Stagg Vs. New Mexico

We are a lean mean camping machine. Well. Almost.

I mentioned last week that we have had good days and bad days, ups and downs on this trip. Let me qualify. Or remind visitors...Stagg Did not do camping. He doesn't even eat outside on a patio when I met him. So it's not an exaggeration to say he has been less than enthusiastic about going into a cave or cooking on a camp fire or wearing flip flops. He never wore flip flops before. And well... Of course who do the mosquitoes bite? Not me. Not even contact on me. We got bug repellant but poor Stagg still had bites all over his feet and legs. So it's been up and down for him and he's really been trying to enjoy "nature".

So... We leave the Carlsbad Caverns and start driving. I've got my eye on a state park near some mountains north in the state. I've been navigating most of the trip through gps on my phone...in fact I'm using my phone right now to post this too. We have a big atlas too but it's not always easy to tell exactly where a state park or campsite is going to be. I also have tried to reserve online a campsite when I am able or when I know our exact timing on the road and plans. So I thought we could get up to the Manzano mountains the early evening after the caves. Oops.

We just made it with about 20 minutes before dark. The last 80 miles of the drive were the longest 80 miles ever. Stagg and I had a gloom hanging over us because setting ip a tent in the dark totally sucks. And getting wood to make dinner is impossible. We got further and further from gas stations and stores. Ghost towns. Colder and colder weather in the mountains. But not only did we finally find the campsite we got set up. Stagg found wood and I got the tent set. All really fast and at the exact same moment as the sun went down. Whew. Then we set up the fire with a grill and I made hamburgers. Delicious.

Then all hell broke loose...