Friday May 24th 2019

Day 42

Phoenix and I went for a walk around the Hollowman Air Base free camping area in the early morning as far the horrible stench coming from the sickening water would let us go, I had to cover my face at one point. Phoenix seemed immune to the smell.

Just for safety measures we thought it was a good time to start with teaching Phoenix directions and finding his way back to camp. Which is exactly what he was finally able to do with just the help of one redirect.

Half hour from our free camping spot sits the worlds largest pistachio. Little did we know a thing like this existed we did not get such a great picture nor took the time for turning around as the time crunch was on to make our one and only reservation of the trip within the next week with way to many places to hit in between.

We did make it a point to break at Valley of Fires to break up the monotonous 270 mile, almost 5 hour drive to Bandelier National Monument. Valley of Fires Recreation Area host extraordinary work by nature, lava beds from about 5,000 years ago, considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the US. Blooming cacti and tarantula hawks adding to its awe. The short three quarter mile paved narrating walkway makes for an interestingly beautiful one.

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Fun fact about Tarantula Hawks and just how weird and twisted this world is – “An adult female will paralyze a tarantula with its stinger, and then transport the spider back to the hawk’s nest. Once there, the female lays an egg in the spider’s abdomen, then covers the entrance of the burrow to trap the spider.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/tarantula-hawk.htm

Walking back to the RV is when reality hit hard and in such a blessing way. We were doing it! Us ordinary small town folks from Wisconsin were really pulling this off, our dream of cruising the US by RV. Life is precious and were making moments count.

Another gorgeous 3 hours on the road brought us a sleepy lil man, views to match any road trip song, cruised through the art filled capital and news of our intended spot for the night being already filled. Can’t win them all right. I hopped on the search for a new spot and quickly came upon White Rock Visitor Center RV Park, a gold mine for our next adventure. $20 for a 24 hour stay comes with electric, access to water and best of all a free shuttle bus to/from Bandelier National Monument. You also get a snippet view of snow capped mountains in the distance.

A cold one to end the night.

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