You guys have been slipping me some outstanding boondocking suggestions. I take special note of the ones with toilets. Nina gave me a suggestion for a regular blog feature that Judy would hate. I don't like to annoy Judy, but this idea is right up my ... alley. I'll give you the poop on that later.
I'm ready to start this thing, thanks to Cheryl here at the Las Cruces Shelter for Wayward Ducks. No, really. THANKS to Cheryl! I thought I would 1) waddle in here, 2) take a shower, 3) sleep in a soft bed, 4) then head out.
Instead, I repeated steps 2) and 3) thirty times, in-between eating a lot of food, thrift-shopping, people-watching, and festivaling, a bunch of my favorite things. A month of fluffing up my feathers, pedicuring my webbed feet, and getting that Robert Downey Jr. gleam back in my eye.
She has managed to give me all the company I want and all the solitude I need. That's no easy line to walk, but she did it gracefully and graciously.
Contessa clued us in to a contest where the winner gets a tricked-out class A RV. Not a factory-tricked-out RV - this one has been pimped by Bret Michaels from Rock My RV.
I've changed my mind again about which direction to head first, headfirst. But, whichever way it is, it's north.
One of the things I judge a town on is how it feels about art. Las Cruces seems to have a flair for it. There is a Saturday morning kids' art program held in the (free) downtown art museum. The art museum is next-door (and connected) to the (free) Natural History museum.
The following two photographs were stolen; I took them.
Las Cruces has a Farm and Ranching museum, but don't expect the kind of warm, welcoming reception you've gotten everywhere else in Las Cruces.
There is a ticket booth at the parking lot entrance, but it's unmanned.
These people are ALL ABOUT YOUR $5. If you're a senior, they're ALL ABOUT YOUR $3. Do not (DO NOT) attempt to stop first to see cows. They'll have your hide. Don't look for the goats. You'll be rebutted.
When it appeared that we might actually see cows without having paid first, TWO EMPLOYEES were dispatched to stop the longhorn-view hijacking.
Once we were branded, lassoed, and corralled into the lobby, we saw the receptionist was fully engaged with applying lipstick. We stepped into the deserted gift shop, where a volunteer explained that the woman who could help us was in back counting money. And so, it had been a good day, apparently, because she was still counting ten minutes later.
To be fair, I'm sure that if you stay on the right side of the law here, you'll be met with complete indifference.
We left, and if you know either of us, you know we declined to pay for any of this frivolity. This inhospitable treatment was on the house, baby!
39 comments:
Great post! I see you certainly have NOT lost your sense of humor! Great friend you've got there! Grace (in Tucson)
Where is that yarn? When we FINALLY head out (after foot surgery sometime in July and then a long slow annoying recovery) I will be in pursuit of yarn.
I'm glad you enjoyed your stay here in Lost Causes - uh, I mean Las Cruces. It was fun having you here and I hope you'll return. In the meantime, it's time to "get out of Dodge" as the temperatures climb! I'm right behind you. Seriously...
Oh... the colors! I love the colors... the yarns, the quilt... all of it. What ever direction you head, enjoy!
All that blather about paying, and then they didn't even realize you two were the biggest toads in the pond! (Your story brung out the Western in me...)
Sue, I oughta plug you fulla lead fer that! What does it mean?
Aren't they beautiful, Sharon? I was captivated. Thank you!
Head for the hills, Cheryl!
Susan, I hope you don't have to come all the way here in the summer for yarn. Still, if you happen to be here, isn't it nice?
Thanks, Grace!
If I were you, I would head straight for Estes Park, stay there until the 4th or when all the roads are clear of snow, then up to Yellowstone to see the bison and the geysers, and end up in Jackson Hole in the Tetons. That would require only one setting on the GPS - due North.
Clear of snow. That made me shudder. Are they real bison? Or cowson?
Love the sculpture. Love your feisty attitude.
Go north, my dear. Take it from someone who's going south .... go north, my dear.
I hear that!
The Yellowstone bison are shaggy, matted, and HUGE critters that are most definitely bison. I didn't see any cows, not that I'm real familiar with them.
Yellowstone also has nice hot places to walk and water warm enough to boil eggs....and people too.
Estes Park has elk babies, moose, deer, mostly running thru people's back yards. Oh, and lots of tchotchke shops to help you have fun. Pizza joint has vegan pizza. I recommend it.
Cool! No one goes to Jellystone anymore; it's too crowded ~ Yogi Bear-a
You've piqued my interest in Estes Park. It looks like there are lots of possible campsites around, too.
Estes Park is _lovely_ and I wish I were there RIGHT NOW.
I left this link for Judy on her post about mosquitoes biting in terrible places. And now I will leave it for you, as well. It might be helpful someday.
http://www.go-girl.com/
Looking forward to see where you go.
OMG! We used an automotive oil funnel for this purpose, but this would be more portable, wouldn't it? I should at least buy a new oil funnel. Good (clean) catch!
Hats off to Cheryl for fine duckspitality. Great pictures colorful pictures. Good job at bad press for the lack of duckspitality at the don't peek museum..
Watch out for that snow in Estes. Carrie was trying to get there in June. No one mentioned snow. She drove into a white out and slid off the road and did $2K worth of damage to her Honda. Never did get to Rocky Mtn National Park. So watch yourself until mid July.
Snow in June?? Who ARE these people? Is this someplace where it starts snowing again in September?
