We're Back from Our Maiden Voyage

 Oops, we haven't left yet... but

HOORAY, HOORAY... we finally have the license plate for the little guy. 

The only hold out is Carol, her South Dakota license doesn't expire until next year.

We hit the road with the Fox's little brother. The drive was uneventful, the only non-challenge was our elevation change from our home, 3400 ft., to 7500 ft. at the campground.

This little campground is located in the small town of Mayhill.

This is their welcome on the side of the town gift shop. Once we got settled in at the campground, we headed into town for lunch at the Mayhill Café. we didn't have anything special, just a couple of burgers. After lunch we walked all the way to the general store... roughly 300 feet away, and found treasure in fudge. They had other items you would look for in a small general store, things like knives, ice cream, local apple, and cherry ciders, and souvenirs of course.

The first night was a bit chillier than our usual in Lakewood, at the Ranch. Because of the mini heat wave the temperatures got to the lower 90's during the day, then dipped to the upper 50's, lower 60's. at night. Here at 7500 feet the temperature dropped to the lower 40's. The one difference between the Fox and her little brother... insulation. The Fox is an all season, where Retro is more of a warmer climate kind of trailer, and needless to say, we had to use the heater.

Having survived the first night, Carol and I figured we would head into Cloudcroft and visit the Sacramento Mountain Museum, then go to lunch. We did check to ensure that the museum was open, the website indicated they were open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 10 to 4, YEAH. Once we got there we learned the website forgot an important piece of information... they are only open during the summer... and it ain't summer. We moved on to plan "B".

Plan "B"...

Lunch. It just happened to be at the Cloudcroft Brewing Company, where we had pizza and beer, root beer for me of course. The place is sensible when it comes to your dining pleasure... beer in glasses, sodas in plastic cups, and pizza served on cardboard trays. You could order off their regular pizza menu, or create your own. Carol and I chose to create our own.

While waiting for our pizzas, Carol enjoyed a flight of their in-house brewed beers, and a local brew.

She chose two IPAs, a dark, and a wheat. Left to right: Cloudcroft Brown Ale, Cloudcroft Experimental, Cloudcroft Trainwreck. The wheat beer was a Cheery Wheat from the Sierra Brewing Company. 

Carol's pizza was topped with pepperoni, bacon, and mushrooms, lightly sauced with a red sauce. I took a different direction with bacon, Italian sausage, and artichokes, with a garlic pesto sauce. Both pizzas were a thin crust.

Yes... we did walk away... with two growlers, one of Cloudcroft Brown Ale, and one of Sierra Cherry Wheat.

The next part of the plan was to visit the Cloudcroft Exchange, which is another term for little shops along the main street of town. It just so happened that...

there is a winery in the exchange. Our arms were twisted, so in we went for some sampling. The door we entered provided us the opportunity to taste oils and balsamic vinegars. Continuing around the room, we entered the wine tasting area. They too were successful in relieving gold from our pockets. It didn't stop there though, we came across the Elk Shed, where we were relieved of some silver for a variety of teas. After emptying the coffers, we headed back to the campground to figure out how we are going to hide the booty for travel.

Coming home from our treasure hunt, we took a short walk around the park, all 15 acres.

VIEW FROM THE BACK OF OUR SITE

ONE OF THE BIRDS AROUND US

IN FRONT OF THE OFFICE

THE ACTIVITY ROOM AND COMMUNAL FIRE PIT

What is neat about the activity room is the ability to watch TV provided by Dish, at no cost. Another cool aspect of the activity room is the opportunity to meet for church. The church that meets here is the Happy Trails Cowboy Church. They also have a laundry room with four washers and four dryers. They talk about a bathroom with a shower, and that's what they mean... a bathroom, a shower.

After church we drove into Alamogordo to visit the New Mexico Space Museum again. It has been a couple of years since we visited the first time, there are some new exhibits.

How many of you out there know the story of Galileo Galilei. Once he built his telescope, he began studying the stars and planets. Publishing his observations brought him fame and fortune. Now... for the rest of the story. After publishing his observations, he was charged with heresy, and spent the last nine years of his life in house arrest.

