We Be Tourists! Southeast New Mexico

New Mexico is not an unknown to us.  We grew up (our first 30 years) in the panhandle of Texas, just a short four or five hour drive to Angle Fire or Taos.  We could leave home at 4:00 am and be standing at the ski lift by the time they opened.  In the summer Wheeler Peak was our favorite backpacking destination.  Park at the trail head at 9,000 ft, hike the seven miles to base camp at 11,500 ft, barf for a couple hours until the altitude sickness let up, and then do the peak the next day, topping out at 13,160 ft.

But that is all northern New Mexico.  We've squeaked out a couple of quick trips to Santa Fe and Ruidoso but didn't really get to explore outside of those towns.  Now, thirty more years later, we are back in the "neighborhood" and we are going to take advantage of it and explore a little.

This set of four days off, with cooperative weather, will give us the opportunity to explore a national park, White Sands, another NWR, Bosque del Apache and, in my opinion a national treasure, the VLA (Very Large Array).  We'll day trip to these places, probably using just two or three of our four days off.

First stop, White Sands National Monument.  It takes a about two-and-a-half hours to get there from our Roswell, NM location.  The drive is mostly on rough, narrow two-lane roads, winding through valleys and climbing small passes.  The scenery varies from desert to barren mountains, all of it gorgeous.

A few miles outside of Alamogordo, NM is White Sands NM.

These guys really really know how to do pueblo.

While the  visitor center and museum were pretty cool, we were here to be in the dunes.  So it was back in the truck and head into the dunes via the scenic drive managed by the National Park folks.  Going through this entrance gate was also the occasion for us to use our senior pass for the first time.

Yep, John reached the qualifying age for a lifetime senior pass card at the end of last year and we are finally getting to use it for a free entrance.  It's not the very first use though, on the way to New Mexico we stayed at a Corps of Engineers campground and the card got us half off of the camping fee.

We stopped a short way in and took a look back at where we came from.  The mountains in the distance is the Capitan range.  The only mountain range in the U.S. that runs East/West.  We were alongside this range for a portion of the drive between Roswell and Alamogordo.

We've been around sand dunes before but nothing this vast and nothing this white!  We had on dark, wrap-around sunglasses and were still getting "snow-blind".  It gave the camera fits too.  If the color was right the sand appeared featureless, but if you adjust to see features the sand starts to look blue.

The place is so big that there can be a lot of people without it feeling crowded.  There are picnic shelters set up in numerous places as well as back country camping.  We caught these folks doing a favorite activity when visiting the dunes, sand surfing.

I was hopeful that we would see some wildlife while in White Sands but I knew it would be a long shot.  To begin with they are predominantly very shy of human activity and then most are nocturnal.  Chances were remote we would see anything but we kept looking anyway.

Because this was a day trip there was not a lot of time to devote to any one activity.  We passed through Ruidoso at 11:00 am and stopped for an early lunch.  After all it was a Dicky's Bar B Que Pit, it's real hard to pass one of them up when they come along.  Then a few hours at White Sands and it was time to move on to the next thing, the missile museum in Alamogordo.

The Missile Museum sits high on the side of hill on the edge of Alamogordo.

Looking out over Alamogordo from the missile museum.

 We were a bit dubious at first.  We wondered aloud how anyone could make a museum about missiles be interesting.  But we were pleasantly surprised with just how fun and interesting it was.

There is an outdoor static display that you can walk up to these historic pieces and touch them.

The museum building was very tall, we presumed for displaying missiles in upright positions.  But it was not that way at all.  We arrived within an hour of closing time on a Sunday afternoon and pretty much had the place to ourselves.  The lady selling admission tickets said we would have just enough time to see the exhibits if we didn't linger too long.  The design of the museum was clever.  You took an elevator (which the inside was decorated to look like the command area of the space shuttle) to the top.  From there you were guided through the history of missiles and rocketry by following ramps down through the building.  It is very similar to the way the Tennessee Aquarium works in Chattanooga.

