Filling in the blanks

It looks like I did a decent job of covering the trip out and back so all that is left is to cover is our time in New Mexico and Arizona.

We arrived at my Dad’s place mid-afternoon on Thursday after a nice night in Tucumcari on Wednesday.  We surprised my step mom since she thought we would call closer to our arrival time. (I think I said I was going to, but forgot)  Dad was out and about doing some errands. There was an immediate dog encounter when Maggie and Clara(and Seymour) came bursting out to see who the visitors were.  I was a bit concerned when I saw that Sadie was acting somewhat timid as Maggie and Clara gave her the sniff test.  That concern did not last long as within 5 minutes Sadie was running around chasing and being chased by Clara. Seymour, the lovable basset hound that spends more time at my dad’s place than his home was there as well.  He loved Sadie as well, in fact later in the evening he tried to mount her face. 

Teresa filled us in on the latest and greatest around the homestead.  As I looked around all of the changes/improvements that were done since our last visit were very apparent.  They have spent a ton of money and effort making the house more the way they like.  Ironically, they will be moving back to Pennsylvania over the next two weeks.  Yep, they have sold the house and are going to be living at the townhouse in Flying Hills for awhile until their next move is determined.  Dad has been in the middle of a very ugly property line dispute with a borderline crazy 80 year old woman. That dispute along with the reality of living in such an isolated area on a huge property that requires tons of maintenance pushed them over the edge.

So anyway we caught Dad and Teresa up on our trip thus far.  We presented Teresa with the lone survivor from our garden, a spaghetti squash.  We had pulled a couple eggplant and another squash from our garden originally for the trip but had to throw them out after we found the bag they were in was soaked with some sort of fluid.  Teresa, who is an excellent cook, immediately put the squash to use in the meal that night which was excellent.

Even though the temps were in the low 80’s during the day, the low humidity and adobe construction of their house kept things relatively cool inside.  It was cool enough that we decided to just leave the windows open during the night.  We woke up the next morning FREEZING.  The temps had dropped into the lower 50’s overnight and we had the window wide open.  Neither of us had packed any warm clothes (since it is June) so I walked the dogs while wrapped up in a blanket.  Don’t get me wrong, the cool crisp air felt nice, I just wasn’t prepared for it.

On Friday morning my dad suggested we take the dogs to the Happy Belly Deli in TRC.  They welcome dogs in their outside dining area and even will make up a puppy plate breakfast for them.  We all piled into the van since it was the only vehicle on the premises able to handle four adults and four dogs.  We had a great time there and the dogs all gobbled down their puppy plates immediately. 

While I was there Todd called me on my cell phone.  Originally the plan was for my niece and he to drive from my sister’s place in Arizona to my dad’s place for a couple days and then drive with us back to Arizona on Monday.  However when he found out it was a roughly a six hour drive each way he thought better of it.  My niece is not exactly easy to keep entertained.

The rest of Friday was pretty laid back.  I spent some time ripping the van apart.  The problem with the air flow randomly switching by itself had gotten worse as the trip wore on and was to the point it was coming out of the defroster more than the vents.  Luckily I keep a Chilton’s manual in the van at all times.  Unfortunately the manual didn’t help me very much with diagnosing the problem.  I got as far as pulling the instrument panel face off and getting the HVAC controls loose but could not see anything obviously wrong although I got an education on how HVAC vents are controlled via vacuum lines. Dad came out and was looking at it with me as well.  Well I figured I would just have to deal with it and put it back together.  When I put it back together the air flow seemed to be permanently coming out of the defroster regardless of the selection. Eh whatever, I had enough of f’ing with it.

