Tuesday, June 24, 2014 – Travel to Oasis State Park, Portales, NM

Once again up at the crack of dawn, got out even earlier as we had less to pack and the horses were in pipe corrals, so no high line or portable corral to put away. Hubby had a great night sleep and was feeling much better today, thank goodness. The radar showed two huge patches of rain, one north and one south, but we timed it just right to get out between the two. We didn’t stop until we go just about past them, when we went into a cute little cafe on the corner in a small town, where they made us about the best breakfast sandwich we’d ever had! Fried egg, bacon, cheese and some hash browns between a couple of pieces of thick bread, almost Texas Toast. Delicious! Filling, too, it held us for most of the day. Arrived at Oasis State Park around 1:00, with just one stop to top off fuel in Lubbock, found the cheap stuff thanks to my Gas Buddy app! A good 15 cents a gallon cheaper than every station nearby. Love it! No trouble finding the park, but it was kind of disappointing. The “horse camp” was just a small loop right across from the ranger station and work shop area, so naturally it was the busiest and noisiest place in the park. There were no corrals, and all the trees in the campground were pretty dead. The ground was really uneven, so even it I had been able to put up a highline, they would have been standing on a slant. Eventually, we decided to put up the portable corral across the driveway from us, there was one tree that still had a few leaves on it (the only shade around), and the ground wasn’t too bad. At least we could see them right outside the window. Got them settled, and us settled in shortly thereafter, only about 2:30 when we finished, then realized we had entered Mountain Time, so we gained an hour. Spent the afternoon once again looking for hay (New Mexico still has little grass hay, almost all alfalfa) and found two places on the way to our next stop, one with pure alfalfa @ $10 a bale, and another with a grass/alfalfa mix for $9.50. Think we’ll go for the mix, straight alfalfa just isn’t what I want my horses on. Anyway, once the rangers left for the day, it was nice and quiet, just one tent on the far side of the horse camp (sans horses, of course), and we as it had been cloudy all day, the temps had never gotten quite as high as predicted. Once the sun went down, it cooled off nicely, and we’re looking forward to mid-60’s sleeping weather tonight! Hope so, as we have no electricity, so no AC unless we want to gang up both generators, but honestly don’t think that will be necessary. Looking forward to a good night sleep!

Speak Your Mind

*