Camping at Green's Peak (Sun.-Mon.)

Sunday morning we were all up and ready to go by 10:00 a.m.  Marilyn was a little sore from riding in Danny and Sherry's Razr, so she opted to stay at camp.  Jeff was the leader and found the only rough road around, I think.  We made several quick stops, some at crossroads, before finally finding a good spot to dismount and walk around.  However, a crime was committed here, and a criminal now resides among us.

When we pull off the trail, there was a lovely mushroom welcoming us.  We all drove past, except one person, and I got a picture.  So here's the saga.

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                                                        Lovely Mushroom, Before Collins,  It was probably 4-5 inches tall.

 Lovely Mushroom, After Collins ran over it

 The criminal being accused.

 Evidence of the flattened mushroom on the tire of the accused.

The criminal.  Expect to see wanted posters at all post offices nationwide.











There were lots and lots of mushrooms in this clearing, many different varieties.  But none as lovely as the one Collins annihilated.

 

So us ladies walked around checking out the mushrooms, and the men discussed the crime, and whatever else men discuss.

Right behind us was a tree stand used for bleeding out an animal, and there was discussion of a lynching right here.

We decided to have a trial later, but Joe and Danny did spot a perfect hanging tree just on down the road.

This forest is full of beautiful pine trees and blue spruce.  One huge tree had been felled here at our clearing.

Sherry really enjoys traipsing around in the forest, and she found several of the mushrooms.  She went back over to the scene of the crime to investigate the damages, and she dug out the mushroom next to the one Collins ran over.

Finally, we were on our way again, riding through this beautiful forest with a carpet of green grass.  We really expected to see lots of deer grazing on this grass, but we didn't see any wildlife.

We arrived back at camp, where a chipmunk or gopher entertained us for a while, digging a hole right under the canopy that Jeff and Brenda had erected.  He stuck his head out a few times, but he was mostly concerned with eating the little flowers.  (He's the brown spot to the left of the dirt pile).

Sunday night's menu was pizza pockets and pies over the fire, which Brenda made and Jeff cooked.  There was some worked involved here from the two of them, but the food was delicious.

The pizza, right out of the fire. 












Monday morning brought a change in plans.  Collins has not been feeling very well, so the Brundiges decided to pack up and go home, and get him to the doctor.  (We are a bit suspicious that the criminal was just trying to escape the jurisdiction of this trial court.)  Marilyn fixed her famous sausage gravy and biscuits before she left, and they got on the road shortly after 9:00 a.m.  That put a damper on the mood and none of us felt like going riding right then.  Jeff wasn't feeling so great either after our rocky ride on Sunday.  So Joe decided he and I needed to go into Springerville.  Brenda had seen on the GPS yesterday that a Circle K was only 18 miles away (Springerville), and he was obsessed with having his fountain diet soda, so off we went.  Danny and Sherry rode along, and we had a nice meal at Booga Reds.  We did a little shopping, picked up some ice, and filled up the gas tanks for the quads.

When we got back to camp, we decided to take a late afternoon quad ride, and we ended up going to Vernon, which is out on Hwy. 60.  On the way, the afternoon thunderstorm hit, and a flash of lighting and the following clap of thunder had me just about diving off my quad.  But we drove out of the rain pretty quickly, although we came upon a pile of hail shortly thereafter, so we knew we had been lucky.  We stopped at the convenience store in Vernon and had refreshments, then headed back to camp, figuring we were for sure going to get rained on.  But we lucked out, missed the rain, and saw two elk.  We decided on an easy dinner since it was about dark, so I heated up the chili and got out the fixins' for hot dogs again.  Joe did a great job roasting our hot dogs. 

Jeff had a little mishap when he was roasting his and ended up with a wet butt.  He sort of tripped getting out of his chair, and landed in Joe's chair where he had left his beer.  So the beer turned over, Jeff sat down in it, and a verbal battle ensued over the spilled beer.  So Jeff had beer-butt the rest of the evening.

We sat by the campfire until bedtime (which is different for everyone, and Jeff keeps complaining that we go to bed too early).  During the nights, the cows invade our campsite -- I'm thinking maybe this is their favorite bedding spot.  And did I mention they all seem to have diarrhea!  Danny and Sherry have out a set of solar panels, and the cows seem to think maybe that is a cow-lick, because it had tongue prints on it.   Danny wiped it off before I got a photo of the incriminating tongue prints, so I'll have to get up early tomorrow and check it out.

