Elephant Butte State Park

We didn't check out the whole state park, first of all. What we did see was pretty impressive, though, even though the idea of dams (yes, there is a dam) is not my favorite contemplation concerning land use. Easy for me to say; I don't live in desert environments, where, according to written history, water wars had been ongoing between the US and Mexico since the late 1500's to irrigate crops. After a lot of wheeling and dealing, the dam was built, creating a huge reservoir that benefitted the US and Mexico. That's the surface version, with lots of interesting history that, if you are interested, is very easy to find. I just wanted to see water and lots of it. 

Finally a fairly decent connection!! (three or four days after I started this), so let's get a move on.

Just a fun painted bus out in the land of mountains, desert 

and WATER????

It all looks very different than west Texas, Jack. Good choice.

Oh my!

A Sisters on the Fly trailer. 

You can read all about them here; it's pretty darn cool.

There are adobe casitas like this for rent above the reservoir 

Houseboats and shantyboats!

A friendly man came down to the water's edge with his beautiful dog...

who promptly shat in the water.

Looking for ideas for my houseboat

Of course, this was our favorite 

All sorts of dam info on Elephant Butte Dam and Resevoir

A lot of stonework done in CCC days

Supposedly before the dam was made, this big volcanic top 

looked like an elephant laying on its side. 

I'll take their word for it.

This marina on the high hard was a strange sight for an island woman

It was good to see so much water and know that this particular dam and reservoir wasn't destructive and has done good for many (even though the politics of it were pretty strained; I'm so tired of politics these days I'm not even going there).

To find new places and sights is all a part of the journey. Jack and Francie took me to places they'd already been because 1)they are good friends and 2)they knew I'd really like them as well. 

After a few days (I played with transplanting tomatoes and moving rocks around in the yard to make it purty while Francie tore down dropped - ugly - ceilings in Jack's 1870 adobe house revealing vitas and latillas; you can read all about adobe house construction here, a very, very wondrous sight), we hit the road for Albuquerque and points north. There's a lot to see out here and truthfully, one could make a summer of it, but we're condensing it into a week. 

Have a truthful Thursday. Do something terrific.