A (Rio) Grande Birthday!

Yesterday, September 11th, we celebrated Mary's 51st birthday in the grande style she had requested: by floating down the Rio Grande with inner tubes! Although Mary had her own inner tubing adventure on the Rio Grande several months ago, her greatest wish had been to tube down the river with myself and our son, Rene, so we honored her request and made it happen!

It was a lovely September day here in northern New Mexico, with the temperatures hovering around 82 degrees. After a riverside picnic and other preparations, we hit the river around 2pm, not knowing if we would make it all the way to the second vehicle which was parked almost four miles downstream. With three tubes and an extra raft carrying "supplies" (local beer, peanuts and water!), the intrepid trio set out on our sojourn with high hopes and spirits.

Being late in the season, the river was somewhat low, with some areas less than a foot deep. Experienced in such things, Mary intelligently taught us how to position our bodies in order to avoid major injuries to our coccyx bones. No matter the water level, the scenery was breathtaking as always, with the high Pilar cliffs towering above us as herons, ducks and other birds marked our passage.

Happily, there were five rapids that were great fun and quite exciting, although nothing felt truly dangerous since this is a part of the river quite popular for leisurely inner tubing. We each shot through the rapids without mishap, although Mary did have one complete dunking early on!

As the sun began to sink below the cliffs to our right, the ambient temperature did begin to drop around 5pm, and we dragged ourselves out of the river, with Keith and Rene experiencing marked chattering of the teeth (a strange sensation which I recall as usually being reserved for winter sports).

Up on the road, we quickly warmed in the sun as a personable fisherman befriended us and another friendly passerby stopped spontaneously to offer to take a group photo. Moments later, an equally friendly pair of women in a pickup truck stopped and gave Rene a ride upriver to our van, cementing the fact that people here in New Mexico are quick to be friendly and quick to lend a helping hand.

Changing out of our wet clothes, we drove to the nearby town of Dixon for a lovely birthday dinner, the owner of the restaurant gifting Mary with a birthday surprise: a homemade pinon (pine nut) cookie topped with local vanilla ice cream! The entire staff came out to sing "Happy Birthday", and the birthday girl beamed in delight.

It was a great day, a memorable day, and I have no doubt that Mary will live up to her new self-description: "fifty-one and full of fun!"

Happy Birthday, Mary! We love you so!

Pilar and the Rio Grande

This past weekend, we took our rig out on the road for the first time since arriving to Santa Fe in early June, and it sure felt good to have the White Beast rolling on the tarmac once again! All systems were go, our solar panels kept the batteries charged, and everything worked like a charm. Ah.

So, we sailed up to Taos, spent a final night at our son and daughter-in-law's place on the mesa in El Prado (they're moving to downtown Taos in September), and then spent two lovely nights and blissful days in Pilar, camped on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Although some of our fellow campers were a little noisy in the evenings (it's the height of summer, after all), they always quieted down by midnight or so, and the cool night breezes lulled us to sleep, along with the sounds of the rushing river.

During the day, we splashed and swam in the delicious water, bicycled along the river road, and enjoyed a visit from our son and daughter-in-law (and a spontaneous visit from some Taoseno friends) on Saturday afternoon. We also enjoyed watching dozens of friendly rafters and inner-tube riders float by, and we hope to partake of a river ride ourselves quite soon.

Here's our son and daughter-in-law treading water in the mighty Rio Grande.....

And this is Rene contemplating the wonders of nature from his rocky perch.....

We spent a great deal of time reading some good books......

And Tina did a lot of what she does best these days.....

The weekend was a very needed getaway that soothed our spirits, quieted our minds, and bathed our bodies in the delights of a high desert river. The Rio Grande is alive and well, and we'll take advantage of it's rushing currents as many times as we can before the summer comes to a wane.

Rainbow

"What is a rainbow, Lord? A hoop for the lowly."----Jack Kerouac

A Walk in the Woods...

The other day, I escaped from the city deep into the Santa Fe National Forest, driving about twenty minutes out of town to get there. The aspens and other trees were lovely, and the shady forest canopy was a nice refuge from the heat of the day. I heard many birds and saw a considerable number of butterflies, although I sadly wouldn't be able to identify anything that I saw!

Luckily, I had asked a neighbor for tips on finding water, so the trail that I hiked led me to the Tesuque Creek. Being hot enough from the hike, I stripped down to my bathing suit and immersed myself in the ice cold water several times, even though it was only about a foot deep. Sources of water for swimming or immersion are not as accessible here as they were when we lived in Western Massachusetts, so beggars can't be choosy out here in the dry, dry Southwest.........

We're Back From the Gila Wilderness!

Well folks, we've made it back alive from the remote Gila National Forest north of Silver City. We realized after our arrival to our remote campground that we had no cell phone or internet service up there in the middle of nowhere. This is par for the course, but we truly enjoyed having a two-day "digital delay", even though Keith had to go through some initial withdrawal symptoms!

