New Friends Become Good Friends

I have had an email correspondence with a woman named Renee who lives in Albuquerque. She has a Class C motorhome and just happens to be the sister of a dear friend of mine back up north. Since I was in the neighborhood, Renee and I decided to meet up. After a few discussions, we settled on Navajo Lake State Park way up at the top of New Mexico. Miko and I had a blast and I'm not just saying that because Renee will probably read this.

The road to Navajo Lake that I took was like a roller coaster ride. You would go up a super steep hill, so steep that the RV would start losing power and I would have to downshift. Then when you got to the top of the hill, the road just disappeared. It went straight down and not just a little down but a long, long, long ways down. My stomach dropped out several times.

I arrived first and found a perfect site who a couple of rigs camping together. The sites were very close together which is probably why nobody else had taken them. For us, it was perfect. We overlooked the Marina in one direction, we had a nature view out the other direction and we had a trail that led down the hill to the lake so the dogs could play in the water. Did I say dogs? Renee shows up with the rest of her family – Peaches, Haven and Whiskey (who I kept calling Molly for some reason). Three of nicest dogs, two of which were big big dogs.

The Marina

The Nature View

L-R: Haven, Whiskey, Renee and Peaches

Miko is used to being the center of attention when we walk around the campgrounds, but when we would walk all four dogs, it was Peaches that everybody fawned over. Peaches is part Great Dane and part Rottweiler and rather stunning.

We walked and walked and in between we talked and talked. Renee is tremendously funny and given all that she has been thru, one of the strongest women I've met. Amazing person.

Beyond walking endlessly around the campground, there was one trail that we wanted to hike that went back into the mountains. There were supposed to be ruins back there and also, supposedly some gold that some bad guys hid back in them thar hills. We loaded all four dogs into the Mini Cooper and truth be told, we probably could have fit in a few more puppies. We didn't find the gold nor the ruins, but it was fun crawling through the rocks on the top of the mountains.

They moved too quick so I couldn't get them all in the photo

After spending a few days at Navajo Lake, we were getting a little bored. Even my next door neighbor, Leroy, with his amazing biscuits and gravy could not make us stay. It was back down south to a Corp of Engineer park called Cochita Lake which was a little bit west of Santa Fe. I was only a couple of miles away from Bandelier National Monument where I spent some time earlier in the month. It was a nice park, overlooking the lake. The best part was that I finally got to do laundry. There is something so special and exciting when you get to come home with all your clothes clean.

After a couple of days, Renee decided that she probably should move on. She had a few appointments that she couldn't miss. When she left, Miko kept looking for her doggie buddies. Sad.

Cochita Lake

There was a New Mexico storm moving in - wimpy, wimpy - followed by five minutes of OMG rain.  You can barely see the mountains in the background