Los Alamos revisited

Los Alamos, New Mexico is located on the eroded crown of an ancient volcano called Valles Caldera. Most of the nuclear research lab is on the mesa to the left, the original town is on the mesa to the right of the lab. Over time the area has grown and development now stretches to the two mesa's to the right of the picture. Dave and Rae Anne's house (Kamp Kolman) is under the point of the arrow. 

Tuesday October 27 2015

We departed Sky City hotel/RVPark/Casino this morning, taking the interstate (I-40) east to Albuquerque. We refueled at Flying J and grocery shopped at Costco before driving north to Los Alamos. 

Motorhome at Kamp Kolman on the edge of Los Alamos National Forest.

We have set the motorhome up at Kamp Kolman (Dave and Rae Anne's driveway) and will stay through the weekend. This is a familiar place for Maggie so we let her off leach as long as one of us is with her. We are bordering the Los Alamos National Forest so we are always on the alert for predators. In addition to coyotes there are mountain lions nearby, I doubt the big cats would come close to the houses, but the coyotes will. Maggie paced back and forth between the motorhome and the house looking for the family, when Rae Anne arrived with the kids Mags went running to greet them, she was very excited and happy to see them. 

 Millie, Marcus (5yrs old), Evan (4 1/2 yrs old)

The kids are drawn to the motorhome and played inside for several hours, they're very good about taking turns in the drivers seat. They ate dinner with us before going to the house. We'll see them everyday, for a minute before school and for a couple hours in the afternoon.

Wednesday October 28 2015

Day two at Kamp Kolman, Millie did some sewing and I installed a new grill on Rae Anne's BMW Z3 roadster. I also installed a new battery in the motorhome, it has not been holding a charge when we sit for a few days, so I took advantage of our stop at Costco the other day and picked up a new one. Millie made a Chicken Enchilada casserole, which the family will have for dinner tonight.

Millie in the Z a couple years ago.

Thursday October 29 2015

Millie and I drove the Z down to Espanola where we had lunch at Angelina's Mexican restaurant. Millie had a bean and cheese burrito and I had Chicken enchilada's We both requested green chili sauce and the waitress seeing us as gringo tourists warned that the green sauce was very hot. We said OK serve it on the side. We've eaten the green chili sauce at the Horseman's Haven in Santa Fe and their green sauce is “HOT HOT HOT” so we had no problemo with the mildish sauce at this restaurant. For the uninitiated just about every entree in a Mexican restaurant out here in the west is served with your choice of green or red chili sauce. Doesn't matter whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, you always are asked, green or red?

Angelina's Mexican Restaurant in Espanola, New Mexico.

We saw it snowing in the mountains on our way back to Los Alamos, We're at 6600 feet elevation at Kamp Kolman so it is possible we will see snow before we leave. I haven't shoveled snow in a long while so that would be a novelty.......one time! Daytime temperatures have only been in the 60's here but up until today the sun has been shining brightly so I've dealt with the temps very well, if I do say so myself.

Snowing in the mountains.

I bought some new design LED light bulbs for the motorhome while we were in Espanola. I have led's in the tail lights now but they still aren't as bright as I would like them to be. The new ones I purchased today are supposed to be so bright they are only to be used behind red lenses so I'm hoping they'll do what I want. If they work to my satisfaction I will take the current LED elements and transfer them to the JEEP tail lights.