Percha Dam releases only a trickle of water.
When your house is as small as mine, you gotta’ keep up with housecleaning.
My sink is piled high with dirty dishes. It’s a sunny morning. I open the door and let Bridget and Spike outside. Since they’ve already had a long walk before breakfast, I’m pretty sure they’ll stay close by. I get two dishpans out of the Perfect Tow Vehicle, plus the dishdrainer, fill the pans with water from the campground faucet, and set up a cleaning station at the picnic table.
I like to wash dishes outside in the sunshine!
Of course, clingy Bridget stays by my feet under the table. Spike, however, spots a buddy of his tied up outside a Class A a few campsites away. He wanders off to see Mandy, the Border Collie he met at Elephant Butte. I catch up with him, Bridget tags along, and we go over to Mandy’s together. Spike makes his social call, while I chat briefly with Mandy’s owner, Gaye. On the way back to our campsite, Spike picks up more burrs in his pads. Okay. Enough of this. We’re moving!
The Casita is still hitched to the Perfect Tow Vehicle.
I choose a site on the other side of the loop. It gets more sun and I’m hoping it has no burrs. I immediately grab a rake out of the PTV to sweep the pile of leaves away from the picnic table.
The crew and I are expecting company!
Around one o’clock two vehicles pull up to our campsite. It’s Bill and Kathy and Chuck and Geri! We laugh as they all get out of their cars at the same time. What is this? A caravan? Spike and Bridget remember the Hound Herd (Chuck and Geri’s three dogs) from Thanksgiving and the afternoon at Chloride.
I’ve been bugging Bill to let me hear him play his guitar.
He gets a disc out of his Jeep and loads a video onto my laptop. We pile into the Casita to watch and listen to Bill play what he describes as “Chet Atkins style guitar.” He’s an excellent musician.
It’s fun to see these friends together, enjoying each other’s company.
Bill and Kathy have to leave for Las Cruces. Chuck and Geri sit with me at the picnic table, showing me in my road atlas where to find their favorite places in Arizona. They plan to be in Quartzite in January.
Later, just before sundown, the crew and I walk up to the entrance of the park. We see about sixty deer — no exaggeration — walk out of the brushy woods to graze in the green field. Sandhill cranes fly in V-formation above us.
The chilly air reminds me that more cold weather is on its way.
Tomorrow the solar panel will go up on the PTV and then we’ll be free to go to Arizona for the winter!
rvsue
rvsue and her canine crew 