Kate, did you not just read SNOW IN JUNE???
Yeah, when it's snowing up the hill you stay down the hill in Longmont. Then when it's 110 in Longmont, you drive up the hill.
You've just got it all figured out, don't you? *writes down "Longmont" on hand*
I did have some practice -- lived in Longmont for four years, and drove up to Estes Park pretty often. So yeah.
Good places to park around there? NF campsites?
Alas, I wasn't really watching for that sort of thing while I was there, so my local parking is more likely to be 'in front of Bri's house' and maybe 'in Andro's back yard'. Andy Baird spent a lot of time in that part of the world last summer and has a bunch of info here:
http://www.andybaird.com/travels/skylarking/index.htm
I also found maps of BLM land down in the flat, but I can't find the link. :P
Estes is gorgilicious! But do watch for snow. I'll bet there's NF all around Rocky Mt NP. I fell in love with those mts 35 years ago, and still haven't been back. Where you go will be an adventure.
My sides are splitting with welcome laughter, what a great post and fab comments coming after! Thanks for the giggles, my feathers now need fluffing!
After taking a gander at those first two pictures, I was a-hoping you was gonna spin us a real colorful yarn, Pardner.
If you have never been to Yellowstone/Teton, both parks are definitely must sees. We went in September after things had quieted down a bit and the weather was still warm. No snow!!
Ruthie, if you're like me, after a good laugh your feathers need drying out. Let's just assume you're not like me in just that way.
Gander, Donna? You're speaking that goosey language that I don't understand. *turns bill snobby side up* That seems like a good idea to wait until little ones are back at school and their parents enslaved at work.
Great silly stuff going on here. Did I miss happy hour? Laughter is what its all about.
NM is all about color and love the yarn and the quilt.
Those people at the ranch or what ever that place was sounds like the camp host we never ran into at the camp ground last week.
Happy and safe travels
Jo, maybe your camphost was too busy filling in down here to ignore you properly up there.
There does seem to be a lot of silliness. We'll bring happy hour to you.
You are one cool chick, I mean duck.
p.s. Bison are as big as a Spud!
Well, all this silliness has put a more-than-usual silly grin on my face this morning. North is a good thing in Summer. You do know if you lose your way and end up in Jersey, you're welcome to our parking lot.
That statue is amazing!
Love the pics. Pretty yarn, love the bird boy. Glad to see you still have your punny bone intact.
re bison. I read that there are no pure bison anymore. That to save the species from extinction, a rancher crossed the very few survivors of the slaughter with cow and recrossed back until he got a mostly bison animal that looks all bison. But when I went to Wind Cave NP in SD, they said their herd was the only pure bison herd left in existence. They have it fenced off from the adjoining Custer SP herd so they don't mix. Custer is the usual mix of cow and bison.
When I went up to the CO NF, they often had signs that said you had to get off the road by quite bit to do dispersed camping. Finding off the road could be challenging. CO is very overrun by tourists in the summer and so they seem to restrict a lot more than other states. I was also shocked that a pit toilet NFS campground was $17. Gone are the days when it was cheap to camp and no expensive campground hosts. CO is gorgeous.
Up high, the mornings can easily drop to the 40s even when the days are in the 80s. We have a family story of when my mother drove back over Trail Ridge Road (Rocky Mtn NP) at the beginning of August in a blizzard where they closed the road behind her. She made it only because she had driven the road twice every weekend to take my brother to his seasonal ranger job and knew every twist and turn because she often could not see the road at all. So yes, it can snow in any month way up high. To my mind, CO climate is being ruined by global warming and the summers are way too hot now. BTW, I really liked the Black Hills area as another place to explore.
Always love the Duck, great post, great comments. If you're ever around the Vancouver area, let me know, got a couch that is comfy :)
We are in Estes Park right now. The weather is beautiful...warm days in 80's and nights around 50. Parks are pricey bit the NP campgrounds have vacancies. We are at Mary's Lake a county park...$27 a night for nonhookups. We've been hiking up a storm. Snow at 10,000'!
You are so much fun!!!
I really think you should enter that RV contest and then once you win you can sell it! Thing big! I know you would win.
I will try your site next time I order. But how do you know if I do? I did order thru you once before.
Well, there IS the selling thing, Contessa. I'm not videogenic, though! You know it has to go to someone super-cute so it plays well on TV.
I won't know if you do unless you tell me. You can always tell me, so I can thank you!
$27 for nonhookups?!? *falls over* But, I could really camp anywhere allowed, right, not just a campground? All I need is a toilet.
Ooh, Karyn, that would be nice! I hear great things about Vancouver.
Thanks, Rick!
Mary, they have those "cowson" up around the north rim of the Grand Canyon, too. They're way smaller than I imagine bison to be.
Oh wait, you're saying that any place with a pit toilet is that expensive? Good grief.
I love that statue, too, Carrot Mary.
Thanks, Betty! In the meantime, I'll just keep butt-dialing you.
Nancy, you're scaring Spud. She's looking around for bison.
Bucket, plastic bags and pine kitty litter - eh voila, a toilet! Double bag it, tie off and deposit in the trash. Is there room in spud for a bucket? Makes boondocking easier in the woods. But stay away from the burning woods.
I am VERY excited to hear my fine suggestions have made the top of your list. I think the feature will be a HIT!
Nina
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