We spent some time with Craig and Darcy Harland and sons, Caleb and Corbin. Was fun to catch up with them, now that they have settled down in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico after a lot of traveling fulltime in their RV seeing the country.

We compared some travel notes, and when Bud asked their advice on how to better control the amount of dust that accumulates in our lower storage areas, Darcy gave us some great advice: “Lower your standards!” That point has served well on some other RV issues too.

Crossed the mountains in New Mexico at Emory Pass – over 8200 feet elevation. We observed there had been a widespread wildfire there a few years ago, and things were beginning to grow again. The landscape here looked very different from the many acres of prescribed burns we saw in national forest land we had traveled through previously.

Earlier in New Mexico, we had stopped at a museum dedicated to wildland firefighters and the grave of “Smokey the Bear” with lots of original memorabilia declaring: “Remember, only you can prevent forest fires”.

Since both Melissa and Charlie have been “boots on the ground” wildland firefighters, we found the displays interesting, and the memorial to the New Mexico Hot Shots who died in the line of duty very sobering. (Thankfully, Charlie’s assignments now seldom require the ground firefighting.)