Today was a day of hard-knock lessons for me. Seems I cannot escape this life without them! Maybe they come to help me grow. On the flip side, maybe they come to discourage and stifle me. I can’t say.
Lesson #1 — Stay on the beaten path… if you’re looking for a campground! I drove 84 miles out of my way because I was trying to do “reconnaissance” on a campground. It was in the Cibola National Forest and, supposedly, was a great place to camp if you could find it. (I added that last part) I followed my directions and started down this two-lane asphalt road that looked pretty nice. It had yellow striping down the center, no speed limit, and clear directional signs. Eventually a fork came in the road: one way went to a state park, the other to the national forest campground. I turned towards the forest and… gulp… the road turned into a one-lane thoroughfare that looked as if it had been freshly paved. “Okay,” I thought. “Should be all right as long as no one comes from the other direction.” No one did. Thankfully. Eventually the road came upon the national forest border and, after a cattle guard, it turned into a horror flick for sedans. Dirt upon rock, ruts upon potholes, and an RV slowly making its way towards me. Feeling uneasy far from home in a fairly new passenger sedan, I went against my better judgment and continued on. “Maybe this won’t last long,” I thought. It did. For four miles. I went about 12 miles per hour, dodging ruts and bumps and rocks and fallen tree branches. Eventually I came to the campsite and… it wasn’t too special. It was crowded with people and not very scenic. I then realized that I had to go ALL THE WAY back.
My tale gets worse. Later this afternoon I went to find another campground — a free campground — and, guess what? Five miles of dust, but this road was much worse than the one before. And when I got the campground I found signs that said, “campground closed” all over the place. There wasn’t ANY sign of human habitation. None. And there was evidence that some really big animals had been there recently. Yikes! I wasted 45 minutes and put my poor little car through hell just to teach me a lesson.
What do I do with this knowledge? NEVER LEAVE THE PAVEMENT IF YOU’RE DRIVING A 4-DOOR SEDAN AND ARE THE LEAST BIT RUSTY IN YOUR SURVIVAL SKILLS.
I ended up at a marvelous location at that state park, Manzano Mountains State Park. I have a covered shelter, the crowd is quiet and right now I am listening to the wind roar through the Ponderosa Pines. Nice. Really Nice.
Lesson #2: Sometimes a bad day off the beaten path can turn into a great day off the beaten path if you persevere. I visited two REALLY amazing Spanish missions today, between my campground episodes. Both were off the beaten path. I tried to make it to the third leg of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument but bad weather forced me to cancel my plans. The two I saw were incredible, and I plan to visit both again tomorrow when I head out of town. I have a special fascination with Spanish missions after my visit to California last summer and that fascination only gets stronger the more I learn about them. I’ll have pictures to share as well as video when I get back.
As for now, I need to finish making my bedding and get some prep work done on tomorrow’s adventures. I plan to go through Albuquerque on my way to El Malpais, or, the “badlands.” It’s a gigantic lava flow. Fun. My volcano adventures begin tomorrow!
Good night! (at 8:58pm)
2 comments:
Bent a flywheel under my Dodge sedan on my honeymoon. Following a road like you did. Actually, following too close to a road grader as it cleared the dirt road of the winter's snow. Terrible noise as we rolled over the large rock dislodged by the grader. Glad you learned your lesson about sedans and unpaved roads. Mine cost me a few bucks.
glad you are surviving well! :)
have fun and enjoy the rest!!!
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