Archives for November 2010

The night was very cold last night, and we worried about the horses on the highline. Our original plan had been to ride today or tomorrow and leave on Wednesday, but this weather is just not getting any better, and the terrain here, frankly, seems like it would be a pretty boring ride, so we decided to use today to get caught up and head out tomorrow to Carlsbad. Managed to contact Luanne from the Carlsbad Horsemen’s Association, who said we were welcome to stay at the Sheriff’s Posse Arena, where there were stalls and water available, at no charge. Since our other option was either Brantley Lake State Park, which was a good 30 minutes further away from the Caverns (our main purpose for going there), or find a farm or ranch nearby, as the only campground near Carlsbad was White’s City, which had such terrible reviews on the internet we didn’t want to go there. So we decided on the Arena for a few days, as horses apparently aren’t allowed anywhere near the National Park, so trail riding here wasn’t something in the plans. Once those plans were made, we headed off to Roswell to visit the International UFO Museum, which proved to be a very interesting walk through reams of affidavits from people who claim to have come in different contact with all aspects of “The Roswell Incident,” as well as a number of other fascinating exhibits. We spent a couple of hours there, then ran a few more errands before returning to the park and spending the rest of the day getting ready to depart in the morning.

Couldn’t believe we slept past 10:00 this morning! Bed didn’t go down as much, so it must have been temp and elevation after all. Spent the day watching TV and catching up on my long overdue blog.

Slept till well past 9:00, horses were whinnying for breakfast as soon as they saw movement in the RV. Fed them, cleaned up after them, took the dogs for a walk, down to where the pay station was, picked up an envelope and came back, eventually wrote a check and took it back to drop it in the pay slot. Spent the rest of the day utterly exhausted, and stayed as immobile as possible, except for a time when Hubby and I had to try to find a leak in the airbed, both sides seemed low this morning, but more on his side. Couldn’t find anything, so we just pumped it up again and we’re hoping it was just the change in temperature and elevation (we’re at 3500 feet, down from 6100 in Albuquerque). We also spent some time on the computer, making plans for the next few weeks. Mostly just watched TV until we went to bed about 11:00.

 Set the alarm for 7:00, as Diane was leaving at 9:00 and we needed to be out before then. Just made coffee, then packed up everything and was ready to leave by just before 9:00. Said our good-byes and more apologies to Diane on our way out, and headed down to a farm up the road to pick up hay. We thought we were getting grass hay, but it turned out to be an alfalfa grass mix, which I’m sure the horses will love. Then we headed back to a gas station, having discovered the tires on the truck were a bit low (actually, WAY low), and we put in enough to get us down the highway to Belen, about 20 miles south, where we figured we could finish it off while we were dumping and getting gas, which we did (and they even had free air, as opposed to the first station where $1.00 got one tire filled). Then we stopped to fill up a propane bottle, grabbed a sandwich at a Subway in the Wal-mart before heading south, a bit later than we hoped but with still enough time to get to Roswell an hour before dark as we had planned. Had conflicting directions between Google Maps and Gracie (my Verizon GPS), but I stuck with Google Maps this time, which took us across one of the most desolate, empty areas we’ve ever been. I can understand why aliens would want to land near here, they were sure to be seen by very few people! Arrived at Bottomless Lake State Park right on schedule at 4:00, stopped by the office to pick up a map, then headed down to the Lea Lake Campground, which has about 5 sites set aside for equestrians, though there are no actual facilities here, and high lining was a challenge as all the “trees” are more like tall dry bushes which required some imagination to accomplish. It was more like a head-high picket line rather than a high line, but the horses as so accustomed to that now they were very cooperative. Managed to get set up, even the satellite dish, before it got too dark. Crashed for the evening, all the more fatigued after having such a stressful day yesterday.

Slept late, but still felt exhausted today. It’s obviously going to take some time to recover. Did a few chores around the house, then Hubby decided to take the van down the road to a car wash to wash it and vacuum it out. When he got back, he made a critical mistake. Diane’s dogs were in the yard, and she had left explicit instructions to be careful not to let the dogs escape. Rather than come and get me first, Hubby opened the gate to drive the van in, and two of the dogs, Romeo and Mitzi, took off fast and far. We ended up spending the entire afternoon looking for them, with no luck. We were mortified, but there wasn’t anything we could do but hope and pray they would come home. Diane arrived just after 4:00, meeting Hubby on the road as he was still looking. Naturally, she was very upset, and promptly went out looking for them as soon as she took care of her other boarders. It was getting dark, and the forecast was for the coldest night of the year, in the teens overnight, and still nothing. We kept looking out with the flashlight at the back gate, which is apparently where they came last time they had escaped, and only saw Diane out looking on several occasions. Then at about 8:00 or so, Diane called to say the dogs had returned, but that Romeo had encountered a porcupine, and could I come in and help. Naturally I was relieved the dogs had returned, sorry one had been injured, but was grateful for the opportunity to help out, hoping to make up some for Hubby’s error. I instructed Hubby to get on the internet and find out the best way to remove the quills, while I went to the house. When I saw Romeo, my heart went out to him, his entire muzzle was a pincushion, including his nose, his tongue, and inside his mouth. Diane had collected some towels, and I got on the floor and started plucking the easier ones with my fingers. Thankfully, Romeo, despite his pain, let us handle him with no hesitation. He whimpered occasionally, but never growled or showed any anger. A few minutes later, Hubby showed up with instructions to use pliers, and a moment later, Diane’s friend Patricia showed up with a pair of pliers in her hand. Together, we spent the next hour plucking quills out of poor Romeo’s face, taking breaks whenever the pain got too much for him. Toward the end, he started to crash, either from exhaustion, gratitude or shock, I’m not sure which, but it made getting the ones inside his mouth easier. When we finished, I helped Diane give him an aspirin with peanut butter and putting him to bed with a blanket to avert any shock. Patricia issued instructions for Diane to pick up some antibiotics at the farm store in the morning and administer it to him. Fortunately, Mitzi managed to escape the quills and spent the evening watching the surgery. We again apologized profusely, and Diane forgave us and thanked us for the help. She’s a real animal lover, just not too good in a crisis, but has the good sense to call friends that are! Went back to the RV happy that we would be able to sleep knowing the dogs were now safe, which would certainly not have been the case if they hadn’t come back! Glad this day is over!

