Bosque del Apache

This is what today’s ride looked like.  All scrubby ranch land, nary a tree in sight!  I was again headed west on Hwy. 380 in New Mexico.  It was a very windy day with lots of buffeting but we made it OK!

I slipped through Roswell as quickly as I could and was able to make it without being abducted by a UFO and probed….or worse, impregnated!  There were really long stretches without any towns.  I did see several bunches of antelope, but they were too far away to get any photos.  As I was driving along I had to go.  REALLY had to go.  Gottago, gottago, gottago!  I would have stopped and set up the camper real quick so I could use the potty but it was way too windy. Well out in the middle of nowhere, along came a miracle in the desert!

I got to my destination, Escondida Lake Park near Socorro. There were quite a few fisherman here but no campers. There are maybe 12-14 sites, some with hookups and some without. I got a no hookup site and got all leveled & set up, unhooked the car, then tried to start the fridge on propane.  Nope, no way.  It acts like it’s not getting gas, so I wonder if something happened to the line when we put that additional line in for the heater.  Guess we should have tested it!  I was right next to an electric site so I thought I’d just run a couple extension cords over there, pay the extra $8 and plug up.  I got out the cords and dug out the 30 to 15 amp adapter, only to find there were locks on the electric boxes!  So I called the town offices and they gave me the combination.  But when I opened the box, it only had a 30 amp receptacle, there was no place to plug in my 15 amp cords.  So then I had to pack the camper back up, fold it down, hitch up and move to a different site. By that time I was using all the bad words in my repertoire!

And I had to leave right then for the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Reserve so I could see the 10,000 Sandhill Cranes landing at dusk.  This campground was supposed to be only 9 miles from the reserve, but turns out to be 25 miles!!  I drove all around the reserve and saw lots of ducks that were too small and too far away to identify  (not that I’m any good at that anyway), a bunch of Canadian Geese and a big herd of Snow Geese, and only a few Sandhill Cranes.

Lots and lots of Snow Geese

 Canadian honkers

So then I headed back, my gas tank was running on empty and I was starved.  I did stop at a little turnout in the road where there were a bunch of people sporting cameras with gigantic telescopic lenses on tripods.  There were about 100 cranes there and more flying in, but where were the 10,000??!!!

Here are the hotshot photographers.  I felt like a little kid with my little point-and-shoot camera!

Here’s what happens if you park under the flyway:

Oh well, there’s another similar place in AZ where maybe I can see lots and lots of Sandhill Cranes flying in. Or out.

It too dark when I got back to take any photos of this campground but I’ll try to remember to do that tomorrow morning.  It’s a gravel lot but does have trees between the sites, and a nice bathroom with no showers.  I was all by myself here but then another woman pulled in with a Class C. She came to my door to find out about unlocking the electric boxes.

Tomorrow is a short driving day, only about 150 miles, down to Deming.  I’ll stay at the Escapees park and maybe they’ll have a camper repair guy in the park who can look at my fridge.  I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t get it fixed!