Hot Weather in Truth or Consequences, Then Up to Santa Fe National Forest!

My painting on the cover of the Artists Directory

After getting back from Florida, I hung out in Truth or Consequences, NM, for a few weeks.  

Some significant things happened during that time.  First, I had been keeping secret for a while that one of my paintings, "God as Explained by a Four-Year-Old," had been selected to appear on the cover of the Sierra County Arts Council's Artists Directory 2018.  This is a great honor that has already brought some attention to Sun Gallery and has made me think about painting more fantasy folk art portraiture.

 Sly came over for coffee first thing on Mother's Day!

Second, my daughter Sly came to live in TorC!  I am so happy about this development.  I wasn't sure if I would be, because what if she couldn't find work and housing right away?  But that was no problem.  Sly was working at Passion Pie Cafe and had a little studio apartment (beyond her means up in Seattle, but affordable here) within eight days of arriving.  Sly is also being extremely helpful to me in my gallery, doing some sign painting, challenging cleaning jobs that require getting on ladders, etc.  An additional part of this happy story is that Sly's girlfriend Charlie will also be moving to TorC very soon.

 Some of Sly's paintings from her first art show

I spent a few weeks staying at some of my favorite campgrounds around TorC and then moved behind the Gallery for a few days during my monthly Art Hop opening at Sun Gallery.  This month we featured some of Sly's paintings that she'd brought down from Seattle.  Her work is gloomy and cool, and two paintings sold. 

 Fairy garden in a boat...a fairy boat?

May was also Fairy Garden Month at Sun Gallery.  I made some gardens, sold some planters and figurines from my Fairy Garden Center, and had a Fairy Garden Tea Party on Mother's Day.  As a full-time RVer, I find it really fun to get my hands in the dirt once in a while, and fairy gardens (miniature gardens with houses and other features that  welcome any fairies who happen along) are a great way to satisfy my need to garden.  I think I will also get a little cactus for Brownie, now that we have consistently hot weather.

 Sonja enjoying a new RoadPro 12v fan

Speaking of which...this will be my first summer in New Mexico when I haven't had an RV park site to come back to where I can hook up to A/C whenever needed, which is pretty much every day from May through August.  The 100-degree temps kind of scared me for a while.  I was trying to picture how I would deal with it, because I'd really prefer to stay someplace prettier than the parking lot behind my art gallery.

However, one day I had a little scare, and it changed my feelings about this.  I was staying on the Rio Grande about six miles from downtown TorC and I got a stomach flu.  I'd planned to drive back into town and hook up to electricity at the gallery, because the afternoon temp was supposed to be near 100 degrees.  I called Steve and said I might need his help getting back into town before it got very hot and uncomfortable.  He and our friend Claudia came out immediately and saved my about-to-be-sizzling bacon!  Back in town behind the gallery, I could use the A/C while I rested and recuperated.  

Now my feeling about staying behind the gallery is--I am one lucky artist!  I can stay there and get lots of work done, any time of the day or night, and be safe from overheating the cat and myself.  Many of my artist-on-wheels friends would love to have my arrangement, and I am full of gratitude.

My campsite at the Rubber Tramp Art Community gathering in the Santa Fe NF

Speaking of traveling creatives...after Art Hop/Hot Springs Festival/Mothers Day weekend, I left for northern New Mexico to meet up with members of the Rubber Tramp Art Community.  We are an intentional community of nomadic artists that first met just four months ago at the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Quartzsite and have since formed this community.  If you are interested in participating, you can join our Rubber Tramp Art Community (RTAC) FaceBook page.  We are planning our next gathering in late July-early August in northern Arizona.

I left TorC a little over a week ago.  The first night, I only went so far as the Socorro Walmart, where I spent the night along with about a half-dozen other RVs and got provisions for the journey.  We'd planned to have potlucks and a couple of theme nights (baked potato night and chili night), so I had to think about what I could make for a group.  It's funny how when I was not all that much younger and had a family to feed, I could effortlessly make menus and shop for an entire week, but now I am challenged at the prospect of cooking for more than one or two people.   

 I was close to a little creek and bridge

The next morning, I continued up I-25 until it was time to veer northwest on Highway 550 north of Albuquerque.  Then I went east on Highway 96, where I stopped at the Coyote Ranger Station in the Santa Fe National Forest and got detailed maps that guided me up to the Resumidero Campground.  The drive up was about 10 miles of dirt roads, with many more dirt roads heading off from the one I needed to keep following.  It was a little tricky, but one of our members, Sarah Meg, really scoped it out and gave us good directions.  

 My campsite's picnic table made a great painting studio except when it was too windy

This 9000-foot altitude campground was definitely worth the drive.  It's several wide open meadows surrounded by forest.  Equestrian groups use it pretty heavily in the summer, but we saw only cows, cowboys, and a few other campers.  Mostly it was our group of 10 people who spread out and filled up about one-and-a-half of the meadows.  We were also near a spring, where we went to do some plein air painting under the able tutelage of Bob Ross-certified instructor Wendy, who was later named Camp Princess (a completely positive nickname!).  

We set up a place where we gathered for two or three activities a day.  We had a daily morning meeting where we worked some Artists Way and other spiritual exercises.  We sometimes had a class or activity in the afternoon.  Danielle taught us how hand sew our own travel journals or sketchbooks.  (She makes her own watercolor sketchbooks for about a third of the price of buying them!)  I repeated my Easy Mandala Drawing class from the RTR.  Some afternoons we just did our own thing.  And then there was dinner.  Oh, boy, was there ever dinner!  What a bunch of food artists we have in our group.  Healthy and delicious potluck meals every single time.    

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the people who were at this gathering because the whole thing felt very personal and private.  But it's really not--we'd love to include more nomadic artists who seek peaceful community.  

 View from my Abiquiu Lake campsite's picnic table

I started a couple of paintings while at camp and got loads of ideas for new ones.  Now that we have adjourned, I'm resting a bit at the Corps of Engineers Riana Campground on Abiquiu Lake.  I suffered a little every day from altitude sickness while I was up at Resumidero, and after less than 24 hours down here at 6400 feet or so, I'm feeling much better.  More energy, less headache, fatigue and blahness.  I'm going to stay here one more day, then explore some nearby Georgia O'Keeffe history sites, and then head up to drive some roads in southern Colorado that I have never taken.  

And now I have to go, because the RTAC camp decided to move down from the mountain and join me at the lake!  Right on!  The fun continues...

 They found me!  Sign up for Rubber Tramp Art Community, and you can find me, too.

      

Our Quick Trip Home: 5 Free RV Overnights Along I-10, Florida to Texas

Brownie from across the storm water remediation pond at Phipps Park, Stuart, FL

When I wrote about three-and-a-half weeks ago, we were camping at Phipps Park Campground, a very nice county park in Stuart, Florida.  We were going to drive Brownie, my 20-ft 1984 Lazy Daze mini-motorhome, back to St. Lucie Automotive in nearby Fort Pierce for a transmission-related repair on Monday morning (March 26).  We had an embarrassing amount of blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes, but we thought it would be a quick fix (a transmission modulator) and then we would happily drive home via I-20, doing some sightseeing along the way.  

But no, it was not to be as we envisioned.  First off, when we drove in the dawn on Monday to the mechanic, with the blue smoke billowing behind us, we started to lose power.  Steve was driving, and he got us safely to an empty parking lot, where we could call our roadside assistance. Brownie was towed again!  A friend suggests she has a thing for tow trucks and lifts.   

 Brownie being towed in again

Next, when they got into the transmission oil pan, they found metal shavings from our transmission, indicating that Brownie needed a new rebuilt transmission.  They told us we could maybe drive home to New Mexico and get the work done with the mechanic I normally go to.  But maybe not. Well, I wasn't willing to take that risk.  I respected the mechanic we were working with already, so I decided to delay our return and stay to get the work done. 

The blue smoke problem ended up taking two days, not one, so we spent another night in a hotel.   

Things got worse.  Due to some aftermarket changes done to the exhaust system, the mechanics couldn't get to the part of the transmission that identified which of two possible kinds it was.  So, that meant they couldn't order the new rebuilt transmission until they actually tore apart the existing one to identify the right part.  This entailed a pretty substantial delay, due to having to order the part and then leave Brownie up on the rack until it arrived within an unknown number of days.

Since the blue smoke modulator repair was done, we were free to use Brownie again for a few days, so we went back to Phipps Park and really enjoyed several days of relaxation.  We could drive Brownie around a little, so we went into town and saw some local beaches and ran some errands.  Steve saw alligators at Phipps Park, which is adjacent to a storm water treatment area (what I thought was a lake, it's so beautiful).