They locked the doors behind us as we left and we moved on to find something to eat before getting back on the road to Roswell.  On rare occasions I have posted pictures of food on this blog, usually when we were especially impressed or if something was unique.  On this day Cyndee had done an internet search for someplace with authentic New Mexican Mexican food.  Growing up where we did in Texas we are accustomed to what is commonly called Tex-Mex.  Tex-Mex is typically spicier and meatier than other styles of Mexican food.  We wanted to give the local fare a try and Cyndee's search turned up a place that got good reviews on Yelp.  We know that places can falsely pump up their ratings but generally speaking we have had good luck with the ratings.

John ordered the combo plate so that he could sample a little bit of everything they had to offer.  There were enchiladas, empaynadas and chili rellenos plus the sides of beans, rice and salad. 

The quantity of food was impressive but then the first bite changed any positive impression that may have been developing.  The grease was god-awful, and this coming from a boy raised in West Texas that didn't know food came any other way than fried until he was 20 years old!  And it wasn't just that the food was greasy, it was really old, burned grease.  It would be three days before John could get the coating of grease out of his mouth and another three days before he did not smell it with every breath he took.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  We'll continue our quest local Mexican food.

We'll get home well after dark on this night.  We will have to use the key code we were given to get the gate to the refuge open.  I hope we wrote it down correctly.

Tomorrow we will strike out again to see another wildlife refuge and a space science intense facility literally in the middle of nowhere.

The Office - Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge

We are getting settled in to our new volunteer assignment at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  Life in a wildlife refuge is different than our previous positions in national and state parks.  In the latter, the departments we worked for, their primary (or so it seemed) mission was to serve the people, at this wildlife refuge people are not first on the list.

But that is by design, it is a wildlife refuge, not a public park or zoo.  This refuge has just shy of 25,000 acres in its borders, only about 3,000 of it is accessible to the public.  The rest is fragile habitat and wildlife that is limited to human exposure.

However, that does not mean that Bitter Lake NWR is unfriendly to the public, just the opposite.  This facility has a really nice and relatively new (2011) Visitor Center and Headquarters building that was designed with the public very much in mind.  And this is where we work out of each day we are on duty.

The entrance to the visitor center from the parking lot does not hint at how great the rest of the visitor's experience will be.  There is a hint of the adobe/pueblo style that is typical for New Mexico but the other side leaves you thinking Frank Lloyd Wright.

Also not obvious from the front entrance is that the whole facility is set high on a bluff overlooking the marshes below.  

The rear of the building has a soaring arched awning that spans an inviting outdoor observation deck that comes complete with picnic tables.

There is an indoor observation deck too, and it comes with comfortable rocking chairs.  A pair of binoculars and your favorite drink and you'll be set for some serious bird watching.

The center of the Visitor Center is occupied by a nature exhibit.  I don't know who built the displays but they did a bang up job.  The dioramas are among the best quality of all the places we have been.

The above photos were taken from the back of the facility looking towards the front.  Early morning light coming in these east-facing windows made for a tough exposure.  But this same light is exactly what was needed for this next photo.  The large arch not only provides a dramatic awning for the outdoor observation deck but it also encompasses large panes of glass with murals of native flora and fauna.

And what visitor center would not be complete without a gift shop?  This is also our "base of operations".  When not doing daily routine chores such as watering the plant exhibit islands around the building, tending to the live fish exhibit, running the video for visitors or rounding up all the dust that blew in the day before, we greet visitors and run the gift shop cash register.

Not all assignments are routine though.  We have done some tree planting, updated and "refreshed" bulletin boards throughout the park, delivered dragon fly art contest entry forms to elementary schools all over the county and created fact sheets about the refuge's resident animals.  John is currently working on drawing (via computer) fire extinguisher maps for all the buildings and fire escape routes for same.

We are working Thursday, Friday and Saturday for now.  May first we will rotate with our co-volunteers and work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Getting Familiar with Our New Surroundings

For the next three months this will be our "office".  It is the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.  The entrance is a pueblo-ish style and a bit plain-looking.  But the inside and the back, facing the marsh, is outstanding!  Pictures to come later.

We've had our training and got our work schedule.  We'll be on duty three days a week, 8 to 4.  Our first month our days are Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  We'll rotate in May and do Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Some of the local residents have come by to check us out. 

This Roadrunner was too busy hunting to be bothered with meeting the new volunteers.

A not so common Swainson's Hawk gave us the once-over.

