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Saturday, December 14, 2013
Our Lady of Intentional Chaos
Written 9/22/10
Ok... This is the most "active" person on our tiny street. She is in a constant state of activity - often compounded by scheduling multiple tasks or social appointments at the same time. The resulting level of chaos has reach a crescendo and now I must assign her a name that epitomizes her impression on the world and all the people around her!
She is fun and has many friends and loyal fans. She is a woman of constant action and constant overlapping and concurrent activity. She shuffles lots of people and activities within a very full social and business calendar. She is excellent at getting a lot done in a short period of time, while making the whole situation seem effortless. She is surrounded by workmen and others helping her get things done, but mostly this talent is all hers due to her unusual energy and motivation to accomplish notable things for herself and others.
Altogether she is part drama queen, part actress, part superb hostess, control freak, party animal, compassionate friend, wild woman, beauty queen, cheerleader, and super saleswoman. No dust settles here. Her obsession with having a constant fray of activity results in nary a moment to rest. So, what has she achieved? Intentional chaos that is derived from over-booking people, activities, events and situations where invariably the coordination becomes impossible and the wheels come off the bus on a regular basis.. and...provides everyone in her universe a daily dose of crisis and a constant flow of urgency in one area or another. Every day....
I've decided to call her "Our Lady Of Intentional Chaos". This is her life - an ours - if we know her!
She really does deserve another sub-title but I could not come up with another one!
Ok... This is the most "active" person on our tiny street. She is in a constant state of activity - often compounded by scheduling multiple tasks or social appointments at the same time. The resulting level of chaos has reach a crescendo and now I must assign her a name that epitomizes her impression on the world and all the people around her!
She is fun and has many friends and loyal fans. She is a woman of constant action and constant overlapping and concurrent activity. She shuffles lots of people and activities within a very full social and business calendar. She is excellent at getting a lot done in a short period of time, while making the whole situation seem effortless. She is surrounded by workmen and others helping her get things done, but mostly this talent is all hers due to her unusual energy and motivation to accomplish notable things for herself and others.
Altogether she is part drama queen, part actress, part superb hostess, control freak, party animal, compassionate friend, wild woman, beauty queen, cheerleader, and super saleswoman. No dust settles here. Her obsession with having a constant fray of activity results in nary a moment to rest. So, what has she achieved? Intentional chaos that is derived from over-booking people, activities, events and situations where invariably the coordination becomes impossible and the wheels come off the bus on a regular basis.. and...provides everyone in her universe a daily dose of crisis and a constant flow of urgency in one area or another. Every day....
I've decided to call her "Our Lady Of Intentional Chaos". This is her life - an ours - if we know her!
She really does deserve another sub-title but I could not come up with another one!
28 Days and 6200 Miles....
Written 8/25/10
Two years ago I took my first RV trip. I landed in Albuquerque and rented a 32' RV... in NOVEMBER !! Needless to say, this 10 day excursion was filled with adventure and crisis... I'm not a good driver and November is not the month to go camping in high altitudes.... The adventures are chronicled here...in previous posts.
This year I decided to do a road trip to Minnesota! Me and the doglet - Coco Chic, an adorable toy poodle that is like my perpetual 2 yr old.
I rented an SUV since my BMW convertible would not hold all the stuff I needed for a 4 week journey to the heartland; the capital of "doncha knooow?" and "youbetcha"! The SUV was loaded to the brim with "stuff" for me, for the dog and lots of extra's from my house in an effort to pare down a bit and dump the good stuff I no longer use on somebody else! I could barely see out the windows.
DAY 1
My journey began on a Wednesday at 7am - having been up all night packing and putting final touches on getting all my hurricane preparation done. That means shutters installed and moving any loose object out of the yard and into the house or garage. All my I was pretty tired but excited to begin this new adventure. I had never before embarked upon a trip of more than 350 miles. Minneapolis (Edina) was 1,765 miles from Boca and I would be alone the entire way. I had not pre-planned any stops, hotels or other and we were just going to "wing it" all the way!
