A little knowledge is dangerous.... And I have so very little

There's a lot of reasons to click the pics today..... I just can't think of any.

My very own picnic table basking in the setting sun.

I found out what's going on with the New Mexico state parks nonresident annual camping permit, henceforth referred to as the ACP. It appears that the ACP is being prorated depending on how much camping time you lost. My ACP expired in March 2020 which gave me the least amount of time I had lost so they gave me a free ACP good until the end of May 2021. It's not much, but at least it shows that their heart is somewhere near the right place, and they're doing something to show me they care, and I find that perfectly acceptable.

The troublesome part of their new plan is their making everything reservation only. The way it was explained to me is the Park Rangers are going to make an educated guess as to how many boondocker's will fit into a New Mexico State Park, they will give that number to Reserve America, which is who handles their reservation system. And Reserve America will take boondocking reservations until it exceeds the number given to them by the Rangers. And as an example, Elephant Butte has hundreds of places to boondock, some places only accessible by four-wheel-drive. I wonder how that's gonna work out.

This means that boondocker's won't be given a site number, because there are no sites. You will just go to one of the boondocking areas and camp wherever there is a spot available, which is exactly what you do right now except you don't need reservations.

The most obvious problem with that is my free boondocking is no longer free, Reserve America charges 12 dollars to make the reservations, so free boondocking will cost at least that much. And remember when I say free boondocking is not actually free, I pay $225 a year to get that free boondocking, which is becoming less free by the day.

And maybe the worst part of the whole thing is, I'm being coerced into making plans! I don't like plans, plans are the death of freedom. If you want to watch freedom disappear before your very eyes.... Start making plans.

At least the timing on my expired sticker extension works out okay for me. I get to boondock for "free" until I'm ready to head back to Colorado, and who knows, by next year they may change it again, although I seriously doubt it. These reservation companies are simply making too much easy money to let that slip away.

So I'll just enjoy myself while I can, and not worry about anything else until next Fall when I might be testing the little Bronco slide-in camper over the winter to see how something that size works out as a full-timing RV, and if it works that might open up a lot more boondocking opportunities for yours truly.

                                       Theboondork

 Agave?

The once wild and mighty Rio Grande rambles through the flat-lands and halfheartedly dribbles into Elephant Butte Reservoir, most of its power siphoned off after leaving the Colorado Rockies.  Millions of acres of thirsty farmland owes its very existence to this river, while its own survival is questionable.

The river itself appeared to be 10 maybe 15 feet wide, and at a depth that was no problem for wading birds. It's hard to believe that this amount of water could even make up for evaporation, much less add to its meager depth.