Getting ready to leave El Paso....!

We're getting ready to pack up and take off  for a little while.  Paul is finishing up some projects in his parents' house- he just installed a new dishwasher,  microwave and oven, and has a few smaller projects that he wants to finish before we leave on Saturday. 
I have been researching places to stay along the way to Las Vegas. We are somewhat limited by the time of year.  There are several places we would love to visit, but its too cold/snowy right now. We are going to try to go to Chiricahua National Monument in AZ for a few days, and then spend a couple of days in Usery Mountain Park, near Phoenix. I am anxious to get some hiking in, so thats what we are focusing on.
Once we arrive in Las Vegas, we'll have one day to set up before the kids fly in! 
Our overall plan keeps changing and evolving. Originally we were going to keep going for a while once we left for Vegas, but now we are turning back and coming back to El Paso for a while, to help Paul's mom take care of some things.
Hopefully we'll  find some things of interest to write about once we are travelling!

General blurb for anyone who hasn't read previous posts....

Paul and I are in El Paso with his parents. On November 30th Paul's father fell through the floor in the attic. He has no broken bones, but is currently still unconscious. We are traveling on a limited basis and will stay in El Paso between trips.

view from the backyard this afternoon

Happy Birthday!

To the Best Husband Ever!

Backyard hiking, El Paso, TX

This afternoon the weather was really quite nice, so Paul and I decided to go hiking in the "backyard".
This picture is the view from his parents backyard.  Their property backs up to the Franklin Mountains of Franklin State Park. We took off, walked uphill for about an hour, until it got too steep to really keep going(there are no trails to speak of  back there), then we headed back down the mountain.....a relaxing afternoon.

I guess in general, all is quiet on the western front, as they say.  I just looked at my last post and I can't believe its been that long since I posted.  Life has sort of been quiet since then.
I took a 4 day trip to go see my daughter Jess in Muncie, IN.  I flew out spur of the moment, last Thursday,  and came back Monday night.  She's been feeling a little down lately so we thought it would be nice to have a girls weekend.  No Girls weekend is complete without a hot tub... but of course the hotel that I booked neglected to mention that their hot tub is not working, so after spending 2 nights there, we moved to a hotel with a working hot tub! We did have a relaxing time, and I got to spend some time with her boyfriend David, so it was nice to get to know him a little better.
I have decided that Southwest Airlines is my new favorite airline.  Not that I fly that much right now, but its been easy to book flights for the kids, knowing that if I need to change the dates, I won't have to pay a change fee. That's pretty cool!
Actually, Paul was nice,going for a hike with me  since he was probably itching to start on his truck project.  For his Christmas present he ordered a new Pioneer radio with GPS for the truck.  All the pieces finally arrived today, so I am sure he is anxious to get it installed.  Hopefully he'll get it done tomorrow, and we can test it out, although he also ordered a new oven and dishwasher for his parents, and the oven arrives in the morning, so he'll probably spend a good part of the day getting that installed too.  He is quite busy right about now.  Meantime, I am planning our trip to Vegas, trying to find a route that won't take us through snow.
I want to spend a few nights on the way there on "BLM" land.  BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management.  Basically its land owned by the federal government.  You can camp there for free in your RV, and we've never done it before, so I'd like to do it for  a night or so.  There is no hook-up (electric, sewer and water) so we have to use the generator if we want to use appliances etc.  Its called "boondocking" since you usually do it in the "boonies".

