I have some catching up to do on my blog. Something I've learned in the past weeks is
how the brain (or at least my brain) works.
I have learned on the road that I love writing. My favorite pastime is riding on the back of
the motorcycle, taking in the scenery and thinking about how I want to write
about it. Since May, when I found out
that my sister was sick, my brain took a whole different direction. Fear and concern took over the whole creative
side of my brain. Since she passed away we have felt such an outpouring of love
and I have been so very touched by all
the people who have asked me where my blog has been. So I’m not making excuses, just giving an
explanation and hopefully I can do some catch up now, because there is so much
that we have seen and done.
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| "The boys of Raton" |
Raton,New Mexico was another one of those places that we
were just supposed to stop over on the way to Colorado. We only booked a week there..but it was such
a great week, I thought it deserved its own story.
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| Return from the Oklahoma Highpoint |
Our main goal in stopping in Northern New Mexico was so that
Cliff could do the high point of Oklahoma.
Really, who knew that you could get to the high point of Oklahoma from
New Mexico? Another lesson in geography
learned. It was a great day – another one
for me to hang out in the truck and read and go for walks while Cliff went and
did the hard part. On the drive back to
New Mexico we had our first run in with Bighorn Sheep. Literally, almost a run in. We came around the corner and there they were
standing there in the middle of the road.
It took a couple of minutes for them to cross, but then we realized there
was one straggler who was either afraid or didn't think he could make it over
the fence to get across. All the others
stood and looked back at him, waiting patiently, while he thought about it and
made several attempts to do it. Having
no other choice, we waited patiently too.
By the time he did make it, we realized we were no longer impatient to
get going on our journey again…we were just genuinely happy for the poor sheep
and cheered him on as he ran in front of us to join the others. We all need a little encouragement to do things we are afraid of, right?
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| It was very cold on the top of the Volcano |
We got to explore another volcano while we were here. We could see it off in the distance whenever
we drove down the road.. and were really excited to find out that we could
climb to the top of it, and then climb down inside it. Again, one of those things I didn't know
about this land…that so much of it was formed from volcanoes. I never imagined that I would be able to
climb around on lava that had been formed millions of years ago. We met a great young couple there from
Canada. They had taken the summer off
from work and were motorcycle/tenting around the United States. And it turned out that they were also staying
in the same campground that we were, so we got to see them again
afterwards. The interesting thing for me
was to see this couple who had planned for so long and were making such a long
journey just to see the United States. I
feel like we are so fortunate to really be able to explore all of the things that brings
people from other countries here.
One of my favorite memories of our travels happened that
same day. It was very simple and may
seem silly but it brings a smile to my face every time I think of it. We were out geocaching, driving along a
fairly major road in the pickup truck.
Cliff saw a great opportunity for a picture and pulled off the side of
the road. Not being farmers, we didn't
realize that in these modern times, cattle out in the fields are fed by the
farmer driving his pickup truck out to them.
Unfortunately, they can’t differentiate between the sounds of the
trucks, and to them, the sound of a diesel engine means food is on it's way.
At first I said to Cliff –“ look at those cows looking at us”…and then…”listen
– all those cows are mooing at the same time”…and then… “Oh crap! They think we
are the farmer”. For as far as we could
see, there were cattle running from the fields, gathering right in front of us. Every size and shape cow you can imagine in
one deafening “mooing” chorus.
Fortunately, it was a major enough road that there was a fence between
them and us. I’m glad no one had a video
camera on us as we hightailed it out of there, but I must say, we felt bad that
we left behind so many very disappointed cattle.
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| The gorge |
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| Interrupting the Bighorn's lunch |
We took a drive to Taos, which most people have heard of
because it is a famous ski area. It was
a beautiful drive but when we got there it was quite busy and it was very
tricky trying to find parking for the pickup.
We tend to navigate to more remote areas so we kept driving a bit
farther out to Rio Grande Gorge State Park, which is just what it sounds
like. An incredible gorge with a long
bridge over it and walking trails around it.
There were a lot of people around doing the “touristy” stuff..the gift
shop and all the photo ops. We decided
to do some geocaching. What I love about
geocaching is it takes you to different, more remote areas that most people don’t
even know about. We did the walking
trail for a while, but there was a point where most people turned around and we
kept going. It was an amazing trail
along the rim of the gorge. After we
walked for a while I found a bench where I sat and just enjoyed the
scenery. Cliff went off to take some
pictures, and shortly I heard him quietly calling me and pointing just a short
distance away. Again…the Bighorn
sheep. A whole group of them just having
their lunch and taking naps within a stone’s throw of us. We have always been “wildlife” people and
grew up watching for deer, or Moose or any other big wildlife you might find in
the Northeast.. so having a group of Bighorn Sheep so close was like hitting
the jackpot.
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| The DJ doing his thing while we did our thing in the bar. |
As we usually do, we
had done some homework on what kind of interesting bars there might be in the
area. We found this awesome one that was
right in the middle of the local radio station.
As we, and bunches of other people sat around the bar enjoying
ourselves, on either side of us were DJ’s enclosed in soundproof booths, one doing
a talk show and the other one playing music.
I love it when business owners think of creative ways to get people into
their place – it was so much fun.
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| Raton from "The Hill" |
Mother’s Day fell while we were in Raton – and of course, it
was my preference to go to a local pub for dinner rather than a fancy
restaurant. OK., truth be told…there was
no fancy restaurant and there was only one pub, so that’s where we went. We met a couple of locals there who took us
in like they had known us forever. They
told us stories, introduced us to people, and it seemed like every time we went
back they were there waiting for us.
That probably has to do with the fact that they rarely left their bar
stool, but I like to think they were waiting for us. They told us about a road that only locals
know about, through a neighborhood and around the corner and up the back of “the
Hill”. It was the place where everyone
who ever lived there snuck up to with their girlfriend, or their six pack, or
whatever else they might sneak up there with.
We find, as we drive out west that the towns all have their name in big white letters at the highest point that you can see…much
like the Hollywood sign in California.
This was where their sign was. We
sat up there for the longest time looking out over the town, imagining the
stories that could be told by what people saw from that vantage point.
Naturally, being on
the road we sometimes get nostalgic for home…the familiar places and places
where we made memories together. When we
find a place like this, especially because the locals felt close enough to
share it with us…it makes missing home a little less lonely and makes us
realize that we can be at home wherever
we go.
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