Zion trip on way to Oregon

David and I just got back from visiting daughter Amanda and granddaughter Isabelle in Oregon. On the way we stopped to visit friends that are working near Zion park. We had a short but wonderful visit with them and here are a few pictures of our adventures. In the morning we went on a hike to a cave that has some old and not so old petroglyphs. The first photo is of David and Jerry with the pics in the back. The next is on the way to the cave, just some outcropping of rocks that I thought were cool.
The dark silhouette is us looking out of the cave.
The next pic is what we saw when we first drove up an evening shot. One of the rocks looks like a monkey. Can you see it?
And finally, we went up a 25 mile road to see the sunset over Zion but we were just a tad too late. It is so cool and nice up there. The temp was 60 up there and 90 when we got back to the bottom at 9pm!
Thanks to Jerry and Judi for putting us up and showing us such a good time.

Denver in June

Some people I know get to hike in Zion every week. Others live in the wilds of Oregon but me I get to go to an Infection Control conference in downtown Denver in June. You know, I never once saw the Rocky mountains once I was safely escorted from the airport to my hotel room. I did get to see a little bit of downtown and it was nice and a bit fun even. I saw the Coors stadium but chose not to go to a game on my last night...too tired from all that learning at the conference. I got taken to a very nice french restaurant by one of the vendors (me and about 13 other folks) wow what a bill that must have been. It has taken me 3 days home of naps every day to recuperate but I think I might be done now. Soon we are leaving for a 10 or more day road trip to visit friends at Zion and family in Oregon so we will know how the other people live! David stayed home to work and feed chickens while I was gone.

Water Canyon Fir

Took this picture of this beautiful tree while Josh and Nichole hiked around a bit and baby Jamie lay asleep in his car seat.
The mountain behind it is the Magdalena Mountains and I think up in that area is where the new Magdalena Ridge Observatory is located. They had the road closed, not that I could have made it up there in my Honda Civic, but they are still doing construction on the observatory grounds.

Isn't it a beautiful day in New Mexico?? ~sigh~

It is well into June and the high is in the mid 80's slightly breezy and just a great time to be out if it weren't for a bit of pesky gnats and flies...oh well, can't have everything.

Going to Denver next week for a conference and staying in a big hotel downtown. I will take a few pictures if I get a chance. I could go see a CR baseball game but just not sure...I could just swim in the hotel pool and hang out!!

I quit crying after the kids left finally but I sure do miss them! I have a MySpace account now to show off and look at my grandkids pictures. It is protected by my ability to invite only friends and family so if you want to or already have an account...look me up and I will hook you up to my site.

My son Josh and his wife Nichole and their 10 month old baby Jamie were here to visit this past weekend (sat-tues) and we had a great time. I took them to Pie Town to have what else? Pie! We went to the Pioneer which of the 2 restaurants in the town is my favorite.
On Monday we went to see the VLA and toured Magdalena and then went to Water Canyon which is the first place we stayed (camped) when we came to these parts when Josh was 7. That night he wanted to sleep in a tree he was so enamored with the huge cotton woods. Me being the conservative mom I was said No. Today he is glad that I wouldn't let him, being a parent and all himself! It was a complete joy to have them and I have been very sad today. It isn't fair to live so far away from your kids and grandkids!

Wind

My good friend Frances thought many years ago when I said that wind was just the Earth breathing that I was just a newbie to NM and really had no idea what I was saying. Well, I hate to air dirty laundry so I will only show you my clean stuff... Yes the wind, she is a blowin'. Mostly I still think that the wind is the Earth breathing and then sometimes I think she has a hyperventilation problem or something. Maybe she just needs to blow off all the world's pollution and so needs to take really deep breaths now and then. It is spring and that is when it blows the hardest. On this clothes line is a little wind indicator and while I was hanging out my clothes I saw (and felt) it gust up to about 30mph. I guess I don't have to mention that they dried pretty quick. What you don't see in the picture is our wind generator so while everyone is bitching about being so close to Mother Earth's gills we are making electricity so when the electric company goes down in about 10 days for some scheduled maintenance I don't have to worry about my freezer! So even though I am no longer a newbie, I still like the wind. I am about to go take a walk with my Mom and we will fight the wind (at least in one direction). There are always two sides to every story. In one direction we will have a little boost on our walk.
I must be getting less depressed if I can finally see the positive sides to a given situation!! I have a little book on Happiness that I had put up high on a shelf...it fell down right onto my desk today so I read it again. Must be the Universe trying to help me out. Thanks... I can use it.

The wind should keep up its work through this month and then we will have our month of summer and only wish the breeze would blow. We had a 10% chance of rain yesterday and you could see the clouds with rain in them but they couldn't find their way to the ground. The humidity finally got above 20% on my new weather station though so maybe next time...I had thought that maybe it wasn't working (the humidity gauge) but alas it just won't register below 20. For those of you who like it sunny, dry and windy NM is the place to be right now. I wouldn't be anywhere else!

Me neither

I got a birthday card from a good friend that says "What a coincidence... good wine gets better with age AND we age better with wine!!!

I definitely agree...

Elk and Bending over Man

These are two neat oddities that if you use a little imagination you can see on Highway 60 between Datil and Pie Town. The elk may be more obvious than the man... let me know if you can't see him in the 2nd picture. He is in the middle of the picture and is above the wires.
We are in the throes of spring: wind, cold nights and sometimes warm days. It is very dry and conditions are great for fire so if you drive through this canyon--no throwing of cig butts!
For that matter all of this area is off limits for any kind of fire starter. It is a tinder box out here in frontier country.