The most frequent question we heard as we prepared for our seventh annual crossing of the United States was, “Are you going to take a different route this year?” If you have been following, you know that we departed from our usual route when we left Virginia. We had not gone to Florida since 2005 and this time we went south of Okeechobee and spent time in Boynton Beach. As we passed through New Orleans we went way south to Grand Isle. Finally when we left Austin we turned north out of Ft Stockton headed for Carlsbad then on to Bosque Del Apache NWR (National Wildlife Refuge) where we have settled in to Bosque Bird Watchers RV Park. I expect that, weather permitting, we will continue across the high plain of New Mexico to Arizona where the choice will be north to I 40 (very unlikely) or south to I 10 and on into Tuscon. That all remains to be seen. The forecast for tonight is snow and freezing rain in this area which may cause some different thoughts in the morning. Our plan now is to decide what we are doing tomorrow. So what else is new?

Today’s forecast (February 15, 2008) was for difficult driving conditions and snow and rain and fog, etc along our route. We had clouds followed by sun with temperatures ranging from the 30’s into the mid 60’s depending on altitude. We had decided to head for this campground as it overlooks the overnight roost of the Sandhill Cranes that are migrating through Bosque Del Apache. When we were here several years ago, we were searching for the cranes and after arriving late in the evening we were stunned to be awakened by the large birds flying out of their roosting pools with the sunrise. After we got here this time, we set up quickly and took the car to tour the NWR to see as many birds as we could. I will spare you the entire list. We did see a Bald Eagle and many Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. The ducks were too numerous to even determine how many species we saw. The last addition to the list were several Killdeer and of course we saw a Great Blue Heron.

This is not high season here! There are six or seven campers in the campground. The nearest town is San Antonio, NM and there is nothing there but a bar and grill. Socorro counts as the big city and it is not big enough for a Wal Mart and it is 50 miles away. 60 miles north of that is Albuquerque. As many or more miles to the south is Las Cruces. I expect we will see neither of them this trip.

To go back briefly. We had a great stay at the Carlsbad KOA. Although we seldom stay at KOA’s because they offer many amenities that are not of interest to us and are priced accordingly, this place is very special. We have never seen such nice facilities in ANY campground. I had the smoked brisket dinner, delivered to the coach for $10.00 and really enjoyed it. That is a treat I do not remember being offered in any campground we have stayed in. Susan and Scott are working very hard to make an enjoyable stay. They even arranged for me to have a local mechanic come to the site and change the oil in Gee 2. This is a change in their basic policy which forbids such work being done on premises. Dave, who did the work, was very concerned to keep the site clean and prevent any spillage of oil. His price was very fair as well, especially as he had a 15 mile drive to get to us. Thank you to the Bachers. If you are going that way, I can certainly recommend a stay there.