Oh, that's a little creepy. A man you don't really know just
came to the door. He knows exactly where you live and he
knows you're alone in your rig...
I am revisiting a place that I first came to -
Continue on New Mexico 392 West for 16 miles.
There you go, I'm in New Mexico. I'm revisiting a place that I
first came to in 2020. I did quite an extensive video
involving this place. And when I saw the signs that I was near
it, I just thought I just -
Go west on frontage road 4132 for road 50 point 5 toward
County Road F
She doesn't realize where I'm going.
Continue on frontage road 4132 for 14 miles,
She needs to chill out because I am at Russell's Travel Center.
Russell's Travel Center, if you saw the video that I did on it,
you know that Russell's Travel Center has a car museum, among
many other exciting things right inside of it. And it's quite a
place. I'm happy to be back visiting again. I don't know
that I'm going to spend quite as much time here because I think I
stayed in the parking lot last time. I'm not going to do that.
But this place has a fantastic dog park for one thing and I'm
going to go look at the cars. I'll show you a little bit. I'm
not going to remake the same video made before. Russell's
Travel Center. It's a great place. Check it out next time
you're on the road.
You know I was thinking why didn't I come into the park the
last time and then I realized I didn't have a dog last time I
was here. It was in the month between Cowboy and Captain. I
don't think it would have been the same experience if I had,
though, because -you hear these birds? They probably wouldn't
have been here or if they were I don't think they'd be making so
many crazy sounds. Some of them sound like they're mimicking car
alarms. These are grackles. Coincidentally, I did a video
about grackles before too, also in 2020 when I was at the
Walmart in Amarillo, where there were hundreds of them. Grackles
are always pretty loud but there's even more noise than
usual because this time of year, May to July, is mating season.
Some of this is the sound of courting. Grackles are
monogamous. So a male and female will sing for each other, then
dance for each other then shack up together to make little baby
grackles. They're not super territorial, so it's not really
that weird to see a group of them nesting together. I count
at least 15 nests, in this one tree, like a grackle condo
building. But there can be up to 200 pairs all nesting together.
Personally, I don't think I'd be too into nesting that close to
everybody else. I mean, I love community, but I'd probably be
in a tree on the other side of the parking lot. And I
definitely wouldn't be doing a mating dance because yeah, those
days are over for me. Okay, Captain. Let's go check out the
inside, like just for a minute. This is the cafe. It's kind of a
little diner-y kind of place. And then there's Subway and some
other food options. And then the store has a really wide variety
of stuff. And then of course, there's a section catering to
truckers' needs. Here's the entrance to the car museum, but
I'm not gonna go through it today. If you want to see it,
I'll put a link to the other video at the end of this one.
The showers here are great, but I'm not going to take one now
because I want to get to this campsite. It looks really
beautiful. And I'm afraid it's going to be crowded. So I want
to make sure I get a spot.
Oh wow. It is beautiful. And it definitely doesn't look crowded.
Captain. Come with me. Wherever I'm going he doesn't want to go
today. I don't know why. I guess we're having a feud. Here he
comes. He's just taking his sweet time.
Okay, so I got to do this carrying a dog - an old lady
carrying a dog, walking down a rocky little trail. Oh look,
somebody is building a little fence wall here. Nice.
Now if you were a tent camper, this would be fantastic. Just
don't roll out of bed.
Yep, people writing their names. Welcome to America.
Aww, look at that little guy. I hope he's friendly cause it
looks like he's coming this way.
Hi. Oh, you're not lost, are you, buddy?
See, he's the right size for Captain.
Don't you wish humans could make friends that easy? Just, you
know, sniff a butt and you're buddies.
He could be from the Class A up there on the top or there's a
family in a red pickup truck over that way and then there's a
guy fishing down on the edge.
Oh, I guess the dog does belong to the fisherman.
Hi.
So that was the fisherman's dog. And we chatted for a little
while but I turned off the camera because if you're
possibly gonna put somebody in a video, you kind of have to tell
him that and then I have to tell him I have a YouTube channel and
then it just, it just gets weird. You know? So a lot of
times, I just, I'm not real comfortable asking people if
they're willing to be in a video show a lot of times I just don't
shoot other people, you know? Or I aim the camera at the ground
and maybe pick up a little bit of audio and you can't tell who
it is. And I kind of wish I had done that this time because I
swear to God, that guy was flirting with me. I mean, I'm
not 100% sure but I think he was. I wish you heard, could
have heard it so you can tell me have you thought so too but at
my age that doesn't really happen very often. You know it's
- I kind of feel invisible a lot of the time so it feels kind
of good.
Do not put your fish in the dumpster. I don't know if I
mentioned that this is Ute State Park and this is a primitive
camping area. I thought it was free. But when I went into the
bathrooms - they have, you know, basic vault toilets here -
and when I went in there there was a sign on the door that said
it was eight bucks to camp here and you know eight bucks is a
bargain but I didn't I just didn't know. Supposedly there's
a box you put the money in but I don't know where the box is. I
haven't seen any box anywhere.
There goes the sun.
So I was just about to make dinner when I heard this knock
on the door. I thought it was gonna be the Ranger because I
didn't pay my eight bucks yet. But it was that fisherman. When
we were talking before I mentioned that I didn't know
where I was gonna go next, I was trying to figure out what the
next stop was going to be. And he just, he thought about it. He
had a suggestion. So he just stopped by. And I know some of
you are thinking, Oh, that's a little creepy, a man you don't
really know just came to the door. He knows exactly where you
live. And he knows you're alone in your rig. And I can
understand that thought, I can, cause I'm a woman traveling
alone. And you do have to be careful. But... the guy liked
talking to me. He wanted to talk to me a little more. Does that
make him creepy? No, it just makes him a guy. I feel safe
most of the time. And I think for me, that's pretty much a
choice. I mean, I don't ignore the vibe if it isn't good, and I
don't think that my intuition is infallible, but I would really
prefer to err on the side of trust. Maybe that's gonna
backfire on me someday, but I - I just can't run around assuming
that every guy is Ted Bundy or Harvey Weinstein because it's
not fair. And it's not fun. I don't want to live in fear. And
I'm not going to, I'm going to sleep very well tonight. Unless
of course that guy comes back to kill me. That's a joke.
Good morning! I am still alive. The fisherman did not return to
serial kill me. I was thinking about what I said last night.
And I just want to clarify, I'm not trying to say that there's
anything wrong with wanting to hang out with women, you know,
surround yourself with women. I'm just saying there's nothing
wrong either in being open to people who are not women. In
fact, some of the kindest and most fun people that I've met
out here have been men, you know, and I understand why
somebody, everybody has different life experiences. You
know, you have to do what makes you comfortable. And I do
understand why somebody might want to go to the women's RTR.
Personally, I like the regular RTR, I like mixed company. I
like men, and I'm not I'm not talking about sex, or romance.
I'm just saying it's a different energy. You know? I like that
energy. I had a perfectly nice conversation with a not
unattractive guy who seems to think that I am not unattractive
too, and there was nothing creepy about it. I got a mating
dance. I mean, I'm not in the market. I'm not looking to make
a nest or anything. But maybe I should be more open. I don't
know. I just enjoy a good flirt every now and then. And not
every mating dance has to end in the nest. So, things to feel
good about. Beautiful spot. Captain is happy. No ranger at
the door. And I'm not as invisible as I thought.