How many of you Air Force folks know of Holloman AFB, here in New Mexico? Holloman AFB did start out to be what it is today. Before WWII, it was intended to be a British Commonwealth training center for pilots. Once the U.S. entered WWII, everything changed. When the base was completed in 1942, it was commissioned as the Alamogordo Army Bombing and Gunnery Range, dedicated to training pilots and crews that flew B-24 and B-29 bombers. It didn't become Holloman AFB until after the war. Colonel George V. Holloman was a pioneer in guided missiles and pilotless aircraft - this paved the way for today's mission.

With the advent of aircraft getting faster in the mid-50's, the base played a major role in researching the dangers to pilots. Their research was conducted using humans and a rocket sled. The rocket sled test track measure 9 miles in length. One of their questions was: could a pilot survive ejecting from his plane at high speeds, and high altitudes. They answered their question when Colonel John P. Stapp rode the rocket sled to a speed of 632 MPH, and stopped suddenly, creating over 40G, and he survived. This run earned the Colonel the title of "The Fastest Man on Earth". The test track is still in use today.

FUN FACT: 2003, the AFB rocket sled set a land speed record of MACH 8.6, or 6,598 MPH.

Lets move to the 60's. Some of you may remember the name Sputnik. The USSR got into space first, but President Kennedy said we would get to the moon first. Holloman AFB played a big role in our drive for getting into space. It was here that two chimps, Ham, and Enos, were trained to travel into space. Thanks to these two chimps we were able to send men into space safely.

POEM FROM THE GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN

Today Holloman AFB is the home to the 49th Wing of the Air Education and Training Command. They are one of the leading centers for hypersonic research, advanced weapons, and drone training. 

How many out there have been to White Sands National Park? White Sands was established back in 1945 as the White Sands Proving Ground, White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). This is one of the largest facilities in the U.S., measuring 125 miles, north to south, and 25 miles wide; think of it as covering approximately 3200 sq. miles. The German V-2 rocket was brought over to the U.S. to improve our rocket technology and scientific research; the first one was fired in 1945. Launching of the V-2s was the start of America's space efforts, and with that, the White Sands range was named "Birthplace of America's Missile and Space Activity".

In the 60's, White Sands played a pivotal role in testing the escape system for the Apollo program. They did this using the Little Joe II rocket to simulate the Saturn Rocket.

1982 brought about a historic moment for the range, the space shuttle Columbia landed, which was an exception, they usually landed in either California or Florida. The White Sands Space Harbor was also used to train shuttle pilots.

In the 1990's they began testing futuristic space vehicles, one was the Mc Donnell Douglas Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X). The vehicle was a single-stage, vertical takeoff, vertical landing vehicle tested for three years, providing the technology for today's commercial rockets.

What is the big deal with this picture? I'm sure you remember what happened to several towns in Japan towards the end of WWII, this picture is a pre-cursor. In July 1945 the first atomic bomb was detonated at the White Sands range. At ground zero the explosion turned the sand into a green substance known as Trinitite. Because of this, the site was named as Trinity Site. Today there is a volcanic rock obelisk marking the spot of the detonation.

On to a new exhibit, satellites. I guess I never paid any attention to the fact that satellites are categorized: communication, spy, astronomy, space physics, solar physics, weather, Earth resources and environment, navigation, and space. 

WANT TO GUESS HOW MANY SATELLITES THERE ARE?

These are active, inactive, and junk satellites orbiting around Earth. Isn't technology great.

Lesson time:

COMMUNICATIONS: these satellites function as relay towers thousands of miles apart. In the beginning they were launched low in the Earth's atmosphere, but with improved rocket technology, they can be launched further out in space, into geostationary orbit (GEO). Because they are launched further out in space, the satellite looks like it is stationary to the naked eye. NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), links the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, and other satellites to ground control. One of the ground stations is located here in New Mexico, at Las Cruces.

As the technology improved over the decades, high-speed, low-noise electronics made possible low-altitude networks allowing our ground phones to seamlessly shift from one satellite to another.

The military has their own satellite network as well, and it orbits waaaaaay out in space.

ASTRONOMY: these satellites allow us to view star nurseries in infrared, and violent deaths of neutron stars in gamma rays, without the atmosphere ruining the view. One of the most famous satellites here is the Hubble Space Telescope.

