Las Cruces New Mexico

Well, we rolled into Las Cruces NM yesterday afternoon at my brothers - Les and sister in law's - Crys. My niece Shannon and her two kids Morgan (moe, moge) and Carter also came in - from Albuquerque....that is hard to spell...

We went to the farmers market this morning and then to a local resturant....yes, I had a chili relleno....a relleno burrito to be exact....and yes...it was so good!! We swam in the pool this afternoon and have generally been snacking around on home made hummus. Les is demonstrating his grilling expertise, smoking a ham and shannon just pulled a pound cake out of the oven. I will see ya'll in a week, most likely a bit larger than when we left. ...... I will upload some pics soon!!

Carlsbad New Mexico

Dennis and a strange crawfish Dennis and a horned lizard
Dennis paddling the Pecos
Julie paddling the Pecos...wait, is that her cell phone in her hand!!!!?

Yeah, it is! We are now at Lake Brantly, just north of Carlsbad. We spent the day yesterday in the Kayaks, paddling up the Pecos toward the dam until the current got to strong and then lazily paddling back down. It was a nice trip and we saw some cool birds and that weird red craw fish Dennis is hoping his friend Chris can identify...... we are at the Carlsbad Public library, catching up on life outside the tent. We are getting ready to head to the Wal-Mart .....which reminds me of somemore pics I want to share with you.....to purchase a sandwich to carry up to Carlsbad Caverns. Oh they have food up there but the cost........We did go up last night to watch the bats come out of the cave......could be up to 1 million!!! it is pretty incredible to watch those bats just swirl and swirl in counterclolckwise motion and then, take flight into the dusk.....that is how carslbad caverns was discovered....a young guy out riding his horse thought the hill was on fire...it does look like smoke as they ascend....he checked it out and found the hole and began investigating......hence the discovery of the caverns.....I have too tell you he was a brave fellow!

Those other pics.....of Rosewell NM....the whole town gets into the "ailen" thing........I will upload tomorrow as I did not bring in my camera....but I gotta tell you, it is a hoot!!

Tomorrow, off to my brothers in Las Cruces......a bed.....a real bed....we have tented 17 days straight....(ooops, one night in Gloretta-a distant memory.....)
However we are getting our reccomended daily allowance of Mexican Food! : )

Petrified Forest AZ/ Bottomless Lakes NM

Some pics from the Petrified forest, Lake Lyman Indian ruins, Pie O Neer resturant and Bottomless lakes!



Well, these are some various pics from the Petrified Forest and The Painted desert. It was cool and WINDY but we persevered and traipsed the trails.. Pretty cool seeing all those beautiful pieces of petrified wood and amazing to know that as much as is there, more has been carried off, both prior to the making of this area a nation park and unbelievably, since, as people continue to tote off pocket sized pieces. At left, dennis is examining pottery sherds found and left at an ancient Indian site. the "house" had 80 to 90 rooms and housed about 15 families. Being quite tired of the wind, we headed east to Bottomless Lakes near Rosewell, NM. On the way we stopped at the quaintest little roadside cafe.....in Pie ville, NM. Yes, they served pie.....oh there was peaches n cream (my choice) apple with a oatmeal yummy something streudle (dennis' choice) strawberry rhuebarb, blueberry, banana cream, coconut cream, Almond joy, and several more I cannot remember!! One lady owned the shop, she and another younger gal ran it......and yes, The Waitress was both of their favorite movie!!!! If you gals out there haven't seen it....grab a girlfriend, box of tissues and rent it....its good. Brought back memories of Colorado!

Eating pie at Pie-O-Neer resturant in Pie Ville, NM



So, here we are, paddling around in our yaks in Lake Lea, Bottomless Lakes, NM. We ran into Rosewell this afternoon to do a load of laundry and what do you know? Its a Wash, dry and WiFi!!! Don't ya love folks who are up with technology? Probably head off for Carlsbad tomorrow, maybe. Who knows? We are, after all, on the road!!

Thanks for the comments....this has been fun! Judy, I finished "the book"....yes, good, yes, i continue to dwell on the ending. By the way, I traded it in at the Pie O Neer resturant for another........I will pass it on to you! : ) Amanda,,,,,I try, really I do. the shorts, socks and boots thing. Well, it is just your dad! And Cheryl, I am at the laundry mat, what does that tell you? HA! Love to you all!

