Wednesday, May 14th

We are starting at mile marker 370 today and our goal is the Casa Malpais RV park in Springerville, where we are staying. 16 and a half miles away. It was cold today, so John and I had put on layers of clothes. We could see our breath as we started. It had to be in the 30's. But after about an hour or two, things changed. The sun came out and was hot, but the wind was still blowing and it was cold. Before the day was over, we both had shed clothes. The highlight of the day was when John spotted two grazing antelope. They were quite a distance away, but we got a good look at them. We are walking through the 3rd largest volcanic field in the US. There are dozens of hills all around us that 50 million years ago were active volcanoes. The rocks are mostly black. We finally made it to our RV park, and there was Ruth, Carol,Jeannie, the manager of the RV park and Judy Hayes, a reporter from the White Mountain Independent. She interviewed both John and I and said we could expect an article in the next paper. Then she got out her checkbook and wrote a check for $27. Come on readers, if a perfect stranger can write us a check, so can you. Today I found two spoons, a New Mexico motorcycle license plate and .31 cents. Stayed tuned.