Day 17: Howling at the ambulance: Columbus, NM to Kertchner Caverns State Park, Benson, AZ

t’s a lovely day in the neighbourhood.  Chilly and windy last night.  Despite the fact the wind follows us everywhere, we had a nice walk around the campsite and toured the museum that is onsite.  It was pretty cool seeing the old cars, plane and artifacts.  There was even a big truck made my the Four Wheel Drive (FWD) company.  All from around 1916.

Last night we went out to view the stars.  We have had moon and cloud up until then.  We saw a bunch of stars and “The Wall” all lit up for nighttime.  

Morning walk was around the campground including some of the trails. Climbed Coutts hill a few times.  

We departed around 1000 for Kertchner Caverns, AZ.  Wind was much less than previous days.  There was a route mostly due west along the Mexican border and then down towards Tombstone and back North to where we are.  But, we chose the easier route up to highway 10 and west.  Along the way we went through our second immigration check point and saw one of the surveillance blimps floating in the air.  

Scenery along the drive was amazing.  More mountains, some different stuff near that place.  

We stopped in Deming at a Dollar Store and for gas.  

We arrived at the campground at 1400.  Got registered in and found our campsite.  Beautiful views.  Liz called and registered me for a cave tour tomorrow at 0900.  She will stay with Amy.  Good thing AZ is one hour behind NM!  

Cell coverage isn’t great here.  Have not been able to find an ideal spot for the MIMO antenna on the JetPack.

We went out for a hike on one of the trails with Amy.  Saw a cactus we had not seen before.  Would be nice to have some more time to hike them all, but we depart tomorrow for Tucson.

Way back a few days ago we attempted to book a Harvest Host.  We never heard back.  We checked frequently even as we passed the location.  The host marked us as a no show. Now we get to gather all the details and let Harvest Host know we don’t deserve the no show status.  It’s tough trying to stay places for free 🙂

Dinner tonight was burgers (make mine a cheeseburger), onions and potatoes on the Blackstone griddle.  I like the Blackstone but it is cumbersome to store in our van.  I’ve been thinking that a folding Coleman 2 burner stove with a regular old griddle top might be better for our setup.  Not changing now as that would defeat the purpose.  

Shower!

Just before sunset an ambulance went by which stirred up a local pack of coyotes or foxes. They were a bit more yippy than the coyotes at home, but they were probably coyotes. In this context I mean the 4 legged ones.

Policy at this park is all outside lights must be off at 2030.  The view of the stars was really good. Some extra light from the mandatory “look at my big RV” lights on some of the rigs.

Mrs Milddogs and I were discussing favourite places so far.  The answer was that we have been to some great places:  boondocking near the ocean in Texas, boondocking in the New Mexico desert, The Louisiana stops, Oliver Lee State Park.  All good except for that one ill-advised rest area!

It’s real and we don’t know what day it is, except for the part where we have started a calendar to keep track of future reservations we have.

Tomorrow a short drive to Tucson.

Thanks to all the peeps at home looking after our stuff.

Eat the peach!