There was also a volunteer event scheduled in our first few days.  The refuge is improving the habitat in the area for monarch butterflies by planting milkweed (essential to monarch reproduction).  The refuge had obtained 110 milkweed plants and lots of seeds, all to be planted by local volunteers.  To entice volunteers to come out, the refuge would serve grilled hot dogs after everything was planted.  I was asked to photograph the event and be the grill master.

The butterfly trail had recently gotten a pond upgrade, the milkweed is going to be a nice touch.

In addition to milkweed, cottonwood trees were planted alongside an alkaline spring feed creek.
The guy on the left is our supervisor, in the middle is fellow
resident volunteer and on the right is one of the refuge biologists.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 6, The End

Today is the day we reach our goal.  We should arrive at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, about seven miles outside of Roswell, NM,  a little after lunch.  It has been a flawless trip so far.  We have slipped past the worst of the weather and have not had the slightest hint of a mechanical problem.  Until that is, this morning.

We did all the normal prep work for hitching up and were getting the truck lined up to hook up for the short trip to the dump station.  Eased back with the king pin slipping into the jaws of the hitch but instead of the familiar "clunk" of the jaws locking around the king pin, there was nothing.  Several more tries later and it was time to take a different approach.  The Binkley hitch head was taken off the towers and turned upside down to inspect the inner workings, which are really simple.  

The Binkley head shown with the jaws in their closed and locked position, which mine would not do.

This is the head mounted on the air spring towers in my hitch setup.

There was no obvious problem aside from a little dryness and very minor corrosion.  A bunch of WD-40 and bearing grease later the head was put back on the towers and given another try.  This time the desired clunk was achieved and a visual inspection showed the jaws to be fully wrapped around the king pin and locked.  A couple hours later than we planned, we were off.

Again, the road, Highway 380, was a dream.  Mostly very smooth with little traffic and long straight stretches.  Another very comfortable day of driving/towing and great scenery if you like the desert.  This region of Texas and New Mexico is where the Chihuahua Desert transitions to the short grass prairie.  There is a strong mix of cacti and yucca against prairie grasses and irrigated farms with mountains in the distant west.

 I couldn't get a map image to display directly in this blog so I have included this link.  It will open in a separate window and is interactive.  You can explore the the area.   Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge Map 

We knew that once we got to Roswell we would have to make a right turn and go north a few miles to get to the road that would take us to the refuge.  But we were surprised that our turn was onto Main Street.  Here we are, sixty feet long, thirteen and a half feet tall and wide as an eighteen-wheeler getting routed down a narrow-lane, busy, downtown street.  But it was only seconds before it was obvious that this was normal.  There were RV's everywhere of all shapes and sizes coming and going on this road.  We fit right in.

Bustling downtown Roswell, Main Street.
Check out the street light globe.

After a slow crawl up Main Street we reached the northern most stop light and turned east onto Pine Lodge Road.  This road is about five miles of rough, uneven asphalt with a not-so-well defined edge.  Nowhere near as bad as I-20 through Shreveport but bad enough to mention.  Crossing into the refuge was a marked improvement in road conditions and we glided into the residence section a couple hours before 4:00 pm quitting time.

We have arrived for our Spring volunteer gig.

The refuge has four RV pads for volunteers.  At the time of our arrival two of them were occupied by the pair of outgoing volunteers.  Both of these volunteers were on what would be called less than conventional RV pads as one of them was blocked in on three sides by buildings and the other was up against the outside wall of those same buildings. 

At first blush this doesn't appear to be a very attractive campsite.
But wind is a big deal here, this space would provide a little shelter.

The other two were concrete pads widely spaced and staggered, out in the open but they had one weird feature, the hook-ups were positioned in a way that would have RV's facing in opposite directions.  But on second thought this was a pretty good idea on the refuges part.  Both RV's entrance doors would be looking out onto a vast view.  Since both pads were empty we had our choice of which one we wanted.  Knowing that this was going to be a place with lots of wind I chose the pad that put my entrance door on the leeward side of the prevailing direction.

This gave us some protection from the brunt of the wind while getting in and out of the camper and view that looked to the east out over the marshes and distant bluffs.

Desert floor, alkaline marshes and red bluffs right out our window.

Not to worry about our co-volunteers.  While their door may face the wind, their view to the west is top-drawer.