Our campground was located just above the Gila River, which is running fast and deep this spring after many inches of snow. Just ten feet from the river are natural hot spring pools that are the hottest and most pristine we've ever seen. They are lovingly tended by a resident artist and manager who redecorates and beautifies the area every year with natural sculptures and fountains.

We also biked and hiked to the amazing and remote Gila Cliff Dwellings, a national monument where the Mogollon (pronounced "Muggy Own") tribe lived in the 13th century for approximately twenty years before vacating the caves, most likely due to a severe drought. Apache then lived in the caves until European settlers burned down the roofs of the Mogollon homes.

This area of New Mexico is a verdant and diverse bioregion with three different climate zones within a small area. We walked through forests of Ponderosa Pine, yucca, cacti, juniper, and cottonwood, plus a plethora of other flora and fauna. The entire experience was like a walk back through time, and we left Gila feeling wonderfully alive and happy.

Unfortunately, after returning to a campground in Silver City, Keith was summarily bitten by a neighborhood dog who was running amok just down the street.

After the dog's owner blamed Keith for the entire incident, we had no choice but to involve the local Animal Control Officer, who seemed to only side with the dog's owner. Taking matters into our own hands, we bought a gun at Wal-Mart....But seriously, folks, we ended up involving the Silver City Sheriff who handled matters quite expediently and assured us of the dog's current vaccination status. He was intent on citing the dog owner, charging him with a hefty fine for his dogs running wild, especially after having his squad car chased by the same pack of hounds. Fortunately, Keith's wound is healing well and thus far he's not foaming at the mouth!

: - ) 

Stay tuned for even more fun on the road!

---Mary and Keith

The Desert In Bloom

White Sands of New Mexico

Today we visited a dreamscape at the White Sands National Monument, a 275-square mile area of gypsum sand that continues to grow and migrate as the gypsum is washed down from the nearby mountain ranges.

White Sands is the world's largest gypsum dune field, and we walked barefoot under the bright sun in 70-degree weather, giving poor dark-colored Tina water in her portable travel bowl every twenty minutes or so.

Although the area is allegedly teeming with wildlife, most of it is nocturnal and we were not blessed with any sightings of kit foxes, snakes, or other desert denizens, but we did see some nice tracks in the fine sand.

The day ended with a long drive to El Paso, Texas and some disappointment when we were turned away when applying for our drivers licenses. After a night in a roadside campground here in the very ugly city of El Paso, we hope to rectify our situation tomorrow morning and walk away with our new licenses by early afternoon.

The contrast from the stark, white and pristine desert of White Sands to the concrete jungle of El Paso's version of Babylon is striking and somewhat disconcerting, but we're still lucky and grateful to be on the road as we are, and tomorrow will be just another day on earth.

Fifteen Weeks!

Today marks 15 weeks---three-and-a-half months---since we left Western Massachusetts. We write this post by candlelight, with the starry Texas night all around us. After what seems like weeks of clouds and rain, the sun broke through late this afternoon over Lake Buchanan here in Central Texas. We hear that the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where we recently spent a few days, just had seven inches of snow. Our son Rene said on the phone this evening that the New England winter has been chasing us since we left. Perhaps we've finally escaped its grasp.

There is so much nature around us, and maybe the return of the sun---to our delight---brought many of earth's creatures out into the open today. In the course of one day, we were fortunate to see a roadrunner crossing the road, a family of wild pigs running along a river bank, a large red fox (perhaps the largest we have ever seen), vultures, a large snake, and hundreds of robin redbreasts who seem to be wintering here at Lake Buchanan.

Here's a photo of a roadrunner pilfered from Google images ("Beep beep!"):

And here's a photo of the wild pigs shot by an excited Mary just this afternoon:

Keith, who has a real snake phobia, is happy to not mar this blog with a photo of a snake, but the one that he and Tina disturbed by the shore of the lake was about two inches in diameter, dark, and probably three feet long.

We're now back in our rig, parked in a lovely spot on the hill above Rainbow Hearth. This weekend, we'll be doing food prep, dishwashing, and otherwise helping our new friend Mariah care for an inn filled with guests escaping to enjoy a Valentine's weekend in the countryside.

With no electricity hook-up, we're using our solar-powered batteries, candles and battery-operated lanterns here in our cozy little home. Luckily, our fridge runs on propane and keeps our food nice and fresh without the use of electricity.

As we said earlier, the stars are bright tonight in the clear Texan sky. Tina, bless her heart, is exhausted by it all, and sleeps at our feet as we open mail before finishing watching the Wim Wenders film, "Paris, Texas".

Stay tuned for more tales from Mary and Keith's excellent adventure!

Texas Cacti