Colorado Dreaming!

Well, folks, here's where I leave this latest Sundance Goes to Sundance blog. As you can see, Mom, Diane and I (and Dad taking the photo) have crossed over into Colorado, and it's now all downhill to the Denver airport and home on Tuesday.

Last night was all suitcase packing. This morning, Mom and Diane and I went into Santa Fe to do laundry while Dad worked on finishing the insulation to the water culvert, and then shoveled a bunch of dirt on it to complete the insulation job.

Then he went and drained all the water out of the house system, so it wouldn't freeze up before we come out for New Years. He has talked and talked about how anxious he was about how this project would come out.

Anyway, he put together this very odd little contraption of a garden hose, an air jet, some duct tape and a couple of hose clamps, and Mom stood up by the well, and Diane stood halfway down, and they sent hand signals and Dad blowed 100 psi air into the system, and according to them, they blew all the water out. Dad seemed much more relaxed after Mom gave the hand signal that there was nothing but air, and Diane passed it on; that said there was no more water in the system. Anyway, we'll see if he was right when we come out here at New Years.

Mom, Diane and Dad kept talking all the way up about how beautiful the Cottonwood and Aspen foliage was but, truthfully, I slept through most of it.

Talk to you guys on our next trip!

Sundance

O my God!

So first thing this morning we packed out to The Flea (also known as the Santa Fe Flea Market), and the next thing I knew Mom had me posed in front of all these dead animal heads. As you can see, I was mortified.

Other than that unfortunate incident, The Flea was pretty nice. There were a bunch of friendly dogs ... the unfriendly dogs (and an unfriendly cat) were kept tied up ... and there were LOTS of friendly people who went on and on about how wonderful dachshunds were, while patting me, so overall I liked The Flea pretty well. Mom and Dad bought a couple of neat decorations for the wall (a cowgirl photo and a rusty bull).

We came back to our place and Dad did some water projects while Mom and Diane marked jewelry. Then we went over to our friend/excavator's Thomas's house for dinner. He and his wife have a bunch of overenthusiastic little dogs, and I visited with them for awhile but then asked Mom if I could go back in the car, where I rested until it was time for us to come back home.

Tomorrow unfortunately we have to leave our wonderful place. I'll miss chasing the grasshoppers and listening to all the birds.

Sundance

Dogs Allowed

We had a very busy day today, starting with an "Estate Sale" up in northern Santa Fe which ended up being more like a blown-up garage sale; however Mom Dad and Diane still ended up buying a lot of stuff.

Then we went down to the Santa Fe farmer's market. As you can see, they don't want dogs in there. (How stupid is that? I mean, people poop too ...) Anyway, we got around it by Mom and Dad carrying me through it, and it was very pretty and exciting, and it was a beautiful day.

Then after buying lunch we went down to the dump, and dumped stuff, and then continued down the same road to the Galisteo Open Studios. We were all surprised at how many studios there were and how much great art and crafts were there ... and Mom and Dad were very surprised at how much money they spent at the end of the day.

We came back to find a tarantula on our deck. Mom and Dad wouldn't allow me to go out and check him out. He was gone by dinnertime (Dad grilling potatoes and steaks on the chiminea).

I have to say, from a dog's perspective, I really enjoyed this day!

Sundancd

Road Adventures

Today was a long and exciting day. We got up early and Mom, Dad, Diane and I drove out to Gallup NM, almost to Arizona, where Mom and Dad bought jewelry for the shop.

On our way back to Albuquerque, we had the most exciting part of the day for me, a stop at El Morro, a national monument. I stood on a rock and looked down into a deep spring-fed pool that got its water from the top of the mesa (look up). As you probably know, a pool like that is pretty rare out here in the desert, and people came from all over, starting with the Indians, to stop and drink water and rest there.

Starting with the Indians, they also wrote on the rocks. (This is also called "Inscription Rock.") The Indians wrote in petroglyphs, and then later Europeans came along and wrote their names, including one guy who did some pretty amazing writing which I couldn't read, but which looked pretty nice.

After that, we went up to Albuquerque where Mom and Dad bought more jewelry and I went nuts because everywhere I looked, there was another dachshund! (Afterward, Mom explained that they had mirrors under all the display cases and I kept seeing myself. Whatever.)

Then we drove up to Harry's Roadhouse Cafe in Santa Fe, where I had dinner in the parking lot (a real indignity, but ... that's the life of a dachshund). Then home to our Casita, where we're all snoozing out.

Sundance

Grooving in Cerillos

Cerillos is actually our post office, although I wouldn't tell anybody to send us mail there because we'd never think to pick it up. It was the best place to think of for "Grooving in" because the four of us started out the day with a nice hike in the Cerillos Hills. As usual I worked my little short legs as fast as I could and then immediately fell asleep in the car.

Then we went to Santa Fe to drop off Mom and Diane for a full (!) day of shopping, and Dad and I came back to the Casita which technically is in Madrid ... so you can see why I settled on Cerillos -- it's in the middle of all what we did. Dad worked on the Problem of Draining the Water System for Winter, and ended up buying an air compressor as part of all that. (Don't ask me ...)

And then we went back up to Santa Fe to pick up Mom and Diane, who looked pretty tired from all their shopping.

We ended up back at the Casita at sunset, which is where you see me and Mom. (The sunset was much nicer than the photo shows.) They all had sausage and corn grilled over the chiminea, but didn't offer me any.

Anyway, we're all off to bed at a reasonable hour for once (!), because we're up early tomorrow to travel to Gallup and maybe Zuni for jewelry shopping.

Sundance

p.s. Dad got up this morning and first thing tried to start the hot water heater again, and it started right up! They are all very happy about that, although as I've mentioned before, I don't care much about hot water one way or the other.

We're Back in NM!!

This is me, Mom and our friend Diane on the New Mexico border, driving down from Denver on the way to our Casita. We were very tired then and are even more tired now, having got up at 4 a.m Wednesday (EST) and just now going to sleep at about 2 a.m. Thursday (EST). However, the solar power and the water pump fired up just fine, the house is nice and warm and we are looking forward to adventures tomorrow (including trying to figure out how to get the hot water heater going ...)

Hope they don't wake me up too early ...

- Sundance