Lake Lyman, Arizona

Me and Dennis in the kayaks! One of the greatest things about being on the road is that you can pick any road you want to be on. When I last "blogged" I said we were going to Lake Powell, Utah. We decided instead to head south on into Arizona to a small lake (by Lake Sinclair standards) that we visited three years ago. It is a great little lake and we enjoyed a full day of kayaking yesterday. Around the shores, across the lake. It was really great and we love our kayaks!!! Dennis of course spotted a snake swimming in the water, waited until it hit land, jumped out of his kayak and nabbed it....really folks, it was amazing!!! That man can move when he wants to. Last night I think hurricane whatever blew in....our tent was laying on top of us and of course, it rained. This morning still VERY windy so we drove the 50 or so miles up the road to the Petrified Forest. Spent all day battling the wind but enjoyed the day picking around the petrified trees. It is a cool place. Dennis and I both agree.....our motto is SEE AMERICA! There is a lot of cool stuff out there!!! Tomorrow, we are again..on the road. We are making our way slowly east now.....over to Roswell NM, Bottomless Lakes. Hope to spend some more time in the 'yaks.....till then.
Special thanks to P & T, campground hosts here at lake Lyman for access to the internet via thier wireless........PS....if you click on the pics, they come up full page!

Moab, Utah III

double arch
Dennis deep in a rock crevasse

we walked to the very point of this, one mile straight up
EMe sitting on Delicate Arch

The spectacular Delicate Arch....yes that is us in the center

Well, I do not know if the text and pics will align, suffice it to say we spent the entire day yesterday and today, again in mountain goat mode. Yesterday we were at The Arches National Park all day. http://www.nps.gov/arch/
Look it up for more info......We were up and literally running again this morning to hike the 1.5 mile straight up hike to Delicate Arch. It was a BEAST to get to but so totally worth it....I hope the pictures can at least begin to convey the awesomeness of the arches we saw. After we completed the Delicate Arch hike (huff, puff) we rode the 25 miles up to Canyonlands to complete some of the hikes up there. Yes, we are exhausted!! And pretty overwhelmed. We have canyon-ed, arched, ahhhhed, ooooohed, stood speechless, laughed at ourselves, doubled over in attempts to catch our breath, I don't know what else these last 4 days here......I can say, if I ever see any more peanut butter and powerbars.......it will be too soon! That has been our breakfast and lunch for these days in the hills, mountains, arches, crevasses, rocks......And did you know we meet more folks from across the pond? A HUGE number of people in our campground and on all the trails are from Germany. You know me, I think I have to start a conversation with everyone, and I have been met with more than one blank stare and shrug. The real kicker was the guy showering in the ladies shower room tho! All I could see were two very long, hairy feet!!!! You can bet i hurried in and out of there. A fellow southerner, a gal from South (Souf) Carolina said, oh you know those Europians! haha!

We are off tomorrow, back on the road again, looking for a place to pitch the tent in the Lake Powell region. Hoping to air up those kyaks and do a little floating. Our tired, sore, aching, over worked muscles need the break!! (Translate: Dennis: I need some flat land!)

Till the next post...........

Moab, Utah II

Well, getting this blogging thing down is hard under the best of circumstances....doing it while swatting mosquitoes .......Anyway, Dead Horse Canyon is so named because of the number of well, dead horse remains found at the bottom. Seems long ago wild horses were corralled there and for some reason a number were at one time left and they,uh, perished,hence the name. Flowing through the canyon is the Colorado River. Or the Green river...They converge in Canyonlands, which is my next subject.



Here near Moab are three big 'attractions', if you will....Dead horse Canyon, which was on my must see list, The Arches, again on my must see list and Canyonlands, which, if given the option to choose, I would have skipped if I had to. I did not and I can not tell you what we would have missed. Really, I thought Canyonlands, sounds like Candyland....probably not going to be that interesting. Boy, was I wrong....Dennis and I spent an ENTIRE day being amazed, awed, moved to speachlessness, moved to tears over the beauty and expanse of this place. Words cannot cannot express this place......And we did not even see it all! We hiked, crawled, walked, tiptoed over boulders, up rocks, over crevasses....don't let him fool you folks, dennis is a mountain goat in disguise. I think I have finally found the thing that scares me senseless and makes him laugh, cliffs!!!!!














