On the Road Again!

Today we said goodbye to our lovely New Mexico casita and set off for our road trip back home. Mom turned off the solar electric power system without any coaching from Dad, and I was proud of her.

We stopped at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market on our way out. This nice woman selling blackberries offered me one, but I couldn't get interested in it, although I tried, but I did have a nice time rolling it around on the sidewalk with my nose. (Watermelons are another story ...)

We headed north to Colorado, and then got onto a state highway and hundreds of miles driving through what Mom and Dad tell me were beautiful rangelands. To tell the truth, I spent most of that part of the trip sleeping, because I did miss out on quite a few naps during our active week in Madrid. A few times I woke up and got into my Navigator position, shown here.

In the middle of the rangelands, we stopped at this town called Rocky Ford, Colorado. Mom and Dad already had a Rocky Ford miniature watermelon they had bought in Santa Fe. They promptly bought two more and a cantelope for good measure. Rocky Ford has to be the world capital of melons! (The watermelons get their water from the Arkansas River, which goes through town.) Mom started feeding me watermelon chunks, and I tell you, I could eat watermelon all day! After that, I went to sleep for another 150 miles.

Tonight we're in a nice motel in North Platte, Nebraska, aiming for Illinois by the end of day tomorrow.

We're having a fight with blogger. However, I think my Dad was able to at least publish some pretty neat pictures we took with my brother Hondo while we took a beautiful walk along the crest of the Sandia Mountain overlooking Albuquerque. As you can see by the pictures, it was pretty far down. I was a tractoring dog the whole 3 miles, and pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Also, first thing this morning we went to the dump, and then over to the Flea Market again, which was a lot of fun again. I met some very nice dogs except one nasty poodle who came afeter me. Mom and Dad got some cool things including a Day of the Dead figure for the bathroom and a very good table lamp for $5, what we would have paid $45 for in Santa Fe. After we got back from the mountain, the humans went up to Harry's Roadhouse Cafe for dinner and I slept in the car, which was fine by me.

Hondo flies back to New York City tomorrow at noon; then we three will shut down the Casita Tuesday morning and start driving east.

Walking the Cliff

Mom's New Tub

Well, it's come down to this: Mom plans to take a tub in a cattle watering tank.

No, I'm not kidding. She went and bought a 150-gallon cattle watering tank at our local feed store, which she now has set up next to the patio, and which Dad has obligingly filled up with water from our wonderful well. Apparently the idea is, if she covers it with plastic and leaves it in the New Mexico sun all day, it will be nice and warm for her to take a tub at the end of the day.

As you can see by the photo, I'm pretty embarrassed. I mean, think of the neighbors. Of course, we don't have any neighbors ... but still ...

Other than that, it was a nice day. Mom and Hondo went for a tour of the gold mine in the Ortiz Mountains. Meanwhile, Dad and I went to a little dusty town-wide yard sale in Cerillos, where we didn't find much except barking dogs; fortunately, they were all penned in. Then the four of us went to Santa Fe for a nice lunch at an outdoor place that allowed dogs, picked up some groceries for dinner, went and bought Mom's damned tub, came back to our casita, took a nice big walk around the land ... and then Dad grilled steak in the chiminea at sunset, and everybody went to bed early. Beautiful sunset, with some rain showers. Nothing out there to bark at tonight, so it's early to bed for me as well.

Top of New Mexico

This is me and Mom on top of Sandia Peak, high above Albuquerque. We drove up there before picking up my brother Hondo at the airport. Mom was worried that at 11,000 feet I would pass out or something, but I was just a wild dachshund (again), running around.

Today was also a great day because Thom the carpenter was here boarding up the water heater closet but, more important, installing a screen door: one or both doors were open most of the day, and I got to be a free-range dachshund, running in and out of the house as I pleased, without a leash.

(Mom and Dad would never let me try that in New Hampshire because they know I would take off for the woods and be gone for hours if not days. However, New Mexico is a little strange and scary, and I like to stay close to the house and Mom and Dad.)

It's great to see Hondo again! He's stopping here on his way back to New York from dropping off his girlfriend Deb at graduate school in San Diego. Coming home from the airport I couldn't make up my mind between sleeping against his leg or Dad's (Mom was driving).

Rio Grande

Today we traveled North about two hours to the Rio Grande Gorge, just South of Taos. As you can see by the picture, the Gorge and the river themselves are really something great to see. Dad tells me the gorge is about 100 miles long.

Well immediately Mom waded into the forests of extremely scentful sage, which she picked to make the smudge sticks which she sells. And immediately I led Dad down to the Rio where I did a great amount of very pleasant wading.

So all in all it was a pretty good day, 4 hours of driving included. Of course Mom and Dad had to do some more shopping for items for the house on the way home, but they tell me that's what you have to do when you're setting up a new house and find out that you don't have a thingy to hang stuff on in the shower and things like that. (I've told my opinions on showers in the last post.)

A Cowboy Supper and Hot Water Too!

Dad fired up his birthday-present chimenea tonight and cooked finger potatoes wrapped in foil and smokey chipolte sausages. Unfortunately, I was not invited to participate, but they both seemed to think it was pretty delicious.

Mom and Dad spent a lot of time hauling rocks around, Mom with the little boundary rocks you can see behind the Kokopelli ornament, Dad putting together a wall out by the driveway. By 1 p.m. with the sun intense, they had both stopped. I being smarter had spent most of the morning hanging out in the shade.

Our neighbor the whole day was Mike the plumber, whom Dad tells me is the best in his field because he did a perfect job of putting in our hot water heater. At the end of the day, Mom and Dad both had hot showers for the first time here at our casita, and kept going on about how happy they were. I've never had a hot shower nor do I ever want one, but as a loyal dog, I'm happy for the both of them. They both seem more relaxed now that they're clean.