Collins and Marilyn reported that they got home about 3:30, and are driving down to the Valley on Tuesday to see the doctor.  We will await word from them.

Getting situated at Green's Peak (Tues.-Sat.)

Contrary to my opinion that we wouldn't have a phone signal where we camped, among the many towers on Green's Peak (which is right beside our campground) there apparently is a cell phone tower, because we have a strong signal here.  And this cast of characters we are camping with has prompted me to continue blogging so I don't forget some of our memorable moments.

Backtracking a bit, Tuesday we got an early start from Springerville and were in the Valley about 10:00 a.m.  Everything at home seemed in order, the kitchen table was full of 4 months of mail (mostly junk mail), and there were a few weeds in the yard but not too many.  We began our list of chores -- Joe changed the oil in the truck, checked the tires on 2 quads, the truck and the box trailer,  and did a little maintenance on the quads. I went through the mail, went to Costco, washed the clothes we had brought down, and started gathering stuff to take back up to the mountains.  Eric stopped by in the afternoon, and then we went over to their house to see the back yard they have been working on all summer, and to visit with Tiffany and Kaylee.  Cody was at football practice so we never caught up with him.  Then we met Jeff and Brenda for dinner.  We slept in our own beds for one night (Tuesday), finished up our packing,  loaded up the quads, tracked down the trailer hitch (which was on the back of Cody's truck at school) and headed back to Springerville where we had left the RV.  We got there about 7:00 p.m., after stopping in Show Low for dinner, and settled in for the night. 

Thursday morning we were up early again, Joe stopped in town for fuel ($3.539) and propane for the RV ($2.29/gal.), while I went to the grocery store.  The plan was that Joe would lead, and he has the GPS in the RV, and I would follow, but when we met up, I was in front, so I led us into the forest and to our campsite.  The one we had in mind (that we had seen last year) had one small camper in it (nobody around, so apparently someone just dropped it and left), but the area right beside it was open, and it was much bigger so we chose that.  We turned off the highway about 9:30, and it took us about 10 minutes to drive back the 5 miles to this campsite.  This forest is very green, and there are lots and lots of cattle grazing.  This campsite apparently is one of their regular grazing areas, and they had left us lots of cow pies so we had to watch our step.  We got set up, checked on our friends' progress, and took a short nap while we waited for Collins and Marilyn and Danny and Sherry to get here from the Williams area where they had been camping.  We drove out to meet them about 4:00 and led them to our campsite (see how beautifully green it is up here).

Collins picked a spot next to the trees, and Danny set up his fifth-wheel on the open side of the campsite.  The cows, though, took exception to Danny's spot, and he had 3 bulls challenging him for the space as he was trying to get his camper leveled and unhooked from his brand new pick-up.

They kept coming in closer, and were bellowing and making all kinds of racket.  One mean-looking red bull was ready to take him on.  It got within 10 feet of him before he stopped (Danny had the pick-up door open and was ready to bolt).

 We finally chased them off, but it was an opportunity for on-going harassment by Joe and Collins of Danny.  We are not sure whether the bull liked the looks of Danny from the rear, or it was letting Danny know that all those cows were taken care of by him alone, but that bull was sure trying to make some kind of statement to poor Danny.  Joe told Danny that the bull had a gleam of love in his eye for Danny.

We had a little rain shower, so we settled in early for the night.  Friday morning we unloaded our quads, and after breakfast we took a ride while we waited for Jeff and Brenda to drive up.  The cows were all over the road this morning, and I found out the hard way that I needed to watch where I'm driving.  Apparently I drove through some fresh cow droppings, and when we stopped I got a jacket out of the box on the back of my quad, I leaned against the fender and got cow manure all over one leg of my jeans.  That wasn't a pleasant situation for the rest of the day.

Collins spotted a badger, but that was the only wildlife seen other than squirrels and chipmunks, and none of the rest of us saw the badger.  We scouted out the area, got rained on, and came back to camp to wait on Jeff's phone call.  Collins and Danny went out gathering firewood on the quads, and Sherry walked around the campsite gathering some limbs.  Then Danny got the chain saw out to chop up some of the limbs they had brought in. Joe and Collins offered instructions and words of encouragement from the sidelines.

