Ursula Leaves the State, Day 7: Thanksgiving Thursday, November 22, 2012

Ah, the conflicted American holiday. I am not big on celebrating bringing disease and ruin to a bunch of cultures, but I do like the idea of pausing to be grateful for your abundance. And I do love (and dearly miss) my family’s traditional meal, which I hope to be able to celebrate again some day. But the past few years have definitely brought some new and interesting experiences. This year, at least, it was more relaxed! (Remember last year, the year of turkey cold cuts? And how much heavier I was a year ago--happy anniversary to my diet!)

This year I got up, showered and quickly cut up vegetables to make dressing, and got cranberry sauce ready to cook. I now regret taking my own saucepan, because I left the lid at Jan’s house. No way to retrieve it, so I will need to get a new small saucepan for Ursula. Not a huge deal--but I need to think better.

Once we were all dressed and ready, we headed to Jan’s, where daughter Jayme had been cooking up a storm, and the turkey was baking.

Our lovely hostesses (from earlier in the week)

My dressing and cranberry sauce, plus Cindy's potatoes.

 I got the food going, and soon Lee’s other niece, Cindy, got off work (she cleans at a hotel) and joined us. She made mashed potatoes from scratch. 

Cooking away!!

The kids made quite a spread of appetizers, too. We watched football a bit, and chatted with Jan’s elderly Veteran friend she’d invited.

Appetizer World! The girls did all this! Jayme especially worked hard.

The food came out really good, and it sure was a pleasant time--lots of banter, chatting and humor. Plus there was the mystery of the fallen egg. No one would admit to dropping it first on the poor plant and then on the floor!

The egg just sat there, because no one would fess up to dropping it. Perhaps whoever did it just didn't notice.

I also really enjoyed their parrot, which had been Lee's sister's before. What an entertaining fellow Crackers is. And he's just middle aged--in his 30s.

Crackers is at right, hanging out with the family!

I enjoyed talking to the girls a lot—ages 10-13. They were very well behaved and nice. Lee and Jan got caught up on family lore, and I know they enjoyed that. Much fun was had.

Lee picks on his poor little great-niece.

Around sunset, Tara and I took their two Jack Russells on a walk. I got to see a covey of Gambrel’s quail, which was cool. They live across the street from undeveloped land, so there is lots of wildlife. While we were out, one dog’s collar broke, so Tara had to carry her home. A few minutes after she got home, she was covered in welts. Apparently she is not just allergic to cats! They had no Benadryl, so after a chat with Lee’s dad, we went back to Ursula so they could get some. Poor kid sure was itchy!

Lessons Learned: Eggs are tricky. And everyone should keep Benadryl around, in case a sudden allergy arises.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 6: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

As usual we enjoyed coffee before heading out of town, I had a request for an interior shot of Ursula, so here's one I took of how she looks when being lived in, complete with shoes and such.

Life in Ursula. Note my handy portable tavle, and the fan plus heater in the back. The fan got put away later.

Today was another day of scenery viewing for me and driving for Lee. I sure appreciate all the driving he did. I had wanted to see some of the small towns north of Alamogordo, so we went up to Tullarosa, which looked quaint, but not worth a stop, and continued on to Ruidoso (like in Austin, a Spanish word not pronounced in Spanish). The road went past the Mescalero Apache reservation and it was in lovely woods, with signs saying to watch for deer, elk and wild horses! Most everyone there seemed to have horses, too.

Ruidoso was a very nice resort town, and there were lots of very well dressed people on the street. Nearly all women under 30 had on Uggs. Lots of furry boots. The place was a shopping paradise, with lots of stuff you can’t find in Austin. I hereby admit to shopping. I got some cute tops in a very nice boutique, plus in another place I got a beautiful Pendleton wool/alpaca cardigan and the fake fur vest I had been wanting to get all season.

The vest and a really soft shirt I got. Plus another photo of the donkey cup.

Lee almost got a really nice hat from the people who made it, but it turned out to be the first hat ever that was too BIG for him. After all that shopping we were hungry so we had even more Mexican food. It was pretty good, too.

I got a really yummy fancy pomegranate margarita. Poor Lee had to drive on mountain roads, so no margarita for him.

