Is this normal??

It is 9 PM in the Keys and it is 72 degrees!  Here we are in Alamogordo in south NM and wind blowing like hell and the warmest it was today was at sunrise at 63 degrees.

So, we say, lets move, that is why we are in an RV.  We are heading west to AZ for the winter, so we check weather in Tucson, it is colder for the next 4 days there then here!  Well, OK we say Phoenix is warmer, because it is lower.  We have been above 4000 ft, substantially higher much of the time, so have figured that was reason it has been so cool COLD!  Phoenix is barely 1000 ft so we figured it would be warmer - NOT! 

A - Ice fishing hut in southern NM!

B - snapper catching in Mangrove Creek

So we are trying to deceide which of these two places do we belong??
A or B??




The is is the first time in many years we have not spent part of the Winter in the Keys and it may very well be the last time we are not there!!  Alaska is looking less desirable this summer as they probably think this is good weather up there!!


Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Antelope Island State Park

Antelope Island and its reflexion!

We really enjoyed our stay in September in Ogden UT, immediately north of Salt Lake City on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.  Off shore in the Lake is a wonderful island that is a State Park that warrants a visit, if not a trip to see it!
The park is Antelope Island State Park and it is vast wonderland of interesting terrain and animals.  Dominating the island is a mountain that raises 2200 feet above the lake.

BJ on the beach!

It has a large public beach with beach shelters, a grill for lunch and beautiful vistas!

At the south end of the island is a compound with the buildings, both residential and shops, of the former cattle ranch that covered about half the island until early in the last century.  It was originally started by the Mormon church and was operated by the church for many years, but late in the 19th century they sold it to a private ranch that was also on the island and that combined operation carried on for about 40 years before it was finally to the State who owned the rest of the island by then.


In the mid-50's the State completed a 7 mile causeway from the mainland out to the island and started really developing the land then as a State Park.

The causeway out to Antelope Island with marina on left!

There is a marina at the island end of the causeway that is crowded with boats in the summer time.  It was nearly empty when we were there in late September.  On the north end of the island near the public beach is well done visitor center that explains the ecology of the island and its history and helps you understand the environment you are visiting.

There is a herd of 700 free roaming buffaloes on the island.   Only a cattle guard at the end of the causeway keep them from visiting the mainland!  Also, about 300 antelope are permanent residents along with untold number of mule deer and also some mountain sheep that live higher on the mountain.

There are several hiking trails, including one that goes to the peak of the mountain.  We opted not to do it because it was getting late in the day.  But, we did do a shorter one at the base of the mountain.

Part way up the mountain.  Mainland in background.

Another thing I liked about the park was the causeway.  It was wide and level and gave me a perfect place to go carving on the Trikke.  I took one day and went out and carved all the way out to the island and then back to the mainland.  BJ enjoyed some lone time while I did that.   It was nice since we have not been around any level ground for carving in quite awhile. 

Buffalo day on the beach!

 

A namesake of the island!

Carving on the causeway!

Sunflowers on Antelope Island

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

A Blown Out Day

We are at Holloman AFB near Alamogordo in SW New Mexico.   Lots of beach sand but the water is missing.  Yesterday we spent the day doing chores, I worked on a few projects outside and BJ spent the whole day cleaning and scrubbing the inside.  Took down the front curtains and carried them to the dry cleaners.  Today we were looking forward to enjoying the area, maybe a trip to White Sands National Monument (more  beach) or Cloudcroft, a mountain retreat in the nearby Sacramento mountains. Also, there is an Air & Space Museum in Alamogordo we want to visit.  The morning was bright and sunny so I got out Trikke and was headed out to a cook on-base bike path when I noted it was windy and when I turned a corner so I was heading into the wind it was like a brick wall!  So I turned around and went back to the RV.

