May 9th, 2016
We were wheels up on Monday the 9th, after enjoying our Mother’s Day dinner at Thai Delight in Las Cruces, NM. Wonderful dinner and wonderful company. After dinner we did a bit of replenishing supplies and made ready to leave for Percha Dam the next morning.
Percha Dam campground looked like it was right on the Rio Bravo, and would offer trees and grass. What a delight that would be compared to the endless blowing sand and shrubs we have had lately. When we arrived at the campground I had to use the restroom before we set up camp and unhooked everything. This restroom, at least the women’s, was horrible! I won’t go into detail but take my word for it. Disgusting!!!
Needless to say, we were leery of staying, so we checked out the second restroom and it was mostly acceptable, except for the dirt that the ‘bathroom cleaner’ swept behind the door: like sweeping it under the rug – not great. We decided to stay (ONE NIGHT) because the big cottonwoods were so inviting and although the Rio Bravo was not right beside our campsite, it would be much closer than at Leasburg. Shade was so lovely and welcoming. The first thing we did after setting up was to take a picnic lunch across the bridge to enjoy eating by the river. It seemed so perfect… However, once we brought out the food we were inundated by swarms of awful gnats that bite and left welts. It was difficult to eat while continually waving around a hat to keep the gnats from biting us. After about 15 minutes of this, a gentleman walked down to where we were with a spray bottle. He had noticed us swatting and fanning ourselves constantly and thought he would bring us a remedy. He handed me the spray bottle and I smelled it. He said it was vanilla and a bit of water mixed into it: “spray it on your exposed parts and you will be gnat free for a couple of hours”. I was the guinea pig and sprayed it on my arms and into my palms for my face. In an instant all the gnats were gone. We thanked him profusely and put vanilla extract on our next shopping list!!!
Even though we now had an excellent, natural remedy for the gnats, we decided that (combined with the bathroom issue) we would move on, leaving the shade trees behind. I went down to the river and took a few photos of the rushing water & lush greenery on the banks of the river. Then we headed out by 9ish on Tuesday morning – traveling about 40 miles north on I-25 to Elephant Butte, another new campsite experience. Hopefully, a beautiful spot, maybe not shade, but a clean restroom…
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