Abilene State Park

This is a beautiful quiet state park. The weather was finally getting warm. We broke out our fire pit and enjoyed hiking and nice days.

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Coyote Flats RV Park

We visited Carlsbad National Park. Driving through the park Donna saw some big horn sheep on the mountain. Fortunately we found parking and both of us were delighted to see a large herd of both babies and Rams climbing on the cliffs.

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Silly us we didn’t make reservations before arriving at the Carlsbad Caverns. Spring break week means all reservations were taken. We went up the mountain anyway just to look around. Guess what? A very friendly ranger clued us into if we arrived by 7:30 am the next morning, we might get a couple tickets. Well, luck was on our side! We stood in the freezing cold, 40mph winds and many other tourists hoping for tickets. We not only scored tickets to the self-guided tour, but a ranger guided walk, in rooms only a few people see. That was really cool. At one point he turned off all the lights so we could experience complete darkness in the cave. He used a small torch to show how early explorers searched the cave.

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Bottomless Lakes State Park

In the summer of 1947, a rancher discovered unidentifiable debris in his sheep pasture outside Roswell, New Mexico. Although officials from the local Air Force base asserted that it was a crashed weather balloon, many people believed it was the remains of an extraterrestrial flying saucer; a series of secret “dummy drops” in New Mexico during the 1950s heightened their suspicions. Nearly 50 years after the story of the mysterious debris broke; the U.S. military issued a report linking the incident to a top-secret atomic espionage project called Project Mogul. Still, many people continue to embrace the UFO theory, and hundreds of curiosity seekers visit Roswell every year.

We had so much fun exploring Roswell. Everywhere we turned we encountered another alien. Even the museum was in on the fun. Our favorite was the local McDonalds. It had a spaceship theme, the only McDonalds in the country with a theme other than golden arches.  Of course we had dinner there.  

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We spent 3 Days in White Sands New Mexico. We saw miles and miles of beautiful White sand. We visited the space history museum and spent a full day walking in the sand dunes. We ended the day with ranger guided sunset stroll.

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Mike came back from Tulsa with a cold, but like the champ he is, he powered through the 200 mile drive to Rock Hound State Park in Deming, NM. Although it was only an overnight stay, it was gorgeous!  The sunset was beautiful and the night sky was as clear as a bell.  The desert flowers have begun to bloom making the grown glow a golden yellow and orange….
 

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We arrived at Kartchner Caverns State Park, AZ knowing that the next day, Mike would need to fly to Tulsa, OK.  We received some unfortunate news several weeks back that Michaels Uncle Charlie passed away suddenly. The services were in Tulsa.  We decided Donna would stay with The Sandman and Mike would fly to Tulsa from Tucson (the closest airport). Donna toured the caves and did a couple of hikes while Mike was gone. Although unfortunate, it was great to see many family members.

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Apache Junction, AZ has The Superstition Mountains.  Beautiful big mountains with lots of interesting folklore of lost gold mines. We hiked to a waterfall with hieroglyphic drawings that are at least 2000 years old.  Our campsite was one of the most difficult to get into. NOT because of our inability to back in, but because it had many obstacles (power and sewer boxes) and took us almost an hour to get it right. Ugggg!!!  We both had a drink after that little escapade!!  J We visited the Lost Dutchman Museum which was pretty neato.  Lots of goodies inside but also a nice trail to hike.  We visited Arizona Flats which was a beautiful drive through the mountains on a great curvy road.  The rainbow at the end was a great lunch at a restaurant called…….Superstition Restaurant and Saloon.  What a fun place!  The walls were covered with One Dollar bills that people had taped to the walls while visiting. 

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The drive on the 10 to Quartzite, AZ was very windy. It was just a layover stopping place, we visited some of the junk and rock stores.

Rocks in Quartzite

Driving white knuckle in Southern California morning traffic, we found our way to Lake Cahuilla Regional Veterans Park in La Quinta, CA again. This was our second time here and wow what a real hidden gem!  Just after setting up camp the winds came. They were predicting 75-95 MPH winds. The trailer was rocking all night.

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We were excited to be back in our home on wheels. We booked a site at Huntington Beach RV Park just steps away from the beach, next to the pier.  The site was a little expensive but worth the experience. We had dinner with our besties Jon/Becky before heading out the next morning.  It was an emotional goodbye as we knew this time, we wouldn’t be back for quite a while. 

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Our new RAM truck is FINALLY ready for pick up in NC. We planned out 500 miles a day driving, put the Sandman into storage in CA at the dealership and yet again, a drive across the country.

We spent the night upon arrival in NC with a good friend Kurt.  He lives about an hour from the dealership.  We had a great dinner out which gave us a chance to catch up on everything. 

The folks at the dealership in North Carolina were so nice. They had our new baby, front and center for us as we arrived. We did all the paperwork and did a quick test drive. Then we had the fun task of transferring all our stuff from one truck to another, which only took 3 hours LOL!! We enjoyed a very fun evening and overnight stay with Mike’s sister/family in Wake Forest.

Then it was off to Northern VA to enjoy a quick week with the kids and begin the return trip to CA after Super Bowl Sunday.  We had a fantastic party at Robbie’s with the family but it was bittersweet once again to leave the kids and grands. 

Trucks

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We celebrated Donna’s birthday with Dinner at Dukes in Huntington Beach with our friends Jon and Becky Harry.

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Ocotillo Wells, CA in the middle of nowhere is where we met some folks we know from Oceanside. They brought desert vehicles and we had so much fun exploring off road trails. We enjoyed campfires at night, telling stories and potluck dinners with yummy food. Another wind event kept us inside for a day.  However the pot at the end of the rainbow was the dark skies at night once again – and the gorgeous sunsets!!

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