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October 19 to October 25, 2002
Notice; this page contains one picture of a spider; there is a large warning ahead of the picture so those sensitive to such things can click on the hotlink to jump over it.
Saturday October 19:
I awoke at 5AM to find the RV downright cold, and the battery at 45%; no furnace or computer until we can run the generator, and this is Internet day too! :-( I returned to bed until 6:30, when I finally decided to run the laptop on it's internal battery until I could get away with starting the generator. The laptop battery ran dead at 7:15, so we started the genny; Claire awoke an hour later and reported she did not even hear it... :-)) One advantage of a Walmart parking lot is NO QUIET HOURS. :-) We drove toward Bandolier National Monument, hoping to find signs as we had no clear directions, only the general location from our maps. We stopped at a tourist info center, which took us a few hundred feet off track, but permitted this photo of the newly (after yesterday's rain) snow capped mountains over Santa Fe, a reminder that the weather here bears watching!
It turned out to be quite easy to find Bandolier WITHOUT buying the maps from the so called "Tourist Information" center that really was only a store for local jewelry and handcrafts, and wanted $3 for a MAP. Grrrrr...... Bandolier is a well kept secret, with a beautiful campground and an archeological site with hands on ancient cliff dwellers houses ...delightful.
We tagged along with a ranger guided group of alumni and faculty from Vassar College, and found many interesting things to crawl into... :-) These dug caves are mostly small, dark, and extremely difficult to photograph, as you only get a piece of a view; here is one of the larger, now under restoration.
The entry ladder is on the lower right, with the blackened roof as was their style, and since this was a ceremonial kiva, a ceiling with ornate form and wooden pieces sticking out from the wall, which undoubtedly served some purpose in their ceremonies. They also built adobe dwellings right at the cliff base, often integrating caves as well. Here are some excavated ruins.
The holes in the cliff side supported roof timbers, and indicate the adobe buildings were multi-story. Petroglyphs are scratched into the cliff, but are not so easily seen, as the color does not change here when the surface is scratched. Here is a color painting on the cliff face which has been covered with glass, to protect it from further damage from the elements.
On the way out, we stopped at an overlook at the top of the canyon and looked back at where we had been.
The sun illuminated the cliffs where the dwellings are, and we could see the trail leading down the canyon to the Rio Grande on the shadowed far side of the canyon. As usual, the place on the canyon floor with water is designated by the large (and now colorful) trees. Such MAGNIFICENT scenery..... :-) When we got back to the campground, conversations with other campers indicated that this park was not overused, even in Summer, as the $20 entrance fee kept many locals from using it heavily with other free places available on public land nearby. Of course, our golden age pass waived the entrance fee and cut campground charges in half, to $5 a night. The cell service here is digital, and with the amplifier seems to work fine. This is a beautiful campground. We decide to stay an extra day or two, as long as the weather cooperates. Claire cooked squash soup from a recipe in the Pueblo Indian cookbook we had bought at the Grand Canyon. The thin air makes the pressure cooker take a LONG time to vent it's steam, with tall clouds of vapor visible for minutes.
The squash and lamb soup is DELICIOUS, yet another reason to encourage cookbook buying... :-) It seems quite appropriate in this setting too.
This one is a keeper to be used back home too.
Sunday October 20:
I awoke early to finish the webpage; the battery was at 70%, very good! Claire reviewed the webpage, I corrected the errors and tried to upload; even with the amplifier I kept losing both the servers on FTP, and was unable to re-sign in without waiting for a VERY long (half hour?) timeout. Evidently FTP is very unforgiving of errors on the link? I decide to go with our activity plan for the day, then try to upload from a very strong signal area elsewhere, perhaps in Los Alamos, this evening. We walked 1.1 miles on a trail to the large ceremonial cave 140 ft above canyon floor. The trail was interesting despite the possibility of showers; this huge Ponderosa pine might be fundamental to the definition of "ponderous"? :-)
The creek that made settlement here possible, and dug this deep canyon seems insignificant now in the drought, but is still nourishing a pleasant environment on its banks.
The canyon bottom is kept cool and pleasant by the trees growing along it's banks. Of course, heavy rains up the canyon can cause flash floods here too; it looks like the hillside is not too steep here to climb above rising water if that unlikely threat should occur..., and severe showers are not predicted today. :-) We reached the ladders to the ceremonial cave, and made the climb.
As usual with such things, it looks much worse looking up at it than it does doing it. The trail is narrow and requires waiting for those going the opposite way at times, but it is worth the effort.
The cave contained it's own ceremonial Kiva, the circular structure on the left with the ladder leading down into it through the roof opening. Holes in the cave walls for roof poles show it had adobe houses built along the walls.