I began the drive with lots of loose ends with business deals so I kept pretty busy on the phone for several hours. I had continuous attention from my good friend, Carole, who checked in with me to see progress and keep me from falling asleep. I finally checked into a hotel at 11pm - 16 hours of driving on day 1. Understand that 16 hours of driving with a dog requires extended pit stops for gas, water, feeding and other necessities. Coco Chic is a great dog but it takes nearly 30 minutes for her to find the perfect blade of grass upon which to do her business. Sometimes she spends 30 minutes and doesn't do ANYTHING at all. So my dog companion, who rode nearly the entire 1765 miles on my lap, slowed me down a bit. I should probably mention that as I drove north toward Georgia and Tennessee, the temperature began to rise from 88 to 101 degrees! ugh. Walking a dog for 30 minutes in that heat was torture. I don't know how people live in that temperature! It was hot and icky sticky everywhere.
Two years ago I took my first RV trip. I landed in Albuquerque and rented a 32' RV... in NOVEMBER !! Needless to say, this 10 day excursion was filled with adventure and crisis... I'm not a good driver and November is not the month to go camping in high altitudes.... The adventures are chronicled here...in previous posts.
This year I decided to do a road trip to Minnesota! Me and the doglet - Coco Chic, an adorable toy poodle that is like my perpetual 2 yr old.
I rented an SUV since my BMW convertible would not hold all the stuff I needed for a 4 week journey to the heartland; the capital of "doncha knooow?" and "youbetcha"! The SUV was loaded to the brim with "stuff" for me, for the dog and lots of extra's from my house in an effort to pare down a bit and dump the good stuff I no longer use on somebody else! I could barely see out the windows.
DAY 1
My journey began on a Wednesday at 7am - having been up all night packing and putting final touches on getting all my hurricane preparation done. That means shutters installed and moving any loose object out of the yard and into the house or garage. All my I was pretty tired but excited to begin this new adventure. I had never before embarked upon a trip of more than 350 miles. Minneapolis (Edina) was 1,765 miles from Boca and I would be alone the entire way. I had not pre-planned any stops, hotels or other and we were just going to "wing it" all the way!
I began the drive with lots of loose ends with business deals so I kept pretty busy on the phone for several hours. I had continuous attention from my good friend, Carole, who checked in with me to see progress and keep me from falling asleep. I finally checked into a hotel at 11pm - 16 hours of driving on day 1. Understand that 16 hours of driving with a dog requires extended pit stops for gas, water, feeding and other necessities. Coco Chic is a great dog but it takes nearly 30 minutes for her to find the perfect blade of grass upon which to do her business. Sometimes she spends 30 minutes and doesn't do ANYTHING at all. So my dog companion, who rode nearly the entire 1765 miles on my lap, slowed me down a bit. I should probably mention that as I drove north toward Georgia and Tennessee, the temperature began to rise from 88 to 101 degrees! ugh. Walking a dog for 30 minutes in that heat was torture. I don't know how people live in that temperature! It was hot and icky sticky everywhere.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Baby Bird Thinks I'm The Mommy!
So, I was cleaning the yard and found a dead baby bird. I realized it had fallen about 30' from a branch on my royal palm trees. One of the 15' fronds let loose and the birds fell out! I did not know what to do with the bird. Neither did its mommy...as I could see big morning doves hovering above, so I just put some water and breadcrumbs next to the bird and hoped it would survive. About mid-day, I realized that bird was on the ground in the sun in this awful heat, so I went outside and put up a little sun shelter.
Later in the day I again had another epiphany and realized that bird could not survive alone on the lawn, so I made a nest in a shrub near my door and propped the bird in the shrub. It was quite lethargic but seemed content to be nestled inside of a protected area.
The next morning, I checked on the bird and it was chirping and fluttering its wings like a wild thing! No mother bird in sight. Hmmm....
