<– Day 9 – Mon. Apr. 20th: Recovering from the Plague | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 11 & 12 – Wed. & Thurs Apr. 22nd & 23rd:  Road to Recovery –>

To whom should credit be given for that all-too-accurate phrase, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’? One need look no further than our bedroom to comprehend its accuracy. To wit, my wonderful wife who cared for me during my darkest hours with the plague has now succumbed to its wretched claws. Now she suffers the coughs, the chills, and all manner of inhumane indignities brought on by the horrid influenza. Tissues (with aloe) shall become her solace as she extricates the worst of dregs, nasally, from her being.

On a sunnier note, as of this evening I have shaken the devil from me. No chills, no fever, no sweating, and no more tissues!! It is no less a miracle than Jesus with Lazarus. I am reborn!

So, yes dear readers, we remain in quarantine for a couple more days. We are now a month behind my initial schedule. Fortunately, schedules matter naught to us!

Sunset in Tularosa

<– Day 9 – Mon. Apr. 20th: Recovering from the Plague | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 11 & 12 – Wed. & Thurs Apr. 22nd & 23rd:  Road to Recovery –>

<– Day 8 – Sun. Apr. 19th: Resting and Recovery | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 10 – Tue. Apr. 21st:  Another One Bites the Dust –>

I felt better today, but still sneezing and coughing quite a bit, so I laid low. However, Ann spent some time wandering around Alamogordo taking photos (good for her!). She even managed to wiggle her way onto private grounds to photograph a building used in several movies (Fred and Cindy tells us that usually NO ONE is allowed to go inside the gates). I hope to publish some of her photos on Wednesday.  We will most likely leave Tularosa on Wednesday.

I got a bit of good news. Ann and I will be the inaugural guests at Red River’s Bed and Breakfast in Fredericksburg, Texas (once the plague leaves me and we can make it there). Tomorrow I will nail down a date with James.

James runs the Red River Jeep Tours in Red River, NM, along with the Uncorked Wine Tour and now a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg.

How about those bed lights!

<– Day 8 – Sun. Apr. 19th: Resting and Recovery | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 10 – Tue. Apr. 21st:  Another One Bites the Dust –>

<– Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 9 – Mon. Apr. 20th: Recovering from the Plague –>

I stuck to the bed on Sunday. I’m not terribly sick by any means, just semi-tortured by a continuous cough that won’t let me sleep or talk much without coughing. Hopefully with a day of rest, we’ll be ready to go by Tuesday.

On the positive side, I’ve had time to read a couple books. I’m particularly enjoying a book called Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West. As the title indicates, it is a history of major stagecoach robberies!

<– Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 9 – Mon. Apr. 20th: Recovering from the Plague –>

<– Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 8 – Sun. Apr. 19th: Resting and Recovery –>

Ann and her aunt Cindy with Smokey Bear in the background

I was feeling better Saturday morning, so rather than rest, Uncle Fred and Aunt Cindy joined Ann and I for a short road trip into New Mexico’s mountains to hunt down a former gold town called White Oaks.

Today we completed a grand circle through part of New Mexico.

The first hour of the trip consisted of flat New Mexican landscape and an even less interesting highway. However, the company kept that part of the journey interesting.

Sign in Carrizozo.

We stopped in the tiny town of Carrizozo to grab some Advil, as Fred has suffered a serious and life-threatening elbow injury at the hands of his grandchildren, whom Fred has discovered are now big enough to mob him and take him down. And by life-threatening elbow injury I mean the injury effects his dominant arm, thus it seriously curtails the ability for him to eat or drink with it (hence, threatens his way of life).

It turned out that the arm injury was a blessing for the rest of us, because as Cindy and I sat in the Jeep waiting for Ann and Fred to return, we spotted a donkey (or ass??) on top of a building a block away that was off the well-traveled highway. When Ann and Fred returned, we decided to investigate.

