Closing out 2023 (01-20-24)

 The months of October, November and December flew by in a blur.  We had to make several trips back and forth from Arizona to El Paso, as Paul’s mom was declining rapidly.

On the way to and from we broke up the long drive by stopping to do some hiking and visit friends.

Our friends Tom and Dianne live about halfway, so we usually stopped to visit with them. On one visit we explored Ramsey Canyon Preserve, where we spent an enjoyable few hours hiking and watching the hummingbirds.

On one of our visits we got out the black light and went hunting for scorpions- and even found a couple! For those who don’t know, scorpions light up at night under a black light.

Thanksgiving was also spent at Tom and Dianne’s, on our way to El Paso.

After a few days with his mom after Thanksgiving , we backtracked and headed to Los Angeles to see our daughter Jess. We had booked a spot at a county park on the beach, one of my favorite places to stay.

I miss living near the ocean, and as soon as we arrived I went for a walk- as my daughter, the stalker, figured out haha.

Originally our trip was planned because Jess bought tickets for her and I to see a live show of Mamma Mia at the historic Pantages Theater. The show was awesome!

As it turned out, it happened to coincide with Jess and Justin’s move into their new apartment. They had hired movers, but it was still great that we were able to be there and help them organize and get settled in.

Once we left Los Angeles, we took a deep breath, enjoying the ambiance of Lake Havasu. It wasn’t long though, before we felt we needed to be in El Paso.

We knew this was likely to be our last trip, and we were not wrong.  On December 16, about a week after we arrived in El Paso, Gerry Porter, Paul’s mom,  passed away.

She had an incredible 93 year run, and just months before her passing, was enjoying life, and playing bingo-her favorite thing to do . We were very glad we were able to be there for her.

Taking care of everything that needed to be done didn’t take as long as we thought it might, and we made it home just in time for Christmas. It’s always nice to see London Bridge all decked out.

 Our friends Brad and Marilyn were there ahead of us, and Liz and Randy arrived before New Years. It was a quiet year, but we still had fun!

Cloudcroft NM (10/10/23)

 Who knew that a mere 2 hour drive from the sweltering heat of El Paso (95*) lies the small town of Cloudcroft, with daytime temperatures topping out in the low 70s?  Once we felt Gerry was stable enough, we elected to head to the higher elevations to do some hiking.

First up on the hiking agenda was the 2.5 mile long Osha Loop. There was nothing particularly exciting or memorable about this hike, although the company we had along the trail made it mildly interesting. In fact, each hike we did this week included some kind of wildlife encounter.

Next up was the 3 mile Zinker Canyon Trail.  The reviews of this trail said it was boring, but we really enjoyed it. It meandered through several meadows, interspersed with sections of forest.

We didn’t see any live wildlife on this trail, but we did see a group of feral horses on the way to it. They were gorgeous.

Since the first two hikes were short, we elected to hike a third day in a row- the 3.5 mile Cathey Canyon trail. This trail had a couple of viewpoints we could stop at to see Tularosa Valley and White Sands National Park.

Needing a day off, we spent the following day lazing around the campground.  It was so odd that it was so much colder here. In fact, it was too cold to sit outside without the firepit going, but it felt great!

Well rested, our final hike was a bit longer than the others. We chose an “out and back” hike because there is a lot of elevation gain on the trail and we wanted to be able to turn around. Our wildlife encounter on this hike was a hawk, who seemed to be watching us …..like a hawk, haha.

This trail also had several pretty meadows- a little disappointing because, I don’t know, If I were an elk, this is where I would be hanging out but there were none to be seen.

So, after 9 miles and 1400 ft of gain, we were satisfied that we deserved to be tired. Although each trail had some things of interest to see, the trails themselves tended to be frustrating. A good portion of the trails are rocky- really rocky. And this type of rock is really hard to walk on for a long distance.

Our last day was spent at Sunspot Solar Observatory. We had stopped in at the observatory a few days before, and decided it warranted more time so we left without checking it out.

The observatory houses the Richard Dunn Telescope, which studies the sun. This particular week they have a special project going on- this is one of several telescopes contracted by NASA to observe the Parker Solar Probe.  The probe  was launched in 2018 with a mission to get as close to the sun as possible and nothing has ever gotten this close before. In fact, the analogy they use is a football field.  If Earth is at one end zone and the sun is at the other, the Parker Probe is at the 4 yard line (3.83 million miles, lol), in the suns territory. The second closest probe only got to the 30 yard line, so, impressive advances have been made.

It’s too hot to have a camera mounted on the probe, so this is where the telescopes come in. Each telescope is focused on the area where the probe is, and are gathering information and photographs.  One of the goal, one that has been being worked on since the end of World War II, is to try and learn how to predict sunspots.

Tours  are available during short periods, several times a week. We knew when to show up, so we got to take the tour.

The telescope itself stands 138 feet tall- but that is less than half of it’s height. It continues an impressive 193 feet underground as well. State of the art when it was built in 1969, there have been many more advanced telescopes built since then. What this particular one offers though, is old school technology, keeping it very user friendly. Scientists and students come here from all over the world to test their equipment and ideas.

Keeping the telescope in focus is the job of the observation floor.  The platform floats on 120 gallons of liquid mercury. Most adjustments of the floor are barely noticeable, and when major movements are required, an alarm sounds ahead of time.

After a week, we headed back to El Paso. Soon after we arrived, we had a hail storm with the biggest hail I have ever seen.

Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue stopped by for a couple of days on their way to Big Bend National Park- always a fun time with them.

While they were here we were treated to a spectacular sunset: