And So We Depart...

It took a few trips, but we got everything back out to Auntie Violet and put away. Juni had had an early PT appointment and by the time she was back, we were finished. She brought home boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for our final sit down coffee on the back patio.

This is one of the many striped lizards that love the wall around the yard --

This is Izzy, a small bundle of Yorkie energy who will chase and catch balls as long as she can get someone to throw them.She's quickly figured out that with the new grabbers, we can reach the balls that roll under the table.

This is Cassie! She just turned a year old. Orphaned, Juni and Tom fed her every two hours around the clock. She's very spoiled and very charming.

This elegant lady is Tica. She's the matriarch who will occasionally chase a ball, but most times is found sitting demurely on someone's lap.
 

And these are our gracious hosts, Tom and Juni! We came to visit a couple of days with them and ended up spending almost two weeks, partly because of inclement weather, but mostly because we were having such a good time!

Forry and Tom got that tire with the slow unfindable leak aired up; we disconnected the electricity and hooked up Toad II. Finally we were on the road once more. We headed out on I-40, then cut off on Highway 25 to the other side of Albuquerque, then took Highway 550 north. This part of New Mexico has reservations of the Zuni, the Hopi, the Navajo and the Apaches. It's majestically beautiful.

The road climbs to over 7000 feet with an incredible variety of colors along the way --

We climbed high enough to begin to see Pinyon Pines along with the Juniper bushes and trees of the lower elevations.

You can see the effects of the last several years of drought. This whole area was much greener when we came through here two years ago.

White Mesa is not too far from this area. The white coloration becomes more prominent in the surrounding rocks, replacing the reds.

Forry fought a head wind and assorted cross winds most of the trip. As we got closer to Bloomfield where there is farm ground, it began to get pretty dusty. And cooler as well. It's already 48 degrees outside a little after nine pm.

We're settled in here at Desert Rose RV Park in Bloomfield and will most likely stay through Monday so that we can attend church with our friends.

Another Nasty, Snowy Day

It was quiet when we woke this morning and the sky was blue --

But by the time we were all ready to go, this is what the sky was looking like and we were getting skiffs of snow --

 My intrepid driver was heard muttering to himself --

I don't think he liked the patches of wet, white stuff appearing on the windshield --

We started seeing the beautiful rocks and color as we headed east on Interstate 40, but didn't think those patches of snow we started to see were very pretty.

It was getting downright nasty!

It seems like no matter when we come to New Mexico, we run into SNOW!

We stopped at the New Mexico Welcome Center to pick up a new state map and some brochures. Their flags were all at half-mast due to the Boston bombings...

We brought some of the snow with us, but by this time, we were out of the worst of it.

We had traveled through the Hopi Reservation and now were passing through the Navajo Reservation. This farmstead is typical of many we saw with a round hogan adjacent to one of the houses.

We actually made pretty good time and got into USA RV Park outside of Gallup a little after 2:30. Of course we are now on Mountain Daylight Time, so have essentially lost an hour. By the time we got the jack pads down and the power hooked up, I was chilled through. My body does not like going from the 90 degrees of Mesa to this cold! (As I write this at 9:30, it's already 33.5. It's gonna freeze tonight!)