Donkeys on the roofs of both buildings in Carrizozo. There were also donkeys on the sidewalks. You might also recognize this area from the movie “The Book of Eli” which was filmed along this street, though there were facades added in certain areas.

More donkeys and other sculptures in a hidden alcove.

Continue reading →

<– Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed –>

Thursday night I came down with a light cold (or something), so I took it easy yesterday. By the evening I felt good enough to join Ann and her uncle Fred for a visit Alamogordo’s art fair. Fred is president of Otero County’s STEM program. He and his wife are also deeply involved in First Robotics and judge robotic competitions all over the country. As leader of Otero Stem, Fred organized a demonstration at the local art fair. It gave the kids a chance to show off the their robots to the public, while Fred and the other leaders introduced STEM to many parents who attended the fair.

Fred and I loading the high school kids’ robot.

The Junior High School aged kids robot is on the left.

Fred’s always in trouble with the police :-)

There are as many girls as boys involved in the Otero program. Both Fred and Cindy are Mechanical Engineers and worked for Boeing. So, they believe in Engineering as a career.

While we were at the fair, Smokey Bear stopped by for a visit. Why would Smoke Bear be attending the event? Smokey is/was a local bear, but I’ll save that for a later update.

<– Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed –>

<– Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM –>

Ann in front of ‘her’ plane, a B-52 (though technically not this model). Back in her Air Force Days before Bin Laden blew her up, she used to load it with weapons. @ the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Technology.

For years I”d read and heard about the television series Breaking Bad. This past summer, lacking any good TV, Ann and I decided to watch the episode’s pilot to see if we’d enjoy it. We were hooked from the very beginning. Within a couple weeks we watched the entire six-year series. In case you haven’t seen it, the show is about an Albuquerue science teacher named Walter White who feels forced to produce meth to save his family’s finances. If you haven’t watched the show and don’t want to know the ending, leave the post now!

With that background in mind, our first item of business was to find the real gravestone marker for the mythical Walter White. The headstone was initially put into a real cemetary, but some reasonable complaints caused it to be moved to a small strip mall. When we arrived at the mall, the location of the headstone wasn’t obvious. We had to look around before spotting it in an outdoor alcove. Ann was particularly pleased, because this was her idea.

There are both guide-tours and self-guided tours of Breaking Bad film sites in Albuquerque. You can learn all kinds of things here.

Following that quick stop we headed to the touristy area of old town Albuquerque. Anchored by a church established in 1702, the area is typical of New Mexican town squares. In the center is a square bordered on all sides by a road with shops/restaurants lining the road. I was surprised to see that the square was much quieter and subdued than the square in Santa Fe (or it was on this day).

Perhaps the most striking difference between the Santa Fe and Albuquerque shops are the proliferation of Break Bad memorabilia. There were also some Better Caul Saul shirts as well, the prequel to Breaking Bad.

Believe it or not, there are some confederate soldiers buried in Albuquerque.

Continue reading →

<– Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science –>

I now have an additional reason to eat Subway sandwiches! This truck was in Albuquerque off of Wyoming Blvd.

Today was a breather day. Our simple goal was to make the four hour drive from Durango south to Albuquerque. Without anything planned, we let chance be our guide.

It turned out ‘chance’ liked jeeps on this day. On our way out of Durango we saw a flat fender, a cj-5, and a beautifully rusted truck (orange-red patina). Unfortunately, we were on a two-lane busy road with no pull-offs. All we could do was shout to one another, ‘there’s another jeep!”

After taking a wrong turn in Cortez, we found ourselves in Farmington, New Mexico, where we spotted two unusual vehicles. The first reminded me of a Tour FC with it’s white and red top.

The second was a limoseum parked out front of Farmington’s museum.

Despite the cool car, we didn’t go inside the museum. Instead, we got back on track and headed east for Bloomfield. That’s where we saw the strangest sign: SALMON RUINS. As you can imagine, we didn’t expect to find any salmon bones, carcasses or ruins in New Mexico. So, naturally, we had to investigate.

Continue reading →