May finds the Rolling Home at home.  Sort of.  We arrived back at The Ranch in Lakewood, New Mexico on our leased lot.  We decided to come  back here for about three weeks before heading to Pueblo, Colorado for the western Discovery Owners Association rally which is being held the third week of May.  We figured we could sit at The Ranch for three weeks and not spend much money while recovering from our busy March and April.  Much to our surprise, many of our friends from The Ranch were still here.  We figured that warmer weather and the call of the grandkids, would send most of them north or east.

We were pleased to find our friends Steve and Dream Lamberson were still here.  Steve is a ham (KD6GXT) and he and I have spoken on our radios on the RV Service net.  This net meets weekdays at noon and again at 5 p.m. as a service to RV travelers.  The last time Steve and I talked was when we were at Arizona Charlie's in Las Vegas.   Several other friends we had made at The Ranch were also here.

We settled in on our lot and just decided to chill for a few days.  After about four or five days, I decided that perhaps getting some maintenance work done would be a good thing, so I changed the oil in the Tracker and attempted to change the oil in our motorhome.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the oil drain plug out of the crankcase. Deja vu.  The same thing happened the first time I was attempting to change the oil in our genset.  I guess the last guy to change this oil used an air wrench to put the plug back in.  Too bad, now I have 4 gallons of oil and a filter that I won't be able to use until next year.  I will have to take the rig into a service center and pay the $100 plus for an oil change that I can do for about $60.  Its a good thing that this only happens once a year!  I need to take the D in for a change of the tranny fluid anyway, so I guess we will just bite the bullet and have it done one more time.

The Ranch has pretty bad water and one of the items on our Spring business meeting was the acquisition of a new water treatment plant.  This item was approved and we expected it to be installed by the time we got back around May 1.  It wasn't .  Some problems occurred during shipping and as I type this journal on May 12, the thing still is not here.  It finally arrived on the 15th and the park manager installed it right away.  We noticed a difference in the water within 24 hours.  It was amazing.

While sitting on our lot at The Ranch, we did a little exploring in the area.  We took a day trip to Artesia, ate lunch at Granny's Barbecue.  Good food, great price.  We also started out one day to find the Queen Valley RV park and cafe.  Unfortunately, it was about 30 miles from the main road and we only had a quarter tank of fuel, so we turned around before we got there.  We did have to stop three times for cows and horses on the road.  Living and driving in the west is sometimes more challenging than one thinks.  Open range is an adventure in driving everytime you go down a road less traveled!

Our good friends and Alaska travel companions, the Holders arrived at The Ranch for a few days on the 14th.  We visited, played Mexican Train with them and generally had a good time once again.  They left the same day we did, but they were headed for Flagstaff and we were headed north.

We reluctantly left The Ranch on May 17, heading for northern New Mexico.  After refueling in Roswell, NM (no aliens again), we pushed on up U.S. 285 toward I 40.  At Clines Corner, we pulled into the truck stop to fix lunch and there were the Holders.  We ate in the RV and they were just coming out of the restaurant as we were leaving.  We waved and went our separate ways.  We will see them again in Yellowstone National Park in June.

We traveled through some very empty country, seeing lots of Antelope and other wild creatures as we traveled north.  After Clines Corner, we continued to follow 285 to I 25 near Santa Fe.  We drove through downtown Santa Fe and headed on north toward the mountains.  Our destination was Tierra Amarilla, a very small town about 65 miles west of Taos, NM.  We arrived at the RV park after traveling through some of the most spectacular scenery one can imagine.  The park is a C2C park, so it only cost us $6 a night.  The park was almost empty, but the first two rigs we saw were from Union County Georgia, where we had our last house.  We spent some time visiting with two couples who lived less than 5 miles from our old home.   Then we also found a couple  from Okeechobee, Florida, who lived two blocks from the house we had there.  It is such a small world.

We did a day trip to Taos and also up to Chama, NM where the Chambres and Toltec narrow gauge RR runs.  It had not yet started the summer season so we will have to go back to ride that train.  The scenery in this part of New Mexico is just spectacular.  Lots of tall, snow capped mountains, gorges, open desert etc.  We also crossed the Rio Grande River Gorge just west of Taos.  It is incredible. 

On Monday, the 21st we left Tierra Amarilla and headed for Colorado.  We drove up to route 160 and headed east over Wolfe Creek Pass.  This pass goes up to around 10,500 feet in elevation.  The D did quite well, no overheating and it pulled the 8 miles of 6% grade with no problem.  At the top of the pass, of course, the ground is still snow covered.  It was quite a sight.

Then we had to come down 8 miles of 6% grade.  Thanks to the exhaust brake on our pusher, I only touched the service brakes twice.  Once as we were coming into a snow shed across the road and then again when we had to stop for construction to repair a piece of the road covered by a landslide.

We rolled out into a very big valley on the east side of the mountain range and continued on through some small towns and
Alamosa which was a bit bigger.  While negotiating Alamosa, we called our daughter in Florida on the cell phone and she informed us that we are going to be grandparents again.  I hope this time she manages a single.  Twins are fun, but I think two sets would be more excitement than any of us need!