Free night at a winery…
I spent Sunday night camped at the Anasazi Fields Winery just north of Albuquerque. It is in the little sleepy town of Placitas, NM. The road into the winery is very narrow, but I made it.
Anasazi Winery is a member of the Harvest Hosts network of wineries, orchards, and farms throughout the country where you can stay free overnight. They usually have a designated area for us RVer’s with no hookups but Anasazi offered to let me hookup up to electricity which I declined since I have solar panels. All the places that I have stayed at have been extremely friendly. They don’t require that you purchase anything from them, but I usually buy a bottle of wine to stock my wine cabinet.
Then I was greeted by Terry and told where I can park. They had an overflow area that worked out good. After getting settled in I went to the tasting room where there were others also wine tasting.
The Anasazi Winery does not use grapes in the making of their wine. Instead they use fruits. Normally I do not care for fruit wines, as they are very sweet. However Terry explained that to his knowledge, the Anasazi Fields Winery is the only winery that makes their fruit wines dry. I liked several of them. The wine tasting was free and Terry explained each and every wine in detail.
Heading north…
My goal the next morning was to reach the Orilla Verde Recreation Area just 17 miles south of Taos, NM. Jim and Gayle of had told me about it while I was Rockhound State Park. They mentioned that there were a lot of hiking trails and beautiful scenery.
I stopped at the Pilar Campground and was greeted by the host Pat. He was a real friendly guy and told me a lot about the area. I found a nice electric/water site and signed up for three days. The electric/water sites were only $7.50 (half price) with my Geezer card.
The campground is located in a big canyon next to the Rio Grande River. The river is much larger then in the southern portion of the state because of all the snow runoff up here.
I had planned on doing some hiking while in this area, but the day after I arrived I came down with a very sore throat. I rarely feel ill and this had me stumped. My nose was constantly running and my throat felt horrible. I was not in any mood to get out on a trail. I will return to this area though as it is really nice.
One other thing that put a damper on my time here was the lack of cell phone and Internet services. I could not even get anything with my booster. What was weird was that my phone could send and receive messages intermittently. For example I would get an email, but it could not download the content only the subject line. I guess if I really had to get any type of important email I could tell the sender to write it all on the subject line. HA! Even that was very sporadic.
Here is a pic of the sunrise coming over the plateau.
Off to Taos
I am hoping I can find a reasonable campground closer to Taos so I can check out the town. By the way, I have finally gotten over the sore throat although there was one night I could not sleep due to it.
Potty training Chica…
There are times when little Chica makes a mistake inside the rig. I have tried everything including changing her feeding time. I take her outside several times during the day for walks, which she really enjoys. Sometimes she does her duties while walking and sometimes not. I always take her out late before I go to bed hoping that will take care of it. NOPE!!
I know this sounds gross but I sometimes wake up in the morning and she has had an accident. She sleeps on the couch on her bed under a cover. Then she will have an accident on the blanket at the other end of the couch. I scold her but it does not make any difference. It is really hard not to scold her very much as she has those sympathetic eyes.
Last night I left a small light on and she went potty on the mat I have put out for her in front of the toilet. She is smart enough to know that is where she should go potty. I think the problem is that she cannot see in the dark to get back on the couch. She has to use the first rung of the ladder to jump onto the couch. She is too small to jump up on the furniture, which is good. But without using that first rung she can’t get back into her bed. I don’t think she can see the step in the middle of the night so she just goes where it is convenient so she can go back to bed. Leaving the light on allowed her to see therefore she was able to get down and go on the pad.
I am going to try leaving her bed on the floor and see if that works. I don’t like to sleep with any lights on, but if it helps her I guess that is what I will have to get used to doing. I am wondering if Chihuahuas have a large enough bladder to go the entire night without having to pee. Does anyone else with a toy Chihuahua have a similar problem?
Jimbo's Journeys 
Interesting, when we were at Orilla Verde we couldn’t use the phone, either, but with our booster we had a fairly good internet connection.
Too bad you didn’t feel good while you were there, it really is a nice area to hike and bike.
I love Chica!
Hi Jim,
Curious about your wine cellar. Where and how did you construct it? Looks like an upper cabinet in the kitchen area. But ours (1998) cabinets are too shallow to accept a bottle. What’s your secret?