Everything past the stack of pipe is beautiful

We are glad to be somewhere that we will be around for more than one night.  Our co-volunteers will arrive tomorrow and then we will all go through orientation/training together.  We know that we will be working three days a week.  We just don't know which three yet.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 5

Each day of this cross country trip has been warmer and dryer than the last.  Today follows that trend as we leave Weatherford, Texas and make our way to Brownfield, Texas.  Only today we have a breeze that is a little stiffer and it is a cross-wind.  We are going to say adios to our 10.5 mpg fuel economy.

Cross-wind aside, we have a short distance to cover on I-20 and then we get to move off to Texas State Highway 84, turning north going from Sweetwater to Post and then turn due west on Highway 380.  Best day yet.  These state highways are great, uncrowded, smooth, flat, and scenic (if you like the desert).  This was a relaxing day of driving even with fuel economy dropping to about 8.0 mpg.

Our goal for the day is Brownfield, TX.  Specifically, Coleman RV Park which is a city operated park.  Nothing fancy, a complete opposite from our last night's stay, both in amenities and price.  The place operates off of a donation box, just give what you think the stay was worth.  We dropped enough in to easily cover the electricity we used.  Which wasn't much considering we didn't need to run our air conditioner, just lights and refrigerator.  The connection was 30 amp with a power box that was scary to touch.  It looked rough but it worked well.  Water was okay but we can tell that the farther west we go the harder it gets.  It takes more soap and shampoo to get a lather going and when you get your hair rinsed it still feels gummy.  Spots form anywhere a drop of water comes to rest.  You have to wipe down everything thoroughly and immediately after turning off the shower or sink.

Coleman RV Park.
Just a dirt parking lot with water and 30 amp connections.  Perfect for over-nighting.

One picture can capture the whole RV park.

When we pulled into Coleman RV Park there were two rigs already there and a couple of car campers.  Before the sun went down we had several more neighbors.  From what we have read about this place this is pretty normal.  Word gets around about decent places for one night stopovers.  But it is still surprising to me that someplace so far off the beaten path is so utilized.

After getting set up we wandered into town and found a local Mexican food place for supper.  After our dose of Tex-Mex we got fuel for the truck and headed home for the night.  Tomorrow will be a dash for the finish line.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 4

Today's destination is more distant than anything we have done this week.  We will cross all of Louisiana and most of Texas before arriving at our campground for the night.

It's a sloppy, rainy start to our drive.  And warmer too.  In an earlier post I mentioned that we were heading out from our Georgia starting point at a time that might let us get through a gap in severe weather that was crossing the southeast.  So far so good, we have had rain but no thunderstorms, hail or tornadoes.  But it has been close, just last night, some of the communities we went through on our way to our current campground were hit with strong, damaging storms.  Some were hit directly by a tornado.

But weather is not our nemesis today, no, it's the road.  I-20 has turned into a real beast as we approach and pass through Shreveport, LA.  We spent nearly an hour at a speed of less than 50 mph, much of it at 35 mph and still were getting jarred so hard that I worried truck and trailer suspensions were being damaged.  As soon as we crossed into Texas we stopped at their visitor center for a break.  There was a host there that asked how we were doing and I asked that they pass along my request for Shreveport to fix their part of I-20.  The host replied that I would not believe how many people ask the same thing every day.

By noon we were approaching Tyler, Texas.  From a previous stay at Tyler State Park some years ago we knew that there was a Flying J truck stop and good bar-b-que joint coming up at an exit.  Since we are going to drive late into the afternoon we thought this would be a good time to take on fuel for the truck and us.  Right there at the end of the westbound exit ramp is somewhat of a large shack that is Bodacious Bar-B-Que.  The big dirt parking lot off to the side is populated with oil field trucks but we slipped right in between a tanker and a dump truck and called it good.  The hot link sandwich and pulled pork sandwich were worth the stop.

The trip across the overpass to the Flying J was less satisfying than Bodacious Bar-B-Que.  Trucks were lined up for fuel like nobody's business.  We watched the progress for awhile and it was clear that it would be at least a couple of hours before we would get to a pump, so we pulled out of line and got back on the road.  There will be another truck stop soon enough. 