  About 3:30 Jeff called from Show Low, so we headed out on the quads to meet up with them and lead them in.  Then we sat in our chairs and watched them set up.  Jeff always has to move two or three (or 8) times before he gets his RV in the right spot, so it's cheap entertainment.  When he finally quit, he knew the left side was a little low, which put their heads downhill when they went to bed.  So Brenda re-made the bed, and they slept with their heads at the foot.  That was fine until the middle of the night when the wind blew up and their awning started rattling.  Jeff, who has not been sleeping well, started saying "windy, windy," and trying to get out of bed, but he was lost.  He asked Brenda what she was doing on his side of the bed.  When he finally managed to get out of the bed, he ran smack into the cabinets in the wall.  I think he finally turned the light on so he could find his way to the front to bring in the awning. 


So by Saturday morning, we are all together and settled in.  We've circled the wagons and taken up residence for the next 6 days.

 We are strung out sort of at the top of our circle.

 Danny and Sherry are on the front side, with Green's Peak behind them.

 Jeff and Brenda closed off the bottom of the circle with their string of vehicles -- Brenda's truck and the "Billy" boat; their RV,

  their box trailer and sun shade over the Arctic Cat.

 And Collins and Marilyn on the back side, next to the trees.  When I go up to the top of Green's Peak
(everyone except Marilyn, Sherry and I have made the trip already), I will try to get an overview from the top.








It rained off and on during the night on Friday, and was cloudy all day Saturday, with an occasional sprinkle.  Jeff and Brenda finished their setting up process, and Collins, Marilyn, Joe and I played cards for a little while.  Sherry had a migraine so she was down for the day, and Danny stayed pretty close to their trailer to check on her.  Jeff and Brenda spent a little time getting the cover put up over the Arctic Cat, and Jeff  harassed the cows as they got closer for their afternoon grazing in our campsite.  Finally, even though it still looked like rain, it was time to go for a ride, so Jeff, Brenda, Joe and Collins took off.  When Jeff and Brenda got back (about an hour ahead of Joe and Collins who made some extra turns), Jeff started our first campfire, and we all felt like we were really camping now.

 

After dinner (chili and hot dogs roasted over the fire), we sent for our first EWVD (evening wildlife viewing drive). Jeff and Brenda took off, but it took a while for the rest of us to get in gear, so I was in the lead, trying to catch up with Jeff.  But we weren't done with the bulls yet.  When we got to the cattle guard back on the main road, two big black bulls had positioned themselves butt-to-butt on the cattle guard, blocking the entire thing.  We could see where they had been pawing in the dirt around the cattle guard, so maybe they were in a standoff (I always thought those were head-to-head though).  Anyway, when I saw them blocking my path like statutes, I just started laughing.  I motioned for Joe to catch up with me, and I asked him if he knew the secret password.  We moved a little closer, and Joe started honking his horn, and finally they gave in and moved aside, very slowly, and with a mean eye on us.  

It got dark on us before we got back.  Jeff and Brenda spotted one cow elk with calf that crossed the road right in front of their Arctic Cat in the dark, but the rest of us didn't see anything.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.  

The people who dropped the little trailer haven't been back yet.  Although, I guess it's possible they might have driven by and saw our menagerie and just decided to keep on going.

It's been in the 50s at night, and the 70s during the day when it is sunny.  The air is fresh and its absolutely beautiful up here.  A nice break for us before we head back to the heat of the Valley.

Leaving Amarillo (Mon.)

After Lauren and Clint left, we got ready to go out to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park musical show.  We stopped off for dinner and headed out, arriving just about sunset at the Canyon.  The sides of the canyon were beautiful with the setting sun shining on them.

 The first parking lot was full, but we got lucky and Mazie, and the rest of us, got to ride in the wagon from the second parking lot.  There wasn't any hay in it, but it was a nice ride.

 Joe thinks I need to take a picture of all these pretty Texas girls.

