Texas, here at last!!!

Houston, we have landed. Oops, make that Austin. It is so nice to be here. What a pleasure to put on a short sleeve shirt and have that be enough. Fort Davis was incredibly beautiful. It was as if we were in a landscape painting. It's at about 5000 ft and very much like the Santa Ynez mountains, with lots of oaks and grassland. We went to a star party at the McDonald Observatory and were able to star gaze through five different telescopes, plus get a lesson on what's happening in the universe. It's so hard to take in...... The Davis Mountain State Park has a really nice camp ground. We were almost hoping to get snowed in, but left just before the storm. From there we went to Fredericksburg, TX. It's a very quaint, tidy German community with lots of good biking. They also have the largest wild flower seed farm in the U.S. This is where the bluebonnets go berserk. It's still winter here however, so we had to imagine it. On to Austin where our friends Chrissie and Jim Forbes have made their home. We got here just in time to head out to the Broken Spoke, for some bbq and Country music. We plan on being here for the next month and with all the things we have ( or get lucky enough) to do, it might not be enough time! So far we've been sailing, biking, walking the hills, eating barbeque, going to the movies where they serve food and drinks to your seat, dancing, going to the Lady Bird Johnson Center, visiting with friends, and hey, just enjoying being deep in the heart of Texas......

So Fast and yet So Slow

Stan and I just had a wonderful week in Las Cruces,NM. Really, I think this was one of my best fits so far. We stayed in a great mom and pop rv park, right on the edge of Old Town Mesilla. We could walk or bike to everything. A good coffee house, a good Mexican restaurant, good company, what more could you ask for??? They grow pecans and pistachios here and we just happened to hit harvest season for the pecans. While riding bikes through the orchards we came across the harvest. Quite a sight, seeing the machine shaking the tree and having it rain pecans all over the place, then seeing the next machine come along and make them all into wind rows, then the next one come along and seperate the nuts from the leaves and branches. Needless to say, I found a ranch that sold all kinds of pecan products and had a major tasting session.

The beginning and end of our week had to do with very different types of air travel. At the beginning of the week, Stan and I went to White Sands National Monument. It's a fantastic sight. Acres of white sand dunes that you can walk through and easily get lost if not for the orange tipped markers that have to be moved frequently, due to the shifting sands. Pure white sand and deep blue skies...... so beautiful. Anyway, to get there you go through White Sands Missile Range. So we're toolinng down the highway when we came to a blockade and find that the road is closed for the next half hour. Why? They're testing some rockets about a quarter mile to the side of the road. We lined up with all the other cars and semis and got out our binoculars and watched while they fired off these rockets, three in a row!! I've never seen some thing move so quickly. It felt really strange to be able to witness that from such a close vantage point. Then we all got in our cars and left.

The last day we were there was the balloon festival. We got up and went out to this field on the north end of town. It was a very cold early morning, but there was a major balloom setup going on. We were able to walk around and watch all the balloons get laid out and set up. I couldn't believe how we could just walk up and put our hands on the baskets and be right on top of things. There must have been a hundred balloons there. It's incredible to watch them fill up with air and start to stand up and take shape, all crowded together. The colors were absolutely brilliant! They started taking off within about 10 seconds of each other, just drifting up into the sky and out over Las Cruces. As we were driving back to the park, Stan and I saw a balloon set down in a restaurant parking lot, change passengers and take off again.

So fast and yet so slow.....

How to Fix a Printer

So your printer isn't working... Instead of going out and buying a new one right off the bat, here is a suggestion:
Put your printer in a 5th wheel. Take it for a really rough ride. Upon entering said 5th wheel and finding your printer on the floor, upside down with the lid off, decide to give it one more try. Snap the lid back on, plug it in, and VOILA!!! It just might work. I'm happy to say that's what happened to us. Back in business for the time being......

Chile Time

After our fill of cold weather, including snowshoeing our property in Angel Fire,NM, Stan and I have moved farther south in New Mexico to Silver City. It is a good sized town that sits on the southern edge of the Gila National Forest. We plan to spend a week here, biking and hiking the area and checking it all out. At first glance, it appears to be a really cool town. We are at about 6000 feet here so it is still cold at night but the day time temps are in the low 50s so that is a welcome change. The highlight of our trip today was a stop in Hatch, home of the hatch chile. This is Stan's favorite chile in the world so he was in Heaven. We stopped and had lunch in a little cafe. I swear we were breathing fire when we left town.!!! When we got here we settled in to our site at the Rose Valley RV Park and walked over to the local market. While perusing the salsa isle for (naturally) Hatch chiles, we were amazed to see an array of Santa Barbara Salsas. You can't leave home without it. Stan did find some verde chile cerverza, which he is currently enjoying while he fires the bbq. Happy January 5th everybody!