Well, here it is December already. We can hardly believe that we have been retired since the end of June. We have volunteered at two lighthouses and at Young State Park in Michigan. We arrived here in Elephant Butte State Park in early October and have been having a great time. We work our combined 24 hours plus every week and then we go out and explore the area. We've traveled to some pretty nice places and have seen some interesting things. We've also had some great Mexican food and even had a pretty good green chile cheese burger. It's all the rage here, you know!
One day we took a trip to Chloride, which is an old silver mining town. This once was a booming town when the silver mines in the area were producing silver. When the silver ran out so did the people. The town is being restored by a family of three; Mom, Dad and a daughter. They have done a great job so far. The picture on the upper left is from the general store. They said that when the owner left he boarded up the windows and locked the doors. When the people restoring the town went in the first time they found out that he left everything on the shelves. They just had to clean and polish due to the fact the rats and bats left a mess on everything.
The picture on the right is also in the general store. The people shown doing their Christmas shopping is Richard and Betty. They are also volunteers at the park and were nice enough to invite us along on this trip. There is a cabin that is being restored, the bank is being turned into a cafe and there is a gift shop. There is also a small (4 space) campground and a cabin that they rent out. The lady that showed us around was very knowledgeable about everything there. She is also 81 and full of energy.
This tree is right in the center of the road coming into Chloride. It is called the hanging tree even though there is no proof that anyone was ever hung from this tree. The tree is said to be 200 years old. I think that it is a good thing that the town is so far out and away from anything and has not had to worry about any drunks hitting it. We visited a "gringo" cemetery located way up on a hill. It is a good thing that Richard drove and has four wheel drive or we would not have been able to see it. There are graves from the 1800's to the present. It was interesting to walk around and read some of the grave markers. They were made from wood, stone, granite and metal.
On another day we took a ride out to see the Very Large Array which is a radio telescope. It consists of a large number of dishes that pick up radio waves out of the sky and uses computers to put them into useable form to create a picture of the universe. The dishes are mounted on railroad tracks so they can be moved to different configurations to see different parts of the sky. It is located far from any town and is in a high valley to prevent any interference.
As you can see, they use several of these dishes (26, I think) and they move as the earth rotates so that they can study a certain area and collect all of their data. There's a nice visitor center that explains what is going on but it's still a mystery how they do what they do.
If you look at the picture to the right you can see in the lower left side Holly, Ron and Lois, our new found friends from Canada who went with us. More on Ron and Lois later! The day we went was cold and rainy that turned to sleet but it was still a nice day trip.
We had heard about a nature preserve from one of our campers. It is called Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. It is known for it's large number of Sand Cranes. There are also large numbers of other birds due to all of the lagoons and ponds that are located there. We visited during the famous Crane festival. We took the driving tour around the refuge and it was interesting to see and hear all of the different birds that call the area home during the winter. We even saw some "snow birds". We went back one day just before dark when the majority of them come back to roost for the night.
It was really cool to see large flocks of sand cranes coming in to land. They just seem to come flying in and then they slow down and just float down to the water. We were told that during the day the cranes are on land to feed and at night they move to the water so they can hear any predator trying to sneak up on them.
We had taken the dogs with us but they were not allowed out of the car and as you can see Reggie was not very happy about that. I believe he had more on his mind then bird "watching".
This is Ron and Lois, they are from Alberta Canada. They came in one day while we were working at the visitor center. When we were going back to the camp ground that evening we saw them stopped on the road and Ron was out walking around the car. We stopped to see if they needed any help and Ron thought they would be ok. Turned out they had a bad wheel bearing and a sick dog they were trying to get to a vet. I took them into town and waited to bring them home. Turns out the dog had a tumor that they knew about for a while and had finally gotten so sick that they had to put her down. It was a very sad day for them and us being the dog lovers we are. The next day I tried to help Ron fix the Mustang (1966) but the bearing had welded on the spindle so he had to order a new one and have it hooked into town to be fixed. They were stuck in Elephant Butte for about a week but made the best of it. We had a chance to spend some time with them and enjoyed several happy hours...we had a super time. They were great people and we hope to run into them again in our travels.
We spent Thanksgiving with three other volunteers. Francis, Jo Ann and George. Jo Ann is from Louisiana and made most of the dinner. We had plenty of food which included turkey, rice, sweet potato casserole, cornbread stuffing and fruit salad (it was nothing like the fruit salad we are used to). Holly made deviled eggs, green bean casserole and a carrot cake. I did miss mashed potatoes and gravy but I didn't go away hungry. We ate outside in one of the shelters and the weather was great during the day. Later that night the rain started and kept up for a couple of days.
On another day we went to visit a ghost town but unfortunately, it was closed. We run into that a lot here, but we did get to see Lizard Mountain. Look at the picture and see if you can see why they call it that. I will give you one hint--look on the right side of the mountain.
With the holiday season approaching, it was time to put up the lights. I spent a day decorating the Mesquite tree by us as well as our shelter and the palm tree. It was sunny and warm and everything went very well. Holly has decorated the inside of the motor home and put up a tree. It's looking a lot like Christmas here.
The lights look nice, don't they?
How is this for a Christmas tree? Everything was just great. The lights were up, the weather was warm and sunny then it snowed. That's right SNOW, three inches of that heavy, wet, cold stuff. It even had the nerve to break one of the leaves on our palm tree. It had stopped by morning and I was able to take the tree down to the shop here at the park and use the welder to fix it.
It was so pretty outside when the sun came up. I took a walk around the park and took a few pictures. The one below is my favorite. It's a picture of Elephant Butte Lake with Kettle Top Butte in the back ground. As I am working on this, it is snowing again. The temp is 23 and the wind chill is 5 degrees and it's suppose to get down to 13 tonight and down to 9 tomorrow night. The bright side is it's going to start warming up after that and the furnace works!
Well that's it for now. We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from New Mexico. I will probably do a update later on in the month. There are a few things coming up and I will have to see if I get any good pictures. As I said, it's been an adventure, even with the snow and cold, but when you are at 4800 feet in the high desert surrounded by mountains, you have to expect some kind of weather. Anyway, how can we be snow birds without snow?
How is this for a Christmas tree? Everything was just great. The lights were up, the weather was warm and sunny then it snowed. That's right SNOW, three inches of that heavy, wet, cold stuff. It even had the nerve to break one of the leaves on our palm tree. It had stopped by morning and I was able to take the tree down to the shop here at the park and use the welder to fix it. 
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