Finally, we can see out the back window. I understand how the back gets dirty, but it amazes me how the roof can get so bad. Dirty or clean the rooftop solar panel soldiers on.

Straightening out our situation cut into our planned trip to circle the Sierra Nacimiento Mountains and the Jemez Mountains via the Jemez Mountains Trail Scenic Byway. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

So what happened? I tracked down Ranger Kathleen. It turns out that she is the only official staff person at this State Park. May 1st is supposed to be the grand season opening for the park, but it isn’t ready, not even close. The main campground loops are still in the middle of extensive maintenance. So everyone that reserved a spot online is heading this way to camp at sites that are not accessible. Ranger Kathleen is a bit frazzled. Between the campground hosts and Kathleen they are trying to figure out where to put everyone. Bottom line? She agreed that we can stay at our campsite until Monday.

Later in the morning, the camp co-host (the wife of the host team) stopped by to let us in on a little secret - Ranger Kathleen admitted to the hosts that she had a blond moment.

No problemo! We can ad-lib like the great jazz sax player, Charlie Parker. We decided to complete the RV chores that we didn’t finish last week. So, let’s see, what did we accomplish? We washed the entire exterior of V-Jer with the waterless wash and wax product we bought at WalMart. For some reason the roof and the solar panel gets filthy. We filled the fresh water tank, filled the extra water jugs, emptied the grey water tank into the portable grey water tank, and then emptied that at the dump station. I paid all the end-of-the-month online bills. We found a car wash that fit Saturn and shined her up. I polished the kayaks on top of Saturn with a UV sun protectant. And lastly, we visited the Black Hole for just a couple items that turned into $86.

All that, of course, is boring stuff. We had to explore something. So, we drove the Santa Fe Scenic Byway that goes right past our campsite.

The road snaked up to 10,000’ before dead-ending at the Ski Santa Fe ski hill, run by the National Parks Service. At that elevation, we saw another transformation of the mountain forest - a thick Aspen stand.

This Aspen stand offered yet another mountain vegetation. The Aspens were just showing the barest hint of budding out. Spring is a lot slower at 10,000’.

Ski Santa Fe ski hill was at the very end of the Santa Fe Scenic Byway, sitting at 10,000’. The ski runs just start at 10,000’. The lift then takes you up another 1000’ or more. The photos don’t show the steepness of the ski runs. So far, the ski hills we have seen in New Mexico feature much steeper ski runs than we have at Rib Mountain, back in Wisconsin. We saw a couple of kids all decked out in backpacks and snow boards. They were going to hike up the hills to get a little late season snow boarding in.

Now, I have to start planning for our next campsite. We are heading northwest and there just aren’t a lot of options. We’ll find something. I did see that the tiny National Forest Campground just down the road opened today. Maybe May 1st is a seasonal opening for some of the many tiny National Park campgrounds that have been closed. That would help a lot.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured.

Dave and Wanda

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