Tomorrow, The Arches and a dinner and night boat ride down the river....romantic eh?



This picture is for my hat hunters, Amanda and Carolyn....whatcha think....a bandanna and a ballcap!

Moab, Utah

Well, we breezed into Moab Utah yesterday evening and thankfully checked in at the local visitors center where we discovered 1. There are no showers at the local State Park. 2. There is no room at the inn at the local state park. There are, however numerous private campgrounds, all with showers. We checked in at Up the Creek, then decided to take a ride up the road to Dead Horse State Park. This was on my list of places to see in Utah.....and oh my....what a place to see.....

Chaco Canyon

Day 1: We arrived by way of the north entrance which involves only 16 miles of unpaved, washboard and sometimes narrow, rutted roads. I wait until we crest the hill that finally reveals what beckons me back to Chaco over and over Fajada Butte. It rises up from the horizon like a gigantic stone century guarding the canyon.

We set up our tent….it was windy and chilly, then brought down the bikes for our first of many rides to the visitors center. When I asked about the availability of wifi, I was, I felt rebuked for making the request .Yes, we have it for our residents and employees but not for the general public. It is very expensive, you know. Why not just come and enjoy Chaco and let the beauty of Chaco be enough? WHAT???? Are you kidding me? Our wireless is HIGHLY ENCRYPTED, good luck…as If I was gonna try to break the chaco code! They guarded their chaco internet ticket like some ancient unbroken pot pulled from the debris of Casa Benito. Where is Zak when I need him….. I stayed pretty fired up about that little issue for our entire time at Chaco. Dennis reminds me I should focus on the important things, like the lovely prairie rattle we found on the road and shooed to the side and the herd of elk settling down for the night we spied. Yes, but I could have blogged real time about that if but for wifi……. We returned to our campsite, got the truck and drove the loop, stopping at the entrance for the hike to Casa Chiquita. We walked to the Wetherall cemetery, where the man who did much early excavation of the Great house, Pueblo Bonito and opened the first Chaco Canyon Trading Post is buried. We then hiked on to Casa Chiquita. Tired and hungry we returned to the tent for dinner. As night fell over the canyon…and it gets dark fast and cold…we walked down to the campground host’s camper. He had his telescope up and treated us to a view of Saturn, M-13 a globules? of stars and M57 – a burned out star that is now in gas form. I don’t know much (er, anything) about astronomy, but that was pretty cool. The complete absence of light renders the current Chaco night sky almost the exact same as when the Chacoans inhabited the land between 850 and 1200 a.d.

Day 2. Rode our bikes to the Wijiji site – about 5 miles round trip. The last time we were at Chaco we attempted this but got bogged down in the mud. By the way, Chaco has gotten good rain so far this year and the canyon was the greenest we’ve ever seen it. Lots of beautiful flowers blooming. Returned to the campsite for lunch, rode to the visitors center to cool off and watch the video (a.k.a. nap in air conditioning) then quickly rode back to camp to get the truck. We rode over to Pueblo Bonito, the largest structure in the Chacoan system. I really wish I could convey to you just how awesome this structure is……We took the guided tour, as we generally do because the guides add so much to the experience with their knowledge of the history and culture. In Pueblo Bonito the excavators have found, among innumerable other things, 116ish cylindrical pots, most of which are in museums (Museum of Natural History) and other collections. Sherd remains, however give evidence of the use of chocolate at Choco Canyon. The pots are reminiscent of similar vessels found in Mesoamerican Mayan ruins. Pueblo Bonito’s corner doors, t shaped windows, hundreds and hundreds of rooms and numerous kivas remain largely a mystery to those who study this culture. After our guided tour we returned to camp for a light dinner then back to the visitors center for a lecture on the significance of the area trading posts and another viewing of Saturn and M13 through the park telescopes. All I can tell you is it was spectacular…..we saw the rings ( difficult at this time as they are being viewed (dead on) and the moons of Saturn, and M13 was so much clearer. I still cannot play dot to dot with the stars and assign names to the pictures they supposedly represent but I can appreciate the beauty of a night sky completely unaffected by artificial light. Gen. 1: 14- 16, Ps. 147: 4,5. 148:1-4.