We slowly left Ruidoso, looking at all the nice cabins, lodges and vacation homes, then proceeded on to the Three Rivers petroglyphs. On the way we passed acres and acres of burned forest—the fires that were going on up in NM while the ones were burning near us last year. It must have been beautiful before, and I hope it is again.

Sad burned forest.

We got to the petroglyphs around 5 pm, which means we got to watch the sunset. There were lots of interesting clouds in the sky, and the mountains kept changing colors. We got nice photos of the rock drawings and the scenery! This was the second time we visited this site, but it is so beautiful it is worth repeating! The little shop at the exit was closed, so we planned to see it on Friday.

I am showing considerable restraint in uploading only a few photos. The light on the mountains was just breathtaking. So, fewer words, more images.

Petroglyphs in front, and camping area below. Three Rivers Petroglyphs.

Birdie from folks hundreds of years ago.

Late afternoon sun hits the rocks.

The mountains before the sun set. 

As the sun went down, it illuminated just parts of the mountain.

One of my favorite petroglyphs. Pretty sure there's a picture of this same one in my old blog.

Another fave, the person wearing earrings. Thinking this might be a good Facebook avatar.

Wow. The light. I can hardly believe how many colors are in these sunsets.

This is probably the one I would have made if I were one of those petroglyph painting people.

Here is one where you can really see the snow on the mountain as well as the clouds hugging it.
I believe that's Sierra Blanca.

One last glorious view of clouds, Sierra blanca, and amazing shades of sunset.

Facing west, where you can't see the scenery, but you sure can see some clouds!

We headed back, stopped to get groceries for Thanksgiving at (I am so sorry) Wal-Mart,* snacked for dinner, and watched another movie.

*I have some lovely friends who work for Wal-Mart and Sam’s, and am glad they have jobs. However, wow, I can’t think of any other way to register my dislike of their business practices than to not give them my money. That’s how capitalism works, right? Vote with your pocketbook! So, the only two times I have been in one of those stores in the past decade were when we got batteries for Ursula in Cuero last year, and this time, because we could not get the GPS to tell us where the grocery store was (it finally came up with it the next day!).

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 5: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Well, it was time to finally leave Las Cruces and do the second leg of the trip. We got Ursula all ready to go, then we split up. Lee went directly to Alamogordo, while I drove over to the Las Cruces rodeo arena to see Guy’s horses. I do like the equines, you know. He has two horses right now, one old one, who is the horse he won all the roping trophies with, and a much larger and younger one who he hasn't competed on yet because of Guy's hip problems. The hope is that when he gets his second hip replacement in January, he will be able to compete again

This is the younger horse, with Guy. He is very big.

I enjoyed getting to pet and talk to the horses, especially the one in the next stall to theirs, a black filly who was incredibly sweet and friendly. There were also very cute calves for roping as well as some goats. Guy does goat roping, apparently.

The calves had on horn protectors so roping wouldn't hurt them.

We took Guy’s horses out to run in the roping arena and they had so much fun. Guy worked with them a little, but mostly they just ran and pestered each other and exercised. 

Hooray, we're free to roam the arena!

I have to say I was tickled at the sight of Steve walking a horse. He did not appear all that comfortable with it. I never would have guessed my cerebral musician and linguist friend would end up with a rodeo dude. Of course, I never would have expected I’d have my own ranch and donkey! You just don’t know what the future will bring.

Steve intrepidly leads the older horse, who Guy's had a long time.
He looks like he is thinking up something naughty to do.

I got some eggs from their chickens, plus a cool old horseshoe Guy found, and headed on to Alamogordo, passing some more lovely mountains, and then the plain with the White Sands Missile Range on it. There was a blimp in the sky there, too, plus a Border Patrol stop, where I admitted I was a US citizen and they let me go on.

I managed to find the Boot Hill RV Resort all by myself, and Lee was all set up by then. This is the same park we stayed at last time in the rental RV. It is not overly scenic, but clean and kitschy. The whole set-up is in the shape of a boot, for example. Plus it is across the street from nuts.

Our parking spot. There ARE mountains behind it.

Sunset over pistachio. Everyone says it reminds them of Georgia O'Keefe.

The World’s Largest Pistachio still beckoned, and the space we had, which was the closest one to the office, was made even more special by the fact that it was also the closest space to the horse corral, which contained two horses, and their poop. 

RV Park horse.

Still, it was fine—we weren't there for the scenery anyway.

