Diane and I chase Spring and Fall. That’s basically our travel planning in a nutshell. It it gets too hot or too cold, we alter our altitude and camping. At the end of October the real chill of winter is settling in around the mountains and the high desert. We’ve been dropping south through New Mexico as the weather and time dictates through the mountains of the north, to Taos Pueblo and the Canyon of the northern Rio Grande, through Santa Fe, and finally south to Albuquerque. They call this land enchanting and it certainly is that. El Vado lake state park, when we visited, was very lonely and quiet. It was a great contemplative time for us. Once again, we fed wild birds, chicadees, out of our hands. We hiked after a fresh rain and spotted as multitude of tracks and scat, including Puma. The lake itself, however, is almost dried up. The recent years of drought have taken their toll here. I would estimate the lake to be 30 feet low and about 1/3 its normal size. This area is near Chama and the fantastic railroad line that runs from here to Colorado.
We dropped down south from here to Taos, staying in the National monument campgrounds of the Northern Rio Grande Canyon National Monument. This area is a fantastic contrast between the water of the Rio Grande and the high desert that surrounds it. Here we hiked upwards through the canyon to the top and actually spotted Big Horn sheep grazing along the sides of the canyon walls. The weather, high 50’s, was perfect for hiking. Taos itself is an amazing enclave. Part Native American pueblo, part artist colony, part working community, it was a near constant time of discovery for us...seemingly around every turn. I almost prefer it to Santa Fe as a destination point in New Mexico.
Dropping further south to Santa Fe, we ended up high in the mountains surrounding the city along the way to the ski area at around 8000’. Most of the camp sites were closed due to the season, but we found this gem called Hyde State Park, with about 12-13 campsites. From here you can hike up in the mountains or drop down into the city within about 15 minutes. After several days here we moved to a beautiful, private RV park just south of town called, Santa Fe Skies RV Park. While we don’t stay in many private RV parks, this one was very nice. It was here, however, that our 18 year old Maxine passed away.
Maxine was a very special friend of mine. She was my hiking buddy. Through years of hiking on the weekends in Missouri and sometimes Arkansas, we had a way of communicating with each other in the woods. Most of the time this would not even involve words. A gesture, a nod, a look, and we knew what we were saying to each other. I could write a book about this girl, and I guarantee you every page would be interesting. I won’t do that here. Allow me to just say that when it was time for her to move on she did it with grace and dignity and I still feel the sense of loss. I believe in my heart that I will see her again.
After leaving Santa Fe, and all the joys of that unique spirit-city, we dropped south into Albuquerque to begin a period of meeting old friends, meeting new friends, visiting family, making our annual doctor visits, playing music with friends, and travel without our motor home. Tim and Laurie O’ Rourke live in Placitas just north of Albuquerque in the foothills of the Sandia. We spent some wonderful time there visiting with them and sharing old and new stories about our lives. Tim is a musician and songwriter like myself and we managed to do some jamming together in his self-made adobe home. Tim and Laurie carry a lot of spirituality with them. It is refreshing as well as fun to be in their company.
Albuquerque was a very good place for us to depart back to Missouri from. The RV, our home, had several issues that needed attention; attention I simply couldn’t give her due to my lack of experience with the issues. These problems had persisted even after hiring several mechanics on the road to address them. ONE IN PARTICULAR, in Pagosa Springs, actually caused more harm than good. I have to say here and now that in our experience, finding good mechanics on the road is a dicey game. We’ve had good and bad both. Reviews on line can be very helpful, but look for the mechanics that have a lot of reviews, not just a few. Ask the owners of RV Parks whom they’d recommend. Look at their facility. Does it look organized? Are they over-booked? Sometimes that will cause an otherwise good mechanic to take short-cuts. Research the issue on line as much as you can. Try to be somewhat educated on what your problem really is...the root cause so to speak...if possible. In Albuquerque we found a very good, honest repair facility that handled several problems for us on our RV. They were straight-forward, honest, and in the end very qualified to fix the problems. It was not cheap, but then, quality never is. This facility is an RV dealer called, Meyers RV. They are honest and good. Trust them if you need help in that part of the country. Meyers kept our RV for 6 weeks while we traveled back to Missouri. This gave them ample time to fit us in when it worked for them...they liked that. It gave us a place to not only get our repairs done, but a place to store the RV as well that was guarded and safe.
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While heading back to Missouri for Halloween to see our kids and grand kids, as well as spend the holidays there, we had an uneventful journey...with one exception. Starting about 40 miles west of Wichita, along the two lane highway we were traveling along, we began to see strings of red lights, which at first we thought were airport runway lights. However, they continued intermittently for 40 miles. This mystified us. What the heck were these red lights and ran through the prairie and sometime across the road? We never figured this out and even asked folks in Wichita what the heck they were. Apparently no one knows. There has to be an answer. For now, we chalk it up to an “ X-Files” experience.
Reaching Lees Summit back in Missouri we had the most wonderful time with our family there. We have found that when we do get back to spend time with our family it is high quality time. Since the times are rare for now, they are very special times. Our kids made us feel so very welcomed and extended really warm hospitality towards us. Of course, time with the grand kids was magical and we made the very best of it. Along the way were were able to spend Halloween, Thanksgiving, and an early Christmas celebration with them...each one magical and priceless.
Knowing I would be in Missouri for a prescribed period of time, my friends, musicians, invited me to play music with them at 4 concerts or venues. Two of these were Road Apple Reunion concerts. The Road Apples were a very popular band intermittently through the 70’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. These concerts were a reunion, not only of the band itself, but of the friends and supporters throughout the years. They were more reunions of old friends and musicians than they were simply a concert. One of the hardest things for me to give up from my past as it regards daily and week to week living, is playing music with my friends. So, when opportunities like these come up they take on a really special significance to me. We, my buddies and me, pick up the music as if we were together just yesterday. There are no politics, no egos, no self-centered motives, and almost no time awareness. We seem to suspend time and place and just...make music together.
Likewise, catching up with old friends seems to work the same way. Diane and I were so touched by the gracious hospitality of our friends during our return to St Louis. We needed places to stay during our visit and were prepared to stay in motels, feeling it would be a cost well worth investing in to see our friends again. Happily, we were invited to stay in some of our friend’s homes for days at a time. I know that this is can be a great imposition at times because you are really altering a person’s life style. That didn’t seem to matter to Suzie Capps, Diane’s sister and her husband Tom French, or Jan Engler. They took us in for extended stays and we were treated to warm, open hospitality by each of them. Hospitality is a Biblical teaching, both in the Old and New Testaments. “Taking in” friends and families...sometimes even strangers, is a practice that goes back to the dawn of civilizations. These friends of ours exemplified that tradition and good practice to the highest degree on our parts. We are forever grateful.
I should mention here that making new friends along the road is also one of the great joys of the “50 Amp Vision Quest”. The folks we have met and become friends with is a wonderful addition to our life experience. It’s as equally important as the the things you see see and do on your travels. I think of the Chavez family in Albuquerque who made us feel like family and treated us to dinner during our recent visit to Albuquerque. Tom and Beth Meyers of New Mexico come to mind as well, Tom being the renowned western artist and Beth the accomplished teacher and tutor. There are many more and the names are really unimportant in a communique such as this. It is a fact that bears repeating often that friends and family are all that you really own in life. Tangible and yet intangible, ethereal and yet concrete, it is with those with whom you share life that you become wealthy and carry gladness in your heart.