The wind only got worse as the day wore on - you could see the sand blowing.  The beach on the move!  Of course sand comes through the door, the windows and layers around.  Worse it was getting colder and colder.  High for next two days is in the high 50's - low 60's range rather then the mid-70's to low 80's we have been experiencing.  Hopefully those will be back by weekend! 

If not we will be moving on into winter quarters in AZ soon!!

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Valley of Fires - WOW!

The black mass in the valley floor below!

We left ABQ about mid-AM and headed south toward Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM.  About 90 miles down I-25 we turned east on US 380 and tooling along talking about how long we would stay at Holloman AFB and what we would do.  As we were descending a grade into Tularosa Valley we noted this large black mass in the valley floor.  It was miles wide and extended out of sight to the north and south. 

The 44 mile long black mass from above!

We were fascinated by this obvious mass and tried to figure out what it was.  I even said it was a lava flow, but was only joking. 

Here is a “big picture” of what we were looking at courtesy of Google Earth.  That black scar down the center of the picture was what we were looking at and we were heading east toward where that small icon “A” is. 

At the bottom of the grade we finally got to the black mass and it was a lava flow, not active thank heavens!   Surprisingly plants were abundant and seemingly growing right out of the black lava.  The road went right through the lava field and near the other side we saw a campground on an “island of land” in the lava field.  It was a BLM recreation area.  We went on by and shortly came to Carrizozo, a nearby city where we stopped for lunch.  Over a great Mexican meal we decided to put our trip to Holloman on hold and return to the campground in the lava flow!    

We learned this was a relatively young lava flow, geologically speaking.  It erupted from vents in the valley floor about 4,000 years ago.  It is as wide as 3+ miles in some places and covers over 125 square miles of the valley that has White Sands National Monument at the opposite end of the 200 mile long valley.  The flow is as deep as 160 ft in some places.   At several locations there are peaks in the valley floor that were not overcome by the lava and became islands in the flow.   The campground was on one of these islands which was about .7 miles long and .5 miles wide.  A close up of the campground/island from Google Earth is shown here.   The while line to the left of the island is a interruptive boardwalk through the lava field.

The campground "island" in the lava field

We walked the boardwalk a number of times and each time it was something new.  The light on the coal black lava was always changing.  It seemed like it was a frozen sea with waves up to 20 ft high and small ripples frozen in time.  As the flow cooled from the outside strange things happened.  Air pockets formed in the still molten inner core, sometimes they were very small and other places they were the size of a room.  Eventually, a lot of these caved in as the flow weathered.  They then became areas that provided protection for the animals that were learning to live on the flow or plants that were starting to populate it.  Some animal species adopted their coloring to make them less noticeable in the black lava flow.  The same species living 100 miles south in the White Sands area have a lighter color to make them less noticeable in their environment. 

This was an interesting place and we enjoyed our two unexpected days there and we plan on coming back to visit again.  In fact they have 3 campground host couples there and this will be one place we will certainly consider being volunteer hosts at!  

Notice the water like ripples in the lava surface

       

A 400 year old Juniper growing in the lava field

The lava flow at the edge of the park!

Looking down on the lava field from the high point in campground

A cave formed during the cooling process of the lava.

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Rockin' & Rollin' in New Mexico

It is Wednesday PM and weather is changing from the bright, warm sunny days to a colder version.  We are leaving Friday if we survive tonight.  Wind is blowing like a hurricane to bring in the cold front.  This is the same weather system that dropped  12 inches of snow around Denver.  We expect the mountains around ABQ will be white in the AM, but we just hope we will still be right side up!  I am about to get sea sick we are rocking so much.  Haven't rocked this much since I was on a dive boat in the Keys with 6 ft waves!!

The steel forest on Sandia Peak, east of ABQ

We have enjoyed our stay here.  I especially like coming back to Kirtland AFB as this is where the Gospel according to St Nuke was written and while I was in the USAF came here a number of times to see the Word!!