SPACE PHYSICS: space is a quiet storm of magnetic fields, electrified gas, and solar radiation. How do we know this, Explorer 1 satellite, and about 50 others like it. They reveal to us the subtleties and contortions that can damage spacecrafts, as well as our power grid. Think about when they talk about solar flares.

SOLAR PHYSICS: the ultraviolet radiation and X-ray outbursts from stars near us are blocked by the atmosphere. In space we are able to study the faint corona as it becomes the solar wind that drives space weather that effects Earth.

WEATHER: from the geostationary orbit, satellites can track storms, measure moisture, dust, and winds. These satellites observe half the globe, and polar orbits.

EARTH RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT: these satellites, through infrared colors can reveal drought stress, flood patterns, city growth, and more. How about light pollution? Archeologists can find ruins, and illegal logging can be detected. Using radar or lasers, elevations and the sea can be mapped.

SPY SATELLITES: what are they good for... taking pictures, eavesdropping on your neighbor, monitoring radar activity, and watching for questionable missile launches. Only information about the oldest technology has been released, and part of that was the legendary "Big Bird" (KH-9 Hexagon), which was calibrated outside of Cloudcroft, NM.

NAVIGATION: if you thought that these satellites are telling you where you are...wrong. The satellites are actually sending in their location and time of day to a receiver. The receivers take information from multiple satellites to calculate your position. Today's GPS uses 38 satellites, ensuring that three are visible at all times to vector your position. Other nations have similar systems. Nearby Holloman AFB tests GPS equipment.

Lesson over.

This folks is the Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS), built by RCA. It was the first satellite to display weather information... 60+ years ago.

This was great news for the weather guesser, but it didn't last long. Launched in April 1960, it shutdown in June of 1960 due to an electrical failure. Before it shutdown however, it transmitted over 23,000 images. The original satellite is still in orbit today.

This satellite is Canadian, called the "Alouette"; two were built. They measured the electron density in the upper atmosphere, radiation in the lower parts of the Van Allen radiation belt, and galactic and solar radio noise. Both satellites are inactively orbiting the Earth today.

Here we have an American satellite, called SATCOM 1, launched in December of 1975. You cable channel junkies, this is your satellite. It brought in the era of HBO, ESPN, and The Weather Channel. It was also the first satellite used by the three major television networks.

This satellite is your navigation brain on trips. The first satellite in this constellation was launched in February of 1978. This network of satellites is operated by the United States Space Force. The accuracy of this constellation of satellites is between 10 and 16 feet.

This is a mock up of Explorer 10. Its showed us the relationship between the Earth's magnetic field and solar winds. That silver ball was the most sensitive magnetometer of the three onboard. It produced a slight electrical current as a magnetic field passed through it.

As we were moving down to the next floor there is a small exhibit that pertains to the windows in Blockhouse 5/6, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station...

This is looking from the side of the window. The window is made up of 15 layers of glass, weighing in at roughly 200 pounds. The window was embedded in the concrete, allowing for safe viewing of launches, a mere 300 feet away.

This museum is always enjoyable to walk through. This trip Carol chose not to do the theatre show.

For those of you that enjoy spoof movies, this is one of my favorite, Galaxy Quest. This is one of the Thermian uniforms. If you remember the movie you might remember these aliens were octopoidal, blue blooded creatures from Thermia in the Klatu Nebula.

FUN FACT: this is a spoof on Star Trek. Back in 2013, at the Star Trek convention, it was voted the 7th greatest film in the "Star Trek" franchise, even though it was not really part of the franchise.

After our day outing we headed back home to complete mapping out our next journey... through New England.

'Bout Time to Leave

 Its close to time to begin a new adventure, but there was still work to do around here. 

I showed you pictures of our new trailer; we continue to make adjustments. 

I thought it would be nice to have a separation between the bed and the rest of the trailer. The curtain and track are hospital grade... however, it took awhile to get the curtain. I called the company only to find out that the curtain material was on back order. Installation was really easy, some screws, and it was done.

