April 27, 2016
Colorado Springs KOA
Fountain, CO

Yesterday we moved from Santa Rosa to Raton, NM. The drive went well and we stopped for the night at a gravel parking lot called Raton KOA. Clearly this was the worst place we have stayed and it wasn't even worthy of a picture.

Today, we drove 142 miles north on I-25 and headed over Raton Pass (7,700') and then drove through Walsenburg and Pueblo to the Colorado Springs KOA. The truck did really well and the trip was quite enjoyable. It was nice to see the Colorado mountains again. This KOA is way better than the one in Raton although I would still prefer paved or concrete sites whereas these are gravel/dirt.

Here are a few pics:

We have a nice patio area and a "yard" which is really nice. As I said the sites are a gravel/dirt mix and they are calling for 2-3 inches of rain here over the next few days so I expect we will have a muddy mess... :>(

When we set up in Raton the bottom 2 steps of our electric step didn't extend. I called the manufacturer (DRV) and they told me the bottom motor has known problems and after some back and forth they agreed to send me a new motor under warranty. Since it costs $429 I was pretty happy. Until then we have to use some portable steps. The Mobile RV Tech is coming here tomorrow to look at the front jacks so hopefully he can take a look at the step motor as well..... it's always something and it feels like we have had more than our share of problems with this rig.

Julie is driving down from Aurora and we are meeting her and Steven (who lives here in the Springs) for dinner. We will be in the Denver area over the next 6 weeks visiting with family and even doing some local camping with Julie and her 5th wheel toy hauler.....and toys (3 wheeler, 4 wheeler, boat)...should be a lot of fun.

April 24, 2016
Santa Rosa Campground
Santa Rosa, NM

We continued up US285 to a town called Vaughn and then we took US54 into Santa Rosa. The total distance was 112 miles and it was a fairly easy drive with good smooth roads. Santa Rosa is a very small town but they have several hotels and a few restaurants. Their claim to fame is having historic Route 66 go right through town.

Santa Rosa Campground is a small family run park with dirt roads and sites. Most are pull thru but only a few have full hook ups.

This is not a great park. It will be OK for the 2 nights we are here. They have a pool, small store, gift shop, and a restaurant. They specialize in BBQ and the food tasted good. However the price was a little expensive. We paid $40 for the two of us and it was served on paper plates.

Here are a few pictures of our site and the campground.

The pictures say it all.... We'll be glad to be moving on.

At the last park we started having trouble with our front hydraulic jacks. They were slipping down several inches. I checked for leaks and found none so I assumed it was a faulty solenoid or check valve allowing fluid to leak past the valve. In order to maintain a level rig I put the king pin stabilizer under the king pin. This worked for a while but the weight on the rig snapped the light duty chain. The next day we left so I used the stabilizer again here at Santa Rosa and instead of the chain I used a couple of heavy duty carabineers. That seemed to hold but it became clear the stabilizer was not going to hold the weight. Marilyn suggested putting the RV back on the truck but I chose to keep working the problem. I put in a call to Lippert who makes the jacks and they suggested a few tests of the hydraulics and solenoids by a professional and in the meantime said I should put the rig back on the truck before the jacks failed. We then considered several options for getting it fixed like having a mobile RV tech drive here from Albuquerque and even us taking the rig there. Marilyn then found what appears to be a certified Lippert RV Tech in Monument, CO just north of Colorado Springs. We then booked a reservation for Wednesday at a KOA park in that area (Fountain, CO) and booked an appointment with the RV Tech for Thursday. So we are leaving here Tuesday (4-26) and stopping in Raton, NM for one night and then heading over Raton Pass (can't wait) to Fountain, CO on Wednesday (4-27). So we changed the schedule a bit to accommodate the repair and hope to be back on track by 4-30 at Cheyenne Mountain State Park  in Colorado Springs.
Later after reading the Lippert owners manual I did discover that the hydraulic fluid has been low since we got the RV from the dealer (unclear markings on the reservoir). I did add 3 quarts of fluid and the jacks have been holding since then so I'm hoping that turns out to be the simple fix......aren't RVs are fun?

April 22, 2016
Roswell International UFO Museum
Roswell, NM

We had some time to kill here in Roswell and since this town is about everything alien we decided to take a tour of the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center....big name for a little place ;>)

They have a lot of documents, articles, pictures, and displays describing most of the UFO sightings including the famous July 1947 encounter with an alien ship and alien bodies. They also have sections on alien abductions, Area 51, crop circles, and other encounters. It's an educational, thought provoking, and fun experience as long as you don't take any of it too seriously.

