donna-sue and martin's amazing adventure (aka: ds & m see America)

Las Cruces, NM to Bellingham, WA: Part I. Petrified Forest NP and the Painted Desert, Arizona Our first stop on our journey north seeking cooler temps was the Petrified Forest NP located in the Painted Desert in Arizona.  It wasn't any cooler, but we spent a couple of days exploring the area. The colors and textures we witnessed from afar and close-up, when we hiked down onto the desert floor, were really spectacular which was only topped by seeing some local wildlife (I won't say anything more about that now, you'll just have to wait for the pics ;). The national park didn't offer any camping, but we stayed in a nearby state park, Homolovi. It had partially excavated indigenous ruins that we were able to visit. One thing about a hot desert climate, it's great for preserving artifacts! On to pics: The name of this campground cracked me up. A throwback from the ‘70s. Haha. We stayed here on our way to the Petrified Forest.   full moon at the Cosmic Campground  Petrif...

Las Cruces and New Mexico  After our leisurely travel, from Florida across the southern portion of our country, we actually made it to New Mexico, Las Cruces and our 2nd build.  Arriving in Las Cruces in April was at the end of their building season, so while in Marianna we were starting from a slab, in Las Cruces we were finishing up two houses: putting in appliances, touch-up and trim painting, caulking, plumbing, tiling and those sorts of things. Some they subcontracted out to professionals like the plumbing, electrical and tiling, but we did the rest. While it was interesting to see both ends of the process, essentially  none of my newly learned skills were transferable, but I had acquired and honed many of the necessary skills required for this work from working on our own house over the years, haha.  We were there for a month and for both two week sessions, there was only one other care-a-vanner. But they had a very dedicated group of local volunteers that were...