Santa Rosa NM Blue Hole This Weekend: June 6 & 7 Anyone?

[DandyDon]

Jerry and I really need a couple of trips to tune our skills and gear before our next ocean trip. These trips are kind of a chore to us, so we don't get excited like some of y'all, but they can be fun nonetheless - and really good practice for the real show.

We'll probly leave Plainview kind of early, arrive there mid-morning or later, do a couple of clumsy dives, run some skills, maybe a tailgate lunch. Single ladies qualify for free lunch. Eh, Jer has a GF, and I'm harmless enough, but it's the spirit of the thing.

Saturday Night: Our fav is the Best Western Adobe just off I-40 and closer to the Hole & downtown than the newer hotels. Spacious rooms, nice management, etc. PH 575/472-3446 We usually get a special rate better than the AAA $62.10 for double, but the manager wasn't in. I'll get that changed. I'd like to try one of the other places for dinner, tho...?

Sunday morning: Couple more dives to work out what we messed up the day before, then Adios...!

Anyone want to join us, or going to be there anyway? We'll probly be in his white pickup club-cab, and I'll try to remember to fly a flag on the window.

 

[syonker]

Hi DandyDon!

It turns out that a WHOLE bunch of people from our shop will be going to Blue Hole this weekend to do some open water certifications, and some advanced certs. I am going to be doing Dive Conning for most of it, but am always looking for an opportunity to jump in the water, so look me up.

PM me and I'll get you our contact info while in Santa Rosa...I drive a black GMC Quad-Cab, Short-Bed "Max Towing" Sierra with a roll-top bed cover if we don't connect prior.

Regards,


-S

 

[ABQdiver]

Hey Don,
I'll be there as well, but leading a class of 10 so there will not be much time for diving. However, I will definitely come around and say yo!

It turns out that a WHOLE bunch of people from our shop will be going to Blue Hole this weekend to do some open water certifications, and some advanced certs.

How many is a WHOLE bunch.......??:shocked2:

 

[RonFrank]

Wow ABQDiver, a class of Ten! Did you get a promotion?

Have fun at BH this weekend! I will NOT be there, but maybe in Spirit...

Have fun guys, and dive safe.

 

[DandyDon]

Wow ABQDiver, a class of Ten! Did you get a promotion?

Have fun at BH this weekend! I will NOT be there, but maybe in Spirit...

Have fun guys, and dive safe.

Hey, how about some restaurant ideas. Joseph's is nice, but...?

 

[ABQdiver]

Hey, how about some restaurant ideas. Joseph's is nice, but...?

We've been going to the newly opened Santa Fe Grill, just West of the LaQuinta. It's good and the service is actually decent compared to some other locations......

 

[syonker]

Oooo, that sounds good...I agree, they need a new place there to "shake it up", although I like the "good old nostalgia" of some of the other Route 66 joints as well.

-S

 

[DandyDon]

Had a pretty good dive weekend; got there early enough to pay our dive fees. We usually screw up a lot of things for the first dive but did surprisingly well this time. Jer developed an ear problem on the second day. He always has those for 2 or 3 days of a trip, then gets broken in well on the last day. :silly: I nag and nag about working his ears prior to a trip. Maybe I'll start asking for email essays every day starting two weeks in advance: "What will you do today to prepare your ears for change?" then ask him to do better next day's essay. Or maybe get him a hyperbaric chamber to sleep in for a week prior? I dunno.

Some cute items on display around the hole. I was tempted to collect the little dive watch or computer on the shelve with the RIP display, send it into the manufacture for discount replacement, but left it. The coral snake behind the rock was cute. Hate the graffiti scratched into the rocks. If I ever catch someone doing that, there will be many pics. Good conditions overall as we had enough weights to hold down the ground tarp at the back of our pickup for the high winds that kept turning my chair over. Not very crowded at all, altho there at least one rude shop that put up their tent next to the barriers and tried to block adjacent walk thrus closest to the stairs; there are usually two or three of those. I just walked on their tarp on the walk but they can be a challenge to dodge at times. The way that tourists & kids like to play or sit on the steps and some Instructors like to block the bottom with debriefing, I wonder if we need a lot more stairways?

The new building is coming along. Hated that they had water turned off to the restroom building - no water to drink, shower, flush. The "No Dive Gear On Tables" sign is gone so the picnic tables were covered in dive gear...

Click any pic to enlarge
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Tried hollaring at ABQdiver as he walked by the first time, but he had his hood on - and doesn't answer to Kenneth well. Kevin works better, since that's what everyone else calls him. :blush:

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Syonker was sporting some fancy gear, but kept losing his wife and child. Did catch them together at times tho...

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We stopped by the Subway entering town from Ft.Sumner, picked up some sandwiches, ate a 6" each between dives, save the other two in the room fridge for the next day. I think this is after we'd starting packing to leave...

Jerry: ​

The manager at the Best Western Adobe Inn is really nice to us even tho we only stay there one or two nights a year. The clerk did not know to allow the Diver's rate of $52 double, but she fixed the rate for us.

Ugly old coot in need for shave & other grooming:
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We've been going to the newly opened Santa Fe Grill, just West of the LaQuinta. It's good and the service is actually decent compared to some other locations......

We walked over there as it's just next to the BW Adobe Inn. Pretty nice, altho the AC was out - rough cooking on a hot day! Waitress was nice altho overwhelmed. I like my beverage refills every 10 minutes. Nice place tho; I think they'll do well.

 

[ABQdiver]

Nice write up Don.

Good to see and hear you again.....

until next time

 

[syonker]

Hi Don,

Great to meet you and Jer...well, that set of dives was my last requirement to make Dive Con, so the paper is in the mail and the card is on its way (if not already here). Yehaa!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to dunk with you two - As you noted, I had a multitude of side-obligations, not the least of which were my wife and new baby boy (ain't he CUTE???). He's officially "SCUBA Baby"...he can have the title either by having quickly become the dive shop's mascot, or by the simple fact that, like his parents, he LOVES the water! :cool2:

Regards,


-S