Santa Rosa S.P. NM

 We were wise to have made reservations at Santa Rosa since only one of the developed loops was open through April 1. Half of those sites had only electric, and I had (again!) missed that fact, but this park at least had a community drinking water fill and a working dump station. We were good to go for our 12-day stay.

 We set off right away for a short walk on the park’s Shoreline Trail.

Sunlight obviously boosting TBG’s serotonin levels

Santa Rosa is a pretty big park overall, with not only the Shoreline Trail, but a long unpaved trail off the primitive camping area, two paved handicap-accessible nature trails, and miles of paved roads connecting it all. Although I awoke with a tender lower back, we took off on a two-hour bike ride.

The Santa Rosa dam was built and is maintained by the COE, and they have a two-story rest area facility as well as their own Visitor Center. Both are very nicely maintained, and except for the VC attendant, were almost always completely deserted.

 

After our ride, we checked out the park’s showers, and they were just about the worst we’ve ever encountered. Freezing, with maniacal spray heads, the best I can say is that it was water, and we were able to get clean. Then we enjoyed the evening listening to other campers arrive and attempt to park – that is always a favorite activity of ours. One Class A arrived with at least six adults in it, and that sounded like this:

1st man “C’mon back, you got about 10 inches!”
[unintelligible woman’s voice]
1st man “Oh, okay. You got about this much!” obviously indicating with his hands instead of a number
2nd man shouting “I don’t like this!”
3rd man “Oh, and I suppose my opinion doesn’t count, huh?”

Then they proceeded to run an extra-long garden hose from their rig to the community water fill. Now why didn’t we think of that?

 In the morning, I awoke with a lower back and right hip that was in full-out protest. That curbed any major physical activity and meant alternating OTC pain meds, ice, and slow short walks around the campground. Lather, rinse, repeat the next day. The weather was nice, and I was both grateful and resentful of it because while it was wonderful to not freeze on my short walks and be able to sit outside, we were “wasting” good weather, and I hate, hate, hate to be a burden or the reason we can’t do things. TBG, a much nicer nurse than I will ever be, took me on two walks a day, to what we came to think of as “our” overlook, where there was a rock ledge just the right height for me to sit while we enjoyed the view. One evening we spotted this

 We knew when we saw it that it was a flycatcher as we watched it dive to catch and devour a moth, but when I looked it up, we discovered that it is an endangered bird.  (2023 note: being a much savvier birder now, I don't believe this was the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher.) That helps take your mind off an aching back for a minute.

Santa Rosa is famous for its Blue Hole, and with my back feeling a bit better and the weather the warmest it was going to be, we drove into town to see what all the fuss was about.

There were several people there, and despite the water’s constant temperature of 61F, many were jumping and diving in.

TBG braves the chill!

I had on my suit, but was still too wary of my zinging back to take the plunge.

It looks like TBG is standing on the rocks, but this is midway through his leap!

My back was even better the day after that, and we took in all 3 miles of the Shoreline Trail at an easy pace.

Without full hookups, or even a water connection, we needed to go into town to get some laundry done.

 

My back was feeling worse again, and although the town laundromat wasn’t that bad at all, I was in a very foul mood. I had no patience for the dryers, probably more because of the pain than any fault with the machines, and once again, we piled damp laundry back into bags to finish in the moho. I’d had it with the pain by evening, and ramped up the NSAIDs to their prescription strength.

While the increased med dosage did effectively knock out the lower back pain, things got worse early in the morning (a Sunday, natch!) culminating in a trip to the ER for me when I was having some new and disturbing symptoms – upper back pain, an unrelenting “fist” right between the shoulder blades and the most extreme nausea I’ve ever experienced. Very fortunately, TBG discovered that Santa Rosa has its own little hospital and ER, and he whisked me in when I finally relented to go. Long story short, my heart was fine, my stomach wasn’t bleeding out, and there was nothing seriously wrong with me. Well, WTH then? Some weird sort of gastric event, maybe caused by all the pain meds, maybe completely coincidental, who knows? I got some IV fluids for mild dehydration, a couple rounds of anti-nausea injections, and ultimately the all-clear. I spent the remainder of the day sipping Gatorade (thanks for the reminder, Laura!), becoming insanely nauseated again right after taking my anti-nausea meds (very funny, not!), and finally, abruptly, feeling about 5000% better.

The moral of this non-dirt-chasing part of the story, and the reason I include it, is this: Don’t ignore symptoms that might be critical. The practitioner I saw echoed this advice, reminding me that she would rather see 100 people for whom the symptoms were nothing serious, than have the one stay home for whom they were. Don’t be that one. Or be that one, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

 Although I was feeling in the pink, I was still very nervous about re-straining my back, so we decided to take in both of the short paved trails and get in some better internet signal at the trail heads.

 Though only ½ and ¾ miles respectively, they were really pretty trails, and one had cool rock formations on which to walk off-trail and explore.

 QUIZ TIME! What lives here?

 Southwestern Earless Lizard (does not live in above)

It was so good to feel good again.

When we were at the laundromat, TBG saw a sign on the window advertising “Fresh Eggs,” and I called the number to arrange an egg pick up in town. We got three dozen huge free-range eggs at only $3/dozen from a sweet lady who has a ranch in the area. The only way it could’ve been better is if we’d gotten to visit the ranch and pet the chickens themselves. I miss having chooks, and if it were up to me, I would devise a way to have some RV chickens.

Other than another bike ride (short for me, longer for him) and a second hike around the park’s Shoreline Trail, our last few days were unremarkable. We did enjoy an all-day lizard wrassling event on the rocks in front of our RV before we left, though.

Let’s get ready to rrrrruuuuummmmmbbbbbllllleeeee!!!!!

