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Until 3 pm, I totally lost control of the day. In fact, I completely lost the day. My plan was to find a campground near Santa Fe to stay for a week. From there we could radiate out in many directions. North is Taos, the High Road Scenic Highway, the Santa Fe Byway, the Enchanted Circle Byway, lots of Pueblos, hiking trails, etc. East is Pecos, tons of hiking, Las Vegas (New Mexico, that is), more pueblos, etc. West just has too much to list. South has the Turquoise Trail, the Sandra Crest Byway, a mountain tram, etc. Then there’s NW, NNW, WNW, NE, .............
Anyway, you get the idea. The key, however, is where to plop V-Jer down in the middle of all this. My first choice was Hyde Memorial State Park, about 15 miles north of Santa Fe. I called the park on Thursday because the web was giving me conflicting info. In one place it said all states parks are online-reservation only. Another site stated that Hyde Memorial was first-come first-served. Kathleen, the Park Ranger, explained that the park isn’t officially open until May 1st, but if I call back on Sunday, she would reserve site #47, the greatest of all campsites in the world, just for us for up to 14 days. That is, if someone else doesn’t grab it first.
So, I called back today to see if that deal was still on. All I got was a recorded message, over and over and over. I left a couple of messages and my phone number to no avail.
That threw me into a panic. Nearly all the National Forest campgrounds in the area are closed. The two Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds are closed. A bunch of dispersed campsites, according to the reviews, are in spots that only eagles can reach. I finally came up with some alternate possibilities, but will they have openings after we drive all the way over? In my head, all I could think about were all the headlines and articles about the RV road being overwhelmed and overcrowded.
I putzed around the rest of the afternoon cleaning and organizing the van, wiping down V-Jer’s dirty solar panels, emptying the grey water tank into the grey water portable tank, refilling the fresh water, etc. You know, all those “on-the-road-chores”.
At 3:05 pm, my phone played its little blues lick, which is my ring tone. Could it be? I have been getting buku spam calls threatening me with legal action from the IRS if I don’t call them back, so I didn’t get my hopes up as I searched for my phone - where the hell is that blues tune coming from?
It was Kathleen, the friendliest, most helpful Park Ranger in the country. We worked it all out. She was going to put a reserved sign on our site, which she said, is completely on its own away from all other campsites. It even has its own gate. She would unlock that gate for us, but keep it closed so no one sneaks in. Suddenly, I found my day. There it was, hiding under one phone call.
Jeez, I was impressed and grateful, but she made it sound like she was the one so grateful that we’d bless the park with our presence. The price was $10 a night.
It took nearly 3 hours to drive the 152 miles to reach the campsite. Kathleen was right about one thing, it is a remote site. I had to back the camper from the highway up a hill on a narrow roadway to reach the site. It was worth it. We are level. We are alone. We even have our own little pavilion. #47 is my new lucky number.
Oh yeah, we are at 8,500’. We lost 10º on the 1,500’ climb up the road from Santa Fe. I guess we’ll keep the heat on all night.
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