I went in and out of the house not knowing if I should do something or what. After several visits to the bird I found it on the ground. It had jumped out of the shrub and came running towards me, fluttering its little wings. Every time I moved, the bird followed. I picked it up and tried to find a neighbor who could give me SOME advice on what to do. No one around.... so I put that little bugger back in the shrub. 10 minutes later, he was back on the ground, chirping at me, waving it's wings, stepping on my shoes and pecking at my pants!
Gads. Was I now its "mother"????? Oh no. After making several unsuccessful attempts to find a shelter or wildlife advice, I finally ran into 2 neighbors who tried to feed worms to this little thing. That did not seem to work either. What do baby birds eat as this one is definitely not interested in worms.
Will see where this goes. It is now day 3 of the bird saga. This bird chirps when I approach and flutters its wings until I pick it up. If I put it on the ground it climbs onto my shoes or huddles between my feet. The bird obviously thinks I'm the mommy! It seems to be eating the breadcrumbs - or someone is! I left it some almond milk and water. Let's see if the bird is vegan.... :-)
After 3 days, the bird is looking much healthier and is much more spunky! Ahh....such a good bird mommy.
Of course, I did not mention the amount of bird shit in my driveway as both of the big morning dove parents dropped by this morning and left me some "gifts"!!
Later in the day I again had another epiphany and realized that bird could not survive alone on the lawn, so I made a nest in a shrub near my door and propped the bird in the shrub. It was quite lethargic but seemed content to be nestled inside of a protected area.
The next morning, I checked on the bird and it was chirping and fluttering its wings like a wild thing! No mother bird in sight. Hmmm....
I went in and out of the house not knowing if I should do something or what. After several visits to the bird I found it on the ground. It had jumped out of the shrub and came running towards me, fluttering its little wings. Every time I moved, the bird followed. I picked it up and tried to find a neighbor who could give me SOME advice on what to do. No one around.... so I put that little bugger back in the shrub. 10 minutes later, he was back on the ground, chirping at me, waving it's wings, stepping on my shoes and pecking at my pants!
Gads. Was I now its "mother"????? Oh no. After making several unsuccessful attempts to find a shelter or wildlife advice, I finally ran into 2 neighbors who tried to feed worms to this little thing. That did not seem to work either. What do baby birds eat as this one is definitely not interested in worms.
Will see where this goes. It is now day 3 of the bird saga. This bird chirps when I approach and flutters its wings until I pick it up. If I put it on the ground it climbs onto my shoes or huddles between my feet. The bird obviously thinks I'm the mommy! It seems to be eating the breadcrumbs - or someone is! I left it some almond milk and water. Let's see if the bird is vegan.... :-)
After 3 days, the bird is looking much healthier and is much more spunky! Ahh....such a good bird mommy.
Of course, I did not mention the amount of bird shit in my driveway as both of the big morning dove parents dropped by this morning and left me some "gifts"!!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Cheese Course
A newly discovered restaurant in Mizner Park - next to the movie theater.
My Boca Chic blog has a post about this place. I thought I'd add a little more and a link to their site: www.thecheesecourse.com
Their salads are out of this world! Delicious and hearty. I had the French Field Greens....goat cheese, cranberries and a huge portion! We had the Woodbridge Cabernet... a nice accompaniment.
Cozy, friendly, informal atmosphere. Try it!
My Boca Chic blog has a post about this place. I thought I'd add a little more and a link to their site: www.thecheesecourse.com
Their salads are out of this world! Delicious and hearty. I had the French Field Greens....goat cheese, cranberries and a huge portion! We had the Woodbridge Cabernet... a nice accompaniment.
Cozy, friendly, informal atmosphere. Try it!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Route 66 Chronicles - Part 4, The Final Frontier (RV world)
Part 4 – The Final Frontier….....
We left off last time camping in yet another casino …this time in an official RV park adjacent to the casino. We planned to take a cultural tour of Sky City in NM and view ancient Indian cultures and sacred grounds.
The visit was interesting and packed with history and folklore. Ahh.. the American Southwest!