April 21, 2016
Bottomless Lakes State Park
Roswell, NM

We left Carlsbad around noon and drove a short 57 miles to Roswell, NM. Other than wanting to see some extraterrestrials we are really just stopping here to help shorten the distance to our next stop in Santa Rosa, NM. We are crossing some pretty remote area without a lot to see. We are on the east side of the mountains from Albuquerque and we are working our way toward Colorado.
Bottomless Lakes State Park is 8 miles east of Roswell and the campground is 7 miles back in off the main highway, so effectively we are 15 miles from Roswell. There were a few other RV parks in Roswell that were closer to town but they looked small, cramped, and not very inviting.

Bottomless Lakes is a beautiful park with gorgeous rock formations, nice facilities, spacious campsites, and of course a nice lake.

Our rig is the second one in from the left...you can just make out the truck.

 These are picnic/beach cabanas.

Building to access beach...not sure what all is in the building but it is a beautiful stone structure.

Observation tower....

This picture doesn't do it justice but the rock formations are striking....

Beach area shot from the picnic area...

Volleyball....

Even a nice playground....

This State Park even has free Wi-Fi which we haven't ever seen before in a State Park.

As I said the sites are very spacious. We did a preliminary view  on Google Earth before coming here and were concerned we might not have enough space for both vehicles but it turns out there is a lot of room, and even a great cabana.

You can barely see the lake from our site.

This is a great park and we were close to deciding against it. This just proves you never know about a place until you get there.

Tomorrow we are taking care of a little business and then we're heading over to the Roswell UFO Museum. It sounded like fun so we thought we'd give it a try.....

April 18, 2016
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad, NM

Today was cool and cloudy so we decided to make the short drive over to see the Caverns. It was about a 45 minute drive and the Caverns are located southwest of Carlsbad.

You have to drive several miles back off the main road to get to the Visitors Center.

The Center is situated on top of a small mountain (in Colorado this is called a hill ;>) ) and you get a great view of the surrounding area.

The Center has a very nice museum with many displays and models of the caverns. There is a small theatre that shows a short video about how the caverns were created.

As I said in a previous post, the elevator that takes you down to the main cavern, called The Big Room, is out of service. So we came here knowing we weren't going to get to see that, but I was able to walk down to the Natural Entrance and get some pictures of it and the brave souls that were willing to make the 80 story hike in and out.

The pathway from the Visitor Center to the Natural Entrance.

The opening to the Natural Entrance. This is also the amphitheater for the viewing of the flight of the bats leaving the cave at dusk.

I can only imagine how spectacular the caves are, but from the video and all the pictures I'm sure it is an amazing visual and quite an adventure. They offer self guided and guided tours depending on how adventurous you are. Per the video, approximately 135 miles of the caves have been explored and they explore a little more each year. They don't know how far they actually extend.

All in all it was a great place to visit and another great National Park. And of course we capped the visit off with another fridge magnet.....

April 16, 2016
SKP Ranch Campground
Carlsbad, NM

We got an early start today as we were out the door, hooked up, and movin' down the road by 8am. The winds have been bad for the past few days (25-30 mph) so we wanted to travel before the afternoon winds kicked up. We drove down to Fort Stockton on I-10 and then took U S 285 north through Pecos and on to Carlsbad. Total distance of 161 miles.

The roads were very nice in TX but so far, not so good in NM. Since we're not on the interstate there are no rest stops so we decided to stop at truck stops for bathroom breaks... funny, when you're young you drive as far as the gas tank will get you. When you get older you drive as far as your bladder will get you. We passed into the Mountain Time Zone and gained an hour, so we arrived around 10:15 am. The SKP Ranch is actually 18 miles north of Carlsbad in Lakewood, NM.

The Ranch is located inside an active cattle ranch so the RV Park is bordered with an electric fence and cattle grates in the roads. Everything has a "ranch" feel. Here is the Rec Hall...

And this is the office. Notice the metal painted cowboy and girl cutouts....

This park is an Escapee CoOp park. You have to be a member to stay here and you can buy into the CoOp and own the rights to a site. Escapees is a very friendly organization. When we pulled in the lady at the office came outside and rang a big cowbell to let everyone know that new guests had arrived. Several people came over to welcome us and gave Marilyn and I hugs and handshakes.

SKP members can also rent a site at any park for $14/day plus electric, which is really great. I think this 5 day stay alone will recoup our cost for the $40 annual membership, and we plan to stay at a few more SKP parks this year. Our site is #86 and it is a double wide back in with lots of room....

Here is a shot up and down the road from our site.

The roads are paved and all the sites are back in. Each site is individually "owned" so they are all unique in how they have been landscaped. Ours has a concrete pad but many are gravel.

The park is very close to Brantley State Park which appears to be a nice sized lake, however the water level currently looks pretty low...

We will be heading over to the caverns on Monday. Even though the elevator to the main cavern is broken, I'm hoping there are other things to see there....if nothing else we'll buy our standard fridge magnet so show we've been there ;>)