9-22 Down and Out

La Clinica in Tierra Amarilla

About a week ago Larry said his throat was scratchy, the next day it was a bit worse and every day since things have deteriorated. We had been camped up high in the mountains next to a stream and we decided that might not be helping. We moved south to New Mexico where we were at a lower elevation and had more sun, didn’t help, still got worse. Larry spent most of the last two days sleeping and self medicating trying to get better, finally this morning he gave up and decided to seek professional help. Did I mention when we camp we are normally way out in the sticks somewhere, yep, you guessed it, 20 miles to the nearest intersection and nothing once you get there. Ever heard of Tierra Amarilla, NM? Neither has anyone else who doesn’t live there. Found a clinic called La Clinica del Pueblo de Rio Arriba, it appears their main clientele are the local Hispanics but Larry said they certainly didn’t mind treating old, fat, bearded, white men. All clinics should be so wonderful; they even had electronic medical files, each nurse and doctor carried around a laptop. Larry looked bad and sounded terrible, the Nurse Practitioner checked him over, decided he had Acute Sinusitis (for our nurse friends). Said she was going to prescribe a couple of things, told him what they cost and said the pharmacist would bring them to the front. She also cleaned out one of his ears. Get this $80 for the visit plus about $16 for the drugs, in and out in about an hour, we were thrilled. Don’t know if it will cure him or not but he seemed to enjoy the clinic.

Heron Lake Visitor Center

Camping at Heron Lake State Park

The scenery that surrounds the park

After leaving the clinic we went to Heron Lake State Park, which was about 15 miles away. We have been there before so we knew what to expect. Heron Lake Park is prettier than El Vado Lake Park. The sites have a lot of trees to give campers a little privacy. We found a site and setup the Minnie for the night then we had lunch. After lunch I walked up to the pay station to pay for a night I didn’t take Flo with me because it was too far. As I was walking back it started to sprinkle. When it stopped sprinkling I took Flo for a walk. The clouds were building up so we didn’t walk too far. Shortly after we got back the rain came. It rained on and off the rest of the afternoon so we didn’t do too much. I read and did some dot-to-dots. Larry laid around trying to get to feeling better. Flo slept and occasionally looked around. When the rain let up I took Flo for another walk. We spent the rest of the day relaxing.