Not too much farther down the road and we hit another Flying J that had lanes specifically built for RV's.  There was no waiting at this place and we soon had a enough fuel to get us to the end of the day.  It was also enough fuel to get us past the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.  What a zoo.

Just a little west of Fort Worth we ended our I-20 journey and nosed into our campground for the night in Weatherford, TX.  It took us a little over seven hours today and we are pulling into our one and only "resort" campground on this trip.  They have a lot of amenities at this campground -  swimming pool, gym, community room and a bunch of other stuff that we don't have time to take advantage of.  What they don't have is room between RV pads or wide enough roads or a way to get out the next morning without a complex set of manuevers to get to turns wide enough to get to the exit.  We really didn't feel like we got value for our money at this one.

 Oak Creek RV Park
It looks pretty good in a picture but the spaces are close together
and this road funnels down to a nightmare for big rigs.

There was no time for exploring Weatherford, we just got ourselves something to eat, watched a little news and hit the rack.  Tomorrow is not going to be long but it is going to be hot and the wind will not be in our favor.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 3

Another chilly morning and it couldn't be better for towing.  Although today it looks like we may have to navigate in some rain before we get to our next stop, Delhi, LA.  Another nice weather feature continuing today is that we will have a gentle wind at our back.  The fuel economy of Big Gulp has been around 10.5 mpg, that's pretty good for weighing in at 31,000 pounds and presenting 35 sq ft to the wind in the form of an end cap for the 5th wheel.

Today our entire day will be spent west bound on I-20 except for the quick on/off from and to the campgrounds.  For the most part I-20 is a good road, heavy with truck traffic as one would expect, that is until approaching large towns/cities, then it gets a little dodgy.  Meridian, Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi got a little uncomfortable.  Cracks, potholes and uneven segments really put the suspension through its paces.

Our goal for the day is Poverty Point Reservoir State Park just outside of the one-street berg of Delhi, LA.  Like yesterday we are arriving around 2:00 in the afternoon.  When we told our kids of our itinerary they gave us a sideways look when they heard the name of campground.  It took some convincing to get them to believe it was a nice place.

Poverty Point Reservoir Campground is relatively new.  Campsites are
roomy now but when all the trees they have planted mature,
they are going to be a real bear to get around with a big rig.

Ending our day in a beautiful park with broken storm clouds.

We had our hopes up that we would have access to some good Cajun or creole cooking but it was not to be.  The community of Delhi was extremely small and had little to offer in the way of dining choices.  We ended up in a small Mexican food place having taco salads.  We found the one fuel station, filled up and headed home for the night.  Tomorrow will necessitate a longer driving day, our normal 4 or 5 hour driving time will drop us short of where we need to be to get to our final destination on time.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 2

Day one of our journey to New Mexico finds us starting out under grey, cold skies.  Perfect!  Engine temps, transmission temps and tire temps will all be low.  Heat for those components becomes an issue on hot summer days.  It is not unusual to see exhaust gas return temps run steady at 900 deg and tires to level out at 130 deg with tranny temps hitting 195 deg, engine and tranny spiking under changes in load.  But there will be none of that today, we'll be lucky to break 50 deg air temp.

Our travel time is arranged as we typically do, we try to find a campground that is within a 4 to 5 hour distance.  That amount of time keeps us from having to rush to get out extra early in the morning and gets us into our campground for the night well before dark.  It is also how long I can tow our heavy trailer on one tank of fuel.  Getting to camp before needing to refuel lets us get unhitched and set up for the night with plenty of time to find a local fuel stop with the best price.  If we refuel with the trailer in tow it pretty much limits us to truck lanes at one of the truck stops, usually the highest priced fuel around.

Our departure route to Interstate 20 is not straight-forward.  The "big" road to take would be to get on I-75 S to I-285 W to I-20 W, but it is a Monday morning and Atlanta traffic will be a total snarl all day long.  But the country roads are no cake walk either.  We spent several hours the day before our departure successfully scouting a way out that would keep us on a road wide enough with no low hanging trees or high clearance railroad tracks.  It took a good while to make our way down to I-20 but it was a stress-free drive through some pretty scenery.

Once on I-20 it was just a matter of getting behind one of the thousands of trucks on the road with us and putting it on auto-pilot all the way to western Alabama.  We arrived at Jennings Ferry Campground around 2:00 in the afternoon. It is a Corps of Engineers operation so we were able to use our senior card and get half off the fee.