Upon departing the sacred city we decided to trek back east toward Albuquerque on old Route 66. While not “recommended” in our guidebooks, we decided to do it anyway! About 5 miles into this lonesome and desolate road, the pavement suddenly ended and we dropped onto a gravel road that was more “washboard” than navigable terrain. We had a choice to make – go back and take the REAL highway, or just keep going and take in the adventure! By now you should know that we picked the 2nd option and stayed on the road. Somewhere in the next 20 miles there MUST be blacktop…!
Ok… so now we’re in our big-ass RV taking in the scenery while everything is shaking and rattling and falling all over the place cuz we are getting the HELL pounded out of us on this friggin’ road. NO ONE is anywhere in sight except for an occasional horse, cow or bull. We did however, notice that the road was covered in horse shit all along the sides and in the middle so clearly, we were not too far from some form of civilization. On the plus side, the views, the colors the rock formations, the sky and everything around us was spectacular to see and heavenly in its own way. So we decided to just keep going and bear under the incredible racket from this bus being rattled back into its component parts by the “road”, if you can call it that. I was sure I was in Costa Rica…
So, now the doglet, who has had a prominent perch on my lap for the entire trip, likes to look out the window. She occasionally barks at a rock. We begin approaching a huge herd of bulls… I mean some very big-ass bulls grazing along this deserted patch of old Route 66. My “cute” dog begins to show her authority to these 1-ton creatures – all 8 lbs of her. She barks at them! And keeps barking. And barking. The bulls begin to notice us. We could see them beginning to turn there giant heads toward our RV. Understand, we are driving about 2 miles per hour and surely a bull can overtake us if he wants to! Or charge at us or something. We see them lift there heads and give us that big bull eyeball angry stare. OMG. They are LOOKING at us - and holy whatnots, they don’t like this nippy little dog. We realized we were alone out there and quickly shut up the dog, closed the windows and got the hell out of there!
Finally, after 20 miles we got off that gravel road and back to something more sane! What an adventure. Little noisy dogs and wild bulls don’t mix well.
We dropped by a little local bar and had cocktails with some of the locals who gave us a lot of rich history on the area and the demise of the golden years of Route 66. It was one of the few incidents that gave us a sense of what had been lost when the American highway system bypassed Route 66 and literally destroyed the richness of this great historic route to California. We passed many boarded and abandoned up gas stations, motels, diners and other landmarks that spoke of another time. Now it was basically a photo montage of life,, families, businesses and traditions that have disappeared or moved on. For better? One wonders……
The final days of our trip were calm compared to the “Griswold” start. Except for the final night and the last day. By this time it was really getting cold and not liking this weather, I was getting a little tired of the RV setup routine…. Freezing my hands connecting water hoses, draining sewage and generally being outside in winter…camping. So the last night after connecting electricity, water and TV, I just decided that, even with the planned freeze I was not going outside in the dark to disconnect the water. Nope.
The last day, we needed to de-camp, clean the RV and get on a plane home. Simple! I get up early and it is sunny and tolerable…as in perhaps mid 30’s in temperature. I did not expect to see the complete MESS I had outside from the night’s freeze! Oh NO!! The hose had burst and frozen ice covered the side of the RV and all the connections were in solid ice!! I nuked some hot water in the microwave and was able to thaw and detach the hose. Then I took it to the shower building to run hot water on it to get the ice out so I could store it. Gads. That done, I then needed to do one more DUMP of the sewage, the gray water and such. The RV was about 2 inches shy of the sewer drain pipe in our parking spot. I pulled on the plastic drain pipe to make the connection and ripped the end of it off! Oh no. Now sewage was running all over the place and the frozen water was still there from the fresh water flood of earlier. I just DUMPED and ran and hoped the minor sewer stuff would disappear by spring!
So long Route 66, RV camper and Albuquerque! What a great adventure! I would do it again in a minute – but NOT in the WINTER !!!
Thanks Kris for a fabulous 60th birthday bash!!! It was maaahvelous!!
Epilogue:
We got the RV back in halfway decent shape and left for the airport where Kris discovered her return flight was actually set for a week later! What??? After much ado, she got herself on a plane home to Mpls and giggled all the way home.
