We are in Denver today. Drove up from Santa Fe yesterday. I like driving. I like riding. I like seeing the sights from the car. This is a beautiful country. I enjoyed watching storms cook up in the distant West, de-energizing before they reached 25N. My husband inadvertently re-routed us through a childhood memory of mine. Raton, N.M. - I lived there as a very young child and recalled as we approached the little town, a sign on the mountain side, RATON, I guess it was one of the first words I recognized. The mind is an awesome thing. We were miles South when I recalled, I think I remember... . I didn't look for it as we blurred through, my husband spotted it and pointed it out. I don't particularly enjoy remembering what I alone may recall ... The aloneness of it makes the blur hurt.
I wonder how much we forget to recall. I wonder how that works.
This morning the girls sleep-in while I enjoy "free WIFI" downstairs in the breakfast area. The hotspot is grateful for a break! I'm the only one exercising what is called "unlimited data" but is, in fact, just another worm in the apple. One can almost hear the clicking of $10 Gigs as we zoom along. (Money don't spend itself! - Poor Daddy!)
The caverns at Carlsbad were magnificent. I've wished to experience them for a long time. It was cool to walk down ... stroll really ... and then ride the elevator (800') back up. The elevator was installed there before I was born and moves lots faster then anticipated! My pics from down there do a disservice to the scale and over all joy of the adventure. It amazes me that "someone" came upon a big hole in the side of a rock and said "I think I'll just take a look in there..." . I am going to study up on the history of the caverns. I also didn't know anything about the Apache connection. It's easy to see why the area is considered sacred.
Spending the week in different hotels, selected and "booked on the fly" has been interesting. In Pecos, Texas we stayed at the Best Western where the bathtub was the biggest I've ever seen. I thought to soak in soothing Epsom salts after a day of travel and (I'm really not exaggerating) the tub, half full of the nicest hot water floated me up. Difficult to soak in a float tank! I enjoyed the funniness of a too big tub! The room in Santa Fe was pretty bad - clean, but tiny and worn out. It definitely diminished the brand. We had only the morning to spend exploring Santa Fe ... at least a week too short! I hadn't been there since the 70's and enjoyed seeing it through my daughter's eyes (two of the girls are making this trip up to Denver with L and I). Here in Denver, we are at a hotel near the airport. I didn't realize that this morning until I saw airline uniforms at the breakfast buffet. Over my second cup of hot (free) coffee I observed a forty something blond pony tailed pilot. She looked tense, stress has lined her almost pretty face. She seemed alone, uncared for. I like airplanes a lot. I am grateful to not have chosen a life in the industry. It would have worn hard on me. Impersonal, mostly ugly art, impossibly loud carpets unsuccessfully trying to hide the stains from careless spills, noise and lots of it from the room down the hall or kids running in the halls, from construction outside and freeway traffic, noise from innumerable
sources, torturing noise when quiet is so necessary. And the drapes. It seems most unkind to me to hang blackout curtains that don't quite close. There's some ornery behind that somewhere. I do love the shower curtains that snap loose from a little sheer top which doesn't detach from the rod. That's genius. Looking for those for home use is high on my to do list.
sources, torturing noise when quiet is so necessary. And the drapes. It seems most unkind to me to hang blackout curtains that don't quite close. There's some ornery behind that somewhere. I do love the shower curtains that snap loose from a little sheer top which doesn't detach from the rod. That's genius. Looking for those for home use is high on my to do list.
This country is beautiful. Just flat out gorgeous. I hope I get to see more of it. I am definitely a homebody, but seeing the countryside is a huge treat. Except Raton. It's a cute little town, but I really tried to miss it.
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| wind farm in Texas |
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| replica in Odessa Texas |
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| near Carlsbad Park |
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| in New Mexico looking at Texas |
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| Look Out Mountain |
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