These folks sure do like their kayaks, there's two more laying next to the water.

Being a Saturday the beach is pretty busy today. I'm finding out that Marina Beach, where I'm boondocked, gets more visitors than the main really large beach. I'm not sure why. Marina Beach may have more beach boat launch sites than the main beach, or maybe there's less soft sand to disappear into at this beach, or possibly the fishing is better from  shore here, whatever it is Marina Beach seems to get more visitors than the other beaches.

There are no official walking trails here at the Marina Beach area like there is up on Ridge road where I normally stay. But who needs a walking trail when you've got lots of beach to walk on. But mostly there are dirt roads, and Jeep trails that wind through this area that folks can walk on. You can wend your way through the Tamarisk forest and up and down the sand dunes like I enjoy, or you can walk around the Marina, and watch the boats come and go.

With a tremendous amount of help from my daughter in Denver taking care of the legal aspect of my part of the home sale I've been dealing with lately, it looks like things are finally done and it's supposed to close today. But, since I'm not an actual party to the sale, and not required to be at the closing, I probably won't know how things go until I do, or don't, get a check in the mail.

Theboondork

This is one of the several places along Marina Beach where the slope of the beach is gentle enough to launch boats.

Wherever boondocking RVs gather in a group there's often a tanker truck that will come around and pump out your black and gray-water tanks for a price.

This kayaker is having a beautiful Saturday morning gently paddling across the placid waters of Elephant Butte Lake. But what he doesn't seem to notice is, what looks like an alligator is fast approaching from the right. I could be wrong, but after years of dealing with alligators in South Florida, I've learned you can't be too careful when you're on the water, especially when you're in something as vulnerable as a kayak.... But in the kayaker's favor, you would be absolutely amazed how fast somebody can paddle with an alligator five feet behind them!  Oh well; hopefully they've got there alligator spray handy.

It's getting pretty warm around here, and the ten-day forecast calls for more of the same. So I was thinking about maybe next week moseying up north a little way, maybe as far as Las Vegas, New Mexico. But the ten-day forecast that I look at has windy weather every single day for the next ten days in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

I'm not too fond of windy weather, especially blowing around 30 miles an hour for a large part of the day. Thanks to these canvas sides on the pop-up camper, the wind is rather annoying, flapping the sides around in the daytime and at night while trying to sleep these canvas sides are particularly troublesome since you can't tell the difference in the wind blowing the canvas around, or someone trying to break in. Just another reason that I really don't want to live in a pop-up camper, as if I needed another reason.

Having a camper on the truck that requires packing everything up and lowering the top so I can go anywhere for a few minutes has been a mixed blessing. The bad part is trying to get this camper ready to go to the store and then coming back 15 minutes later and trying to set everything up again is beyond ridiculous.

The good part is that since I have to go through all that preparation it keeps me from running around for no reason and forces me to plan when and where I go so I can get everything I need done without having to do the same thing again tomorrow. And with diesel fuel prices what they are, this has been a big saving.

So like I said, it's a mixed blessing, but I feel that having to go through so many preparations before I can go someplace does seem to cut into my freedom to come and go as I please and the freedom to make decisions about the way I live is very important to me.

Theboondork

Well what do we have here? A fifth wheel with four vehicles parked around it, one is hidden behind the trailer, at least eight people that I can see, and a whole flock of dogs. This is much different from what I normally see when RVers are camping, I wonder what the deal is?

Ah ha. It's an airBnB. It's a home you can rent and live in for some period of time, except this is a home with wheels and its currently parked on the beach.

That sounds like a great idea how to make some money if you have an RV sitting around doing nothing. believe it or not there actually getting $220 a night to boondock on the beach in this fifth wheel.

It would appear that I'm boondocked on the beach just like they are, so I must be living like a king and didn't even know it. I thought I was just a beach bum but actually I'm a shrewd boondocker that has saved over $4000 while staying here.

When I saw this going on at the Marina I just had to look up those two weird looking personal watercraft made by Alumapro on the Internet. Most of these guys are Border Patrol and they appear to be either training, testing, or playing with these two fancy personal watercraft.

Knowing that pretty much anything the government buys is outrageously expensive, doesn't work very well, or both, I found these Sea-Doo looking things on the Internet, and the bottom line basic model with nothing on it, and the smallest engine they put in one, costs about $50,000. And the well-equipped ones are more like $75,000. Which is almost 4 times what a normal fully equipped personal watercraft would cost.... that's our federal government at work.

I watched for a while, and one of the two outrageously priced personal watercraft wouldn't start.... What do you expect for $75,000? I came back later and the border patrol agent was still standing there, probably waiting for a maintenance man to drive here from Albuquerque and try to push start it..... Sorry for being so cantankerous, but I've worked for the federal government long enough as a G.I. and as a civilian to realize that the incompetence and waste that goes on in this shambolic federal government is impossible to overstate.

I was planning on moving to a new boondocking spot here at the Elephant, but I got busy and never got around to it. However, I did get a propane tank filled this morning and spent some time wandering around Walmart. But I didn't buy much; it's difficult and expensive to buy food for one person because much of it ends up being wasted. And things at Walmart are so expensive now that I try to be more careful about the waste.

It's not that all the food has gone completely out of sight price-wise; but when I check out, that's when I notice how much my food bill has gone up. It seems like a quarter extra here and a dollar extra there, and suddenly I've spent $75 on groceries, and I can carry the grocery bags out in my hands.

It's been getting a bit warm around here, either at or near 90° almost every day; thank goodness the humidities have been in the single digits, and night times are in the 50s, or I might be heading for higher ground already.

And speaking of higher ground. Sometime in May, when most of the snow has stopped, I normally head back to Colorado, usually in late May, but it's mostly whenever I feel like it.

 I've got a lot of things to do when I get back, I may sell the Arctic Fox, but I'm not sure yet. I want a hard-sided truck camper, but RVs are awfully expensive right now, which helps me when I'm selling my RVs, but it hurts when I'm buying another one, so it's probably a wash in the end.

I put a bag of trash in the backseat of my truck the other day and when I looked at it yesterday I saw a hole chewed in the bag and some bits of food scattered around..... I've got a mouse.

But rising to the occasion, I put out a basic mouse-trap baited with some peanut butter, and this morning I found his little carcass where he had returned to the scene of the crime, but was unable to leave due to a mouse-trap being thoroughly attached to his scrawny little neck. I buried the critter with full mouse honors in a shallow depression in the sand as I quietly sung the Mickey Mouse club song.

Theboondork

This is one of the more common reasons for owning a truck camper, towing a boat or a horse trailer.

Due to increased concerns about global warming numerous billionaires have been coerced into trading their hundred meter yachts for boats that are more environmentally friendly, with smaller engines and a downsized crew.

Recently I was fortunate enough to spot this boat with the wealthiest man and woman in New Mexico saving the planet while enjoying a  quiet Sunday cruise on their new all electric motor-yacht; named  Boaty McBoatface.

I have no doubt this motor-yacht will be the center of attention throughout New Mexico, and the hub of numerous gala parties and Quinceanera celebrations.