Elephant Butte Lake State Park

September 17 through 21

We’re enjoying Elephant Butte Lake SP so much, we’ve decided to stay for a few more days. Two couples in a travel trailer pulled intro the area last night. Brought their jet skis. Nice people but they have a large construction quality generator they run most all day and into the evening. Very noisy. Another couple camping in the same area live right in town. They set up their trailer here and use it often. The woman had a series of three strokes 13 years ago. Her initial medical issues were much like Carols. Over time, she has gotten back the use of her arm & leg. Interestingly enough, her ability to read has never come back. She can’t read anything, even a simply text, without getting a headache. Said her short term memory and memory for names is still very poor. Carol has the very same memory issues. Her recovery story was quite encouraging.
While walking Gopher near the camper this morning, I saw someone down the beach with two Australian Shepherds. We walked down to say hello. The dogs, Harley & Sky, had a wonderful time racing all around. The women is from Ruidoso, NM and is camping in the regular part of the campground. Her name is Bridgett; she is originally from Germany. She walked down later in the day and visited with us for a while. She’s probably in her 70’s. Her husband died while in the Army. He was 24. She’s never remarried.
18th: The neighbor with the noisy generator left today. I was talking to the other neighbor, the folks that live around here. They said tomorrow, Friday, lots of people would be coming in for the weekend. Since the sites are not reserveable, they suggested we do our grocery shopping today rather than leaving the site opened on Friday. A new Wal-Mart opened three weeks ago. She said that was, by far, the best grocery store around here. Off we went, once again, to Wal-Mart, We really wish we could find alternatives but they are really lacking in the very rural communities. Asked if there was a bakery in town. Nope; no bakery either.
On Friday night a big storm came through. Sand blowing everywhere, white caps on the lake, thunder, lightning & rain. Gopher doesn't like the thunder. She got in bed with Carol.
By Saturday, the place was full. Most every waterfront space was taken. Lots of families, jet skies, boats, etc. We took a nice long walk up to the park entry. Watched a group of people were flying model airplanes. There was a guy flying an ultra-light and another sail-boarding.
On Sunday we walked to the marina. Bridgette stopped for a visit in the afternoon. People are packing up to leave. By tomorrow we’ll have the place to ourselves again.
Monday morning. As expected the place is empty. It's us, one couple tenting and the neighbors who live in town. Bridgit, and the dogs, walked down to say goodbye




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