Back home now, we see that ARE the Griswolds! ...or we became them for a short period of time!
(The Griswolds.... recall the relatives in the Chevy Chase Vacation movies....)
We left off last time camping in yet another casino …this time in an official RV park adjacent to the casino. We planned to take a cultural tour of Sky City in NM and view ancient Indian cultures and sacred grounds.
The visit was interesting and packed with history and folklore. Ahh.. the American Southwest!
Upon departing the sacred city we decided to trek back east toward Albuquerque on old Route 66. While not “recommended” in our guidebooks, we decided to do it anyway! About 5 miles into this lonesome and desolate road, the pavement suddenly ended and we dropped onto a gravel road that was more “washboard” than navigable terrain. We had a choice to make – go back and take the REAL highway, or just keep going and take in the adventure! By now you should know that we picked the 2nd option and stayed on the road. Somewhere in the next 20 miles there MUST be blacktop…!
Ok… so now we’re in our big-ass RV taking in the scenery while everything is shaking and rattling and falling all over the place cuz we are getting the HELL pounded out of us on this friggin’ road. NO ONE is anywhere in sight except for an occasional horse, cow or bull. We did however, notice that the road was covered in horse shit all along the sides and in the middle so clearly, we were not too far from some form of civilization. On the plus side, the views, the colors the rock formations, the sky and everything around us was spectacular to see and heavenly in its own way. So we decided to just keep going and bear under the incredible racket from this bus being rattled back into its component parts by the “road”, if you can call it that. I was sure I was in Costa Rica…
So, now the doglet, who has had a prominent perch on my lap for the entire trip, likes to look out the window. She occasionally barks at a rock. We begin approaching a huge herd of bulls… I mean some very big-ass bulls grazing along this deserted patch of old Route 66. My “cute” dog begins to show her authority to these 1-ton creatures – all 8 lbs of her. She barks at them! And keeps barking. And barking. The bulls begin to notice us. We could see them beginning to turn there giant heads toward our RV. Understand, we are driving about 2 miles per hour and surely a bull can overtake us if he wants to! Or charge at us or something. We see them lift there heads and give us that big bull eyeball angry stare. OMG. They are LOOKING at us - and holy whatnots, they don’t like this nippy little dog. We realized we were alone out there and quickly shut up the dog, closed the windows and got the hell out of there!
Finally, after 20 miles we got off that gravel road and back to something more sane! What an adventure. Little noisy dogs and wild bulls don’t mix well.
We dropped by a little local bar and had cocktails with some of the locals who gave us a lot of rich history on the area and the demise of the golden years of Route 66. It was one of the few incidents that gave us a sense of what had been lost when the American highway system bypassed Route 66 and literally destroyed the richness of this great historic route to California. We passed many boarded and abandoned up gas stations, motels, diners and other landmarks that spoke of another time. Now it was basically a photo montage of life,, families, businesses and traditions that have disappeared or moved on. For better? One wonders……
The final days of our trip were calm compared to the “Griswold” start. Except for the final night and the last day. By this time it was really getting cold and not liking this weather, I was getting a little tired of the RV setup routine…. Freezing my hands connecting water hoses, draining sewage and generally being outside in winter…camping. So the last night after connecting electricity, water and TV, I just decided that, even with the planned freeze I was not going outside in the dark to disconnect the water. Nope.
The last day, we needed to de-camp, clean the RV and get on a plane home. Simple! I get up early and it is sunny and tolerable…as in perhaps mid 30’s in temperature. I did not expect to see the complete MESS I had outside from the night’s freeze! Oh NO!! The hose had burst and frozen ice covered the side of the RV and all the connections were in solid ice!! I nuked some hot water in the microwave and was able to thaw and detach the hose. Then I took it to the shower building to run hot water on it to get the ice out so I could store it. Gads. That done, I then needed to do one more DUMP of the sewage, the gray water and such. The RV was about 2 inches shy of the sewer drain pipe in our parking spot. I pulled on the plastic drain pipe to make the connection and ripped the end of it off! Oh no. Now sewage was running all over the place and the frozen water was still there from the fresh water flood of earlier. I just DUMPED and ran and hoped the minor sewer stuff would disappear by spring!
