Taos, New Mexico

The trip across Texas is a blur.  Three nights at truck stops, 100-degree heat in  the day. By Wednesday night I had made it to Clovis.   On Thursday, to Santa Fe.  In  the evening I began the drive to Taos, up some mightily steep hills, and not knowing where I would be sleeping that night.

The Pilar Campsite in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area at dawn

Then some great luck.  Fifteen miles from Taos I found the Orilla Verde Recreational Area, run by BLM, on the Rio Grande. There I stopped and stayed -- my first open air, under the stars, coolish night, great all around camping moment since leaving College Station.  And reasonable too:  $7 for a developed site with water ($5 for a primitive site, $15 for RV hook-ups).

The next morning I woke early and hiked the trails. Then after a hearty lunch and conversation with other van dwellers, I drove on into Taos,  and from Taos north to Kit Carson Forest, where as night falls and the sun sets behind whatever the heck those mountains are in the west, I am house-sitting for an old family friend, who is really off the grid.  All power her comes from solar panels.

The Rio Grande at Orilla Verde Recreation Area

All her water from rain collected off the roof.
Wild life, especially the coyote, abounds.  Yet it does not seem desolate, as though the earth around is friendly to the core, which no doubt it is.

JNR