Mountain Climbing

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day to be up in the mountains. We took a long walk up in the Cerillos Hills. Dad and I posed for a wide view out to the west. It was warm, and I was getting a little hot until we hit some snow, which felt really good on my paws when I walked. Then it occurred to me that it might feel even better if I rolled in it.

Then we went into Santa Fe where Mom and Dad had lunch (I wasn't invited), plus we had a nice walk around the plaza and downtown, which was filled to bursting with people enjoying the beautiful day.

Mom and Dad have bought an "El Cheapo" (as they put it) TV set to go with the El Cheapo DVD player they already had, so from now on, in our long winter evenings out here in Madrid, we'll be able to watch DVDs, in addition to reading newspapers and listening to the local mariachi radio stations.

New Mexico??

I thought the plan was for us to spend New Years weekend in frozen Northern New Hampshire.

Next thing I knew, we were up at 3 a.m. and then on a plane to New Mexico.

Don't ask me how this happened. We can thank my crazy Mom.

It was a long flight -- we went to Albuquerque by way of Orlando, Florida. (Don't ask me to make sense out of that, either!)

Anyway, we're here, and my Dad got the solar electricity going, and the well going, and the propane stove and heater going -- and he even got the hot water heater going without too much of a thrash. (He gets anxious about that ...) We're really happy to be in our casita and looking forward tomorrow to a hike and some time in Santa Fe.

Going Home

Well, we have had a wonderful 2 weeks here in hot New Mexico with its overnight thunderstorms, but now it is time to go home. Today we had a great start to the day with one of my favorite hikes, up the Cerillos Hills. Mom and Dad hiked before breakfast, if you can imagine that! (I didn't, of course.) They made up for it with a big blue-corn pinon pancake breakfast at Tecolote. (That's "owl," folks.)

They had to pack suitcases and stuff and clean up and put things away; also Mom did some vacuuming, during which Dad and I escaped the house for a walk down around the land, where I chased a lizard and Dad cleaned up the mystery grave which we have down there. (A pile of stones, a stick, a bean can and a cross.)

Now it's night-night from New Mexico and look forward to barking with you all back in New England.

Love, Sundance

Hiking at 11,000 feet

I never like it when Mom makes me pose for these "hot dog" photos. Personally, I find it insulting. This one is in Old Town Albuquerque. (It would be another story if I ever got to eat one of these "dogs".)

Today we drove up to the top of the Sandia Mountains, 11,000 feet tall, and walked the crest trail through a beautiful forest. There were several squirrels to chase, but Mom kept me on a tight leash.

At the top, we were 6000 feet above downtown Albuquerque. It was quite a view. Not long after we left, a storm swept over the whole mountain, and we would have been quite wet. Instead, we got home dry and tired, and I had a good sleep while Mom and Dad went out to eat at Harry's Road House. (Mom saved me a good bite of Harry's Hamburger, much better than any so-called "dogs".)

On the Road Again!

We have just got back from a very nice two-day road-trip. Friday morning we headed out westward first thing and drove to Gallup, where Mom and Dad bought some jewelry for the shop ... and then southward to Zuni, where they bought some more. Then we headed eastward to El Morro, "Inscription Rock" (which I have blogged about before) and had a nice evening at the beautiful campsite there.

(We had a few nervous moments when a pack of about 12 motorcycles showed up and proceeded to camp across the road ... but they were nice men, my Dad's age, who had just ridden 7 hours and wasted no time getting to 'Lights Out'.)

The next day we had an adventure, riding southward through VERY back roads to Hatch, NM, world capital of chili peppers. The road for 85 miles was all gravel and had features such as the free-range cow pack shown here. My Dad thought about getting out to talk to them, but the big cow on the right didn't encourage that idea, and anyway we found a path through them.

When we got to Hatch it was 100 degrees and we weren't too excited about buying "hot" chilis. Mom and Dad had a quick hot-chili lunch, bought a few chili items and we all piled back into the air conditioned car. Back home, Mom made peach pie and ice cream for their dinner ... and we are all now all settled in for a well-earned snooze.

Catching Up

We are a couple of days behind in my blog, thanks to some things about Verizon which Mom doesn't want to say in this post.

Tuesday, Mom, Dad, our friend Pat and I went camping on the Rio Grande up next to Taos. We had a great time, other than that it was REALLY hot at the campsite, which is down in the Rio Grande Gorge. I took care of that by wading in the Rio.

Not only that, but my leather collar finally dissolved in the water. So we all got in the air- conditioned car, drove up out of the Gorge and -- strange! -- found a pet supply shop up at the top, where we got me a new, waterproof collar. It was cooler once we got finished our drive and back down into the Gorge, and the sun went down behind the cliffs.

The next day, we went for a nice drive up over the big Rocky Mountains and back down home.

I hadn't noticed before, but there is a bunch of lizards living under our shed. What fun! (Well ... until one of them nipped me on the nose. Since then, I've been more smelling them than snuffing my nose in after them ...)

Tomorrow we are going for another big drive down to buy some Indian jewelry, camp out and go find Hatch chili. I'll keep you posted, now that we finally have our Internet connection back.

Hiking for Turquoise

We have been in New Mexico for a few days and the internet service has been pretty spotty. So I am making a post without a picture today. We are at the Casita with Marilyn my godmother , (dog mother), from Massachusetts and our friend Pat from Tucson. Today we went with Todd Brown from Cerrillos on a Turquoise Mine Tour. He drove us up through these crazy roads and through many gates that Dad would hop out and unlock.
Once we got to a flat spot we got out and hiked through all these paths and searched for Turquoise. For a little guy like me it was fun scooting up the rocks. The highlight of the trip was hiking down into a cave that the Indians use to mine.
After we were done Dad pulled over and I took a swim in the Galisteo River. What a great time for me! These are truly the Dog Days of Summer.