Still at Hot Well Dunes

Yesterday, Wednesday January 14

Pretty much a do nothing day, the highlight of which was a long soak in the hot tub nearest our campsite.

It was a little breezy as well, encouraging one to simply hang out in the gazebo.

Today, Thursday January 15

Another sunny day with temperatures in the low 60s but at least not as breezy.  After a relaxed morning and a hearty lunch, I went riding the local area with Yagi.

Some meandering on deep sand trails later , I found the small pond that I believe is created from the water pumped out of the well.  The water drains constantly from the hot tubs you see, and the water collects perhaps a mile downstream.

I found my way back to the main road and exited the rec area to get a picture the windmill nearby used to run a water pump back in the day.  

This is the windmill back in 2023:

2023

Today I found the windmill and tower gone.  The solar panel remains press powering the pump that is apparently sending water to a square cement structure nearby.  

Oh well.

I rode back into the rec area and meandered about the small bush-covered dunes parallel to the north side of the main access road.

Surprisingly, there were still at least 3 open campsites: 3,5 and 7.

I wandered over to near the base of the small cliffside area where the big dunes are located atop of.

Can you spot the metal cross I showed you in the last post?  Look along the top edge of the cliff....

Ok, here's a 10x zoom view of it:

Some more slow meandering and soon I was getting close to my campsite.  Only to find this numbskull schweinehund who'd decided to park his rig between two designated campsites!  Yep, less than 50ft away.

The F*ck Off flag was hung up immediately of course:

A sour note to end what had been a nice ride.  Oh well, schweinehund can't help being schweinehund I guess.

A big fifth wheel rig showed up later and parked seemingly nose to nose with the class C in campsite 14.  I assume they were friends.  It's getting crowded here.

Boondocking at Hot Well Dunes

 It took about 4 hrs for us to drive from Elephant Butte to the Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area in Arizona.

We transited through Hatch, NM enroute.  

RV Man

The place was nearly empty when we arrived but would soon see other rigs show up later.  Still, we had an opportunity for a good long soak in one of the cement hot tubs to ease weary muscles from the driving of late.

Sunny and in the low 60s for a high in terms of temperature.

Camping near the hot tubs since we don't have a towed vehicle.

Altitude: 3461, we woke to 31° F so not too bad but we had the cat propane heater running since early morning keeping things warm inside the VRRV.

As Martha relaxed in the late afternoon sunshine and warm temps, I headed out on Yagi, my TW200 to check out the dunes.

The dunes are criss-crossed with tire tracks from ATVs and OHVs mostly though you see single tracks as well.

Javelina Peak

We're planning on a few days here then we'll move on further west towards Phoenix.

OTRA: The Samurai Returns Home

 We'd been watching the weather since Thursday of last week, looking for a window to depart Colorado through Raton Pass and into New Mexico.

This was two days ago, Friday, as a snow storm made its way through Southern Colorado:

Obviously, we didn't leave on Friday.

Saturday morning looked promising but it still looked icy:

Sunday, it looked good and so Martha and I departed the cesspool that is the Denver metro area at 9:00 a.m. and by noon we made it through Raton Pass, with no issues I am happy to report. The roads were for the most part dry, with the occasional wet spots where the snow on the side of the road was melting. 

6 hours total to the KOA at the south end of Las Vegas, New Mexico and an early night. 

We woke to a temperature of 23° F, but since we were at a campground, we had electricity and had run the electric heater all night to stay warm and to keep the pipes from freezing inside the RV. 

About 4 hours more of driving, we are now in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, having dropped off the Suzuki Samurai, with Mike and Laura. Mike is the Samurai Guru I met years ago, and he will be taken care of it from this point on. 

Tomorrow we head further south and west into Arizona.

Brigitta goes to a new home.

Today I passed ownership of Brigitta, my 1987 BMW R80 Airhead to her new owner, Alfredo S.

He answered my ad that was posted up back in 2024 and after minimal exchanges of texts/emails and a physical viewing by him, we agreed on a price.

I would say I will miss riding the R80, all the power I could want, reliable and is the motorcycle that gave me the least problems.  However, I'm not riding her enough since I started RV camping and she's been overdue to go to someone who's got the time/inclination to maintain and exercise her 

I bought her on June 12, 2008 and sold her today, January 7, 2026.  

That is 17 years, 6 months, and 26 days that she was mine.  I was actually surprised at how long she's been with me.

Alfredo, the new owner, has two more modern BMW motorcycles and promises to give Brigitta a good home.

I put a total of  42,136 miles +/- (she came to me with replacement speedometer/odometer and I replaced it again while under my care back in August of 2014).

Here's my last pics of her, as Al finished strapping her down before heading off to work at Buckley SFB.  It was an early morning transaction as you can see, but we've got snow in the forecast and today was the better day to do this.

Thanks Al, I trust you'll have many, many happy miles on the motorcycle.