Back to New Mexico

December 12-3-2017 thru 12-5-2017 Back to New Mexico

We are back in Albuquerque after being gone for a month. We returned to Wisconsin the end of October for a couple of reasons including a Kohler retirement party and Thanksgiving. In addition the timing worked well and we were able to help Alex with moving to Madison for his new job.

Alex and Monica have been dating for over 3 years and have been living together for a year. They had been discussing marriage for a while. They decided to get married at the courthouse and in order to facilitate our travel plans so we could attend they scheduled the ceremony for Friday Dec. 1. We stayed in a hotel in Wausau with Sheila and Henry on Thursday night. We all attended the wedding along with Monica's sister Daniela and her husband Evan. It was a brief but lovely ceremony. Alex had a busy day as it was his first day of his new job. We all went out for breakfast after the ceremony then Alex and Monica headed to Madison and Dennis and I started driving south to New Mexico.

They plan to have a family and friends celebration sometime in 2018 and another one in Romania in 2019. I am looking forward to meeting Monica's family someday.

When we returned to Wisconsin from New Mexico in October we drove it in two days. On the way back we decided to allow a little more time. Friday we made it as far as Springfield Illinois. The second day we stayed in Tulsa Oklahoma. Both days we stopped before 7:00. On Sunday we made it all the way to Albuquerque. We picked up the camper and towed it 8 miles down the road to the Enchanted Trails RV park. We had stayed at this park the night before we delivered the camper to storage. (See Oct. 24 post for campground details).

Monday we went grocery shopping and tidied up the camper. We did some cooking including smoking a chuck roast to freeze for later meals. Dennis put some water in the tank since tonight it is supposed to get below freezing and we will want to unhook the hose.

We stayed at Enchanted Trails for two nights. On Tuesday we hooked up and headed further south to Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte Lake State Park. It was a short drive (160 miles) and we arrived shortly after noon. This state park is on a large reservoir that is very popular in the summer. There are 3 developed campgrounds as well as several undeveloped campsites. It is also unique in that campers can park almost anywhere in the park including the beach. We chose the Lion Campground and site 72. It has water and electric hookups and a nice view of the lake.

Truth or Consequences used to be called Hot Springs and for good reason. There is a table of hot, geothermally heated water that lies under the town. There are several bathhouses in T and C where you can soak in the healing mineral water. We are hoping to visit some of these bathhouses and indulge in the “healing waters”.

Temps: Its been a little cooler than we would like but we are still in the high desert so I guess this is what you can expect. Daytime temperatures have been in the low to mid 40s. Night temps in the upper 20's to low 30's. Still better than being in Wisconsin where the high temps for the next few days is only supposed to be in the mid 20's.

Where we are parked: Elephant Butte Lake State Park – Truth or Consequences – Lion Campground – Site 72. 173 developed campsites, 144 with water and electric, 8 with water, electric and sewer, RV dump station. $14 per night for water and electric site. There is WI-Fi in the park but it is very slooooow.

ELEPHANT BUTTE LAKE STATE PARK