Traces of black fan up from the opening, remains of prehistoric fires in the cave. Traces of the black have survived time, the elements, and excavation and can be seen on the cave roof as well. It is truly amazing that the prehistoric people would have dug and built this here. We returned to snack in the RV at the visitors center, passing the trail along the cliff base that we had walked yesterday. In the overcast light of today we found some petroglyphs showed up better. This Toucan (bill to the left) under the overhanging ledge is well preserved.
This overview of the canyon floor and the circle of excavated adobe structures is awesome, especially with the fall gold colors the trees add to the landscape.
Claire drove out of the Frijoles Canyon toward the campground, while I watched the cellphone signal strength. At the top of the canyon there was a 5 bar signal, and the parking area for the canyon overlook appeared. :-)) From here uploading went fast, and two hours later it was finished on both the main and mirror sites. We returned to the campground to find the gate to our site closed; we had paid for THIS site on the way out, so we opened the gate. There was one other camper in the area; perhaps they had closed the gate for privacy? Too bad...... Dinner was warmed squash soup and spoon bread, quite a feed! Telephone calls from the campground worked, but not well; the cell we were into frequently said all circuits busy, and the connections were often noisy; well...at least we got through. Early bed this night, as it was rainy and raw outside. Walking Pookie I observed our tenting neighbors as I stood huddled with my hands in my pockets; the man wore a pullover wool cap....and SHORTS???? Oh well, this is back country, to each his own. I did download email from the campsite at 11PM, and it worked, but slowly. At least we got one last chance to see our email before 5 days of abstinence, and it does not take too long. :-)
Monday October 21:
I awoke at 5AM, found the house battery is 50%, and went back to bed; I slept until 9AM!! WOW, I must have needed that. The neighbor is out of his tent, we start the generator and furnace and water heater. Soon it will be warm enough for showers. We have water and a dump station here! :-) We plan to stay one more day, then see the museums in Los Alamos on the way back south. Before noon we signed up for our campsite 82 again and paid on the way out to the visitors center. We occupied our usual sole big RV parking slot at the visitors center and proceeded to eat lunch before embarking on the 5 mile round trip hike down Frijoles Canyon to the Rio Grande. This hike includes 700 feet of vertical drop, and was really beautiful with the pink canyon walls contrasting with the Fall gold leaves.
We passed two waterfalls, and I was surprised to see how attractive the tiny Frijoles Creek could look falling over the cliffs.
The second falls was also quite pretty.
I was amazed to see the Rio Grande appeared wider and deeper here than in Big Bend Park on the Mexican border.
I guess a lot of water gets used on the way to the border.... After the traditional touching of the water in the Rio Grande, we started the hike back; this is as far DOWN as we can go without getting wet. :-)
Warning! Spider picture below; Hit this JUMP link to skip over it if it bothers you.
Claire, who was leading on the trail, beckoned me silently, and I set the digital zoom on my camera. She whispered that a tarantula had crossed the trail ahead of us, so I proceeded ahead, and she pointed it out sitting motionless near the edge of the trail. To my surprise it was brown, and camouflaged perfectly with the vegetation of the landscape. I took numerous pictures, culminating in this close up from 10 inches away.
Hit THIS link to SEE the spider picture
Hit this link to move on to the following text
I trusted the spider would jump to the camera if it jumped, as it was closest. :-) It just remained motionless, trying to make itself small and inconspicuous, seemingly quite terrified....we decided not to reveal it's presence to those following behind us on the trail, for it's safety, and continued on. I was impressed by it's hairyness. The ranger in the visitors center said tarantulas are always brown, and do not jump, and would not bite, and are often out at this time of year. Well, I thought they were black and DID jump, and could bite humans though rarely did, but what do I know? :-) We returned to the campground and dumped on the way in, then proceeded to our campsite, only to find the loop leading to it closed again and LOCKED...grrrr, we'd PAID already for that site! We went into the only open loop and picked the largest open site, and backed in, then had to use two leveling blocks on each driver's side wheel. The campground host was not home, but I left a note explaining what we'd done, then walked to retrieve our aloe plant that had been left soaking up rays and (we had hoped) marking our site as occupied. Somehow, more walking after our afternoon hike was NOT what I had in mind when we got here... :-) Claire prepared delicious chicken-bok choy stir fry with rice and we watched TV. This site is higher and cell and TV signals are stronger than they were in the other site; some consolation for our inconvenience anyway..... I found bed beckoned strongly this night, and left Claire and the TV to keep each other company.