This show, which is in its 48th year, is billed as "a musical romance of Panhandle History."  We actually knew very little about it, and we were just blown away.  It was absolutely wonderful, and the second half was even better than the first.  It had lots of cowboy and cowgirl singing and dancing, drama, special effects, horses, and fireworks.  Everything was amazing, and I would encourage anyone traveling through Amarillo in the summer time to make time to take it in.  The cast numbered close to 50, and there were lots of different sets.  It was all very well done, and they used the beautiful canyon walls behind the pavilion as a backdrop, with lights highlighting different colors during the show.  It ended with a beautiful patriotic tribute and a water show with fireworks.  We loved the whole thing.

However, it kept us out past our bedtime.  It didn't start until 8:30, and ended about 10:45, so it was almost 11:30 by the time we got back to our RVs.  But an early phone call (6:50 a.m. Texas time) got me out of bed this morning, and  I gently persuaded Joe that he might as well get up so we could get on the move, and we were on the road at 8:00 a.m.  Dave and Mazie were moving around but they were not ready to go yet, and we were heading out different ways, although our routes would eventually intersect, so we didn't wait on them.  It was a little windy, about 69 degrees when we started out, and we ran into light rain pretty quick.  It rained on us off and on all day, and the temperature ranged from 59 to about 76, depending on our elevation and the clouds.  We took I-40 across to Santa Rosa, NM, and hit the New Mexico state line just after 9:00 a.m..  Then we dropped down on US 54 to Vaughn, and picked up US 60 and took that all the way to ARIZONA!  Yes, we made it to Springerville; Joe drove 486 miles today - a real marathon.  About 9 hours in the saddle.  We saw a couple antelope just after we turned off I-40 at Santa Rosa, but that was all of today's wildlife.  We crossed 2 time zones, and hit the Arizona state line at 4:40 Texas time (2:40 AZ time). The mountains in this part of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona are really green.

We found a campground in Springerville and finally got parked -- the host had left suddenly because they had lost power right before we got here, so we had to wait around for a while to find someone to take care of us.  And by this time, we were ready to be taken care of and get settled.  We drove into town for dinner, then settled in for the night.
Meanwhile, our buddies, Dave and Mazie, didn't fare so well today.  They had problems with their Dodge just before they got to Vaughn, and had to wait for a tow out of Roswell.  I think that was about a 5 hour wait, and when the guy showed up, he thought he figured out what was wrong (the wire connection behind the fuel filter was loose), so he didn't think he was going to have to tow them afterall.  He was going to follow them into the next town (Vaughn, NM).  We were a couple hours ahead of them when they called us and said they had not made it to Vaughn, but they didn't want us to turn around and come back, so we continued on.  We will check on them again tomorrow.

So the plan for us now that we are in Arizona is to leave our RV in Springerville in the morning, and drive home in the car (about 4 hours).  We will load the quads into our box trailer, hook it up to the truck, leave the car at home, and drive back up to Springerville on Wed. morning probably, if all goes well and no disasters await us at home.  We will then pick up the RV and go find a place out in the Apache Forest to dry camp and ride quads for several days, then move over to the campground at Big Lake on the 21st and spend another 5 days camping there (maybe do a little trout fishing).  Our friends Jeff and Brenda, Collins and Marilyn and Danny and Sherry are all going to meet us later this week for the dry camping/quad riding, and then Big Lake.  Assuming all goes well with everyone.

So this will probably be my last blog of this trip, because we don't expect to have an internet signal for the rest of our stay.  I'll probably do a recap of the trip sometime after we finally get home at the end of the month, mostly for my own records.  This has been a great trip; we've seen and done a lot of wonderful things, but it's been a lot of days (117) and miles (6,518) since we left on April 18, and we are ready to be home.

Amarillo Flea Market (Sat./Sun.)

We decided to go to the other flea market here in town this morning, but it was a disappointment.  It was plenty big, but more of their wares were really directed toward the Mexican population.  Joe did buy a new cell phone holder, but that was our only purchase.  Lauren went with us, and she bought a candle.  In addition to the inside booths, they had several tents set up outside.  Out here, there were several pens of pit bull puppies for sale, chickens, birds, and they even offered pony rides.
 
It warmed up quite a bit today, but the humidity is low so it wasn't that uncomfortable.  But we all concurred that this was a waste of time, so we left and headed to Whataburger for lunch (Joe got to pick, of course).  From there, Lauren headed home to get ready for this evening (they invited us to dinner), and we headed back to the RV.  However, we decided to drive on past to check out gas prices on down the road, and we drove past the "cadillac ranch" just outside of town.  We had seen this many years ago, but it had been a while, before the graffiti hit.  Now they are works of art, I guess.