During the day on Friday we noticed Sadie developed a limp on her back left leg.  When Ali took a closer look she saw that her foot pad had a huge rip in it, presumably from all the sprinting around she was doing on the rocky terrain.  We weren’t really sure what to do about it so Ali called our vet’s office.  Their advice was to try to keep it as clean as possible and keep her off of it as much as we could.  Yea right, Sadie was all about constant play with the other dogs.  Ali and I tried a couple solutions before coming up with one that sorta of worked.  We soaked the paw in epsom salts to try to clean it out.  Then Ali gooped on some neosporin and covered the area with a gauze pad.  I then wrapped the paw and leg with rubberized ace bandage type material.  We covered the wrap with a small child’s sock that we bought at Wal-Mart and then taped the top of the sock.    Although it looked pretty ridiculous it seemed to a decent job of protecting the area.  Sadie wasn’t thrilled wearing her sock but surprisingly she left it on.  The make shift first aid seemed to work pretty well.  By the end of each day the sock was worn out but I think it allowed healing to happen faster.  Now the pad is almost completely healed.

On Friday evening Teresa made another meal, a huge salad made almost entirely of stuff grown in her immense garden.  It was another great meal.  After dinner we sat down and watched The Wrestler on Directv PPV.  Yea I already saw it but dad didn’t.  The movie was good enough that I had no problems watching it a second time.  That night we were smart and didn’t leave the windows open quite as wide.

On Saturday dad wanted to take Ali, the dogs and myself “up the canyon”.  Going up the canyon meant climbing into their 4 wheel drive Nissan and navigating a route that consists of rocks, dirt and water, very slowly.  The drive was extremely scenic if not a bit dangerous.  We drove across running water at least 30 times.  Several times I thought about how miserable it would be if we got a flat tire in the middle of one of the streams.

At one point we were stopped by some cattle in the middle of the road.  They had no interest in moving until the dogs stuck their heads out the windows and barked at them.  We also saw some cool looking mule deer along the route.  Because of the terrain and the infinite amount of things to look at the climb out of the canyon took almost a full two hours.

When we popped out of the narrow opening at the top we parked the Nissan and hiked up to a nearby hot spring.  Nicki, who normally avoids water like battery acid had a complete change of heart.  She happily delved into the various streams in the area.  In fact she seemed to prefer to walk in the water as opposed to dry land.  It was very funny to observe.  Unfortunately because of her bad paw, we left Sadie back at the house with my step mom.

After an enjoyable hike up to the spring and waiting for dad to finish shooting the shit with some guy that was also in the area, he took us onto the next leg of the journey.  He wanted to show us the nearby towns of Winston and Chloride. Monticello/Placitas, where my dad lives is pretty remote and desolate as is.  Winston and Chloride turn the desolation knob up a few clicks. We stopped at Winston to “eat lunch” at the general store.  Well it’s the only store.  There wasn’t much there and I wound up walking out with two ice cream sandwiches and a bag of pretzels for Ali and I to split, yum.

Both of these old towns featured lots of properties that looked far too run down to be inhabited, yet they were.  The typical yard was filled with piles of junk everywhere.  I laughed at the one place that had an old toilet out front with flowers planted in it.  We got to see the “hanging tree” in Chloride.  Legend says that it was the tree that was used to lynch people in the old days, cheap entertainment I suppose.

Well by the time we got done seeing Winston and Chloride we had been in the car a good 4 hours plus.  Ali and I had our fill of seeing run down western towns and were ready to head back.  I had two wet feet from trudging through streams that added to the discomfort. Unfortunately nothing is very close together in SW New Mexico.  The ride back took at least an hour if not longer as dad wanted to drive through yet another old shitty town named Cuchillo on the way. 

By the time we got back I was very tired.  I had not been sleeping great for most of the trip. I need some sort of white noise to sleep soundly.  Without it, every little noise wakes me up so I sleep very lightly.  There are a lot of little noises at nighttime out there.  Anyway I was so tired I actually laid down and closed my eyes for a bit, something I hardly ever will do. 

