# 11 Nothing Like a Snake Fight Before Breakfast

Well, we all got to Rockhound State Park  not too far from City of Rocks State Park on May 14. The next morning we girls and Stew went out for a walk. All of a sudden he took us back to the motorhome and made us go in and we weren't even done with our business. He had seen a snake. And it was rattling. It was just a few feet from the motorhome and coiled up to strike. He took the crank for the awning and beaned it, but it wasn't long enough. So he got his beloved saguaro cactus rib walking stick and proceeded to protect us all from the snake. He actually cracked his walking stick knocking it silly. He flipped it out into the road and the snake pretended it was dead but it wasn't, it was still rattling but it definitely was disabled. We girls (and Ceil) were inside the motorhome watching all this and Ceil called the ranger to see what to do with it. The rangers came out and lassoed it with this snake gadget about ten feet long. They didn't even want to put it in their truck. We watched them drive off with the ranger on the passenger side holding the snake gadget out the window with the snake hanging. Turns out it was a Mojave green rattlesnake, the most venomous and aggressive snake there is in the Southwest. After all that excitement we girls needed a nap.

We are about 10 miles away from Deming, NM. So we got to go for a ride a few times to see the town. Of course, THEY (Stew and Ceil) go into town without us sometimes. We did go to McDonalds one day and we girls split a hamburger. We liked that. THEY of course eat out sometimes.  They have been to three different Mexican restaurants and they are all reasonably priced and they can't decide which one they like the best. They went to Si Senor, Irma's, and La Fonda. So if you ever get to Deming, you know these are good places because THEY said so.

One night THEY went to a cowboy concert right here at the campground. We didn't get to go but we could hear it. He was a real cowboy, too. THEY said it was real nice.

Mike Moutoux, New Mexico's Enchanting Cowboy

 

The museum in Deming is really awesome from what we girls heard from Stew and Ceil. They went one day without us. (Note from Ceil: This museum is ranked one of the ten best small town museums in the United States. It is AMAZING). 
 







A painting in the museum









Mimbres Pottery



Mimbres Pottery





Chuckwagon Display



Another painting at the museum



We decided to stay another week here at Rockhound. You can even pick up 15 pounds of rocks to take home with you.

 

 



 



Here is our campsite, # 14. We like it a lot here.

 

View from our campsite

 



This isn't just a sunset. This is the MOON in a sunset.



This is the Visitor Center at Rockhound State Park. We
would like a house like this.


We drove to Pancho Villa State Park one day to check it out. It is 3 miles from Mexico.  We will leave here on May 28 to go to Pancho Villa for a few days. We'll check in with you from there.
 XO Roxy and Abby

 

 

 

 









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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# 10 Back Again

 

We were at Debbie and Jerry's and decided to start the blog again. You need to know this stuff. We hope we get to see them soon because we can be loose in their yard.

We girls can't believe how long it has been since we told you what is going on. So we're going to start again and tell you about Stew and Ceil's bucket list. We heard them talking about a bucket list and figured that meant we were going to get a bath, but no. It meant that they are going to "do" New Mexico which we heard them say was one of their favorite states. They are going to camp in all of the state parks in New Mexico or try to anyway. They said New Mexico has a really good deal for camping in the state parks. If you are a resident it's even a sweeter deal but they got a pass for 12 months because we are from out of state and it only cost $225. They can dry camp for free at any state park and if they want electric they only pay $4.00 a night. We know that means more treats for us.  So on May 3, 2013, we pulled into City of Rocks State Park and bought a pass for a year.

We think these rocks are just crazy. They are way bigger than we are so we thought we should bark at them. But they didn't bark back so we evidently subdued them but good. We never heard a word out of them the whole time we were there.

We were here for 10 days.

We did see a few other dogs with their humans but it wasn't very busy and real quiet. We didn't get an electric site because the weather wasn't real hot and when you don't have electric you're not real close to some other dogs with their humans.

They dragged us around to look at some petroglyphs but we didn't see one single dog carved into any rocks. We saw some really pretty flowers we have never seen. Turns out they are called Yellow Bird of Paradise. We liked them a lot. We also found out they are toxic to humans and probably dogs, too. So we admired them from a distance.

Yellow Bird of Paradise

 

 

We looked around when we got there and found a raven's nest up in the rocks above us. We barked at them but they told us they had babies sleeping so we were real nice to them. We watched them fly back and forth and they worked real hard to get food for the babies. We put out a bowl of water for them because there is a bad drought here. We couldn't have a campfire or  charcoal hamburgers because of the high fire danger. One day we put some bread out for them. One of them was way smarter than the other one. The first raven was trying to get that bread down but the other one, (we know it was the mom,) grabbed a big piece of bread, dipped it into the water and it went down real nice and easy.

 

Here is the raven nest that was right above us.

 

 

We saw some really nice sunsets, too.  




 

 



We're gonna go now. We will talk about Rockhound State Park next time.