Then we had to drop Brownie back off at the garage on Monday (April 2) for her time up in the air.  This time, we knew we'd be staying at least two nights and perhaps as many as four.  So we picked a little nicer hotel, a Holiday Inn Express which had a pretty decent breakfast and nice grounds.   

I have some advice for anyone that finds themselves in this sort of situation on the road.  If I had it to do over, I would have picked a hotel or motel that was closer to where there were interesting things to do.  We picked hotels based on where the garage was, and there was nothing around us except other hotels and some fast food places. Now I realize I could have gotten us a room down by the beach where we could have sat outside and looked at beautiful things and gone out for coffee and stuff.  I don't think it would've been any more expensive, because we ended up using Uber to get out of the hotel once in a while, and that can run $25-30 round-trip.  Also, a rental car would not have been all that expensive.  I didn't consider doing that because I wrongly assumed it would be expensive, and daily rental might have been about the same as one round-trip using Uber. 

 We saw dolphins on a manatee cruise in Ft. Pierce!

Well, live and learn.  I do that a lot.  The replacement transmission came in surprisingly fast and we were out of the hotel after a three-night stay on Thursday, April 5.  We picked up Brownie at about noon and made our way north first on the Florida Turnpike and then on the freeway.  Because of the repair delays and costs, we needed to skedaddle home on I-10, without taking the time to see any tourist sites.  Steve wanted to do the majority of the driving, because he's comfortable driving faster than I am.  We figured we could drive about 300 to 400 miles per day.   
So here are the five places we stayed for free along I-10:

Thursday, April 5...Walmart at Live Oak, Florida.  It is posted No Overnight Parking, but all of the Internet sites that address Walmart availability had reviews saying that parking here is no problem.  It was quiet and we had no problems staying here.

 Our campsite in the rest area at Moss Point, Mississippi

Friday, April 6...Mississippi Welcome Center, Moss Point, MS.  This is the Best...Rest...Area...Ever.  Seriously.  There are actual campsites with covered picnic tables, paved pads, and garbage cans, behind the truck parking area.  It is supposed to be a picnic area.  I doubt most people driving cars even realize it exists, though, because it's beyond where the big trucks park and a little tricky to get to, with only one little sign.  If you check in with security, you can stay there one night.

Saturday, April 7...Chambers County Rest Area, Hankamer, Texas (west of Beaumont).  Runner Up for Best Rest Area Ever.  There is a nice big parking area for trucks.  We parked at the far end of it, away from the trucks, and had easy access to the bathrooms.  The really awesome thing about this rest area is the beautiful boardwalk with picnic tables and information about wildlife.  It's like being in a park.  That said, use your bug spray, because I didn't, and I paid the price.

Sunday, April 8...Rest Area, I-10W, Kerrville, Texas (about an hour northwest of San Antonio).  This was not a huge modern rest area like the two previous nights' stays, but it was fine.  There was a free dump station and potable water!  I was glad to use them, because otherwise I would have had to do that immediately on our return to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. 

 Van Horn Rest Area sunrise on the day we got home to Truth or Consequences, NM

Monday, April 9...Rest Area I-10 W, just east of Van Horn, Texas.  Another older, smaller rest area, but it was fine for us in a small RV.  We saw another picnic area on the west side of Van Horn that might have been quieter, with fewer big trucks. 

All of these nights were free, which was a great help after the expenses of the huge repairs in Florida...water pump, radiator, and transmission being the major ones.  

Since getting back here to Truth or Consequences on the day we left Van Horn, I've been busy with work.  Almost immediately, it was time to open Sun Gallery for Second Saturday Art Hop weekend.  I stayed behind the gallery and worked four days, then escaped to nearby Damsite Campground for a couple of nights of relaxation after the work weekend. 

RV repair expenses are cutting into my plans, but now some awesome new things are happening instead.  One thing is that the Rubber Tramp Art Community, the intentional community for nomadic artists that grew out of this year's RTArt Camp, is planning a spring gathering May 15 through 21, probably in northern New Mexico.  I can't afford to do pottery in Santa Fe all summer as I had wanted, but I can go to my community's gathering and do some other travel while I'm up north.

 What, no cat pic?!  Here I am at the Damsite Campground in TorC