I looked at about four million lizard pics to try to identify these two contenders, and my best guesses are some variety of fence and/or sagebrush lizards. Excellent wrasslers, both!

Dear God, the hazardous wildlife is out and about here, too!

Rock Squirrel says it’s time to move along. See you at Sumner Lake!

QUIZ ANSWER: It’s a packrat, aka Desert Woodrat, nest!

COMMENTS

Lowe's Travels Your incident is a bit common to some of us who live on the road. I had my own trip to the ER when we were in Brownsville, TX. Steve had to drive me there at 1AM, because I felt weird. Four hours later, the doc said there is nothing wrong with me! How about that!
Anyhow glad there was nothing wrong with you, and you did not seem to have backpains when we surprised you the other day 🙂 He he he , I meant when you and Mark were spying in the comings and goings of the campground. So happy to meet both of you and I think we still have lots to talk about when we are at Huecos.

Chasing Dirt Oh, I’m sorry you had a health scare on the road, too, but so glad yours was nothing as well. We all know too well that it’s not always nothing, so very grateful when we get the all clear. Ha, my back has been sore this week, but all pain flew out the window when we spied, I mean saw, you two pull into the parking lot. What a wonderful surprise that was! Can’t wait to continue our talk soon!

strebor117 I think the backing the 5th wheel into the site is captivating entertainment, however, the viewers should be discreet. After the large motor home we decided to get a small, manageable travel trailer. We settled on a Happier Camper. It can be towed with our Subaru Outback. We picked it up on a hot, hot day in L.A. and towed it to a county park in Yucaipa, CA. Our assigned site was at the end of a slightly curved, uphill ramp. I knew the principles of backing a trailer. Turn the steering wheel in the opposite direction that you wish the trailer to go. Here is the deal with a very short trailer… once it gets offline, it stays offline. If you continue backing it gets worse no matter which way you turn the wheel. A Kojack double, only shorter and fatter with a bushier mustache, positioned himself across the road in front of me, tattooed arms crossed, staring fixedly through his mirrored sunglasses. He offered no direction. Just stared at me. After several frustrating tries, back and forth, wife giving ambiguous hand signals, sweat pouring down my face, I stopped. I got out of the car and told Kojack to go stand somewhere else. I did finally get the (not) Happier Camper close enough that we could push it into place by hand. I eventually learned to get it backed into a spot, but I really preferred pull-thrus. Then, we really came to the conclusion that camping wasn’t it for us and we sold it for just about what we paid for it in the first place.

Chasing Dirt Ha, yes we are always discreet when observing or listening to fellow campers. I’m sure we have provided great entertainment ourselves! Your “observer” sounds like an interesting character. You were brave to confront him! I would be a miserable failure at backing up a trailer. I had trouble with our John Deere lawnmower and the little cart we pulled behind it. It all makes for good stories, though!

strebor117 I did actually go across the street and talk with him and apologize for my less than reasonable response. He turned out to be an okay guy. I have a similar background with TBG and am not shy about confrontation (most of the time a little more professional).

Chasing Dirt I did laugh at the picture of you telling him to “go stand somewhere else,” but I am glad you were able to make peace with him. Most folks are pretty okay — once they’re parked and maybe have a snack 🙂

Pete Your incident makes me think about the situation at our remote Alaskan compound. We had many illnesses and accidents out there but handled all but two of them ourselves because the doctors at our clinic 70 miles away helped us stock up on necessary medical supplies. The two time I speak of we contacted through short wave radio the army and they flew out and airlifted our neighbor during her heart attack.

Chasing Dirt I’ll bet you have lots of cool stories about your experiences! It is definitely good to know how to handle those types of situations yourself and be prepared for all sorts of emergencies. We think about that a lot, not only where we’re camped, but also out on the trails, and try to stay as educated and supplied as we can. Being remote is alternately wonderful and terrifying!

chapter3travels A couple years ago, my brother had a stomach ache that wouldn’t go away. After a day or two, he went to the hospital and they ended up admitting him for gallbladder surgery. At the time, the doctor was like “Why did you wait so long to come in?” My brother answered “Because if I came into the ER and all it was was indigestion, you would have looked at me like I was an idiot.” All of which is true. But at the end of the day, there’s no way to know without getting it checked out, and had he waited longer, it could have been a real disaster. Turns out, that whole “better to be safe than sorry” thing is pretty accurate.

In any case, glad it all ended up being OK and you’re back to normal. I’m also glad to hear my stellar medical advice helped. Turns out, the tricks you learn in college to combat hangovers really can serve you well for the rest of your life. Lifelong learning, y’all!!!

Chasing Dirt Gallbladder was considered since I have the family history for that; ruled out this time, but with a watchful eye. Glad things turned out OK for your brother! And I like your hangover cure much better than the one we had back in the day which was the hair-of-the-dog variety. Not too bright for college kids, eh? I am grateful every day that I did not grow up in the social media era! 😀

Laurel Oh wow, that is NOT the kind of RVing adventure you want to have. What you experienced sounds really scary—so glad that everything turned out fine and that you’re all better. Mark sounds like a very patient and kind nurse, indeed. 🙂
I think you could travel with chickens! Why not? And then you would have fresh eggs every day! And you could share them with me!!

Laurel Wait, wait!! I forgot to answer the quiz, but I knew the answer! Really, truly I did. Packrat nest!
What’s my prize? How about some fresh eggs from your chickens next time I see you, LOL!

Chasing Dirt I believe you! And I would give you all the RV-fresh chicken eggs you wanted if the mean man would let me have some!

TBG No CHICKENs in the RV! Don’t egg her on 😂

Laurel Hahahaha!!! Aw, c’mon!!! 🐣

Chasing Dirt Meanie 😡