We have seen a different Fall Color show here.  Many of the trees are evergreens, but the others turn a brilliant gold hue.  Most of the trees that are not on the mountains are along the river and streams.  You get a little elevation and you can spot the streams and rivers because they are swaths of green (with gold in the autumn) amid the brown of the plains!

Fall colors in NM!

 If the wheels are still on the ground after this weather passes we are heading south toward El Paso for a week or so.  Will probably stop at Las Cruces and/or Alamogordo for a few days and then at the FamCamp at Fort Bliss, an Army base near El Paso.  When we are through there we will move on west to Tucson, AZ and then north a ways to Sedona where we will spend T-day week with some AF friends that live there. 

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Beyond Yellowstone

It was getting cold and wet at Yellowstone and we had been hitting the tourist circuit pretty heavy for most of a week and we felt it was time to move on.  So much more to see and do at Yellowstone, but couldn't do it all in one visit even if we stayed another week or so!

So we checked the weather and headed south toward Salt Lake City.  Road was good and we passed thru Idaho Falls and caught I-15 SB toward Salt Lake City. BJ took over a good part of the driving that day and I enjoyed the sights (or rather the inside of my tired eyelids) most of the way.   At the UT state line we stopped as usual at the welcome center to collect info.  About 35 miles later we arrived at Hill AFB in Ogden UT just north of Salt Lake City.  The base had a nice FamCamp and had FHU on the end of the row.

Weather was bright, sunny and warm and stayed that way for the entire duration of the visit.  For a day or two we just relaxed and caught up on administrative duties.  We reformatted BJ's laptop back to original condition trying to eliminate a pesky blue screen of death that has been a persistent problem.  I started and restarted the blog entry for Yellowstone and was really frustrated with my inability to describe such a wondrous place.  I spent better part of one day replacing the vacuum breaker value on the commode.  I will not bore you with the gruesome details of that day!!

We found Ogden to be a large and prosperous town that was neat and clean and well organized.  Hill AFB was a large depot level base charged with doing depot level maintenance on several weapon systems for the US Air Force.  The Minuteman ICBM, the C-130, and the F-16 most notably.  It also is the single point manager for conventional munitions in the Air Force and because of that I was TDY there several times over my career in the USAF.  But, I don't remember much about the area, I came in, I did my work, and then left!  Wow, did I miss a neat place to be.

We spent one afternoon at a Harvest Festival in downtown Ogdon.  Lots of family activity with kids in abundance.  

Simulated snow, aka suds!

A fun bus at Harvest Fest!

The fun school bus!!

Also, there was a program where businesses sponsored life size horse statutes as a fundraiser.

Ogden and the base are sandwiched between the mountains to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west.  From the lake shore the terrain gradually slopes to the base of the mountains, about 10 miles away.  In the Great Salt Lake west of Ogden there is Antelope Island State Park. 

Ogden and the bedroom communities around it fill the space.  Salt Lake City is about 25 miles south and we had planned to visit there, but stayed busy in Ogden and only saw Salt Lake City from the interstate when we left headed further south. 

On the mountain on Antelope Island St Park

Namesake of Antelope Island

More on Antelope Island State Park in the next post!  It is a beautiful, very large, island in the northern end of Great Salt Lake!


Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Our Bucket List is Done

For this year and now we are on vacation!!

Yea, I know I am 6 weeks behind on the blog.  There is only Antelope Island, UT; Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, North Rim of Grand Canyon and that is only the main stops.  There were so many other places we found along the way that were so unique and interesting. 

We are in NM at a beautiful and remote Army Corp of Engineer park between Albuquerque and Sana Fe, New Mexico.  We will move on to the Famcamp at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque in a few days and be there for a week or so.  Then we will move south in NM with a stop at Holloman AFB Famcamp in Alamogordo, NM.  After that we will move west to AZ where we will be through Dec and most of Jan.

In the meantime, I will get to work on my backlog of blog entries!!  Below is a few shots of our short stay at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

Always at home, no matter where we are!!