Tuesday October 22:
Battery was 58% at 3AM, and COLD; no computing today. We need the battery for the furnace until we can start the generator at 8 AM. I guess I must find a garage that can do a 15.5 volt equalization charge on our house batteries, and try and figure out how to raise the charging voltage from the converter too, so we can get more charge dumped into them in the relatively short time we run the generator! I had forgotten to download the pictures for two days now, and really needed to do it. I decided to do it using the laptop's battery. I turned on the furnace; VERY necessary, it is 47 degrees in here! It runs for 40 minutes without stopping. I was surprised at how fast the smartcard reader discharged the laptop battery, and 15 minutes later switched to house battery power for that too....we can generate in another 15 minutes anyway. :-) We ran the generater an hour and a half, then showered AGAIN, mmmm, hot and NICE! We drove to Los Alamos, and due to navigation error climbed the worst switchback to date. We soon recovered our bearings, but then had to return DOWN that switchback; ooops! For the first time, despite being in 1st gear, I actually had to use the brakes to slow down to the recommended 10 mph for some of the turns. I guess that is why they make brakes.... :-) We were overtaken on the downgrade by a tractor trailer and pulled over to let him pass; I was using both lanes on some of the switchback turns and I imagine he was too. I was grateful for the light traffic. No time for pictures on this run, as I was driving.... We entered Los Alamos, and were struck by the street names; Trinity Drive, Bikini Atoll, Oppenheimer....this is a nuclear age town for sure! We found the laundromat just where the park ranger had described it, and squeezed into the parking lot a long walk away with bags of clothes, but it was a long time since laundry for us. Our wardrobe has been growing rather than hunt for the always elusive and hidden laundromats, which require local knowledge to find. The day was predicted rainy with thunderstorms, and with the threatening dark sky, we felt lucky we were able to time our walks with laundry to the lulls between showers. I found opportunity to remove the converter and look for possible adjustments to the voltage; there were NONE!!! This unit is a ferroresonant design, and quite inexpensive as such units go, not well regarded in the RVing community, and now we know why.... grrrr. I guess we have gotten away with it for so long by being either plugged in or driving a lot...it certainly will not do if we wish to spend several days at a time in boondock campgrounds with restricted generator hours, and watch TV too. I managed to get the unit reinstalled and tools away before it rained again. Claire reported seeing heavy hail from the laundromat windows, but I had just attributed the noise on the roof of the RV to rain...duhhhh. After finishing the laundry, we went on around the block in search of the Los Alamos Historical Museum, the Post Office, and Bradbury Science Museum. The historical museum was interesting, but forbid photography inside. It did have an interesting display of prehistoric adobe ruins, much like those in Bandolier Monument, and also an early settler's cabin which had been moved from it's original location and now is under restoration. I thought the contractor's use of the display's adobe outbuilding to shelter his generator from the rain was interesting.... :-)
We perused the museum's interior quickly, interesting though it was, as it was mid afternoon, and walked to the Post Office to mail a bill payment, then on to the science museum. We were greeted by an enthusiastic an knowledgeable lady who told us a bit about the geology of the area, and why it had been picked for the WW2 atomic bomb development lab location (isolation, mild climate, and little occupancy), then turned us loose to wander among the exhibits. She assured us that photographs were allowed as all the material shown there is now declassified. :-) There were just as many, if not more, historical displays than at the historical museum, and more modern applications of the Los Alamos Laboratory's expertise as well. This display was quite interesting, and well done; we spent considerable time there becoming familiar with unknown (or forgotten) details of the Manhattan Project and the history surrounding it.
I found the museum intriguing, and we stayed until one minute before closing time. I was not too concerned about the radiation from this training dummy of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki; the real one could not possibly get confused with it....
