At the Park – Days 1 and 2

To get you up to speed, I am currently staying in Rodeo, NM (http://www.rodeonewmexico.com/)  at Rusty’s RV Ranch (http://www.rustysrvranch.com/), while I work out the details necessary to get internet delivered to our newly acquired property in Portal AZ (http://www.portalarizona.com/).

I’ve had a couple of productive days although my to-do list seems to keep growing instead of shrinking.  I guess that is the way it is going to be for the next few years – no change from the last few years.

The park had some local network issues that prevented me from accessing the internet via their free WiFi and signal on my cell here only supports voice calls and SMS texts thus the delay in my posts.

Thursday I set up our shade canape, connected the fresh water line to the trailer, unloaded the truck at the property, then took a truckload of stuff out of the trailer and moved it to the shed on the property.

It seems I forgot to take a photo after I put the canopy up.  I will do so tomorrow.  If there is interest, I will post it in the blog.

I was at the property at sunset Thursday evening so I snapped a photo of that view.

Funny thing with the water line.  I learned something that Hollywood does not exaggerate…  So I was preparing to hook the hose to the trailer when I noted that Sasha was laying next to the trailer in the shade from the morning sun and her water dish was on the far side of the trailer.  I thought I would be nice and set a water dish up for her on this side of the trailer, so I put the water dish down by her, set the hose down by the water dish, then went and turned on the water.  This is where it gets entertaining.  It was a light weight water hose for RV’s, and the water pressure here is very high.  When I turned on the water, that hose started dancing around like nobody’s business spraying water everywhere including on Sasha.  Sasha did not appreciate or see the humor in it, however, I myself had a few chuckles and noted that I should not do that again.

Friday:

I worked on organizing the trailer and moving more stuff to the shed.

Assisted Rusty (park’s owner) with correcting the network issues so I could access the internet and she and her other guests could also use it reliably.  I also rattled off a few suggestions for improving wireless in general at the park after listening to her describe some of her ongoing network issues.  A little later she stopped by my lot and asked if I wanted some consulting work in trade for what ever.   Told her yes.  Think I will work on that a bit this weekend as she is anxious to get it worked out before her busy season starts.

I’ve been struggling with drinking water coming from the RV’s sink  and I’ve run out of the 8 gallons of water I brought with me.  It tastes awful.  I think I’m tasting remnants of the RV Antifreeze in the lines.  I’ve confirmed that the taste is not coming from the water at the parks spicket.  I need to verify it is not coming from the hose tomorrow.

Had my own DSL line connected into the trailer.  Yay.  I have my own dedicated internet circuit.  5MB download 512K upload.

Had a nice dinner with Rusty and her family (it is a park wide dinner invite but practically no one is here at the moment).

Went to Animas to find the store there had closed already – I knew there was a chance it would be closed but decided to go anyway.  Topped off my fuel tank while I was there.

Dropped the load I had packed up through the course of the day at the shed on the property.  Was greeted by a couple of the local residents of the land.  The shed is now officially completely full, at least until I build shelves in there and better use the space.

I snapped a few photos of the view from the property.  I also tried to take a few panoramic shots.  Here they are:

Something compelled me to stop at the Tavern in Rodeo on the way back to the RV park.  Maybe cause I was thirsty for some good cold water.  Maybe it was to try to meet some locals.  Maybe it was to sit in an air conditioned space a while longer.  Sure am glad I did.  Three waters and one margarita – yes only one very tasty top shelf margarita later I met my neighbors to the south: Tom and Alicia.  I also learned that the bartender, Donna, was also the Rodeo Post Master.  Tom, my neighbor to the south was very anxious to meet and talk with me.  He runs DD Gamble Guest Lodge & Ranch.  See http://www.ddgambleguestlodge.com.  They where anxious about the possibility of continued access to parts of our new property.  It seems that as part of the DMD Hearts and Hooves 501c program they operate, they bring vets and other disabled individuals over to the property via horseback to look at the rock formations that a previous owner built (as can be seen in satellite images).  After talking briefly with Cheryl, we are both of the mindset that we would like to work something out so they can continue to have access and use the land for that purpose.  At this point, I will try to meet up with him Sunday and talk things through.

In closing I would like to give thanks for:

• Sasha, Hershey, and I all survived the extreme heat here and that it is not as hot here as in Pheonix and Tuscon.
• Making friends with Rusty and meeting Tom and Alicia.
• Having gallon jugs from home that I can fill with drinking water until I get the trailer’s kitchen tap water sorted out.
• Air Conditioning.
• My good health.
• Having internet and cellular service enabling me to stay in touch with family and friends.