Elephant Butte and Santa Fe

It was tough leaving Rusty's RV Park. We really enjoy our time there. But leave we had to and it was off to Elephant Butte State Park in NM for a one week stay. Elephant Butte SP is quite a place. On the weekends it fills up with a lot of the people coming from the Albuquerque and El Paso, TX areas to take advantage of the water, boating opportunities, fishing, camping.  The boat launch area on the weekends is really quite busy.

 While there we took advantage of birding down at Caballo Lake SP. It is a pretty well known birding area and is prime migration area. We are seriously considering a stay here next year as we leave AZ and then Rusty's RV Park and begin trip east.

When we left Elephant Butte, next stop was one of our favorites: Santa Fe and Santa Fe Skies RV Park.  The park sits up on a hill overlooking a lot of the area and the surrounding mountains- at an elevation of 7000'. It has quite a collection of old machinery on display......

One of the things that we planned to accomplish while in the area was to get Lexie spayed. Her time was right and we located a GOOD Vet actually quite close to us. And situated right next door to Santa Fe Brewery!

We brought her in early, like 8:00, and picked her up right after lunch. She was a little groggy, but none the worse for wear. We were both glad to get this behind us. Luckily for Lexie, the Vet did not think that one of those ugly collars was going to be needed. She gave us one just in case and asked that we keep an eye on her to make sure she wasn't spending time licking the incision. Lexie obliged by not licking, so she didn't have to experience the collar.

The Santa Fe area is really special to us and here are some examples of some of the things we like about the place....

We spent a couple of days here taking advantage of the tremendous birding opportunities.

No trip to Santa Fe is complete without a trip to Back Road Pizza. Simply the best. For Food and Nostalgia.

Touring the shops in downtown Santa Fe

The Plaza. We love to come here and just sit and observe and enjoy.

This trip to Santa Fe, we decided to "expand" our horizons just a bit by taking a day trip to Taos, an area we have never been to before. It was probably about 70 miles one way and a very enjoyable trip. Probably not one that I would do in the winter time however.

While here in Santa Fe, our Ford F350 diesel engine started making an unaccustomed noise. A trip to the local Ford dealer and our favorite diesel mechanic had the situation diagnosed. A 20 minute appointment the next day had the situation resolved. It turns out there was a Service Bulletin out  for this exact problem and a simple recalibration of the injectors remedied the problem. This same dealer and same mechanic got us out of our last diesel engine problem(exhaust filter issue) the last time that we had come through Santa Fe. So far, so good.

Our stay in Santa Fe was another good one. We have come to really enjoy our stays here and have already booked the next one when we come through this area in mid-August. And now it was time to be thinking about traveling to Sedalia, MO and the Escapees Escapade. We travelled south from Santa Fe and picked up I 40 in Clines Corners, NM, staying on I 40 to Amarillo, TX and an overnight stay and then to Chandler, OK for a 2 night stay. In Oklahoma City we picked up I 44 and travelled to Carthage, MO and another 2 night stay before the final stretch to Sedalia. All in all the trip from Santa Fe to Sedalia encompassed just under 1000 miles.