Billy the Kid, Heading Home & One Helluva Dust Storm
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Oasis State Park near Portales, New Mexico
After crossing into New Mexico, we made our way to Oasis State Park. There were plenty of open campsites, but we were still required to make a reservation online in order to occupy one. The campsites were spacious lots with some shade trees. It was very windy and the acrid, very distinctive smell of manure was in the air. Judging from the feedlots nearby and the malodor, it’s apparent the local farmers use cow manure in their fields liberally. Pee yew! Good things there are no ‘smell chips’ or you’d have been in for a treat!
We also noted a sign in the bathrooms warning parents not to give water from the faucets or campsite taps to infants because the nitrate concentration was too high. Could the fertilizers used in the area have leached into the groundwater? Seems probable.
It was too windy to cook, so dinner was just salad. We set up our chairs in the lee of Blanche to avoid our salads being blown away. The wind abated a bit after dinner and we took a short stroll to Oasis Lake near sunset. A path led around the lake (I’d have called it a pond actually). Red-winged blackbirds swayed on tall reeds and sang their evening songs.
A sign noted that the lake had just been closed for the removal of tumbleweeds. As far as we could see, the clean-out had not been very successful and the tumbleweeds had won the battle.
The sunset, however, was wonderful. We’ve seen so many spectacular sunrises and sunsets but they never seem to diminish in their beauty. They never fail to delight us.
Late into last night and at early light this morning, we heard a bird continually singing the same repetitious song. We referred to him/her as Johnny-One-Note… cheep... cheep... cheep... over and over and over again. We discovered it was really two birds, a female house sparrow building her nest and a doting (hopeful) male standing sentry, watching her as she worked so arduously to complete her task. We learned that they were calling to each other rather than singing. Based on the circumstances, they were automatically forgiven for disrupting our quiet.
A one-note house sparrow with materials for building her nest.
A morning walk had us retracing our steps to the lake midst a chorus of birdsong. Sparrows and wrens, blackbirds and kingbirds all contributed their own distinctive musical input.
A western kingbird contributed to the morning chorus.
Then we were off again, heading to Manzano Mountains State Park. A road sign along the way beckoned us to detour about 3-1/2 miles off the route to Fort Sumner, NM to visit the gravesite of William Bonney aka Billy the Kid at the Post Cemetery. The visitor’s center was closed, but we wandered around the cemetery for a few minutes. Billy’s tombstone has evidently been stolen and recovered a few times and now it’s ‘in jail’ and under lock and key.
Manzano Mountains State Park was lovely, spacious and surrounded by trees. The campsite had electric, but the toilets were vault-type and some distance away as was the fresh water tap. We’re obviously getting spoiled. This is black bear country and campers were encouraged to use the food safes available in each site.
We noted a sign pointing to the horseshoe pits. Really? Sure enough, we picked up free horseshoes in the camp office and headed to the pits to play a game. We were both pretty rusty, but after a few practice throws the shoes were landing in the general vicinity of the pits. David got a ringer and ended up winning 11-4. The horseshoes were definitely much heavier than we remembered them being and the pits were further apart.
Located at 7600’ above sea level, it also cooled down very quickly in the campground once the sun went down. The temps dipped to the low 40s during the night… good snuggling weather. We had crossed the time zone from Central to Mountain time and enjoyed an extra hour of sleep in the morning.
We had planned to camp a couple more nights along the way, but high wind warnings and a massive, uncontained wildfire to the north deterred us. As we traveled along the highway, the wind increased steadily. We could feel the effects on Blanche as she struggled to fend off the gusts. She rocked and rolled and it took two hands on the wheel for David to keep her in her lane. Tumbleweeds and debris flew across the highway like missiles.
By the time we reached Gallup, New Mexico, winds were gusting to 75mph (hurricane force) and visibility was near zero. Cars and trailer trucks would enter the dust cloud and we’d lose sight of them. It was bizarre. We were reminded of the Dust Bowl photos we’d recently seen.
We opted to pull off the highway, get a hotel room and wait out the wind. On arriving at the hotel, we could not open the front entry door and had to use a side door. The dust sandblasted our faces and arms as we struggled to get to the side entry. The hotel manager apologized and explained the door had just been wrenched open by a gust and the hinges had been broken. When getting back into Blanche, I was unable to close the passenger door by myself. David finally had to get behind it and push it closed so we could move Blanche out of the wind and park her in the lee of the building.
Dust Storm in downtown Gallup
We holed up for two days and finally the wind abated allowing us to complete the final leg of the trip. We’ve traveled this same route so many times, we were on autopilot the rest of way home.
So… another road trip done and already another being planned. We have the next round of upfits for Blanche planned as well as house chores and some personal business to attend to before heading out again. Next time, we think back on the Best of the Wild West Road Trip, recalling what made this trip so enjoyable and maybe a hint of where we’ll be heading next. Join us then.