Right after we got there, we went to have lunch with Lee’s niece, Jan. It was a late lunch, but since she works at a Ford dealership selling cars, she could lunch whenever she wanted to. We had yet more Mexican food, which was fine but nothing like that place in Deming. We discussed our plans for Thanksgiving, which were complicated by the lack of propane accessibility in Ursula. Then we dropped by her house, which has a wonderful mountain view, and re-met her three youngest (of 5) daughters, Jayme, Katie, and Tara. Tara immediately friend requested me on Facebook.

Cute Greco girls.

I would not complain about this view from my house!

On our way back from lunch, just before reaching the RV park, we saw a LOT of emergency lights. Thank goodness we spotted them in time to take a back road and make it to the familiar boot and pistachio. We saw the Life Flight helicopter and knew it was a bad one. Traffic was stopped for a LONG time going both ways. We were sorta bad and went and gawked, along with another guy, for a while. 

Saving a life, we hope.

Then we realized there was no better time to go to the pistachio store across the street than when all traffic was stopped, so we ran over to get coffee, pomegranate wine, and pistachios. I sure liked the lemon lime ones. The pistachio farm also makes their own wines, including a bunch of fruit ones. I find then fun for dessert or after dinner, so I planned to stock up later.

We were tired, so we settled in and watched a movie in the evening. We watched Brave one night (loved so many aspects of it), and really liked it. Another night we watched The Election, which was pretty funny. Oh yeah, and watched an oldie but goodie, ET.

Lesson Learned: Always have an escape route.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 4: Monday, November 19, 2012

What an amazingly beautiful and diverse day. We’d originally scheduled to leave for Alamogordo today, but because we were having so much fun with Steve and enjoying the KOA site so much (and had wasted most of Saturday on repairs), we stayed on. What an extremely fun day we had, too!

After coffee and relaxing, we went and got Steve, and first dropped by his church, which was right by his house. It's a liberal Lutheran church (yes, there is such a thing). Nearly all the current staff are gay or lesbian, even! They had recently renovated the sanctuary area, and wow, this was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places of worship I have ever been in. 

The stained glass cast beautiful shadows.

The altar, rail and many other ritual areas of the sanctuary were custom made by an artisan out of mesquite. They were incredibly warm and beautiful.

Altar close up. They also have someone do calligraphy on the readings each week. Beautiful.

After chatting with their interim minister (we aren't the only ones going through changes) we then took the ole Malibu all over southern New Mexico. It is quite desert-y but beautiful in its own way. There are so many different mountain ranges to look at, and so many different terrains, all with their own fauna. The first place we drove to was Rockhound State Park, where Steve had never been before. It is a neat place that apparently has a lot of geodes and semi-precious stones. I found a bit of jasper and some rocks with quartz crystals in them. Mostly we enjoyed the views, though. You really could see a long way.

Really nice adobe welcome center for Rockhound State Park

As advertised, there were rocks here.

Looking off toward Mexico and the blimp. What a sky!

We also were SEEN a lot. We were near the Mexican border, so there was this eerie spy blimp in the sky watching us. Well, it was probably more interested in other people. And there were helicopters and people on horseback, too. Wow. Those scofflaws better watch out! We fled the rocks and found the town of Deming, where Steve had been before to do some gay rodeo stuff (Guy is a cowboy and has won lots of trophies and even a fancy saddle). 

We took a chance on a Mexican restaurant we saw. BEST GAMBLE EVER!! I do declare I ate the best Mexican food on earth at this poorly decorated totally unpretentious place. It had random cowboy, Native American and Mexican stuff on the walls, clear plastic over the table cloths, and an incredibly friendly server. AND a dish of grilled chicken over sautéed onions, with strips of grilled green chiles on the chicken, covered with cheese. OMG. I want to cook that every day. Plus the refried beans were freshly made and nice and chunky, seasoned wonderfully. THEN the danged guacamole was by far the best I EVER ate. It was very fresh and chunky, and to me tasted like it had only lime, garlic and black pepper in it. So delicious. I want to try to reproduce that, too. The server said that was the only recipe the cook would not share. Secret recipe!

Oh yes, they also had local wine that was very interesting—I wish I had the chance to get more of the NM wine, which was not bad at all.

