Hello Friends! This is going to be a long post, so I suggest you get a cup of tea for the journey! I just made a cup of Vanilla Chamomile personally…and here’s the view out my window right this minute:
We’re in Angel Fire, NM, at about 8,400 elevation. Very windy and snowing off an on. Some strong wind gusts are rocking us a bit…I’m glad our RV is so heavy!! Mostly we’ve had beautiful weather for all of our time in NM. Sparkling blue skies, cool mornings, warm days and chilly nights. Perfect in our book! And the snow is pretty today. That’s a ski area you can see in the background in the picture. We have beautiful views right our our windows here. This morning, we had a herd of Elk in that meadow. Best guess is about 300 Elk. They were majestic, especially the males with their huge antlers.
Lots to catch up on! Sorry I’ve gotten behind (again!). I don’t know where the time goes, but it must go somewhere. It just flies by. After we left Chama, NM we headed for Santa Fe. The very first thing we did was have a tire changed on the RV. One of the curbside tires was wearing excessively (you may remember from previous posts this happened on our way back from Alaska too). We had the wheel hubs and shocks all replaced back then. And we had our tires and shocks all checked before we left on this trip. I am wondering if it is an alignment issue – we have an independent suspension, dual axle and I wonder if it’s out of alignment and that is causing the tire wear. Who knows. But, the tire worried us and we didn’t want to risk a flat tire on the road, so we made an appointment at a place in Santa Fe and went straight there from Chama. They got the tire changed, no problem. We’ll find out about the cause of the problem when we get back to Ohio and go to the dealership for our annual service.
We absolutely loved our time in Santa Fe. The New Mexico motto is “State of Enchantment”. I think it’s fair to say we are completely enchanted with New Mexico. At least the northern part of the state that we’ve traveled. Some day we’re going to have to go south and explore that part of the state. Anyhow, Santa Fe was fabulous. We hiked, explored galleries and museums and went to the Farmer’s Market. I know I said this last year when we went to the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market, but I have to say it again – it is AMAZING. It’s an adventure all in itself. And we’re like kids in a candy store, we buy so much until we can’t carry another thing. It’s held twice a week, and we made it to 3 markets during our time there.
We met so many interesting people at the market. We shared a table with lovely lady from Germany who spends 6 months each year in Santa Fe to write (she’s a published author); I bought a hat from a very nice elderly lady who raises Alpacas and Sheep, makes her own yarn from their wool and crochets hats and other items; we talked to countless farmers about their farms and how they operate; we purchased a painting from an artist who moved to Santa Fe from New Zealand because he found the scenery and light to be so wonderful. He’s had his art in shows all around the world and it was so nice he was there talking to us just like an ordinary person! I should clarify – we purchased a print of one of his paintings…we can’t afford the original! Here’s a picture of him with Steve:
You may have noticed Steve’s hat…we have totally embraced the culture here and hats are part of it! Everyone wears hats! I love it and we’ve had fun purchasing a couple of hats for ourselves. We also caught up with Steve’s high school friend Chris and her husband Bob again. We saw them last year when we visited Santa Fe also. One of the great joys of this lifestyle is being able to visit friends and family we wouldn’t normally get to see.
Lots of pictures in the link below from Santa Fe: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oQojnrkg5KtVEZPB9
Then it was on to Angel Fire, which is about 2 hours north east of Santa Fe, about 20 miles outside Taos. We were here last year too. We think it is very pretty here, lots of mountains and good hiking. And Taos is a great town. Similar in many ways to Santa Fe, but much smaller. Very artsy, earthy, quirky, and fun to explore. They have a nice farmer’s market too which we have enjoyed. And guess what? There was a very nice lady there who raises her own Alpacas, and makes the wool into yarn. I couldn’t resist, I bought more yarn! I have purchased so much yarn I will be crocheting forever! But I can’t resist this beautiful yarn made with love from these ladies!