After my short nap I went back out to the van.  Earlier in the day I designed an air deflector out of cardboard.  The intention was to wedge this into the space between the top of the dash and the windshield and then bend the cardboard in such a way that the air would be directed more towards us and less towards the glass.  It sounded plausible in concept but in reality didn’t help much.

I decided to rip back into the dash and do some more work, looking for a way to rig the system to force the air to come out of the vents.  Like I said my Chilton manual wasn’t very helpful in doing this so I turned to the internet.  I read up on others that experienced similar problems.  I dug around the floor looking for access to something that controlled the vents.  I had the dash totally ripped apart but still could not find anything.  Frustrated I did another search and read something about an access panel on top of the dash.  I go out to the van and look.  Right under the radar detector I see an outline for the lid.  I never realized it was removable.  I pop it off and low and behold right underneath are the controls!  After some pushing and pulling on them I discovered which handle controlled which door.  I flipped a door and poof, air came out of the vents, perfect.

The door was attached to a small vacuum canister that normally controls vent operation when working properly.  Well I decided to disconnect it from the canister and wire it open so air can only come out of the vents and nowhere else.  I don’t recall ever needing it to come out anywhere else anyway.  During my investigation of the problem I discovered a second vacuum canister in the floor area of the passenger side near the heater core.  I noticed when I pushed down on the hinge that was attached to it the air flow increased significantly however I could not get the flow to achieve that rate using the controls for the HVAC.  Once again I decided to rig it.  I looked around at the various rocks on the ground and quickly found one that was just the right size.  I pulled down the hinge, wedged the rock in and presto, max airflow.  I can rig almost anything.  I proclaimed success to Ali and had her come out to see.  She was just happy to see the AC should work better, no matter how I did it.

During the afternoon we decided to venture out into the pasture to feed the horses some carrots.  The new owners advised us it would be best to do so when the horses were each in their own stall but instead we tried to  feed them in the open.  That was a mistake.  It didn’t take long before we were being crowded by 1000 pound animals that all were contending for carrots.  Ali was a bit scared by the frenzy and I think my dad was a bit as well.  In a couple minutes the carrots were all gone but the horses were looking for more.  They followed us all the way back to the main gate.  A couple of them were pretty friendly and let us pet them.  Some would jump the moment you raised your hand.    

On Saturday evening we went out to dinner with the people that are buying dad’s house.  It is a weird arrangement they have worked out.  Even though dad and my step mom still own the place the soon to be owners have already moved some of their things in, including 7 of their horses.  They also have been to the place nearly everyday tending to the horses and doing other things.  We had a nice dinner at an “authentic” Mexican restaurant in TRC.  After dinner we went to a place called the Pine Knot Saloon for a couple drinks and some rounds of pool.  It was early so we were practically the only people there.  As we were wrapping things up a bunch of “interesting” people walked in the door all carrying food, my favorite of which was a big chubby Mexican guy with a black “SCARFACE” t-shirt.

Sunday morning we woke up to an amazing thing, rain.  NM gets very little rain.  They have a short monsoon season followed by months and months of dry weather.  Monsoon season had not started yet.  It rained off and on for a good portion of the day.  That morning I got an idea in my head.  I wanted to go for a run.  Not just any run, a run to the top of the road leading into the canyon (the paved road not the trek we took across dirt and water)  I asked dad how far he thought it was, he guessed somewhere around 2 miles each way.  Ok that would work.

So I headed out into a light rain.  The rain brought along some very cool air as well as wind.  Adorned in just shorts and a t-shirt I was a bit cold in the beginning.  The run was quite different than anything I would experience in Florida with lots of small rises and falls along the way.  I was serenaded by cows, goats and dogs as I trotted by at a slow but steady pace.  I eventually got to the goal of the run, the BIG hill.  The hill leading down to Monticello is VERY steep.  Originally my intentions were to try to run the entire thing.  As I ran the smaller hills along the way and felt my endurance being limited by the higher altitudes I realized I was probably not going to be able to do the entire hill. Instead I would go as far as I could.

