On Tuesday, we drove west to Lordsburg and then north and west to Round Mountain Rockhounding Area (RMRA) just over the border in Arizona. The RMRA is administered by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and is known to contain fire agate, chalcedony, quartz and chalcedony geodes. Our last visit there was in April 2009, so it was another return to one of our favorite spots.

We hiked for miles and surface collected fire agate and chalcedony thundereggs. It was a warm shirt sleeve day, so we made sure to take plenty of breaks to bask in the sun.

We found lots of goodies, including the following chalcedony thundereggs and botryoidal chalcedony.

So far, I've only made one cabochon from the rocks we recovered from Round Mountain, but earlier this year I made a pendant from fire agate collected on our last trip.

Upon our return to the Roadrunner, we found out that the sewer problem was still not fixed, but were assured by the owner it would be soon. Continuing to take it in stride, albeit more disappointed, it was what it was, so we again headed off to take our truck stop showers before settling in for the evening.

On Wednesday, we decided to check out a location south of Gage, New Mexico where a colorful rhyolite suitable for fine cabochons could be found. We followed somewhat fuzzy directions given to us by a friend, but managed, after driving for nearly 20 miles on bumpy dirt roads, to finally find the location. We parked and went about hunting the desert and arroyos for rhyolite keepers.

There was no shortage of beautiful rocks scattered everywhere on the ground in small and giant chunks to actual bedrock.

Opal did a Rin Tin Tin impression as she blended in with the rhyolite strewn desert landscape.

The following picture shows just some of the rhyolite we collected.

I couldn't wait to cut and cab the rock when we got home and the following pictures show what I've made so far.

After a great day in the desert, we headed back to Deming hoping against hope that we'd be treated to working bathrooms. Yep, you guessed it; it was still the blind leading the blind as the handyman and his not-so-handy sidekick, the owner, were still working on fixing the plugged sewer line. They were using a hand held manual drain snake in an up-to-then unsuccessful attempt to re-open the sewer pipe, but it was anyone's guess the exact location and extent of the plug, and the meager tool was like bringing a plastic butter knife to a gun fight. And you guessed it again, we were again off to the truck stop for our evening showers. By now, you're probably thinking why didn't we just leave. First, we had pre-paid for four days upon our arrival, second the owner kept assuring us that the problem was going to be fixed by each afternoon we returned and third we may just be two big optimistic dummies who give benefit of doubt to the wrong people.

When we got back to the campground and before settling in for our last night there, I decided to have a small chat with the office attendant, whom I found out later is the daughter-in-law of the owner. To say that the "chat" didn't go well would be an understatement of epic proportions. When I politely told her I thought it would be fair to be remunerated for the $30 cost of showering at the truck stop for three days, she went absolutely berserk and started screaming at me like I had just threatened to cut off her cookie supply. So, not only was no apology ever offered by the campground owner or staff for our inconvenience, I was berated by an incredibly hostile woman. After several minutes under fire, Chrissy and I decided it'd be best to back out of the office to get away from the seemingly out of control tongue lashing. What a relaxing last evening we spent in that hell hole - NOT! Needless to say, I DO NOT recommend A Deming Roadrunner RV Park to any decent person and have written as much on every campground review web site I could find - please help me pass the word.