Lately I have been focused on the park septic system, and I will not pain you with some of the photos. The only one I will post is: 

We had one of our residents pass recently, as usual, the community turned out to honor him.

Whenever one of our members passes on, we memorialize them with a plaque under the flags. We lower our flags for three days in recognition one of our family.

It is not always serious around here, sometimes there is a bit of fun and games, and a few of us are having that fun "clowning around".

This little clown head can be found in various places. Once someone finds it, they can move it somewhere else to continue the game of "where's the clown".

As some of you may have already seen, I do sometimes enjoy shopping.

No... I did not buy the glasses, they were $30.00 daisy glasses. 

That $30.00 was better spent renewing my drivers license. I started applying for my renewal and found out I needed to provide a current (within a year) eye exam, which I couldn't; my last one was two years ago. We solved the problem, Carol and I both went for exams and new glasses.

Remember me just speaking of one of our recently departed. A month or so passed and an opportunity arose to grow the family...

We were in the right place at the right time. The night before we bought it, one of the community asked if she was ready to sell her husband's cart, she replied no. The next morning there was a Facebook post that she was selling it. We were the first ones to show up with cash... we won the "Black Friday" sale. This cart has been around the park for many years, and multiple owners, and we are going to carry on the tradition.

We wasted no time making it our own...

Look close... I added a five section mirror to the cart. When we leave here this year we will cover it up until we return. There are some neat plans for the cart after we return for the winter. You will have to stay tuned to see what we do to it. To answer your wondering question... yes, it is Carols... for the most part.

We have definitely about the wind around here. Most days are not more than the usual breezes, with a gust here and there. Then there are other days. The last few days have been very windy, usually steady 30+ MPH, and gusts above 50 MPH.  How's this for the power of the wind...

This is the roof of the park water building. Our winds were averaging 40 MPH, with gust near 60 MPH. I got a class this morning, and a couple of us went into the wind to make some kind of temporary repair.

The quick repair between high wind gusts... cinder blocks and tie down straps. Fortunately I had just bought a new four pack of tie down straps, 'cause it took all four straps and two ratchet hooks to secure the roof. With that emergency taken care of it is time to find some other trouble to get into.

Something I was able to accomplish without getting blown away. The other hose holder looked like everyone else's. The park has a rule that every lot must have a hose for fighting a fire.

The weather has been warming up enough for the plants to start their blooming show. We have been anxiously waiting for our cactus to bloom before we leave... it did not disappoint us...

There are still many more blossoms to happen.

Earlier I showed you the wind damage to the roof on the park's water building, look at it now...

BEFORE and AFTER

Looks a whole lot different doesn't it.

The "newbies", all of us new leaseholders, in the park are having an affect on the old timers. Things that happened are being revived. For example, the folks in the park once tossed horse shoes, and for some reason it died out.

The "newbies" decided to have a sport day the Saturday before Easter. There was axe throwing, corn hole, horseshoes, and a couple of other games, the turnout was pretty doggone good. The old timers were pleased with the revival of fun activities.

From the sport activities we moved into an Easter meal. The park decided to have the meal on Saturday vice Sunday because many people had other plans.

This was only one of the desserts for the feast. While the sporting activities were goin' on outside, some of us were preparing for the feast. Carol did a lot of the planning and preparation, which included cooking two 14 pound hams, and I came in with knife in hand to slice them. 

We did two different toppings for the hams, one was a traditional glaze, the other was my concoction, liquid smoke and pineapple juice.

Along with the hams, there were fresh rolls made with mashed potatoes, various salads, multiple desserts, mac and cheese, bean casseroles, all made by various cooks. Over 40 people enjoyed the meal, with very few leftovers.

CONTINUING TO BLOOM

NOTHIN' MUCH BETTER THAN THIS

Other things are changing around here as well.

I got my New Mexico license before I registered the truck. I like the fact that my license is good for 8 years. We are working on getting the trailers registered here in New Mexico too. The nice thing about the new trailer is its weight. When a trailer is under 6,000 pounds, you can get a permanent registration for it... meaning I don't have to think about registering it ever again. When I registered the truck I had the option to register it for two years, and I'll be able to the same for the 5th wheel too.

I did a little re-work on the golf cart a few days ago...

