April 20, 2023: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

After 7 weeks of travel, we’ve arrived home at 4Fords, and are glad and ready to be here. It was a bittersweet vacation: with Alan’s mom’s passing, we raced (as fast as an old truck and camper can race) up to Denver where we spent about 10 days. Being able to spend a lot of quality time with family and friends made the visit a blessing.

On the way up to Denver, we stopped one night at Bluewater Lake State Park near Petrified Forest in AZ. While the campground was just ok, we took a stunning hike down this lovely little canyon to the dam (which looks like it’s about to collapse.)

Other than that the trip up to Denver was full of terrible roads (I-40) worse traffic (I-40) and more interstate than I’ve driven in decades.

Easter happened while in the city, and Alan found this emaciated Easter Bunny in the neighborhood. We visited several awesome coffeeshops, including my new favorite Denver venue: Death & Co. https://www.deathandcompany.com/about-denver/

When we left the city, I was far behind in my classes, so we stopped at Pueblo Lake State Park for a couple nights so I could get caught up. I am teaching 4 online classes this semester, (and taking 1), and they are keeping me busy. I love the students, though, and am not ready to fully retire. This semester I am teaching Behavioral Health to future psychiatric workers and to inmates in 2 Colorado prisons.

Once leaving Colorado for our new home state of New Mexico, we headed south to Bandelier National Monument for a couple of days with more family. What a great spot. The ruins seem unique, built in caves instead of the usual arches, and stretching down the canyon for over 1/2 mile. Definitely want to go back. Although they don’t allow dogs anywhere, which is becoming the norm in national parks and monuments, there are many hikes just outside the Monument, on Los Alamos National Labs property. We will return here for sure.

We drove home from Bandelier on Tuesday, after stopping for an excellent lunch with friends at Abiquiu Inn. Alan and I were a bit anxious about driving in, knowing that our road was washed out only 2 weeks before, and that the snowmelt had been fierce. But we were pleasantly surprised to see the road graded and dry. The only tricky spot was where the 6′ culvert had washed out and the county hasn’t replaced it yet. (Will they ever? Who knows!) We had to do some quick dirt and rock moving and use our traction tracks (the orange treads under the truck in the photo) to get across. You can see there’s not much water flowing right now. It was about 4′ deep 2 weeks ago.

Once home, we found everything waiting. Cat 2 was healthy and happy to see us. There was no mouse poop anywhere, and all the solar arrays were humming along merrily in the beautiful warm sunshine. The dogs were ecstatic: Zane had the zoomies up and down the driveway and found his toys that had been buried under the snow all winter. The grass is emerald green and the cistern is full. We are excited to get going on this year’s projects: getting the water systems finished and having hot running water again!