I had a nice peaceful night last night, there's only about four other people camping here that I can see and the nearest one to me is about 200 yards away.

There's a group of teenage boys and a handful of adults camping across the lake from me. When I first noticed them I thought they might be Boy Scouts because they seemed to be doing everything as a group and they weren't loud or raucous.  But I didn't see any of them in uniform so I don't know what kind of a group they are.

This morning they put their canoes in the water and went paddling around the lake, and since sound travels so well over water, I could hear them talking, and laughing, and having a good time in general.

I think there are too few kids that are able to get into the outdoors and have a good time like these kids are having. And unfortunately there are even fewer parents, or other adults that will take them.    It's very sad.

I walked up to the "Iron Ranger" this morning and paid for two more nights of camping, so it looks like I'll be leaving here Monday morning.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Iron Ranger, it's a metal pipe about 8 inches around and 4 foot tall that's embedded in the ground at one end, a metal plate welded on the other end, and a small slot in the side  where you put your envelope with your information and your money in.   A lot of parks have "Iron Ranger's" that you pay if the real Rangers not around.

  theboondork

I got to  Caballo lake State Park in New Mexico before the wind started blowing. I kind of like traveling early in the morning, but what I don't like is traveling with a schedule, and right now in order to beat the wind I've had to schedule the times when I can drive and that takes a lot of fun out of full-timeing. It's the lack of schedules that makes living like this enjoyable. That's why I only have one schedule, and that's to be someplace warm in the winter and  someplace cool in the summer.

I got a good nights sleep at Walmart last night. There was three or four other RVs and five or six big trucks that spent the night there. but there was plenty of room for everyone, and the Walmart in Deming welcomes RVers.

I know some folks complain about the noise and the activity when dry camping at a Walmart but it really doesn't bother me at all, I sleep just as sound there as I do while Boondocking.

   Caballo Lake State Park is nice, but I'm not staying at the nicest part of it, I'm staying at a dry camping area of the park which is basically a giant rocky field where you park wherever you want. But it's only eight dollars a night and I'm right next to the lake.

Overall I have found New Mexico State Parks to be nice places to camp with very reasonable prices and I wish I could say the same about Colorado State Parks, they are nice parks but there camping prices are outrageous, and even though I've lived in Colorado for over 30 years I've stayed at very few state parks simply because the prices are so high.

I had planned on going to elephant Butte State Park in Truth or Consequences New Mexico this morning but I saw this Park first and since I've never been here before I thought I would give it a try. If I like it here I'll probably just stay here until Monday, when the winds are supposed to die down, and see what's going on in this area of New Mexico.

    theboondork

 I got on the road this morning about 6 o'clock and had an easy safe drive to Deming New Mexico.

My plan for avoiding the wind worked out perfect, and the wind was a non factor all the way to Deming.  About two hours after I got to Deming the wind picked up enough that I was glad I wasn't driving in it.

I'm dry camping in the Walmart parking lot for tonight and my plans are to leave here early in the morning, to avoid the wind, and make it up to Truth or Consequences New Mexico, better known around here as "T or C".

I'll probably hang around there for a few days and wait for this wind to die down which is supposed to be Monday.

Sometimes I envy the people in cars that have probably never heard of a high wind advisory, and might not even realize the wind is blowing. But I can guarantee you'll know that it's blowing when you're pulling a trailer. Most of the time it just makes pulling a trailer a little scary, but sometimes it can be dangerous.

Twice I've watched semi-trucks blow over on their side. And it's weird to see because it happens in slow motion. They don't just flop over, they slooowly tip over.

And of course it happens to RVs to, maybe even more so because were so light, relatively speaking, were basically an empty box.

So I don't take any chances, if the Winds are over 20 miles an hour I park it,… in less it's a tail wind and then I ride it for all it's worth.

   theboondork