The poster entitled "Does Los Alamos Glow in the Dark?" squarely addressed that fear; they say no. We did not stay long enough to find out for sure... :-) The graphs presented did indicate a trivial contribution to personal radiation exposure from Lab activity, but a much larger contribution due to the high altitude of the area here. Oh well, people have lived here a long time.... There was an area in the museum devoted to the controversy over our use of the bomb on Japan. After reviewing these arguments presented here, I can only conclude that after over 50 years of hindsite and many people's soul searching and pouring over records from many sources (not all available to decision makers at the time), nothing has convinced me that President Truman made the wrong decision in 1945.... Horrible it was, but less horrible than any other alternative he had. As we walked back to the RV, we passed a Chinese restaurant advertising an all you can eat buffet; we asked, and some of the dishes had no MSG, so we decided to have dinner there before driving the 40 miles to Santa Fe's Walmart for the night. It was still darkly overcast and threatening when we departed near dusk, and we appreciated the GPS and LED flashlight for navigation; it was REALLY easy, as all we had to do was retrace our GPS track to a place we had been before. :-)) The laundry was soon away, and I was in bed before Claire got the TV turned on. :-)
Wednesday October 23:
The battery is at 70% charge today, a result undoubtedly due to our driving to Los Alamos and back to Santa Fe. I am increasingly convinced we have no alternative but to replace our converter with one that is adjustable in voltage, so we can recharge the battery quickly with the generator. Our electrical needs exceed the capability of that inverter with only a few hours a day running the generator. More generator operation is impractical. Only driving saves the situation now. The Progressive Dynamics P9155 converter with charge wizard comes highly recommended, and we will look this weekend on the web. It showered a cold rain most of the morning, and we delayed leaving the Walmart lot, cooking beans for dinner instead. I bought a few things, and was told Walmart does not dispose of used motor oil, but Autozone does. We parked in the Santa Fe old town lot again, but bought only 3 hours time today. I accompanied Claire in her search for the perfect jewelry, but when the Georgia O'keefe Museum wanted $8 admission, I decided my time would be better used working on the web page. I saw enough in the bookstore to know I was not interested further. On the way back, I passed the building that had been used as the "public" office of the Manhattan Project in WW2, sending participants on to Los Alamos in secrecy by bus.
The building now houses an art gallery. Claire returned around 4 PM, and we decided to move right out to the Sam's in Albuquerque, an hours drive away. Dinner was ready and we would arrive just in time to eat it. We did not plan on the person who decided to commit suicide in his car in a public way, shutting I-25 down in both directions for most of the afternoon as police negotiated unsuccessfully with him, then had to complete their investigation. The CB got us initial information when we hit the backup, but TV and radio news crews were on the scene too.
This gives new meaning to the term "On Location"; live coverage
of a not very dynamic traffic jam.... :-) After hours of delay, the traffic was detoured
over 15 miles of two lane roads, through an Indian Pueblo, and back onto the
interstate. It was near dusk by the time we returned to I-25 south of
the closure, and the sky was darkened by numerous thunderstorms. The wind
picked up north of Albuquerque, and the RV became a challenge to handle in the
gusts. A truck passed, and I could see why; the truck appeared to be crabbing
down the road at a ridiculous angle just to avoid being blown off the road.
A check of my steering wheel position indicated we were probably doing
the same thing; not good for tire wear, but then RV tires usually do not wear
out treads, but get too old and must be replaced to avoid blowouts between 5
and 8 years of age. We found the Sams, but as the map had no 3D info on
it, passed it by on a steep ramp to another level of the highway, and had to
turn back to enter the parking lot from a different road. There were no
other RV's here, but plenty of space. It was not really level, but I thought
it would do. As it was 7:30, we were both quite tired of driving and hungry;
shopping would come AFTER dinner. While we were getting settled to eat,
the sky opened; it was one "hail" of a storm, with MUCH rain and many
close lightning strikes to go with it. We had picked a spot away from
the store, higher up the hill; how glad we were! 
The lowest part of the lot flooded....YIKES! We have a lot of stuff stored in the lockers underneath....and the generator too. I checked the refrigerator as I did dishes; it was getting warmer. :-( I concluded we would have to move, and got out between showers to see if I could find a level spot. The top spot next to the driveway looked nearly level if the tires were placed in the little rain gutter on the edge of the lot. I finished the dishes, the TV show finished, and we moved. We turned out near level, and I prepared for bed; as I looked closely at the refrigerator, the CHECK light was on, not the normal operation light. The fridge had shut down! I recalled the high gusty winds on the drive into Albuquerque, and I'm sure the wind had blown the gas flame out too many times, so the safety circuit shut the fridge down. The labeling of the lights are not easy to see in low light, so I had not noticed, even when I had checked the nearby freezer thermometer, that the wrong lights were lit. A fast power off reset, and the fridge was back to normal. This is the second time we have seen this happen since we have travelled in the RV, and I recall the first time was a day of gusty driving too. I sure did sleep, though repeated lightning storms came through all night. The only thing I do recall was the offering from one of the cats that lay under the fridge when I got up to check it in the night; Sam's lot lights gave enough of a clue that I missed stepping in it, but midnight clean up was required... :-((( This has been an eventful day; not boring for sure, but then perhaps I could tolerate being just a l'il more "bored"....:-)
Thursday October 24:
Our battery is at 70% charge again today. :-) I awoke at 7AM, and did some computer work until Claire awoke. The sun rose brightly, perhaps the storms have passed???? We will shower here, then shop at Sam's before going to dump and take on water at Flying J. I must admit the night here was quieter than the busy Flying J lot, but I have a feeling that the noise at Flying J's would have been drowned out by the thunder of last night .... :-) We shopped Sams, replacing those items we felt were in short supply, or would keep through 7 weeks of storage. We then headed for the Pueblo Indian Cultural center to look over their jewelry again, had lunch there, then moved to Flying J to fuel and dump. We were surprised that the cost of fuel here had gone up 6 cents since we had last been here. Time to download another Flying J price sheet! We fueled anyway, but could have saved $2 by fueling at Sams; we then would have had to find a dump spot though, so I'm satisfied. The trip to Grants went without incident, but we did have to slow way down for a while to let a truck deliberately running on a failed tire get far enough ahead so we could see and avoid the "alligators" (tire tread pieces) he was leaving in his wake. These can damage us seriously if we hit a big one. We passed this Indian pueblo visible from a rest stop where we changed drivers.
