THE WILDFLOWERS IN THE MEADOW - MORE NEW MEXICO CAMPING

So, back to the New Mexico camping trip in the cool, crisp, beautiful mountains.  The trip that got me hooked.

This will be the photos from the morning I rose before sunrise and hiked through the field, taking picture after picture of the wildflowers growing out there.  

The first picture is where I left Susan at sunrise.

Rise and shine!!  Sunrise!!

 It was so amazing to have the time to walk around with no other responsibilities than to make the wildflowers pose for the camera.  Thank you Mommy Nature!

THE TALE OF TWO CHIPMUNKS

One morning Susan and I were sitting in front of the fire, trying to wake up, when I heard a rustling noise on the picnic table.  My mind immediately knew what was happening, as I had been snacking on some sunflower seeds earlier over there on the table, but it took my body a few seconds to respond...Chip and Dale had discovered the bag of sunflower seeds.  You know how thick a Baggie is, the material almost palpably thick in comparison to say, an off-label Baggie Imitation.  But on the table I found MegaMunk.  Honestly, this was the largest chipmunk I had ever seen in my life, and he had bitten right into the Baggie and was helping himself to our protein.  

This was MegaMunk thinking he was hiding like his much smaller friends could, under the Camp Truck.

Here MegaMunk was trying to hide behind the bag of sunflower seeds, peeking over to make sure we didn't see him there making a total pig of himself.

On the lookout to make sure no rival munks were going to show up to try to steal his stash.  His jaws were getting bigger and bigger.

Having to actually rest his head on the bag while guarding the sunflower jubilee stash.

"I think I detect trouble!"

"He wouldn't DARE come over here...would he?"

"Okay, you can have ONE, got it??  You can have...okay, maybe TWO, but anymore than THREE and I'm chasing your ass off...are you paying attention to me??"

"I warned you!  Scat!  Get out of here you sunflower seed thief!  You better run from big, bad ME!"

Peace is restored when MegaMunk's cheeks get so full that he cannot balance himself to get off the table, and little Dale, here, finally gets his turn at the seed bag.

 There are several more chipmunk tales and photos to go along with them, but I think you all get the idea...hey, what else did I have to do, right?  Sitting around taking pictures of the wildlife, curling up in my sleeping bag at 4 in the afternoon to read a book, taking walks around the lake.  It was really a tough job, but someone had to take the assignment on, and I sacrificed myself!  

Have an awesome Friday!

MY TRIP TO NEW MEXICO - MONDAY

At 5:00 a.m. on Monday, I left my comfy king bed behind and hit the road, hoping that this would be the day I would honestly manage to GET to Albuquerque to embark on my Great Adventure with Susan, a much-needed, much-planned trek to 8000 feet to Jemez Falls campground, where the deer, the elk, and the bears play.  

At the airport in Louisville, I questioned the Southwest ticket agent:  "What the heck happened on Saturday that kept me from getting into the cool mountains of New Mexico??"  He said, "A teacher's convention.  Fifty-six-hundred educators were all trying to get out of this city and go home."

Well, with that explained, I dropped my suitcase and confidently hiked to the security line.  Once there, of course, there was the shoe-removal, makeup-in-a-Baggie removal, computer removal, Kindle removal, and jacket removal, which I am very unorganized with, plus I sweat with all the exertion with the humidity what it is here.  It takes me about ten minutes to organize everything into the bins, four seconds to walk through the screener, and ten minutes to reorganize everything back onto my person.  

With my Buddy Pass in hand, I approached the gait and learned that I actually had a seat on that first flight out.  Giddy with excitement, I settled in between the two people who were forced by process of elimination to put up with me for the next 3-1/2 hours as we zipped at 460 miles per hour toward my first stop, Phoenix, where my cousin was going to meet me for breakfast in the airport.  

The flight seemed fairly short, no dramatic things happened, and within a mere few hours I was hugging Tracy and  we were polishing off pastries and coffee.  I am not sure when it actually crept into my brain that I was going to have to redo the security process.  It seems ridiculous to say it was worth it, because of course it was, but as I held up the line unloading my computer, removing shoes, removing liquids-in-a-Baggie, etc., etc., etc., I seriously doubt that anyone else in the line behind me would have considered anything worth what I was putting them through.  

It almost seemed ridiculous to have to get on another plane for the little forty-five-minute hop to Albuquerque, and it seemed even more ridiculous that the fight attendants had to take drink orders for 200 passengers and try to work in a full service in that period of time, but in no time flat, I was hugging Susan, next, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and after some hugging, jumping up and down, retrieving my suitcase, we were soon on our way, in her well-stocked Camping Truck.  It was almost impossible to squeeze in the little amount of stuff I brought with me because in one month, Susan had turned into a camping monster and had everything from a tent ("Vacation Lodge"), a HUGE tent she had never tried to put up before, to a portable picnic table, and I jumped behind the wheel and we left the city behind and were giddy with the lack of oxygen at 8000 feet.  

Soon, we found the visitor's center for the Jemez Reservation, and made a stop in there for our final "real" bathroom break for the next three days, and to find a map. 

This is the visitor's center and a kiva out back of the visitor's center:

Not sure what this was for, and didn't really ask.

Look at that beautiful sky and enjoy it because it was pretty much the last of the blue we saw on the trip.

 The drive up to our campground seemed to fly by.  I have not seen such beautiful scenery in a long time, and the winding road up the side of the mountain commanded pretty much all of my attention. 

One of the little villages we passed through had this gorgeous church sitting right on the road, and after a terrifying, death-defying moment when, regardless of the steep fall into a ravine on both sides of us, making a quick stop, checking the rearview mirror and seeing nobody behind me, and pulling into a little indentation on the road, doing a U-turn and returning to the church, I took this gorgeous picture:

How would you like to sit in church on Sunday morning and see this work of God?

On we drove, seeing more beauty than you could imagine.  If I had stopped for a picture at every place I wanted, we would still be driving to the campground.  


The next touristy stop we made was a place called Soda Falls.  People go there to swim under the falls on hot days, and it was tempting, but trying to hurdle the guardrail and roll down the rocky hill to get there just was not going to happen.  It became more appealing to just watch others enjoy their little dip.

All this beauty, even this skull-like cave dwelling cliff wall, was carved from volcanoes.

On we drove, higher into the Jemez Mountains, anticipating raising our Vacation Lodge mega-tent, starting a fire, and watching the stars pop out one by one on a clear, quiet, oxygen-deprived night, kicking back, popping open the Bud Lights with Lime, cooking a couple of hot dogs, crawling into sleeping bags and reading until falling asleep, no worries, no troubles. 

Susan said, "Mick, it's just around this curve!!"  And we giggled in anticipation, pulled in and got our first view...

S

Stop us?  Deter us?  Never! 

Stay tuned for what happened next!