Our original plan had been to head down to Roswell today, where we were going to meet my brother for Thanksgiving, but he had a change of plans and couldn’t make it, which is just as well considering our debilitated state. Despite our deep fatigue, I figured I should do laundry today, so I arranged with Diane to leave the laundry room open for me, as well as to stay through Friday. She doesn’t have a dryer, so I had to both hang clothes on her line and put some in my RV dryer, which was a balancing act to not over burden the 15-amp breaker. Tried to spend as much of the day recovering as possible, but we are both well and truly beat from our busy schedule. Wrote Diane a check for her board, gave it to her when she got home, and she seemed pleased. (I threw in a little extra, she’s been such a good hostess!) Looking forward to a day off tomorrow doing nothing!

Slept late, had breakfast, then headed out to pick up the van and turn in the rental. Also found a post office to mail some checks to the bank, as we had sold a number of books last week during our various sessions and had received mail while we were at the Ritz. Had rec’d one check from Bank of America, and went to a branch to cash it. After a LONG wait, we were told there “might” be a $6 charge to cash it, but they weren’t sure, and then they couldn’t find the account it was written from, and we were told we needed to speak to customer service so they can do “more research.” After another 10 minute wait, we left without having cashed the check, confirming our bad feelings about Bank of America. We found a nice Indian Restaurant nearby and had a meal, then suddenly remembered that it was in Albuquerque many years before when I had stocked up on a lot of Indian spices at a place called Talin Market, though we couldn’t remember the name. We thought it was on Central Ave., so after we finished shopping at Wal-mart, we went on an expedition to find it, and re-discovered it at the corner of Central and Louisiana. This is truly a fabulous store, with aisles separated by cuisine from all areas around the world, both packaged a fresh. I stocked up again, delighted we found the place. Headed back to Diane’s, arriving just before dark, found she had already fed the horses for us (thanks Diane!), and settled down for the night, truly exhausted.

Slept until 10:00, discovered that checkout was at 11:00 (we had expected 12:00), so we raced around packing, getting out just in time. Ran errands for a while before finding a nice Indian restaurant on our way to the airport. We realized we would be arriving too late to pick up our van at the repair shop, so I decided to rent a car rather than getting a taxi. Went onto priceline.com (my first time!), and managed to secure a car from Hertz for $20, plus another $18 in “fees” (how do they get away with that?), but still figured we came out ahead. Had a safe and uneventful flight home, had no trouble picking up the rental car, arrived back at Diane’s before 9:00. Dogs were super excited to see us (once they woke up enough to realize we were back), and even the horses whinnied at us when they saw us. We left everything in the car, exhausted, so we just had a quick nightcap and went off to bed!

 Attended breakfast plenary again, then headed straight back to work, same busy schedule again, worked up until almost 7:00 before attending the closing dinner, featuring Mary White (formerly of the Supremes), a good friend of the Executive Director of the foundation, who provided entertainment after all the new officer installations. Headed back to the room around 9:00, watched a bit more of the activities from our balcony before crashing, aware that though we could sleep later, we still had a lot to do before catching our flight at 3:25.

At breakfast, while Hubby had already gone to start coaching, I delivered a two-minute plug about our upcoming Plenary workshop in the room next door at 10:00. After breakfast we moved over there (we had blocked off the hour from coaching so that Hubby could attend), and we had excellent attendance. It started out about 2/3 full, then by 10 minutes after we began, the room was packed. It was very well received, lots of notes taken, enough time for a few good questions before we ended. Naturally, shortly afterward, just about every open coaching slot was taken, right through Sunday night). Spent the rest of the day coaching, tag teaming lunch again, very busy and very well-received, with lots of compliments from some pretty important women. Too tired to go out for dinner (we worked until 8:00), so we had Chinese take-out brought in, watched a Mel Gibson movie, then went to bed as early as we could.