Santa Fe

We are in a commercial campground (Santa Fe Sky's Campground). We have stayed here a bunch of times. We were assigned a spot and when we plugged into the electric post our surge protector wouldn't let us get power. There was a ground fault. The maintenance guy came out and he swore we had a faulty surge protector. This is weird but we actually have 2 surge protectors, one of them is built in. That surge protector wouldn't let us get power either. We moved to another site. Problem solved. The archeological site we visited yesterday was the place where, in the 1930s,  some unique spear points where discovered beside animal skeletons. That spear point is called a Clovis Point. That discovery proved that humans were here, in N America 13000 years ago. At the time that discovery was very surprising. That timeline has since been moved back further. The pic is the site of a dig that has exposed hundreds of bones of mostly extinct animals. We are here all day tomorrow.

Oasis SP day 2

This park is only 600 acres so the trail system is fairly insignificant. Jenny and I hiked every  trail this morning. There has apparently been some rain in the preceeding weeks because there was a wide variety of flowering plants beside the trail. This afternoon we visited, Blackwater Draw Archeological Site. I'll talk about that in a future post. We are headed for Santa Fe tomorrow. 

Oasis State Park NM

This park is in eastern NM. The town is Portales and we are not too far from Clovis. There is a small lake in the park that at one time was filled by a seep. The water table has been lowered by ag irrigation so the seep is no longer there. Consequently, the park keeps the lake full by pumping well water into it. A sad development. One funny thing happened this morning. We drove up to the dump station and got in line. The 2 people ahead of us were ready to leave and our arrival prompted them to drive off. As they left the dump station a guy ran out of the men's room and started yelling and waving his arms as he ran after them. He disappeared around the corner. He soon came back feeling dejected and asked to use my phone. His ride eventually returned but Jenny and I had a good laugh. We are here all day tomorrow. There are a few trails to hike but afternoon temps have been gross.

Foss Lake day 2

Will the excitement ever end?. At 4:20 this morning the power went out in the campground. We knew this because the AC abruptly stopped. After I concluded that  everyone had lost power we said "oh well" and went back to sleep. It was reasonably cool outside and we were ok inside. At 6:10 the power abruptly came back on. The AC started back up and a bunch of our electronic stuff started beeping. We ended up sleeping in, this morning. The same thing happened this afternoon. The only difference being it was 98°. We ran the generator during the outage which has now ended. Our adventure today was a trip into Clinton Ok (17 miles) where we had lunch and visited the Route 66 Museum. It was surprisingly interesting. The lake pic was taken beside the MP door as I am doing this post. We have water front. Tomorrow we drive across the Panhandle of Texas and end up in New Mexico.

Foss Lake SP Ok.

We woke up this morning with our phones yelling at us to seek shelter immediately. This is Oklahoma so that's really not something you want to hear. We looked out the window and there was a wall of black headed in our direction. I was able to put away the Little satellite dish just before it started blowing and raining. There were 45 minutes of excitement and the storm delayed our departure for about 30 minutes but it passed, kinda like a gall stone. After we got on I-40 there was a Semi that had blown over and was reaking havoc on the East bound side. Foss lake is near the town of Foss. Weird. Anyway it backs up behind an earthen dam that in 1962 was the longest in the country. 3 miles. I am including a couple of pictures of the dam for some reason. The picture taken across the lake shows only maybe a mile of it. We drove across it just so that we could say we did. The highest temp we saw today was 104°. It has been real windy so I think this is what it feels like to be in a convection oven. We are here all day tomorrow, not sure what we'll do. They do have a 9 hole disc golf course. 

Little Turtle RV & Storage Eufaula OK

I was also curious about Little Turtle. Turns out years ago when the current owner bought the property with the intent of making it into a RV Park he let his young daughter name it. There is a definite Turtle vibe throughout the park. I try to book a commercial place every once in a while so that we can do laundry. We did stop at a tire shop at a town not far from here and the mechanic didn't think the tire was fixable. There was wire exposed on the interior of the tire. I went ahead and bought a new tire that we will use as a spare. It's the correct size but it's made by a different manufacturer and I'm not super confident in it's quality but it should work as a spare. These pics Jenny took yesterday.

Mt Magazine day 2

I took the last one of those Black Box antibiotics I had to take this morning. Hopefully they did what they were supposed to do. I got out on my bike for a short ride on a loop (paved) road just to see if I remembered how to ride. Jenny and I did some touristy sightseeing  from the car and ended up at the Lodge. I guess it isn't too weird for Arkansas, but this park is in a dry county and we had to join their "private club" in order to buy an adult beverage yesterday. I thought dry counties weren't a thing anymore. I did get a membership card that I will cherish forever. Oklahoma tomorrow. We found a tire store enroute to our destination

so we will try to have that bad tire patched.

Mount Magazine SP Arkansas

Mount Magazine is the highest point in Arkansas. (2753 feet) The park is right on top of the mountain which makes it alittle cooler. There is a fabulous lodge with expansive views where we ate dinner. The campground is tiny with only 18 sites. We might do a short hike or 2 tomorrow. Jenny is keeping me on a pretty short leash even though I'm feeling alittle better. We're here tomorrow and then it's Oklahoma. 

Chicksaw day 2

First, the flat tire. We called Coachnet and they found someone willing to come out here. The mechanic was a girl. She finished with the tire change at 10 o'clock last night and had a 60 mile drive home. The old tire has a slit in it on the tread. Not sure if that can be repaired. On another note: I developed a pain in my left calf a couple of days ago and knowing that the antibiotics I'm on could cause tendinitis I called our Dr in Beaufort to ask his advice. He was worried that I might have a blood clot. Shit! It was off to the emergency room for an

ultrasound. Everything was (normal) so it probably is the antibiotics. I only have 2 more days of that. We are in Arkansas tomorrow. 

Chickasaw SP Tennessee

That's called a semi-sandwich. We are here for 2 nights. The bad news is one of the dually tires is flat. We didn't notice it until we pulled into the camp. No telling how long it was flat. We will obviously need some help with that. God,this is fun. 

Newport Tennessee

Today is the first day (4 days delayed) of our summer trip. We are trying to catch up to our schedule. To do that we are having to put in extra miles for the first 2 days. There was some frustration with the construction delays but we pulled in here at 5. This is a KOA near the eastern end of Tennessee. Tomorrow we will drive most of the the length of the state and camp in a state park that is on our original schedule. This pic is a rest area on I 26. Super interesting, I know. 

Paula Ernst comes for a visit

Paula is a friend Jenny has has since 9th grade. Her last name, Ernst and Jenny's name, Everett, put them in the same home room. I didn't meet her until I met Jenny. She spent a few days here and then they spent a few days in Savanah.