April Adventures

Wednesday March 29, 2023 -  We had a Marriott free night certificate that was going to expire at the end of the March, so we decided to use it for a night in downtown Indy.  The JW Marriott was available during the week, so we made an adventure out of it, and took the bus instead of driving.  It was a bit chilly or we would have considered the 10 mile walk down the Monon Trail, to the Cultural Trail (maybe next time)!  We spent a few hours at the Eiteljorge Museum across the street from the Marriott.  There was a great exhibition of the Photography of Dorthea Lange, that we really enjoyed.  We had a beer at the hotel bar and then went to dinner at Loughman's a block from the hotel.  After dinner we walked the 3/4 of a mile to the Slippery Noodle Inn for Wednesday Night Blues Jam.  We were happy to finally get to see a show there.  After a good night's sleep with beautiful views of the city, we took the bus home! 

It was a 3 block walk, on the Cultural Trail, from the State House bus stop 

The Dorthea Lange exhibit (and a nice double bench)

Expressions of Life:  Native Art in North America 

View from our hotel room on the top floor of the JW

View of Lucas Oil Stadium and the Convention Center

Dinner at Loughman's Bar

A walk by the stadium to get to the Slippery Noodle

The Slippery Noodle in the background.  The Noodle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's the oldest continuously operated bar in Indiana (established in 1850).

The Noodle is right across the street from Lucas Oil

The stadium lit up at night

night time view from our room

Monday April 3 - Elaine's Spring Break is the week of April 3rd, so she flew from Cali to Westfield, for the weekend, to visit with friends and spend some time with Meg & Maddy.  Monday she flew from Newark to Indy where she'll spend a few days, then on Wednesday we'll drive to the country to spend some time with Paka Bob. On Saturday Elaine flies out of St. Louis back home.  It's a whirlwind trip, but we're happy to get to spend time with her.

Would it be a trip to Westfield, without Hershey's Trinidad sandwich??

Happy to have Elaine here!!!

It was a nice day for a walk, so we walked 2.5 miles down the Monon to the Liter House for a beer

Perfect afternoon on the back porch

Kev loves the red beers

Tuesday April 4th - Happy Birthday Elaine!

Kev talking Elaine's ear off about investments

Lunch at Skyline

A ten mile bike ride on the Monon

Some Birthday Bubbly

Cheers!

Birthday dinner at home

Birthday cake (angel food with cream cheese icing, Elaine's favorite)

Wednesday April 5, 2023 - Five hour drive to the country

Chuck shares a birthday with Elaine, so he shared his pineapple upside down cake with the birthday girl

hanging out in Tiny

Kev was supposed to be fixing the trailer inner tube

Elaine got put to work

Happy to see Paka Bob!

We put together a greenhouse for Bob's tomato plants

Bob's garden plot is ready

ready for a campfire

gotta try out the deer stand

Chuck took us down to the Bourbeuse (which is running high)

Beer thirty on the porch with Deb & Chuck

A game of Copenhagen before bed

Friday April 7 - Today Aunt Gerry & Uncle Gene are driving out for the afternoon, from Springfield and Aunt Carol is coming from Arnold.

Morning in the Shabin

Deb's getting ready for gardening

Lunch at Muddy Banks

Campfire with the gang

S'mores

Uncle Gene & Aunt Gerry

Aunt Carol

Target practice

Saturday April 9 - Last day!

Breakfast in Tiny before dropping Elaine at the airport

Until next time!

Truth or Consequences, NM and We're Headed Home

 Sat March 11, 2023 -  Kevin found that Truth or Consequences has a "Second Saturday" event where the art galleries and shops are open in the evening on the second Saturday of each month.  Well, March 11th happens to be the second Saturday of the month, so we decided to check it out.  We started at the T or C Brewing Co for a few beers and dinner.  It was fun to walk around the downtown area and check out the local shops.  

T or C beers

Lots of nice murals in downtown T or C (and a matching bench!)

in addition to art galleries, T or C has a few antique and second-hand stores that were fun to wander through

Monday March 13, 2023 - Today we started to think about our next week of the trip.  We were supposed to head north to Santa Fe and Taos, but the weather there was going to be lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s for the 4 days we were going to be there.  The only way to hit warm weather for the next week was to head south, which wasn't heading us home.  We decided that it would be easier to just go home...it's been a great trip, one more week won't make much difference.  We'll shoot for some 6 hr drive days, stay in a few Walmarts/Casino parking lots and shoot to get home on Thursday. 

One last morning hike on the Lakeshore trail (we finally made it down to the lake)

I need to find the name of this type of prickly pear.  I haven't seen any prickly pears that are curvy like these that I've seen at Elephant Butte

We're going to miss the sunny warm days, but spring is coming soon to Indy

We added some good stickers to our wall on this trip!

Tiny is headed home.  5200 miles, 110 hours of driving, 14.8 mpg (we miss the 17.5 mpg we got in Alaska with Uncle Gene keeping us at a more economical speed!)

Elephant Butte SP

 Wednesday March 8, 2023 - Today we’re headed to Elephant Butte SP in Truth or Consequences, NM.  It’s a 2 hour drive with a quick stop in Hatch NM (chili pepper capital of the world) for lunch and a walk. I booked 6 nights at Elephant Butte in the same site we stayed at 5 years ago, when we were tent/clam campers.  

Early morning moon shadows of our campsite in City of Rocks

 a little reading before we start the day

One last spin on the Hydra trail

Love the contrails in the sky today

looks like lots of planes fly over this part of New Mexico

The Sparky's corner in Hatch, NM

hmmmmm, a little weird?

we love hatch chili peppers

Uncle Sam and chili peppers

Site 19 at Elephant Butte

our view for the next 6 days

March 2023

Feb 2018 

we took up the whole site with everything we needed to be comfortable while tent camping!

a walk out West Lakeshore Trail for the sunset (the trail runs 11 miles along the reservoir)

Thursday March 9, 2023 - It was a quiet day at the campsite, biking and enjoying the views.

another nice sunrise view from our window

biking on the West Lakeshore Trail

stop for lunch

Sunset pics

 

Friday March 10, 2023 - Today was a catch-up day.  It's a 30 minute drive to the nearest town, Truth or Consequences for laundry, Walmart, a bike shop, and propane.  So we spent the morning on a walk, enjoyed lunch at our picnic table and headed to the big city.  Truth or Consequences used to be called Hot Springs, NM but in 1950 for the 10th anniversary episode of the game show Truth or Consequences, the radio host offered to broadcast the anniversary episode from the first town to rename itself after the TV show.  Hot Springs became Truth or Consequences on March 31 of that year and has been T or C ever since.  It's a quirky little town with lots of bath houses (utilizing the hot springs), cute little shops and art galleries. 

morning hike

Our next door neighbors (Lee & Claudia) also had a Coachmen Nova.  We had fun talking about our RVs and our love of camping.  

groceries and laundry make for a messy RV

it was a cloudy sunset walk tonight

Saturday March 11, 2023 - We had a fun chat with the girls this morning and then Kev replaced his bike inner tube with a puncture resistant tube we bought in T or C yesterday.  He's had 3 flats since we've been in New Mexico, all due to small thorn punctures.  Hopefully this is the last tire change!  Today was a windy day...I guess they're right about March being a windy month in NM.

HeeHee, Elaine looks like she's got ears on the top of her head

bike mechanic, Kev

the wind blew our chairs into the creosote bush