Albuquerque, NM

On February 5, 2000, Paul and I were married, with my daughter Jessica (age 9) as my maid of honor, and my son Stephen (age 13) as Paul's best man.  The years since then have been the best years of my life. I gained a best friend, and my kids gained a dad. 
This trip to Albuquerque New Mexico was our anniversary trip.  Since the Everest is still in the shop, we borrowed Paul's dad's Jaguar and traveled in style.  We left on Thursday the 4th, and meandered up the highway.  Its about a 4 hour drive to get there, but of course we stopped along the way, so it took much longer than that.  We veered off a little and landed in the town of Truth or Consequences.
         Naturally, my first thought after hearing the name of the town was "you're kidding....was the town named after the show, or the show named after the town?"  Answer:  The town was named after the show.
In 1950, the show Truth or Consequences had been on the radio for 10 years and they were looking for a unique way to celebrate their anniversary.  The decision was made to look for a town that would be willing to change its name to Truth or Consequences, and then the anniversary broadcast would take place from that town.  Quite a few towns actually put their names in the hat, but the chosen town was Hot Springs, New Mexico, which was very well known by that time for their.....hot springs.  Apparently some of the townspeople (according to one we spoke with) were afraid that the current drought would continue and the springs would dry up, so they were looking for another claim to fame. A vote was quickly taken and by a margin of 4 to 1 the townspeople agreed to change the name. The next day, the Anniversary Show was broadcast from the new Truth or Consequences.
     After checking out the local museum and having our first "Chile Cheeseburger" we continued on to Albuquerque. By now Paul was very excited.  This is Chile country- everywhere you look you see Chiles growing or being sold.  (Paul loves both Mexican food, and  Hatch Chiles, and goes out of his way to find them for when he cooks Mexican food. ) They say that if you dine out in Albuquerque you will invariably be asked "Green or Red?"  The adventurous answer is "Christmas" which tells the server that you would like both green and red chile sauce on your food.
    The main reason for our visit to Albuquerque was really to put Paul's  memories to the test.  He has been telling me for years that Albuquerque has the best  (New) Mexican food and sopapaillas.  Every time we have sopapaillas, he compares them to the ones he has had in Albuquerque, and they always come up short of the mark. This was his opportunity to prove it to me!
After checking into our hotel, we called Teresa, a friend of Paul's, and made plans to meet her at a local restaurant for dinner. La Hacienda definately had the best Margaritas of the trip, and the food was good too.
I laughed when the waitress asked Teresa if she wanted green or red, and Teresa replied "Christmas".  I guess they really do use that terminology!  We sat in the restaurant for hours eating and talking.  Sadly, we did note that we were the only people in the restaurant the entire time.  We discovered over the next two days that the town is indeed THAT quiet at this time of year.
      Back at the hotel we headed for the hot tub after checking it out and finding it empty.  By the time we got back to it there was another couple there, and we had a great time talking to them. They are both young (24-25) journalists from Vermont.  We had lively discusssions about politics and places we've visited.
Friday, our actual anniversary, we decided to walk to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in the morning, and then head to Old Town for lunch and shopping in the afternoon. Actually, once we parked the car at the hotel, we didn't drive again until we left to come home. Everything was reasonably close and  it just made life simpler to walk. Anyway, the museum was ok, nothing fascinating, but still, interesting information. After a few hours of that, we started strolling through Old Town.  We had lunch at one of the top rated restaurants in town, (Church Street Cafe) but since we tried to keep it light, it wasn't much of a test of the food.  The Sopapaillas, however, were the best I have ever had.  At that point, Paul started saying "see??"
       We spent hours walking and shopping and talking.  We talked to the owners of many of the stores.  Many times we were the only ones on the street, as well as the only people in the store. I guess everyone was pretty lonely because we'd strike up a conversation and it would go on for quite a while.  It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and the only thing we bought all day was a vase for the trailer.

Our original idea was to go back and change into "nicer" clothes, but at 6:00 we decided that we had no reason to bother doing that, since no one was there to care what we wore.  We went straight out to dinner from there, then headed back to the hotel bar where we had another Margarita.  We had brought Champagne with us, but since its not our favorite drink, we still have it.

       This morning we managed to sneak in one more meal in Albuquerque at another top rated restaurant(Monica's El Portal).  The food was really good, and yes, the sopapaillas were as good as the ones we had yesterday.  I really wanted to order more, but I managed to refrain. Time to head back after that, but instead of the main highway, we took the scenic road, through a very rural part of New Mexico.  Good thing we didn't need gas (didn't see a station for about 100 miles) and weren't hungry. We would have loved to have seen more wildlife, but we did at least have two semi-close encounters.  A bobcat ran out into the road, turned and saw us quickly approaching, started to turn back, then finally crossed the street in front of us. We were close enough to get a pretty good look at him, but not so close that we left tire marks on the road.

Later on a coyote ran out in front of us as well, but we were much further away from him.  We saw a lot of hawks, but no eagles- that would have been awesome!
        Back in El Paso again, Paul has a short list of repairs that need to be done to his parents house, and we'll get as much done as we can before we leave again for a while  in March.

General blurb for anyone who hasn't read previous posts....

 Paul and I are in El Paso with his parents. On November 30th Paul's father fell through the floor in the attic. He has no broken bones, but is currently still unconscious. We are traveling on a limited basis and will stay in El Paso between trips.