So long Route 66, RV camper and Albuquerque! What a great adventure! I would do it again in a minute – but NOT in the WINTER !!!
Thanks Kris for a fabulous 60th birthday bash!!! It was maaahvelous!!
Epilogue:
We got the RV back in halfway decent shape and left for the airport where Kris discovered her return flight was actually set for a week later! What??? After much ado, she got herself on a plane home to Mpls and giggled all the way home.
Back home now, we see that ARE the Griswolds! ...or we became them for a short period of time!
(The Griswolds.... recall the relatives in the Chevy Chase Vacation movies....)
Route 66 Chronicles - Part 3, The Trip Continues....
Part 3 – The Trip Continues….....
We left off last time parked in a fairly chic RV "resort" in Santa Fe surrounded by large expensive rock star motorhomes....
We got up the next day for birthday breakfast in Santa Fe's quaint little village. I ordered eggs benedict which usually gives you 2 muffins and 2 eggs....I got 2 muffins and 1 egg.. ..like a missing headlight.... We were told the other egg got "lost in the kitchen"... Go figure! On the way back from the 1 egg breakfast to pick up the van I walked the dog ...who simply will not poop in cold climates!! In any case my coaxing took us to a city office building where we found some rare grass. ahhhh...familiar turf !!
We walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed for about 10 minutes....to no avail.... so we jumped back in the RV where I discovered some other big ass dog had done his duty in the grass and my shoe was literally covered in shit! Of course it was my RIGHT shoe...so I was forced to drive the RV in my socks. As you might all suspect, the shoes give me a bit more height and a longer leg.....so now w/o my right shoe my driving foot was a lot further from the gas pedal on this truck... I was forced into the ballerina position for about 50 miles while Kris' daughter cleaned the god awful mess of poop from my shoe! We dropped her off at ABQ airport where I am sure she was relieved to be out of the RV !!! and....on her way back to Mpls!!
Ok.. so ....on this great American RV adventure we HAVE been introduced to a different form of culture.... and... have actually learned a few new vocabulary words along the way:
DUMP, DUMPING STATION, PARK AND DUMP, BASIC AND "FULL HOOK-UPS"....hmmm....right here in the RV park. Although we paid extra for a full "hookup", neither one of us has gotten one!!
We also learned about BLACK WATER and GRAY WATER... and today we took our first dump at a dumping station in Grants, NM. Just imagine what that means..... getting the crap out of the RV ! eeeeoooowww...
We left Albuquerque yesterday and were headed toward a lesser known canyon just inside the AZ border. After 50 white-knuckle minutes in a westward direction Sunday night with cross winds and wind gusts up to 25mph .... and semi's crowding the roads after the holiday weekend, we were pushed and swayed all the way to Grants, NM. That was a hard and freightening drive...so we got off on Route 66 in Grants and headed toward town to check it out! Nothing, nothing, nothing going on. It was 9pm and we didn't even find a bar. That was my fault, I just did not try hard enough!! I'm sure there WAS one! We knew there were 3 RV parks so we pulled into the first one and had a weird sensation about it; we left for another one and later discovered that someone had been murdered in the first RV Park last year!!!
Today was uneventful in terms of crisis and weidos - but spectacular in terms of vistas and ancient rock formations. We spent the entire day on and off Route 66 going BACK toward Albuquerque. After last night's competition for road with all those semis...the wind gusts and almost losing control of the vehicle....and the prospect of more danger ahead in the mountains....we decided to slow it down a bit. We saw some fabulous things in NM off the main highways... Tomorrow we will be seeing an ancient city in NM call Sky City - purported to have been inhabited continuously for the last 10,000 years. This is on a reservation and has limited access. It looks like a really interesting self-sustaining ancient city in the high desert..... I never heard of it and had no idea the USA was inhabited by anything 10,000 years ago!