One of the highlights of our time here is The EPIC Hike we did a few days ago. We hiked Wheeler Peak, which is the tallest mountain in New Mexico, at 13,150 feet. We’ve been as high as 12,300, and have hiked 12,000 or higher several times. But we’ve never done a “thirteen’r” before. There are folks who hike all the “thirteen’rs and fourteen’rs”, there are many in Colorado – I can now safely assure you, we won’t be one of them! But, we did make it to the top and we’re glad we did! It was the hardest hike we’ve ever done. There’s a big difference between 12,000 and 13,000 I now know. Even though we’ve been in high altitude for several months now, we had a very hard time breathing at the top. We almost turned around several times during the last mile, but we kept pushing each other on and we made it! It was steep, rocky and difficult hiking for the last mile. Round trip, we hiked about 11 miles, and we climbed about 3,000 feet in elevation – we started at about 10,100. Gerry had no trouble at all, and when we reached the top, he ran right up to the peak and stood there looking at us. The view was spectacular – 360 view of the mountains and valleys all around. And very steep drop offs all around! It was freezing, windy and getting cloudy. We knew snow was in the forecast for that night, so we took a few quick pictures and headed down fast. An incredible experience and we’re thankful we could get it in before the snow moved in for the winter. Here’s pictures from the EPIC Hike: https://photos.app.goo.gl/z5vTnbqrtkFcDyZz9
Here’s some pictures of Angel Fire and Taos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BriWBMuHnaaZnMs1A
Now for some updates on the RV: We’ve had some extreme cold temperatures the past several nights – single digits with wind chills well below zero. And that has created some challenges with RV living in this weather. Our furnace runs on propane. The propane tanks keep freezing during the night. We have 2, 40 pound tanks with a lever that activates one or the other. Several nights we have woken up during the night, cold, not hearing the furnace running. Steve has to go outside and switch from one tank to the other which has been fixing the immediate problem. For some reason, the tank that is in operation freezes. Steve made a trip to the local propane refill station and the guy there said it happens all the time. Steve got an insulation blanket thing and wrapped the tanks with it. It has helped a lot. And then there’s the water situation. I’ll do my best to explain it – I’m not mechanical so keep that in mind!
There are 2 ways to get running water in the RV – hook up to the campground provided water outlet (we always do this), or, fill up your fresh water tank and turn on the water pump installed in the RV. We almost never do it this way, since we prefer staying at RV parks with hookups. But, if you’re into more remote camping, with no hook ups, or need to spend a night in the Walmart parking lot, this is how you have water. Well, given the freezing temperatures, we cannot stay connected to the camp water outlet – it would freeze, break their pipes, and probably ours as well. So, when it’s this cold you fill up your fresh water tank during the day, and use it with the water pump for evening and early morning water, until it’s warm enough to hook up again. Simple enough – right? And our furnace runs heat through our underbelly, (a nice feature not all RVs have), so our fresh water tank and pump stay nice and warm and don’t freeze. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But a couple of mornings ago, we woke up to no water – the tank had froze. So we started leaving water drip from a faucet during the nights, and that solved that problem.
You may remember, during last year’s trip, we had the issue of the fresh water tank filling up even when we were using the camp water hook up. I had this checked out during our last service visit. They “couldn’t replicate the problem” so nothing was resolved. My research indicates there is a valve in the water pump that is supposed to stay closed when you’re using the water hookup – a check valve. Then, when you switch to using your fresh water tank, the water pump valve opens to allow water to flow through the pump. I think this check valve is failing and allowing water to get past the valve when we’re hooked up to the water outlet, therefore filling up the fresh water tank when we don’t expect it, then the tank overflows. Happened a couple of times last year. But hasn’t happened again until yesterday.
We spent the day yesterday hiking, and had the water hose hooked up to the RV and the camp water outlet. Was a nice sunny, warm day. When we got back to our RV, water was running everywhere outside. The fresh tank had filled up and was overflowing. Fortunately, there’s an overflow vent, so the extra water just kept flowing out of the tank onto the ground. So, even though we did not have the water set to go into the fresh tank, it did. I think it proves my theory of the check valve not working. That would have been bad enough, but, it doesn’t end there!
So, we figured we had our fresh water tank full for the night, which we needed anyhow, it was going to get very cold for the night. Steve disconnected the hose and set the water to be used from the fresh tank, with the water pump. The water pump turned on, and we could hear it, but no water would flow. We think the pump is completely failing. So, we had no water for the night or this morning. Luckily, the campground has very nice bathrooms and showers, and we brought water back to the RV and had our coffee and tea this morning (let’s get real – there are basics you just can’t do without!). I did more research, and found a recommendation to set the water setting as if you’re using the campground hookup, but don’t connect the hose, and turn on the water pump instead. It worked! We have running water, at least for now!
Sorry for the long story about the water, but it’s part of this wonderful journey we’re having and life in an RV! We have 4 more days in Angel Fire, then we’re off to Oklahoma City. Steve will do some work there, then we’ll head for Ohio and this part of the adventure will be over. We’ll be getting the RV serviced (and a new water pump installed) then putting it into storage again. It’s always a little sad at the end of the trip, we love our RV life so much. But we’re always happy to be back home again and see family and friends. We’re so grateful we get to do both!
It’s still snowing and blowing outside so I’m going to make a new cup of tea and sit by the fire and watch the winter wonderland out the window. The giant Ravens are flying around, so pretty against the white snow. Steve’s out getting our propane tanks filled, each tank only lasts about 3 or 4 days when we’re running the furnace this much. Gerry’s sleeping in front of the fire. Life is good.