World United States New Mexico Santa Rosa

West Trip 2010

Santa Rosa, NM May 21, 2010

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday in Lubbock) we were walking the dogs and attracted a group of young children. They all wanted to pet the dogs and the dogs cooperated very well. One of the little girls asked which trailer was ours. I pointed Arvy out saying it was the "gray and blue" one. The little girl said "You need to move it. It doesn't fit in with the white ones." Hers was right next to us and the one on the other side of us was also white. I told her we would be leaving in the morning and asked if that would be alright. She said "Yeah, that would be okay." I guess she has some sense of consistency that needs white rvs.

Today we drove through cotton fields, hay, wheat and corn....and beef on the hoof. We say lots of feeder lots fattening up the cattle for market. We saw more horse ranches than we had seen before. There were some pretty mares with this spring's foals.

We crossed into New Mexico at 11:25 at an altitude of 4153 feet. We had been climbing all morning. We are 2138 miles into the trip and starting our fourth week today.

After crossing into New Mexico, we found ourselves driving through scrub brush and little grass. The cattle were few and far between. We saw our first antelope in the fields about 12:30.

We drove through a small town called Fort Sumner that claims (on more than one billboard) that they have the "real" Billy the Kid grave. There must be some controversy about where the outlaw's body is really buried.

We arrived at the Santa Rosa Campground about 1:40, which we found out later was really 12:40 Mountain Time. We had crossed into the Mountain Time Zone just before we left Texas.

The campground's address is 2136 Historic Route 66.

A small portion of Route 66 and the Blue Hole are Santa Rosa's claims to fame and tourist attractions. The Blue Hole is an 81 foot deep artesian spring. The spring is bell-shaped and is a constant 61 degrees. The spring pumps 3000 gallons of water per minute. The water is beautiful and clear. It attracts scuba divers year round. The Blue Hole is surrounded by a public park and is a very short distance from Route 66.

When we came back to the campground, I did a few loads of laundry (in an air conditioned room) and John worked on getting the tv antenna programmed and the computer set up.

We had supper at the campground restaurant. They serve mostly barbecue. We had the barbecued beef brisket which was fork tender and delicious. If we had not wanted to go to the restaurant (about 10 tables and booths), the wait staff would have delivered our order to Arvy.

We are planning to leave a little early in the morning. The weather channel is predicting winds for tomorrow afternoon up to 60 mph in Albuquerque and surrounding area. We hope to be set up and not on the open highway when the winds kick up. John says sometimes driving Arvy down the road in the wind is like driving a sailboat down the highway. The wind always blows out here, sometimes harder than others.