We went over to Clint and Laurens for dinner.  Clint played us some country music on his guitar, then grilled us some excellent steaks.  Unfortunately, he was so tired he didn't join us for dinner, but we sure enjoyed his cooking.

Sunday we woke up to clouds and wind, still in the 60s, but it was a lovely day, felt like fall weather.  I did laundry, then Joe crawled under the RV and greased some of its parts.  We are getting ready to head out in the morning.  Tonight we are going to the Palo Duro Canyon musical show, and it doesn't start until 8:30, so we just had a restful day resting up for our late night. Mazie brought her laptop over in the afternoon, and we messed with that for a while.  Clint and Lauren stopped by for a while to visit.   Lauren has a very nice new car, which she is very proud of.

We hope to get an early start tomorrow and make some good progress toward Arizona.  We'll have to see what time we get to bed after our late outing this evening.

Friday in Amarillo (Fri.)

Today we did a little touring of Amarillo.  We decided to go out for breakfast, and Mazie found an ad on the campground brochure for the Calico County restaurant, so we went looking for that.  The food was very good, and they served us with small, homemade cinnamon rolls when we sat down.  I had found a couple flea markets on the internet, so thought we would check them out.  The first one was closed, but the second one was open.  It was full of old, antique, mostly junk, but we spent an hour or so walking through their various buildings.  Joe found a couple of hats he thought Mazie and I needed, but we all managed to get out of there without spending any money.

Next we stopped at the Jack Sisemore RV Museum, a museum behind an RV service center that has on display a variety of restored campers from the early days of RVing.  I would guess there was a dozen, plus a pretty nice display of historic motorcycles mounted on the wall.  Since both the Johnsons and we have been RVing most of our adult lives, we could relate to some of these models.

 This converted bus was the original camper used in the movie "RV" starring Robin Williams.

This is one of the original pop-ups, and when it was brought in, all they did to it was polish it.  This is the way most people started RVing back in the early 60s, and there was a time Joe and I really wanted one of these.  We started our RVing in the back of a Dodge van.










From here, we headed back to the campground to rest up for our evening out with Clint and Lauren.  Since we never get an early start, the day gets away from us pretty quickly.  Before long, it was time for Clint and Lauren to come by, in Lauren's new Buick, and after a short visit/happy hour, we headed out to the Big Texan Steakhouse, where they offer the free 72-ounce steak to anyone who can eat it.  None of us opted for that, but they did have one on display.

 This is one of the limos they use to bring people here.  When we stayed in Amarillo 2 years ago at a campground which was only about 1 mile from this steakhouse, one of these limos came through that campground and picked up customers for the steakhouse.

 I guess this is the entire meal for the 72-ounce deal.  There's a salad, roll and baked potato to accompany the main dish.

This is what a 72-ounce steak looks like.

We had to wait a few minutes, so our group found seats at the bar while Mazie and I checked out the gift shop.

So here's Joe, Clint with his head turned, Lauren is the blonde next to him, and then Dave.  We probably waited 20 minutes to get seated.

 While I was checking out the gift shop, Joe was checking out the cute cowgirls at the hostess station.

 This place is huge, and noisy, and crowded.  Unfortunately our steaks were not that great. I, of the well-done filet mignon, had to send my steak back twice before they got the red out, and by then it was nearly charcoaled.  Our group bravely ordered "mountain oysters" as an appetizer, along with jalapeno poppers.  The jalapenos were good, but Mazie and I chickened out on the "oysters."

 I've been on the hunt for an armadillo to add to our traveling zoo for 2 years, since we saw the one and only in Louisiana.  Finally, I was successful.

So this is our newest addition to the front dash.  His "back" is plastic or vinyl, and he's brownish/gray. 











Clint has to work Saturday, and Lauren said she has to go in to work for a little while, so they headed on home while we finished up.  They are having us for dinner at their house tomorrow night, so we are looking forward to that.  Clint used to have a band, so we are hoping to be serenaded by him sometime tomorrow evening. 

It was beautiful here today, in the low 60s in the morning and it stayed in the 70s all afternoon.  Was cloudy but didn't rain.