Saturday, January 16, 2010

PREPARING TO HEAD EAST FROM LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO

Pomeroy Lake, Colorado Rockies, July 2008 When I talked to my mom on the phone recently, she said she was tired of looking at photos of our brown, arid scenery.  I agree!  Mommy, this one is for you.  It’s Lake Pomeroy, way up at the top of the Rockies in Colorado.  I took it in July, 2008 – and include it as a reminder that not all of the U.S. looks like the southwest in mid-winter.

We were busy, busy, busy all day long.  Odel has been communing with his “exterior maintenance” guru, Frank Gruelle, via phone for the last couple of days, learning everything he needs to know about waxing Scoopy.  Thanks (I think!) to Frank, Odel has a new electric buffer, a “block” and three “bonnets”, and several specialty products are en route to the new home of our good friends, the Bartees, in east Texas.  Purchasing his tools involved three trips to Harbor Freight Tools today alone – and the smile never left his face. 

While Odel was hunting and gathering, I gave the interior of Scoopy a thorough cleaning: vacuumed, dusted, washed and polished – the works.  It was warm enough to have a couple of windows open – finally, it was warm enough to let in the fresh air, all of which is now scented with the lavender cleaning spray I bought in Hood River last summer.  Ummmmmm – fresh!   Between phone conversations with Frank and trips to the tool shop, Odel cleaned our windows (I LOVE my husband!), and tossed in a load of laundry.  Scoopy looks and feels refreshed.

The Rio Grande at Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park, Las Cruces, NM Before we set about working hard, we drove a few miles south to the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park and took a walk along the Rio Grande.  This is as pretty as it gets around here right now.  Hey, at least the sun is shining, and we were able to remove our sweatshirts.  :)

Luna has not been afflicted this weekend with her “weekend disease”, so we are planning to depart tomorrow for Davis Mountain State Park near the little town of Ft. Davis in west Texas.  We’ve stayed there twice before and haven’t explored everything I want to see, so we’ll stay three or four days this time.  The landscape will still be dry and brown, but we’re moving in a greener direction.  :)

Now I have pumpkin-cranberry-pecan muffins in the oven – inspired by our trip to the San Saba Pecan Company, just a few blocks away – yesterday.  We came away with Honey Roasted pecans, Roasted Salted pecans, and Dark Chocolate Chile Pecans, with just enough chile pepper to deepen and enrich the dark chocolate.  We’ve hoping to save them (ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!) as Super Bowl snacks when we visit the Bartees in February… but our resolve is weakening.  Oh, well, we can always find chips.  :)

6 comments:

  1. We stayed one night at the Davis Mountain State Park in Jan 05 & drove up to the well known McDonald Observatory there for a Star Party. Staff Astronomer's put on a great inside & outside informative talk & we got to look through various large telecopes at distant objects in our hemisphere. If you go.....dress really, really, warm!!!!

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  2. Love Chocolate and Love Pecans... Sounds so good.
    We just took a walk today on the Rio Grande ourselves in Big Bend, and loved it. We will Revisit tomorrow, and Monday we are heading west again. Enjoy your stay and Ft Davis

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  3. You guys will enjoy Fort Davis. Try to visit Alpine while you are in that area. We met several well known authors, a movie star, and an artist while we were there.
    Check out our blog at:mytripjournal.com/Dray-TheHappyWanderers
    It was last March or April that we were there.
    Have a great time. We enjoy following your journey.
    Hugs,
    Rd & Marilyn

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  4. I LOVE the photos of the brown & arid scenery!
    JoAnn

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  5. We're also big fans of Fort Davis State Park, if you stop at Nel's Coffee Shop tell her hello for us! We're in New Braunfels and would love to meet you for lunch/dinner if you pass through!

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  6. The new photos are great and the muffins sound yummy. Mixing cranberry and pumpkin is new to me, but it sounds great.

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