Getting Settled in at Big Bend

Well, below are photos of my home sweet home for the next 3 months and my first official wildlife sightings. I came into Big Bend on Thursday afternoon and spent a couple of hours at the main visitor center getting my mailbox paid for, obtaining uniforms and exchanging “catch-up” gossip with everyone. I was able to get set up in the Rio Grande Village (RGV) residence area and was the “guinea pig” as the sewer, electric, etc. had all been recently redone. As a matter of fact, they had turned on the water to look for leaks just before I got there!

Fortunately, everything works except our washers and dryers that are not set up yet. Boo hoo! We will still have to do our wash with the public over at the campstore. My phone works, too, so if I did not tell you my phone number and you are NOT a stalker or telemarketer, write to me and I’ll give it to you. DSL modem comes later this week meaning I can email from my RV and not have to go to the store!!! Now that is marvelous!

The water pressure here was kind of high, so I installed a pressure regulator on my line. I had written to some friends that if you were sitting on the toilet and flushed you’d have a free bidet! If you flushed and were not sitting, well it would be a free bathroom shower! Thankfully none of the plumbing sprung a leak before I got the regulator installed.

In addition to that bit of maintenance, I had to replace the sealing tape on the distal end of my slide-outs. No worries as I had anticipated this and picked up tape in Las Cruces. I already had the right putty knives (plastic and very dull metal!) to scrape off the old stuff. Thanks to a newfound love of gel nail polish I also had enough acetone to remove the old gunk, too. (In case you are wondering, this paragraph is for Paul, my RV salesman, and the other guys at Rick’s RV. They told me they use me as an example to potential owners who are chicken to get into RV ownership! I have always figured that if a guy could do something there is NO reason why a gal can’t do it.) So a big “Hello” to Paul and the gang!

I don’t have to start work until Monday morning when our supervisor, Ben, will be back in the park. Jeff from Maintenance, his wife Binky, her father and their daughter came trick or treating. Luckily I had some butterscotch candy tucked away or else I guess they would have soaped my windows!

Zuni just woke up from a nap under the couch, so I guess I’d better go and get some errands done. Only a 20 mile trip to drop off my Netflicks and pick up mail! More later . . .

The camp area earth is built up a little higher than the surrounding terrain.

Looking back at the other campsites with "real" houses for staff in the background and to the left off-camera. At first I was disappointed that I would not get a ramada (the metal structure that provides some shade) but they do not seem to help much in that regard.

A walking stick (about 4-5" long) on a piece of angle iron outside my RV - my first official wildlife of this trip to Big Bend!

A real live tarantula crossing the road on my way home from Panther Junction to get my mail. Others were not so fortunate. I think it may be mating season as I saw 5-6 of them crossing the road in this area.

He or she made it safely to the other side of the road. Yippee!