Jennings Ferry Campground.  A very nice place for a night or a week.

It's early spring, grass is just beginning to green up but the trees are dragging their feet.

The drive to town for fuel was ho-hum, it's a little wide spot in the road with one station with diesel and a Sonic Drive In.  The grilled chicken wrap was excellent.

Georgia to New Mexico - Part 1

It has been a good while since we have hooked up and moved our cabin on wheels.  We landed in the North Georgia area in September of 2016 to help our kids move to a new house, took on a volunteer job with the Corps of Engineers that quickly morphed into a contract job that lasted until the end of October 2017.  After the contract ended we moved back to the volunteer group for the Corps where we stayed until now, April 2018.  Each of those changes involved a move but they were all accomplished in about an hour of driving.  Breaking down and setting up took longer than the drive.

Now we are up for a 1,300 mile drive through six states, one of which we'll spend two days getting across, Texas.  Our destination is Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico.  We'll be parked for the next three months inside the refuge on one of four RV pads built specifically for their volunteers.  The nearest town, Roswell, is about seven miles away.

But first we have to get organized for travel.  It is amazing how all your "stuff" gets spread out and rearrange while parked for months at a time.  For us it is a good day's chore to get everything in its travel mode place.

Packing Day

Our grand daughter came out to help us with the pre-hitching chores.  Although she was more interested in getting stuff out to play with rather than putting things away.  That's John leaning into the basement.  All the things have to go in a certain location and a certain order or it won't all fit.  It is a little like putting a puzzle together every time we move.

As mentioned in the previous post, the weather has been a little hinky around here this year.  That has been pretty much true for everybody east of the Mississippi.  We've been watching the forecasts for our route that will primarily be west bound on Interstate 20 and it looks like we are timed to pass between storms.  But weather forecast accuracy is a pretty dicey thing, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we can dodge the worst of it (hail & tornadoes).

Fast Forwarding

My last posting to this blog was in October of 2017 and even then I only covered our exploits through June of that year.  It was a bit of a stretch to find something to write about.  I had already whined about how terrible people were in an urban camping area.  We just put in our 15.5 hours a day in the gatehouse, visited the kids on our days off and did routine chores and shopping that went along with living in a major metropolitan area.  Hard to find much to write about.  But here it is April of 2018 and there is finally inspiration to write again.

Our contract with the United States Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Allatoona concluded at the end of October.  From there we moved over to the volunteer group and joined nine other couples at the Volunteer Village on the north shore of the lake.

Pretty nice digs at the Volunteer Village on Lake Allatoona.

The winter was spent doing routine things like patrolling closed campgrounds doing half-days on the front desk at the project management office, collecting money from the honor vaults at boat ramps and such.  We also worked some special projects, one in particular was researching land deeds for the 1940's.  The work was not physically or mentally challenging but it was way better than dealing with the slice of public that made life miserable for us and everyone around them in the campground.

The weather was weird this winter.  We lived in the north Atlanta suburbs for almost 30 years and we never had a winter like this one.  We had a normal November, December.  January was a little bit of a see-saw but then February came along and we had weather more typical for May.  Just as we thought winter was done there was a rude awakening.  Winter returned with a vengeance and March was more like a severe January.  I've never gone through so much propane so fast.

The snow that we got made for a pretty picture.

But the snow was wet, sticky and heavy.  Thousands of trees were downed,
power was lost for days and roads blocked all over north Georgia.

This picture was about 24 hrs after the snowfall.  It is easy to see how thick the
blanket of  snow was by looking at the hood of my truck.

Eventually we got out of the severe weather but it stayed cold well beyond our departure for New Mexico near the end of March.  We have been knocking around north Georgia for the better part of three years now.  There were a few breaks where we took a month or so to go home to Texas to see family or to Kansas to get the rig worked on but we had stayed pretty close to Atlanta to be with our new and only grand daughter.  But this move to New Mexico is a test to see if we can stand to be away for an extended period.  Extended in this case means six months, give or take.

We've got a volunteer job at a National Wildlife Refuge in southeast New Mexico.  We'll be visitor center hosts for Bitter Lake NWR.