Hello Jim;
WalMart and such places, sell puppy training pads/mats. Seems work like kitty litter does for cats. It attracts the dog in some way. Might be worth a try.
Ed
I have a little one that looks a lot like your’s, only long hair.
She was 7 months old when I got her and not potty trained.
I used newspapers with a little of her pee on it. It has worked with
all my four legged babies. She’s beautiful and worth it.
Good luck!
I have two chi’s. Mine can wait 12 hours in an emergency. I (almost) always sleep only about 6-7 hours at night, so allowing 30 minutes before & after I sleep, mine can ‘wait’ successfully for 8 hours overall, but when they do have an accident, it’s almost always attributable to a health condition or a recent upheaval in their feelings of security.
Have you looked into her eyes from different angles? My vet found a type of canine glaucoma in one of my pup’s eyes, that I hadn’t seen, but I could ‘see’ it after she showed me what it was. You might try and look into her eyes while you are playing with her, talking to her, and turn her head in different directions, in normal light & sunshine, to see if there are any white spots or cloudiness, just to be sure..
You are a patient pet parent!! Chica is so lucky!
My chi’s would love to sleep in my bed, but I don’t like it, so they have their own ‘crates’ with a nice soft plush bed inside. They LOVE being in their crates at night, and go to bed willingly, The ONE THING they won’t (willingly) do is to have an accident in their bed. You might try an ‘intervention’ by isolating her ‘roaming’ area at night, put her bed closer to the area you want her to ‘use’, or block off one end of your couch so she is forced to get off of her bed to relieve herself. On the other hand, you can get a small mesh enclosed expandable baby bed, and zip her inside at night, which I use when I have to stay in a hotel or in someone else’s house. I got them on eBay. I will try and find you a link if I can. They were cheap, popped open like a window shade, and had room for a newborn baby inside the mesh enclosure, which zippered down one side of the floor for easy access.
If she obviously knows where she is ”supposed” to ‘go potty;, you may have to put her bed in that area at night, and block her access to other parts of the RV! I totally understand what it’s like to have a pup who is a tiny bit belligerent, although cute as pie! 🙂 LOL I send you best wishes!! Be glad she’s tiny!! Her sweet face is precious peeking out from under that blanket!!
Hugs,
Becky
We’re going to be heading that way when we finally get out of here so I’m following carefully where you stay. Chica is so cute. Our girls occasionally have accidents in the rig but we have a rug for them to use and they are pretty good about that when we aren’t home. But almost every night Skittlez has to get up and go out in the middle of the night. She just can’t seem to make it all night. But she makes sure she gets us up to take her out. We found the rug works better than the puppy pads.
OMG!! it would be impossible to mad at the sweet little face!!
Becky pretty much covered what I was going to say. A dog will not willingly soil its own bed so limiting her area at night is the best bet. It takes a lot of patience but our little fur kids are so worth it. Poppy feels much better with a little night lite on as her diabetic cataracts have made her almost blind.
Forgot to say, Poppy only had an accident when she had a bad bladder infection. If Chica has frequent urination, or trouble urinating, you might want to have a vet check her out. Good luck.
She just melts my heart with that face! Nice stops at the winery and scoring at the recreation site right on the Rio Grande
When you began RV travels, never in my wildest dreams did I believe you would be potty training a dog, but she definitely is most adorable. Hopefully you will stay healthy! The wine sounds great by the way! 🙂
Katie isn’t a toy, but she goes potty on our last walk, sometimes at 5 sometimes at 7. She then sleeps until 9 or 10 am. I know I’m lucky she can hold it so long, but I’m sure Chica can last all night.
As suggested above, you could get a small crate for her to sleep in. Many, many dogs sleep in crates and they are a great training tool. They won’t pee or poop in their own bed, so if Chica was in a crate, she would have to wait until you woke up and took her out.
All the experts say you don’t need to train the dog, you need to train yourself. I never liked the idea of a crate, they seem like a punishment, but the experts say they are a good idea and I have to believe it’s true. Dogs like having a “den” and their crate takes care of that need. Also, if it’s super cold overnight, you can put a blanket over most of the crate, leaving a little part open for her to see out. 🙂