Hunkered down on a Ridge Line

As previously reported, we came into the Valley of Fires campground on Sunday as the spring New Mexico winds were making their presence known. The winds continued yesterday and again today. The forecast is that they shall possibly lay down tonight. That will be a blessing.

This campground is on a ridge line in the middle of an ancient lava field (the lava covered the desert floor on both sides of this ridge line. From where we're parked, we can see the base of the mountains about 20 miles west of here. Looking out the other side of the motorhome, we can see the town of Carrizozo (5 miles East) and then the entire mountain side behind Carrizozo, probably another 10 miles. Of course, the wind whistles as it passes over. We're pointed mostly south and the winds are from the south, so we can exit the motorhome by pushing the door open. No problem closing it.

A week ago, Sandy finished sewing the sunscreens for our front windows. However, it was too windy then, so we didn't mount the screens and the matching magnets on the inside. As you can imagine, the winds are not any better today. But I was determined to see if our design will work, so this morning, I taped four magnets on the inside of the window and then I took the screen outside (in the wind). It was a bit difficult, but we finally got the screen positioned over the magnets to temporally hold it. Then with Sandy's help, we moved the magnets to the desired locations in the four corners. We are happy to report that the screen is holding tight to the wind. Our next task is to remount the interior magnets with double sided tape between the magnet and the glass so we can pull the screen off and have the magnets remain in position.

The magnets I purchased via eBay are 1" in diameter and 3/8 of an inch thick. In a nutshell, they are deadly. One careless move and they seem to jump to each other, readily pinching anything in between. Yes, we have the scars to show it.

Yesterday, we walked the one trail from the campground that ventures into the lava field. Plus I walked the rest of the campground area. So today with the continuing winds, we're just plain going to sit tight and read or surf. We have electric, so no danger of running the batteries down.

Our life style changes when we're plugged into an electric power pole. Suddenly, we have unlimited surfing time, we have the refrigerator on electric, the water heater on continuous electric and if need be at night, we have an electric heater to keep the interior temperature comfortable. And we're really living when I can turn on the electric mattress heating pad. There are a few benefits to having electric at our campsite.

Our plan is to leave here tomorrow, pass through Roswell, NM and continue on to Brownfield, TX. We've toured Roswell before and we're meeting friends in Brownfield. Plus it has a free city park (with electric). From there, we'll head north, into cold country. So turn up the heat please!

Gene