We are now camping at a big casino RV park on Route 66. I don't know what town this is...... Tomorrow we will do the ancient city and then go back to Route 66 and take the rig around the official DEAD MAN'S CURVE - on Route 66 back to Albuquerque... Yes, that's the real dead man's curve. We already checked...the vehicle will be able to make the TURN!!
Ok...it is off to the casino !!
ta ta
We left off last time parked in a fairly chic RV "resort" in Santa Fe surrounded by large expensive rock star motorhomes....
We got up the next day for birthday breakfast in Santa Fe's quaint little village. I ordered eggs benedict which usually gives you 2 muffins and 2 eggs....I got 2 muffins and 1 egg.. ..like a missing headlight.... We were told the other egg got "lost in the kitchen"... Go figure! On the way back from the 1 egg breakfast to pick up the van I walked the dog ...who simply will not poop in cold climates!! In any case my coaxing took us to a city office building where we found some rare grass. ahhhh...familiar turf !!
We walked and sniffed and walked and sniffed for about 10 minutes....to no avail.... so we jumped back in the RV where I discovered some other big ass dog had done his duty in the grass and my shoe was literally covered in shit! Of course it was my RIGHT shoe...so I was forced to drive the RV in my socks. As you might all suspect, the shoes give me a bit more height and a longer leg.....so now w/o my right shoe my driving foot was a lot further from the gas pedal on this truck... I was forced into the ballerina position for about 50 miles while Kris' daughter cleaned the god awful mess of poop from my shoe! We dropped her off at ABQ airport where I am sure she was relieved to be out of the RV !!! and....on her way back to Mpls!!
Ok.. so ....on this great American RV adventure we HAVE been introduced to a different form of culture.... and... have actually learned a few new vocabulary words along the way:
DUMP, DUMPING STATION, PARK AND DUMP, BASIC AND "FULL HOOK-UPS"....hmmm....right here in the RV park. Although we paid extra for a full "hookup", neither one of us has gotten one!!
We also learned about BLACK WATER and GRAY WATER... and today we took our first dump at a dumping station in Grants, NM. Just imagine what that means..... getting the crap out of the RV ! eeeeoooowww...
We left Albuquerque yesterday and were headed toward a lesser known canyon just inside the AZ border. After 50 white-knuckle minutes in a westward direction Sunday night with cross winds and wind gusts up to 25mph .... and semi's crowding the roads after the holiday weekend, we were pushed and swayed all the way to Grants, NM. That was a hard and freightening drive...so we got off on Route 66 in Grants and headed toward town to check it out! Nothing, nothing, nothing going on. It was 9pm and we didn't even find a bar. That was my fault, I just did not try hard enough!! I'm sure there WAS one! We knew there were 3 RV parks so we pulled into the first one and had a weird sensation about it; we left for another one and later discovered that someone had been murdered in the first RV Park last year!!!
Today was uneventful in terms of crisis and weidos - but spectacular in terms of vistas and ancient rock formations. We spent the entire day on and off Route 66 going BACK toward Albuquerque. After last night's competition for road with all those semis...the wind gusts and almost losing control of the vehicle....and the prospect of more danger ahead in the mountains....we decided to slow it down a bit. We saw some fabulous things in NM off the main highways... Tomorrow we will be seeing an ancient city in NM call Sky City - purported to have been inhabited continuously for the last 10,000 years. This is on a reservation and has limited access. It looks like a really interesting self-sustaining ancient city in the high desert..... I never heard of it and had no idea the USA was inhabited by anything 10,000 years ago!
We are now camping at a big casino RV park on Route 66. I don't know what town this is...... Tomorrow we will do the ancient city and then go back to Route 66 and take the rig around the official DEAD MAN'S CURVE - on Route 66 back to Albuquerque... Yes, that's the real dead man's curve. We already checked...the vehicle will be able to make the TURN!!
Ok...it is off to the casino !!
ta ta
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