They were selling local crafts to visitors in the rest stop from shops located behind the highway right of way fence.
In the Grants info center we got more advice on the El Malpais National Monument, and watched a 45 minute video on Historic Route 66, which ran from Chicago to the California coast. We run along parts of Rt 66 on I-40, have seen some deserted gas stations and motels, and wondered if we should take a side trip. We're still deciding.... :-) We shopped for a few things at Walmart's that were unavailable at Sam's, then dined on burritos with left over beans and fresh cut vegetables. :-) I needed a mirror to investigate the loose water tank tie down straps I cannot see, so returned to buy that, as Claire started the Pilates tape. I asked about motor oil recycling; a lady told me a place in town takes it, but they are open days only; that's OK with me! We've carried this drain for weeks. I returned to watch a bit of TV, but soon found my pillow beckoning.
Friday October 25:
Battery is 67% today at 5AM, it's COLD outside (40) and in. Furnace took 45 minutes to warm us up. As we plan to drive a long way today, I compute as much as I want. We went looking for a drop off point for our used motor oil, and found a used parts place who took it free; I was surprised that the attendant reached into a full funnel of oil with his bare hand to retrieve a foreign object that was clogging the filter screen...YECH. Anyway, no comment from me as he was accepting the oil for free. :-) We then drove 20 miles to Calderon loop trail in the National Monument, and poked short distances into some lava tube caves.
We were not properly equipped for caving, having only one flashlight and two keychain lights between the two of us, and no hard hats or gloves. We intended NOT to venture beyond some glimmer of daylight. The caves we visited had no opportunity to venture beyond daylight it turned out, but the hard hat would have been nice. Some of the lava chunks looked quite ready to succumb to the pull of gravity at any time.
We decided we really preferred our hiking above ground, so proceeded along the trail past lava sink holes, and a bat cave which we were forbidden to enter to preserve any resident Mexican Freetailed Bats' peace and quiet. :-)
After our last underground experience, we were not TOO disappointed at being denied entrance here... We finally reached the top of a volcanic cinder cone 500 feet above our starting point, where we could look down into the ancient now dormant lava vent.
We quickly decided we did NOT have to hike to the bottom of the vent, since there was no way to get out except by climbing back to the top of the cone. Instead we opted to follow the trail DOWN the loose cinders toward the trail back to the RV. What fun, almost like skiing without skis on the loose "cinder powder"; weight back, heels dig in, slide a few feet, then another step... :-)
This was a great take in, and we were surprised we were the only users of the trail, until we returned to the RV around 2PM, and shortly were joined by a bus load of school kids and a few adults, all with helmets and flashlights, preparing to descend into a cave.
We were relieved to see that most participants had at least a hard hat, even if only a bicycle helmet; DUHHH, we have those too..... :-(. We planned to drive 190 miles to Winslow AZ before stopping for the evening, so after walking Purry, we left. The drive was uneventful, and we arrived before sundown. As I worked to complete the webpage for upload this weekend, Claire prepared pork chops, which we ate with left over Bok Choy and rice.
Plans:
We found a new 110 VAC to 12 VDC converter, which we will have shipped to us at the UPS terminal in Tucson. There just happen to be many activities there next weekend too. :-) We are now back in Cottonwood AZ, where we will spend most of this rainy weekend at 3020 ft, well below the snow line. We saw mixed rain/snow precipitation coming in here above 7000 ft this afternoon; that is enough of THAT stuff! With it's strong digital cell signal, and the nearby Manzanita restaurant, where we have reservations tomorrow night, we expect to have an enjoyable time in here Cottonwood. What happens between here and Tucson? Check the page next week. :-) Until then, ENJOY!