Camping Again

This time we were headed to Leasburg Dam State Park, just north of Las Cruces NM. Leasburg is a shorter drive than Caballo which is where we went last time for our camping trip. Leasburg supposedly had all the ammenities that we were looking for, a camping spot, and a place to fish. When we arrived there the place was packed out, and after driving around it seemed that the water was quite a ways away from any of the camping spots.

So we decided we'd go ahead and go the extra 30-40 minutes to get to Caballo again. When we got to Caballo we found that it had the same first problem, which was that it was packed, but we did find a place right close to the Rio Grand where we could park, the only problem was that there were no camping hookups. The only real problem this could have posed was if it had decided to continue being hot and stayed hot right through the night, but the winds picked up and blew us in some cooler air. So that spot proved to be a suitable spot. I liked being parked right next to the river so that we had the comforts of "home" right there for the little ones while the others could fish to their hearts content. No, nobody caught anything. I think these fish know that we are from up north and they are still holding grudges against northern people, even if I did spend more years down south than I did in New Hampshire. The fact that I married a northerner is probably enough in the fishes eyes to consider me a northerner too.

We spent the night at this spot. I'm always a light sleeper when I'm out camping, the only thing I can figure is because of my sense of being responsible for the children. So I'm often awake for hours at night, and even if I do get back to sleep I'm always the first one up in the morning. So Saturday morning when I awoke I heard a hoo-hoo-hooing outside right next to the camper. I got up and got dressed, and since there was just enough light out to see a little I decided I'd go out and see if I could catch a glimpse of the animal responsible for this noise. I stepped out and headed in the direction of the tree where the noise was coming from. I wasn't able to get very close before the first one took it's flight across the Rio Grande into a hole in the cliff on the other side. The second one soon followed suit but flew to a different whole in the cliff. I don't know that I've ever seen owls in the wild before, probably on display at a zoo or some place that like, but never naturally. So even though I didn't get to watch them in the tree, it was nice to actually know they do exist in the wild.

After fishing in this spot for half of Saturday without even so much as a nibble, we decided to go on the other side of the dam, commonly known as the lake side, the side we were on was the river side. So we pulled up to a place that was very rocky, not naturally so, but rocks that were brought in to help create the dam. It was also a burr farm. These are nickle size burrs that I remember growing up with. They have thorny type projections that have a little curve to them on their ends, making them stick very well. Of course this is the place where we decided to let the kids hop into the water for some fun. So they had to dodge all of the burrs on the way to the water. Mikey had the worse time with them. He'd get them in his feet and then fall down because of it, causing him to get them in his hands. Poor fellow, we had to carry him back and forth when it came time to eat lunch.

We all had fun, and the kids were thrilled to get to swim. Can you imagine swimming in New Hampshire in April? They all had a turn fishing, except for Katie, who spent most of her time sleeping in the camper, and they all came back dirty, tired, and sunburned. There's more pictures of our trip at this site, titled "Camping Trip #2".

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise