What a day!

Hidden Valley Ranch, Deming, NM 88030
Feb. 26 - Mar. 13, 2013
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RV LIFE!! & sights: 

What a day we had!!! 

On Friday morning (3/1/13) I was on my morning dog walk and met up with Marjorie and her Bichon mix?, Moxey. She looked familiar, but not enough to really figure out where I could have seen her before. Well Marjorie remembered. She met us last year when we were in Boise, ID!!! Ahhh, now I remember exactly when I met her! Sometimes it can be such a small world. Marjorie is a permanent resident here at Hidden Valley Ranch (RVR). She is a true rescue dog lover. She understands rescue and the problems of homeless dogs. She really lucked out with Moxey. She is not yappy and just seems to take everything in stride. Well Marjorie asked if we were going to the pot luck dinner that night. She encouraged us to participate.

Hmmmm, we just arrived and we have nothing to bring to the pot luck. Well, I could just bring some ham & cheese roll ups. To get to the store we have to drive that 7 mile dirt road and then how far? Scott took the drive. We just made a quick vegetable dish-cubed sweet potatoes sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with fresh rosemary. Yum! 

About 40 people attended the pot luck dinner, so there was plenty of food and plenty of desert. Yumm, again! The room and tables were almost all full. As non regulars, we were a little intimidated as to where to sit. But we were welcomed and seats found for us. We met a nice couple from upstate NY, passing through. Easy conversation and good food. Nice! We had to introduce ourselves and were put to the front of the buffet line! Nice! Marjorie saw me and came over and said how glad she was that we came and a hug followed. 

After dinner, we were just kind of relaxing and still talking to our table mates, when another couple Lianne & Dick, came over and started talking. What a cute couple. They both talk almost at the same time. They are so in tune with each other, it was like how twins finish each other's sentences. They asked if we were going on the ATV ride the next day. Huh? No, we don't have ATV's and we've never driven them before. They have two ATV's and offered Scott to drive one and they would just double up on their other ATV. What? Really? I can't believe they really are going to let us use their ATV with no experience! 

So 9:30am on Saturday (3/2/13), we meet at the club house. Sure enough there are about a dozen ATV's parked. Lianne comes over and shows us the ATV we can use! Oh my gosh! We're really doing this! They had told us to dress in layers. It can be cold in the morning and while riding, and then it heats up later in the day and can be hot when we stop for lunch. We were told to bring lunch and beverage and a bandanna for the dust.

We need some cowboy hats!

We really needed those bandanna! The dust kicked up following the front ATV was plentiful. Our clothes ended up filthy with dirt dust.  

There are miles and miles of trails amid the "open ranges". Although our jeep 4 wheeling trip last year in Idaho with Don was scarier, this was a lot of fun and had it's scary moments also. How are we going to get through that ditch? How are we going to ride over those huge rocks? Are those cattle going to attack when we go through their herd?

And calves too!

We drove around the trails for 1.5 hours and then stopped for a lunch break. We brought gummy bears to share, someone else brought vanilla almond bark, another toffee and still some more sweets, brownies!
While just hanging out and chatting, I noticed the variety of people in the group. There was Jen?, a little Asian woman driving her own ATV. She had a very cool red suede Aussie type hat on. Another woman  had polio as a child, so needed a leg brace. She also, was driving her own ATV. The Marjorie brought her little dog, Moxey along for the ride. But the real kicker was seeing an older gentleman hooked up to an oxygen tank! Yep, tubing in his nose leading to the tank in the front of his ATV. Not only that, he's also taking water pills for his heart, so he had to find more blue bushes than others.
Great group of people. 

Lunch Break

This area is dry and the range itself is evil looking with the sparse brush and dangerous cactus plants.

 The above piece of cactus is call a fish hook barrel cactus. What a nasty plant.

Even though the range itself is kind of ugly, the surrounding peaks are beautiful and really interesting. We saw the original poles for the telegraph lines, we saw cave dwellings, we saw 100+ year mine openings, current rock digs, & cattle grazing. 

3 sisters peaks

There are all kinds of rocks for the taking and polishing. I'm not much of a scavenger, but to see these beautiful rocks makes even me want to explore. Scott was a geology major is college, so he finds all this very interesting. I on the other hand am just looking for "pretty" rocks.

We also stopped to look for blue bushes and pink bushes. Huh? That meant bathroom breaks and the girls would go behind one area of bushes (pink) and the boys would go to another area of bushes (blue). Luckily, I didn't have to use the bushes.

We were out on the trails from 9:30am to about 2:00pm, with a total of approximately 34 miles covered! What a day!

Special thanks for Lianne & Dick

For so generously allowing us to use their ATV for a fabulous day out and totally new and fun experience!

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PETS:

The desert is totally different than what we are used to living at the Jersey Shore. We now have a whole arsenal of items to bring along for our dog walks.

Items needed for walking the dogs:

1. Leashes and harness for Devin.

2. Poop bags

3. Sunglasses, even at 7:00 in the morning!

4. Baseball cap. As soon as the sun is up, it is glaring. Sunglasses are not enough.

5. Scissors, to cut out pieces of cactus that get caught in our Setters long, thick fur.

4. Hemostat forceps or tweezers to pull out cactus barbs, foxtail from paws. 

I am definitely enjoying the more isolated area of this country. Give me this beautiful desert region over San Antonio River Walk any day!