I started the ascent and immediately my legs started to drag and lungs started to burn.  I trudged along, using signs by the roads as visual short term goals.  I saw a speed limit sign that I was determined to make.  I made it, barely, however that sign was at most only a third of the way up the hill.  Oh well, I decided to walk the rest of the way up to the top as I slowly regained my breath.  When I was at the top I had an idea, I would spell out my name in the rocks.  It’s something I have done in the past on a couple occasions when I was in a remote area.  I didn’t fuss with it much, in a couple minutes I was able to create a rough looking “DUF” by a bush near the top of the hill.  I took a picture of it later.  I create these things with the idea that it could possibly remain intact for years to come, who knows.

After finishing my rock formation I walked to the bottom of the big hill, I didn’t want to pound on my knees by running that steep of an incline. Once I reached the bottom I resumed running although my body wasn’t too happy about it.  I made it back to the house wet, chilled, tired, but satisfied.

Later in the morning I helped dad with a small project where he wanted to put in a door threshold between two area in the enclosed out building.  I was impressed how we were able to make a viable, custom threshold out of what started as a regular piece of 2″x6″ using just a table saw and a hand planer.  It turned out pretty nice.

On Sunday Dad had a big party planned, sort of an “adios New Mexico” party where he invited various people that he had become friendly with over their 3 years in the area. During the day he and I did another run to Wal-Mart to pick up party supplies.  Dad used to abhor Wal-Mart and pretty much refused to shop in one.  However since the Wal-mart opened in TRC he has softened his position once he realized it was the only place he could get many items. I’m sure he still hates the idea of Wal-Mart but he will actually shop there without complaining which surprised me a bit.  We also made various stops along the way, the last of which was back to the Happy Belly Deli in order to pick up the food they prepared for his party.

One of the items was a big crock pot of green chili soup.  Well the pot was not sealed in any special way, it was just a big crock pot with a loose fitting lid.  It became my job to minimize the spillage of the soup on the way back to dad’s place.  This involved leaning over awkwardly during the entire half hour ride trying to balance the pot in a way to combat the g forces of turning and stopping.  We lost some soup along the way but the casualties were pretty minimal.  It wasn’t much fun from my perspective.

After we got back we were involved in a whirlwind of activity to help set up for the party.  As we were finishing up the first few people arrived.  We got to meet a lot of their neighbors and friends and had a good time just shooting the shit and drinking. Most of the time Ali and I were split up, talking to other people.  It seemed the general consensus was they were sad to see my dad and Teresa go, especially considering all they have done to the place.

There were some very interesting individuals there.  One of the cutest was a little 5 year old named Kim.  She had been riding horses since she was a baby.  Later as the party wound down her mom, dad and her went home to grab their horses and ride them back.  It was amazing watching the little girl manage to get up into the saddle of a full size horse all by herself.  Ali even got up on the back of one of them for a little while.

Pretty much everyone at the party seemed very friendly and refreshingly open.  Life in the canyon happens at a much slower and much simpler pace.  It’s reflected in the people that live there.  Their enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures is something I admired.  The party wound up after dark.  We cleaned up the stuff that needed to be addressed right away and left the rest for the next morning.  When I went to sleep that night I really took notice of the peaceful sounds that surrounded me as I drifted off.  New Mexico has a lot of headaches but there is a lot to like as well.  I realized I will miss this place.

Monday morning we got our stuff together at leisurely pace for our trip to see my sister in Arizona.  Before shoving off I set up my camera on the wall to take a group shot. We then said our goodbye’s and thanked them for their hospitality.  I told Dad he did a fantastic job with the place.  It really is a pretty amazing transformation from what we saw two years ago.  It may not be good bye for long though.  We talked about the possibility of coming up in the fall to PA to visit them there.

That’s enough for today.  I’ll cover the brief but memorable Arizona segment of the trip tomorrow.