Rain

The rain has kept me from doing anything interesting, or taking interesting pictures, so clicking the pics is not mandatory.

Continuing with my rule of seldom having my blog post theme, and the pictures match up with each other, this is all I've got for today. The rain has kept me from doing anything except walking around a little bit, so until the weather gets better your probably going to get lots of pictures of the bronco surrounded by scrub brush.

It was pretty chilly yesterday, and I don't think it ever made it up to 60°, and last night it got down to the mid-30s, so I had to run the heater in the bronco until I went to bed and got covered up.

 It was raining when I went to bed last night, and it was raining when I woke up this morning; it wasn't pouring down like a Florida rain, and it wasn't misting like it often does in Washington state, but it was raining hard enough that I didn't want to get out in it which is kind of rare for Colorado.

Of course, rain like this is desperately needed, especially in the San Luis Valley, where farming and ranching are a way of life. This area lives on the vicissitudes of rain and the old irrigation systems that were built generations ago to get water to the farms and ranches since the San Luis Valley is normally a dry area.

In fact about the only reason folks can farm and ranch around here is because of the blessing of the Rio Grande River that runs through Monte vista and Alamosa and the man-made irrigation canals that bring the water to the outlying areas.

Modern times also brought deep wells to the area where water was found and allowed the expansion of the farming and ranching away from the river and the irrigation canals, but even that water is now getting hard to come by.

I've been to this San Luis Valley State wildlife area, which used to be a State Park, many times and at different seasons of the year and I don't recall ever seeing it rain before. But today has more than made up for it.

This cloudy weather is also not looking good for me getting a picture of the Milky Way. If there are two things you don't need to get photos of the Milky Way, it's light and clouds, I figure it will stop raining pretty soon, but it appears clouds will be a problem.

                                                                  Theboondork

Seeing as how I'm only a few miles from the Sand Dunes National Park, it's not hard to imagine that the area where I'm camped is mostly sand. But it's just ordinary sand, not sand piled into gigantic photogenic dunes.

This campground is seldom crowded, thank goodness, so finding a campsite here is never a hit and miss proposition. And It's even more amazing considering it's free. And in some of the sites the electricity still works, and that's free also.

The sewer dump station is open, as is the dumpsters, and both are free for the campers to use.

These folks have a very nice, large, twin slide, exceedingly heavy, slide-in truck camper. and a 1 ton Chevy with the ability to tote the beast around. I would imagine this is what most folks think of if they think of full timing in a slide-in truck camper. But my truck is a three-quarter ton short bed, and doesn't have the gumption to carry around anything much heavier than the bronco.

Back years ago when this place was a State Park the building on the right was restrooms and showers, and the building on the left was the visitor center, campground check in, and the Park Rangers home was on the second floor.

But something happened to the water here at the State Park that made it unfit to drink, and that problem couldn't be solved with the very limited amount of money available to this little State Park. So by doing a paper shuffle this place went from a State Park to a State Wildlife Area, and the campground opened back up the same as it was before except it was free to anyone with an in-state hunting or fishing license, and with no potable water available.

It makes me wonder if there are any more camping bargains like this hidden in the country that no one knows about ?