Day 3 Rode our bikes to Casa Chiquita then went on to the petro glyph site by foot, another mile or so…ate lunch under the shade of a huge bluff. Back to visitors center for another “video” then off to Casa Rinconada. It got rather windy and cool then the rain started! We trucked back to the campsite to put up the rain fly and debated just packing it in and heading out. The roads can become impassable after rain and the park is closing down the campground the 15^th for repair. We didn’t want to get stuck here, as much as we love it because has anyone noticed I haven’t mentioned enjoyed a refreshing shower in our long list of activities at Chaco? Yeah, no showers facilities. Drinking water can only be obtained from an outside spigot and there is nowhere to purchase anything! No ice, bread, whatever…..You have to do a little bit of advanced planning to come and stay at Chaco. Anyway, we decided to stick it out and it did not rain anymore, but the wind was ferocious. Met some folks who had just come in from the Grand Canyon where they reported it had rained, sleeted and snowed!!!! Well, you know how Dennis feels about the Grand Canyon, so looks like no go again this year! After a brief nap we drove over to Chetro Ketl and explored. I can’t tell you why I don’t get tired of this place……Dinner and then off to the visitors center for another lecture, this time by a visiting anthropologist about the discovery of chocolate in Chaco. (from whence came the above information).

You really never know if, after being somewhere, you will ever get to revisit that place. And even when or if you do, you come back a different person, due to your experiences between the visits. This completes our third visit to Chaco Canyon. Dennis had to practically twist my arm to get me to go the first time. One of his I’ve always wanted to see this place, ever since I saw it in National Geographic when I was a kid. Thanks, Dennis……..I am grateful that this awesome place is one of our special memories.

Well, we have stopped for the night.....At the Glorieta Conference Center in Glorieta New Mexico. For all my Southern Baptist friends out there, you know that this is one of several retreat/conference sites operated by our convention. This is a beautiful center and we are grateful to be sharing it with 400 middle and high school student during their week of "fuge" or Centerfuge. We attended worship with them tonight. The service was spirit filled and we were inspired by the music (Addison Rose) the speaker (?) and the students who attended(!). How can you not worship unhindered in the midst of all this! The message "Stand Firm" was timely and the scriptures from Hebrews 11 & 12 serve to remind us of all those who before us did indeed stand firm and are cheering us on to do the same. We were encouraged to look to those who have stood firm, get rid of that which hinders us, lay aside sin, run with endurance, and most importantly -look to Christ. What a treat to have come here! So, we ditched the tent for a night in leu of a comfy bed, WIFI baby and 400 energetic teens---and an unplanned for encounter with God. Isn't that the best!

P.S. --sadly, we arrived after the book store closed......sniff sniff....no tee shirt, no "glorieta".

What you ask is a "glorieta"? Well, it is the original name know only to our family, for all
snow globes..... When only a wee lass, Amanda was given a small plastic snow globe from this very place from a woman in our church at the time (First Baptist, Electra Texas)....on it were the words "Glorieta, NM". From that time on Amanda referred to all snow globes as "glorieta's"

Well, it is off to Chaco Canyon, NM tomorrow morning........I imagine there will be no blogging from there......but you never know!

julie in a hat.....
dennis with a snake.....

Getting started

Ok, this is way out of my technological comfort zone, as I am definitely a "techo-not" (my term).
But I thought this would be a fun way to journal our trip and keep moderately to not interested folks who may or may not be related up to speed as we go.....so here I go.....I think I am going to try to add a picture of us here....Well, how dandy, I did it!
This is me and Den out at the Wichita Mountains. The first part of our trip involved getting to Lawton to complete our promise to Marge....bringing her back to her beloved Oklahoma. Of course, no trip home is complete without the trip to the mountains. We were joined by our children and their spouses, which will remain unnamed and un photo posted until permission is granted. We are now at Black Mesa State Park in the uppermost corner of the Panhandle of Oklahoma. It has been hot and very dry here for quite some time so of course we awoke this morning to......rain and temps in the 50's. HA! We have hiked around pretty much all morning. I truly feel at home in these wide open spaces......It is beautiful in a very rugged, rocky way. There is a small lake in the middle of the drying out stage that we considered putting our kayaks in, but, alas it is cold, WINDY and threatning rain, again. I gotta tell you though, I love this state park commitment to technology. Blogging from a tent! As my daughter said..."that is just wrong!"....