amarillo for his flight back to Las Vegas. Brad went with her for a Wal-mart run. I walked to the dinosaur track in the morning
past lots of thistles
and took a picture of our campsite.

We went to town and did laundry in the afternoon, had lunch at Mary's Back Porch. Mary and Tim visited with us. They are Lindsey's parents, one of the kids we had as neighbors at Ute Lake. Back home June had arrived and Janet moved over near us. Brad will move back here tomorrow. We had circle again at our campsite.
Sunset looking west
and sunset looking east. We are allowed campfires here so Bob lit one. About 45 minutes later the wind kicked up big time and we had to run for cover. One of the chairs fell on the campfire in a can and now we have a permanent reminder of this event.

Since we are here for 3 weeks I will post more often.

More Ute Lake

When will the wind ever quit. We are making lots of energy with the wind generator but can't kayak. Bob got them ready to go this morning and the wind kicked in. Our group went into the Annex Restaurant a couple of times.

We have 2 young couples Aaron, Shelby, Lindsey and Richard for neighbors. They are tenting next door and we visited with them and played washers in the shelter of trees. Still having circle at four on the leeward side of Trish's motorhome. It was so windy this morning that Bob opened the trailer and the kids sheltered inside and played pegs and jokers.

Wednesday we geocached. The kids tried out our kayaks and now want to buy some. In the evening we were invited for hamburgers and to meet Lindsey's family. We will be seeing them at Clayton Lake, our next state park.

Thursday the wind quit and we finally got out for some long over due kayaking. We also tried our hand at fishing. I caught a little fish about 5-6 inches long. Don't know what kind but he was cute. (found out later it was a walleye). Since I was trolling in my kayak I had to take the hook out by myself. That was a first since I was a kid. We also went geocaching with Brad, Janet, Trish and Neil. Had to be mountain goats at times but it was worth it for the waterfall. In the evening we played Pegs and Joker's with the 4 kids next door.

We got our mail yesterday and Bob had gotten a letter from the IRS needing more info. Since he couldn't figure out what they were asking for and after tearing his hair out he headed to town to find a tax person. Meanwhile I am reviewing the itinerary for my 2004 Lewis & Clark Trail trip for a friend who is planning on doing a caravan for the Win's next year. We said our goodbyes to the kids next door. We sure wished they had stayed the weekend because our new neighbors who are infringing on our space with a toyhauler, 3 vehicles, a boat and at least 6 kids and 4 adults are a little more imposing. We went to town after circle for hamburger's and a meat draw at the Am. Legion.

Another great day lakeside. Went floating on air mattress with Brad and Janet and got sunburned. Went to the Am. Legion for a shrimp boil and pigged out. Then on to a concert at the ballfield. An amazing 12 year old with a voice to knock your soxs off and a rock and roll band from Clovis. We danced. The headliner was Steven Cochran but we never saw him as a dust storm blew us back home and to the showers. Had to bring in the slide in the middle of the night.

More wind. Brought the slides in and the internet dish down 2-3 times Sunday. Luckily we just push buttons. The storm.
The rainbow at the end of the storm.

Monday I got a reiki, polarity and cranial treatment from a gal in our group. So relaxing. With the wind she had set up shop so to speak in our garage. In the evening a few of us went into the Am. Legion for some dancing.

Tuesday morning Bob got his reiki treatment.
The group went into Tucumcari for the Dinosaur Museum, seeing the murals, lunch and a little grocery shopping. We will be moving on this afternoon to Clayton Lake. We need to go get water and dump. Can't believe we went 3 weeks on this fillup. We took showers at the park's shower house to conserve water.

Palo Duro Canyon

We went to Texas for the weekend. Left our motorhome behind at Ute Lake and tented in Palo Duro state park below Amarillo. The canyon is second in size to the Grand Canyon.
It was very pretty, very buggy and very hot (95-105) but we still had a good time. Janet and Brad shared out campsite .

The first night we went to see "Texas". It is a musical in it's 40 something year. We were there for opening night of this season. It is preformed in an outdoor amphitheater with the canyon walls as the backdrop. It opens with a horseman on the ridge way on top carrying the Texas flag. The actors, dancers etc preform on a huge stage at the foot of the audience and the side cliff's open up to other parts of the set.

Between the stage and the real canyon walls are trees, bushes and horseman, stage coaches etc go thru that area as part of the drama. The story is about the settling of the Panhandle. Awesome lighting was displayed on the canyon walls.

The most awesome part was when a thunder storm was staged with thunder and lightening against the canyon walls and a REAL thunderstorm was happening over the canyon. Hard to tell what was real and what was staged at times.

The show ended with a fireworks display.

The second day we tried to find a geocache but it was just too hot to walk the couple of miles on the lighthouse trail. We went into the town of Canyon and got a few things at Walmart we had forgotten to bring for camping then toured the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum. Wow. There was even a replica of a full size oil well. It took us over 2 hours and we were both too tired to continue. We stopped for early dinner at The Buffalo Cafe and with our ticket stubs from the show we each got a free dessert. Broke Weight Watcher's but it was good. The afternoon was spent just sitting and visiting in the shade and light breeze and that evening we went on a ranger lead hike under the full moon.
Every morning we heard wild turkey's gobbling but our last morning they were right in our campsite.
As we were leaving we stopped to see this replica of the dugout that Charles Goodnight lived in when he settled in the canyon.
As we skirted Amarillo we saw the famous Cadillacs embedded in the ground along side the interstate.

We returned to Ute Lake early Sunday morning to find our motorhome's slides all closed up. Our friends decided with 60 mph gusts and hail our rig was better off closed up. Several of the awnings were damaged on the others rigs. Great to have friends who look after us. It is still very windy but it's great to be home. We both took naps as sleeping on the ground on thin sleeping pads in the heat isn't the most restful. To top off the weekend we had a fantastic sunset.

Ute Lake State Park

We arrived during circle and as we drove past the group they all waved. We found a place large enough to park our now BIG rig. It is on a small point of land that is surrounded by water on 3 sides.
The group is parked in this area.

What a view. That's our mh first on the right with the big white garage behind. We have bullfrogs that croak 24 hours but so far that isn't too annoying.

We all went to town on Wednesday for lunch and then stopped at the American Legion for some dancing. It was a cool cloudy day in the morning so this was a good idea. Got back to the campground in time for circle. Janet is in a different area of the park and kayaked over for circle. On her way back she went thru our cove and was fishing. We heard her whoop when she caught a striper for dinner.

Thursday four car loads of us went on a Mesa drive. Stopped at a windmill farm briefly. Most of the scenery wasn't and we were glad to get back to Tucumcari. The group splits on fast food road. We tried out the new Long John Silver's Grilled fish dinners. Delicious. Then we opted to go check out Conchas state park that is to follow this one. Along the way we saw this rainbow type thing in the clouds. The water is super low and the campground left lots to be desired so we will probably skip that one.

Back home we have a new neighbor. Some fellows from Amarillo were driving by and stopped and we all chatted for several hours. They are here for a fishing tournament and have a cottage nearby. We have been invited for steak and fish on Sunday afternoon.