Saturday, May 15, 2004

Navajo Lake State Park

Saturday

A leisurely leaving from Antlers. Said goodbye to everybody. Patty and her
daughter came down from the office to say goodbye to Annie and pet Rags.
Her husband, Chuck, he's also the attorney for the Theatre, sent his
regards. Wayne the maintenance guy came by on the four-wheeler. Steve, the
foreman came by, walking down the dirt road with a bouquet of anniversary
and mothers day flowers for us from Matt and Kari. They found us way out
here!

Off to South Fork. Lunch at the rest stop. Took on a half tank of number 2
diesel to dilute the remaining number 1, thank you Answer Man. Wolf Creek
Pass. Rugged. Mountain valleys. Raging rivers. Lakes. Wildflowers.
Pagosa Springs. It's green here. Very green. And here we are. A hundred
miles.

Navajo Lake State Park. Another lake state park. Rolling hills. Semi-arid
scrub forest, juniper, sage; right on the New Mexico border. Most of this
lake is in New Mexico. Significantly lower altitude than we've been. Two
thousand feet lower. We're down to sixty six hundred feet. Eighty degrees
when we arrived.

Made good use of the bicycles. My afternoon run consisted entirely of a
bicycle ride with Judy.

Good birds: Wilson's warblers, Bullock's Orioles, Western Kingbirds,
Eastern Kingbirds, Mourning Doves, Red Wing Blackbirds, Chipping sparrows,
Bluebirds, tons and tons of bluebirds, Seagulls, White egrets, Crows,
Ravens, and Brewers Blackbirds. Then it got dark. And guess what! The
Wilson's warblers are new for us. 294.

Traveling from town to town, we can run into some pretty funky water. We
have a routine worked out that, so far, has provided consistently good
drinking water. First, the water system we're attached to does whatever it
will to prepare the water. Then, we run it through a big canister filter,
hooked to the water line, before it even gets inside our motorhome. It goes
through the drinking water filter at the sink. Finally, Judy pours it into
one of those Brita gravity filter pitchers she keeps in the refrigerator,
and the water comes out wonderful.

Tomorrow, we have fifty miles to go to Durango.