To New Mexico ...

I have been informed that I have been remiss in not maintaining this blog by one of my faithful followers. There is a perfectly good reason. Honest. Trust me.

After writing the last blog, my daughter called me and said she hoped Luke (her son, my grandson) wasn't reading my blog as I gave away to all the world that she was moving home. Oops! Luke thought she was coming in August, and she wanted to surprise him. It turns out, he doesn't follow my blog, and was surprised!

So, I took a quick trip to New Mexico to gather said daughter and whatever of her stuff would fit in Suvie Star Car, and then we made a quick trip home. I drove down, she drove back.

I had planned on taking a scenic route through Utah. Sadly, there was a horrendous (read: fatal) accident that blocked the road, and if I waited the two hours for it to reopen, I would have driven it in the dark, so turned around, and opted for the freeway instead of the by ways.

I did pull over at a View Point for the first two photos. The colors were spectacular, and the view, literally, breathtaking. Especially when I considered I would be driving down that highway in the top photo.

I spent the first night in Nephi, UT, and reached Belen, NM around 5pm the next night (Saturday). Met one of my Sisters of Choice, Kitty, for dinner, and a good visit, then again in the morning, for breakfast and a good visit before heading down the road 50 miles or so to gather up my child.

Sonja lived with a friend just 8 miles from the Boche del Apache Bird Sanctuary, so off we went. Unfortunately, it was mid day, and we didn't see too many unusual birds. The only two birds I saw that we don't see here were the Ibis (bottom photo) and the Cormorants (not shown). However, the Heron posed so beautifully, I had to take his picture. As soon as I had it, he bowed, and flew away.

Many turtles, and more cat fish than I could count. Oh, I got so hungry for fried catfish! Sonja reminded me we were in a sanctuary and it was illegal to hunt or fish. Drat!

After spending a few hours driving around the sanctuary, getting our sinuses upset with all the dust, pollen, cotton wood blossoms and pollen from the Russian Olive (nasty tree!), we headed
back to her home and loaded Suvie Star Car.

Loading Suvie was not an easy job. Fortunately, I spent several years at Boeing learing to put 10 lbs of stuff into 5 lb bags -- and was able to convey much of that knowledge to Sonja, who actually did most of the work. OK, she did ALL of the work--I was too busy fighting a touch of food poisoning from the previous night's dinner but you didn't really want to know that, did you?

Unfortunately, the Ibis' color doesn't show well. He (she?) is an Iridescent Ibis, and when the sun shines on him, he is absolutely gorgeous. Here the sun is only on his shoulder.

To be continued....


Oh, one more thing.... A friend sent me a video that I thought was one of the funniest I've seen n ages. If you're under 40, it probably won't appeal to your sense of humor, but your Mom will love it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clFjSjOZ9Ow