I added daisy solar lights around the roof.

Let me tell you a story of frustration. As you know, we bought the new trailer back in February, and we figured to register in South Dakota. The dealer did all the paperwork, we shared the money from our wallets, off the paperwork went (registered mail). March rolled around and no plates yet. April came like the wind, still no plate. I contacted the dealership for an update. The dealer called the DMV in South Dakota and their reply was the all-American shoulder shrug. He then quizzed the post office, and they had no idea where his tracking number was, come to find out later, they couldn't even find it in their system. The dealer checked his bank to see if the check had been cashed... nope. Carol and I went back in to sign papers to register the trailer in New Mexico, should see the plates tomorrow. I should have suspected something wasn't quite right when I had NFCU asking me to prove we bought the trailer. If I couldn't prove it they were going to raise the interest rate on the loan... no fear, I sent them prove of purchase.

Whether we have plates or not were heading out for a maiden voyage for a couple of days. The answer to your question is yes, we have a temporary paper plate for the trailer. There will be more on this trip later.

It's a Retro

 I said there might be another post... I didn't lie.

We did add another trailer to our collection of assets.

ON THE WAY TO NEW HOME

FINALLY HOME

How about a quick tour...

...O.K., you've seen it all, it is only 24 feet long from hitch to back. Now that we have teased, I'll show some more.

This is a small travel trailer, so there is limited storage which can be found under the bed, in the dinette seats, various cabinets, a shelf as one enters the trailer, and an outside side-to-side storage bay.

Unlike some of the older small trailers, this trailer has what is called a dry bath, vice a wet bath. The big difference is that the floor in a wet bath serves at the shower floor, meaning the toilet is sitting in the shower. Our toilet is separate from the shower...

All the appliances are made by GE, with the refrigerator operating on 12 DC electricity.

This refrigerator is the same size as the one in our Arctic Fox, 10 cubic feet. The difference is the depth of this fridge, it doesn't have the chemical catalyst hardware requiring part of the compartment space.

The bed is a queen that we can walk around... no climbing over each other at night. At the head of the bed is a little cubby on each side, and a nightstand, That nightstand is actually part of the outside storage bay. This is an inexpensive trailer, and the mattress proves it, so Carol and I will be changing it out to a better mattress.

The stove/oven isn't too spectacular...

... except for the lighting around the burner knobs. The sink is a farm style stainless steel sink.

The one item Carol and I noticed was the lack of drawers.

Looking under the sink was a bit of a surprise. The bottom left panel hides the water pump for the trailer, and the other side is currently wasted space, but that will change. I'm going to break the tour for a minute. 

I took care of the no drawer for silverware. Went on Wayfair and found this sliding drawer set up. By the way, the space below this slide out will become more storage after I put the divider in.

O.K., back on tour.

This counter and cabinet will probably be home for our air Fryer oven. The cabinet will be used for bathroom items and the trash can. At the bottom right side of this cabinet is the water heater. This area is suppose to be for the TV too, but we my not even worry about a TV.

The big windows on the trailer have black-out blinds...

It might be hard to see, but the item I like on this control panel is the option for running the water heater on gas, or electric.

The last part of the tour is the two batteries I asked to be installed, instead of just one, as originally designed.

The spot you see the batteries in now is not their current location. When I returned to the dealership to have them install the distribution/anti-sway hitch, we came across an issue... the hitch component needed to be mounted where the front battery box support was located. A discussion with the dealership rendered a solution that moved the battery box support backets further back (into the area of the photo that contains gravel). 

The tour is over, the trailer is now resting peacefully in a storage space at the park, where we can visit it anytime we want to. There are still a few things we want to do.

So.... what else has been happening here.

Carol and I continue to work our committees, not much venturing... and earthquakes. The last few days we have had a few earthquakes close to home. The first one was about 2:50 am, and sounded like an explosion to me. It was short, then there was an after shock about 3:06 am, not quite as bad. The next morning Carol and I learned that the park was only about a thousand yards from the epicenter; the first time either of us have been this close to an epicenter. Remember, I grew up in California, and made it through the Sylmar disaster in the 70's.

You are now up to date with all our fun.