Alamogordo, NM Dust Storm

Since Roy and I have been RVing in southwest Texas and southern New Mexico, we have gotten to experience what are referred to as dust storms.  They come up quickly when strong winds blow and disappear just as quickly as they arrive.  You can see the wall of dust off in the distance coming!  The air can get so thick with dust, as to obliterate nearby mountains from view!  We experienced them in Alpine, Texas and the communities of Roswell and Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Here is the view of the Shady Grove RV Park office out our picture window.  It's a nice sunny day!  Note the mountains in the distance, the power pole, and the motor coach to the side of the building.  They are about to disappear! 

This is the initial wind shear as a building rain storm arrives!  Note the distant mountains are gone! 

A little more of a gust and the power pole and motor coach disappear! 

Increasing winds and more dust!  A few minutes later and the view is back to a clear sunny day!  That was the scenario for this dust storm, but they can go on all day and longer.  Dust gets into the camper any way it can and can be seen and felt on things. It's obvious that breathing whatever is blowing in the wind can't be healthy, when the air is this thick.  During prior dust storms Roy and I started to become aware of burning gritty eyes and a feeling of dust in the sinuses, throat, and lungs.  There were some low grade flu like aches and a mild pneumonia feeling in the lungs.  The symptoms always dissipated, as quickly as the dust cleared from the air. 

In the 1930s major dust storms swept across the plains of Canada and America with regularity over a period of ten years!  Roy and I happened to catch a couple of documentaries.  I was surprised to hear reference to Dust Pneumonia!  The name alone seemed to describe what Roy and I were already suspecting, as an impact of dust storms on a person's health!  Here is a nice synopsis of  what the Internet has to say about Dust Pneumonia:  Symptoms include breathing difficulty, shortness of breath, painful breathing, and burning of the eyes, nose, mouth, and throat.  Headache, nausea, weakness, confusion, and flu like symptoms may also be present.  Dust pneumonia is not a condition which can be assumed to be curable with home remedies. 

 

Roy and I are glad for the opportunity to witness some dust storms during our travels in the southwest, but we'll be happy to leave them behind!

 

On The Road With Odie

Odie, our beloved orange cat, is announcing that he will now have his very own Facebook page called, On The Road With Odie.  During our travels, Odie makes true friends with people everywhere he goes.  His friends are always sad to see him leave, and want to stay in touch with him.  Roy and I have joked for some time now that Odie’s friends will one day be reminiscing with each other and say something like, “Remember those people that had that orange cat?  What were their names?  I don’t remember their names, but I wonder how Odie is doing?”  It’s okay!  We understand!  He is very lovable!  His enthusiasm for life is addictive!  His cute waddle and social interaction makes him that much more of a fascination.  He’s not a cat!  He leaves no doubt in whoever he meets that he is truly a fur person!  Odie invites our Internet friends to get to know him and enjoy his adventures through his Facebook page, On The Road With Odie!  

Tricky Planning

June 15th was rent day for us at Shady Grove R.V. Park in Alamogordo.  It was time to commit to leaving or staying for another month.  Alamogordo is in the center of the tan area near the bottom of the New Mexico map.  We had been living like tourists on the run during our month stay, and it sure went by quickly.  There are still a few things we would like to do in the area, but higher temperatures are encouraging us to head north into higher elevations and cooler temperatures.  Alamogordo is at an elevation of 4,350 feet.  Using elevation as a guide to a destination choice has been a new factor for us to consider in our search.  We considered Santa Fe at 7,000 feet and Taos at 9,800 feet.  We quickly learned that cool mountain air in desert country comes at a high price!  Santa Fe r.v. parks run close to $700 a month, if you want full hook-ups, wifi, and cable t.v..  Electricity is additional.  That is rich for our budget anytime, but especially having just registered the truck and replaced all the tires.  We looked at the Taos area and found the r.v. park prices similarly high, so that meant we were looking at increased travel expenses plus high r.v. park rates.  We considered bypassing the expensive tourist places and jumping the border into Colorado.  Everyplace in Colorado has cool temperatures, right?  Wrong!  Pueblo, Colorado has temperatures just as high as Alamogordo!  We thought we could beat the system by boondocking in the national forest campgrounds.  It appears even dry camping (no water, electric., or sewer hook-ups) is $6.00 a day in a national forest campground!  That's $180 a month and would be a rough month in our opinion!  State park campgrounds are $14 a day with electric as the only amenity!  That's $420 a month! There currently are several forest fires in New Mexico and research into some of the state park and national forest campgrounds showed them as closed until further notice due to the fires!  If that wasn't enough of a deterrent for staying in a national forest campground, we came across the warning below for Carson National Forest near Taos!  We'll pass on forest living for now! I once heard that a grizzly bear is more likely to attack you, but a hungry black bear is more likely to stalk and kill you!

Carson National Forest, NM

With the ongoing drought, wildlife are becoming more stressed and looking for easy meals. If you plan on visiting the Carson National Forest, please read the flyers on how to deal with wildlife. Thank you. ·         Keeping Bears Alive and you safe! ·         Living with large predators in New Mexico. ·         Black bears of New Mexico

We decided that maybe we would save on travel expenses and just go up in elevation locally to Ruidoso at 7,000 feet or the Sunspot/Cloudcroft area at 8,663 feet.  R.V. Park prices run around $550 a month plus electricity in those locations.  We found many r.v. parks in the mountains don't offer cable t.v..  It may be available for an additional price that hasn't been stated.  Internet and cell phone signals are iffy in some areas.  With our Shady Grove RV Park rent at $245 a month with all the amenities, staying awhile longer started looking good!  Once we got over our mini internal tantrums of not being independently wealthy and able to do what we want when we want and for as long as we want, we actually sighed a peaceful sigh of relief at staying put for awhile.  Our past experiences of staying in an area longer than we might first choose to do has proven to be a good thing!  It makes us delve a little deeper into a community and discover even more exciting things about it!  We've discovered that Alamogordo has a great deli, a dog park, and a nice recreation center!  Staying for another month will give us time to do a few more things we were regretting we hadn't gotten to do, and will give us time to kick back and do a few home projects.