Catching Up

I know been awhile, things have been hectic.....always are in travel mode. We made it to Las Cruces and found a great State Park to spend the night. You can find info here Leasburg Dam. They have a nice level concrete pad for you to park your rv on and you have your own private little picnic shelter as well. I really liked how they had the rvs all facing away from one another toward the desert, gives you a sense of privacy.
We had electric and water for 14.00 per night. There were lots of birds and other wildlife to enjoy and great little walking paths with comfort stations along the way. We arrived here late Thursday afternoon, the wind was blowing something fierce. The camp host came out and greeted us and told us she had one spot left---lucky us! We would have liked to have stayed a couple of days, but they were full for the weekend. So, Friday morning we were up and headed toward Carlsbad by 10am. The route we took turned out to be a dozy!! We headed west on 70 out of Las Cruses. Then at Alamogordo we picked up highway 82. Little did we know that 82 took us through the Lincoln National Forest and Sacramento Mts. I guess we weren't paying attention. We rose to over 5000 feet in 16 miles and it didn't stop there. I think we were somewhere around 8000 when we finally started our journey down. Once again, we are on a small windy road going ever upward.....at the top we find road construction. The road gets even more narrow and you should have seen the look on the construction workers' faces when they saw us!! There was lots of whistling and yelling---telling one another, "heads up, look what is coming your way!". They were all using hand signals to tell DH to slow down--he just waved back--said he was already going 5 miles under their marked speed limit. DH also noticed our outside temp gauge, it had dropped to 32 degrees. Ok, so as usual, I have been using my "oh sh-t" handles to see me through the journey. I'm not feeling to well--I think the altitude is making me a little queasy. Now, we start our dissent back down the mountain. DH says it is not too bad---easy for him to say. I didn't think we were ever going to see flat ground again. By the time we did, you could see my hand imprints on the "oh sh-t" handles. LOL! Finally on flat terrain and headed to Artesia, we decided to stop at a road side park to 'potty' the dogs and water them. What a mistake! The place was loaded with those little 'sand burs' and the poor dogs were limping in no time. Spent the next 2o minutes picking them out from their paws and off the bottom of my sandals. By this time, DH and I are both tired and REALLY CRANKY!! We finally make it to Artesia and start looking for a place to get some dinner---no where can we find a restaurant with a parking lot large enough for our fiver---ever onward we go. Finally, arrive at the SKP park in Lakewood. We stop at check in and they start ringing the 'new arrival' bell. We were welcomed with open arms and lots of hugging. Boy did we need that!! We got settled, fed and watered the pups. Now it was our turn, we had passed a nice little steakhouse in Artesia and the folks here at the 'Ranch' said it was excellent. We headed back, only about 10 miles or so, and indeed did have a great dinner. By the way, the pups were wiped out too. They took up residence in our recliners and didn't even look up when we headed out the door to dinner.

Needless to say, we plan to spend at least 3 or 4 days here at the 'Ranch' to rest up and take in some of the sights. More on that a little later.....