We did stop eating at last and moved on to another scenic area, perhaps the most beautiful of the trip. But first, we drove a long way through some scrub. There we visited and then re-visited Highway 61! No Bob Dylan in sight.

Yes, as a matter of fact, we ARE in the middle of nowhere.

We drove through the mountains and the Gila National Forest. Once we turned off to the other highway, up and up we went, and the scrubby desert was quickly replaced by small trees, and then by BIG trees, huge even. A wonderful variety of pines and hardwoods. Wow, it was wonderful. And there was even water in the streams! This was just a magical drive, and I was so entranced that I really didn't take many pictures. The ones I did get were spectacular, at least to me! 

I hate it when all the good views directly face the sun.

Sotol, the coolest member of the lily family.

I loved the bright colors of the lichen.

Oh my. We are WAY up in the sky here. It's like you can see the whole world. Photos never do vistas like this justice!

One of the huge pines in the forest. There were all sorts of trees, some very large. Just a few miles from the Highway 61 sign. Impressive.

Sure am glad we decided to take the long way back, even though it meant Steve barely made it to his appointment that evening. 

One reason we cut it a bit close getting Steve back home. There were cattle in some really weird spots on these mountains. I didn't know they were THAT sure-footed.

Lee and I just chilled Monday night—my eyes were literally exhausted from looking at beauty, and he was tired from mountain driving.

Lesson Learned: The Earth, she is amazing.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 3: Sunday, November 18, 2012

We were up bright and early, so we enjoyed coffee and read for a while, since there was a rare rainstorm.

We never got tired of looking at the clouds on the mountains. This was the rainy day.

Then we set out to get stuff we needed for comfort and joy. I say joy because we got some goofy snowflake gel things and a string of LED lights to make Ursula all festive. We also got two heaters, one for the front and one for the bedroom. They worked out great for the rest of the trip, since it would get chilly at night when warm up nicely while the sun was out. We also went to Target and Lee got some pants and I forget what else.

By the time we were finished, Steve called, so we went to his house. By then the rain had cleared up, so we dove to La Mesilla, which is a very old part of town, to explore and have lunch.

La Mesilla square, with craft vendors

Basilica on the square

There was shopping, so I was happy. Lunch was at a very old restaurant, La Posta.

That's one OLD restaurant

While waiting for our table, I picked up a lovely tin bluebird to hang in Ursula, and a new checkbook cover with a tree on it. My old cover had “only” lasted ten years, which is actually pretty good for the cheap on they give you when you open an account.

So, the restaurant was quite the quirky masterpiece, and featured very loud parrots, and many interesting, ancient rooms.

That scary saint dude is trying to hug Steve, and Lee is scared some piece of decor will come get him.

The food was fine, but my mango margarita was superb. We also had lovely sopapillas for dessert. Hey, it’s vacation time, and I lost 50 pounds! Fun can happen!

We walked around La Mesilla, and I picked up a lovely coffee mug with a donkey on it—it is some famous pottery, and really heavy and nice. It is my official “Ursula Mug.”

Donkey mug!

I also got an inexpensive Mexican blanket and got Lee a nice walking stick, made, I think, of mesquite. We also got some cool coffee from a place that roasted it right there. I hope to give some to my friend Mike, who roasts his own, to compare.

Once we were done with that, no more shopping! It was time to see the Nature. So, we drove to the foot of the mountains outside of Las Cruces, the ones we could see from the KOA. We had a nice time taking pictures of the plants and the amazing clouds on top of the mountains. It was really beautiful. We walked to where we could see a cave where a hermit once lived—there is a lot of interesting history in the hillsides!

A fish-hook cactus and its fruit.

The sky was an amazing color.

The hermit cave is there at center right.

The clouds were just sitting there, hugging the mountains

We returned to Steve’s so we could have a wonderful dinner with Steve and Guy. They had made a beautiful brisket, delicious beans with very tasty salt pork in them, cornbread with chiles, and totally amazing chile rellenos. OOOweee, those were good. I ate a lot of them, though not too much of the other stuff. It was so nice to get to see them again and catch up on what was going on in their lives.

We took them this very interesting local liqueur. It is supposedly flavored of honey, but it is NOT overly sweet. Glad we got some, too.

And what was even sweeter was that we could go home to our cozy Ursula and read and relax. It’s nice to take your own home with you when you go visit people.

Lessons Learned: Space heaters are nice.