Las Cruces NM to Jackson, Tennessee Nov 1- 3

    November 1
We left Las Cruces rather early as we had a 500 mile day, which is a bit longer than we generally like to go. Jan packed us a goody bag so that we did not have to stop often.
  It was a day of rather boring landscape. We passed by a fair number of smelly cow pens where cows are fattened up before being slaughtered. We drove through rather heavy traffic through El Paso and felt the presence of "the wall" but did not actually see it. (The sun was pretty glaring, though).
   The land flattened out and we went from Route 10 to Route 20. We drove through a dismal bleak landscape of oil drilling wells. It was awful to see new oil wells as if they have to add to global warming quicker than usual. Lots of scrap metal along the way from rusty old equipment. Ugh. We stayed in Abilene and stayed at a rather dumpy La Quinta and heated tomato soup in the room.
  November 2
 We had a shorter drive today - about 3 hours to Richardson, a northern suburb of Dallas where we stopped by Ken Orr's house. We have never visited him before. Unfortunately, his wife, Diane, was at work. We sat in their lush garden and talked and then went to the String Bean, a favorite restaurant of Ken's, and had lunch.

  When we stopped for gas before getting to Ken's house, the screen on the Clarity went dark and we could not see any of the information, change the climate or even use the radio or listen to the audio book we started yesterday. We were rather alarmed.
  On our way out of Dallas, we saw a Honda dealer and they took us right in. Two very nice young men fixed it in a few minutes. They said that the audio button is also a power button and connected to theft-detection. Somehow, it got disabled and they showed us how to fix it. There was no charge and we were on our way quickly. Whew - we were getting quite stressed about it and thought we'd have to schedule a maintenance trip to a dealer along the way.
  We only drove about 80 more miles and stayed at another La Quinta, this time a much nicer one - in Sulphur Springs, Texas. The scenery changed quite dramatically as we approached Dallas - hillier, greener, prettier.

November 3
    We had a long, but uneventful driving day from Sulphur Springs to Jackson, Tennessee. We stayed in a Baymont Motel which was mediocre and got grocery store food. We didn't stop much at all, but did pass a memorial site for the Fort Pillow massacre of black troops during the Civil War. It seemed good for it to be recognized, but then we passed a state park named after KKK leader and man responsible for the massacre-Nathan Bedford Forrest which seems awful to us. His name should not be remembered for anything but horror.

Bosque del Apache, October 30

 Today we had an expedition to Bosque del Apache which is about 150 miles north of Las Cruces. It was a sunny day, but rather chilly (50s) and windy. Mark and I were not bothered as the light was beautiful with bright blue skies, but Jan said it was not the best weather for the area.

    We were excited to go there as the sandhill cranes are starting to arrive for winter quarters and also because Jecca and Willy worked there when they were newly married and we have never been there.
    We arrived there around 2:30 and went to the visitor center where we bought a few items (Jec, Willy, some cards, a Raven Lunatic t-shirt for Mark, and a Western Bird book for Jan) and read the information.            . 
     Then Jan drove us on the loop.
      We saw hundreds (thousands?) of sandhill cranes, thousands of snow geese and Ross's geese. We also saw western grebes, pie-billed grebes, coot, pintail ducks, some redheads and others we did not identify, but will once we have some help with the photos we took.
    The birds of prey were incredible: a bald eagle in a snag that was attacked by brave crows, a golden eagle, northern harriers, red tails and a kestrel, or maybe it was a merlin.
    We also saw other wildlife including a small group of javalina, a wild "pig" that is native to the Southwest, and herds of mule deer. We had never seen javalina before. A bobcat had been sighted earlier, but we did not see it.

      We stayed in the park until the sunset to see the sandhill cranes coming in. We were very impressed as the formations landed. (Jan said that in another week there will be thousands and thousands.)
      We got home around 8:30 and had some spiced avocados that Jan made - yum. We also caught the last inning of the last game of the World Series. The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros. It was the Nationals first World Series ever.
        It was a spectacular and memorable day.

 

Las Cruces, NM Oct 27 - 29 and 31st

   We arrived in Las Cruces at Jan's house in Las Cruces and we stayed for 5 nights. I am dividing the blog into two parts: highlights of our stay in Las Cruces and a separate one for our visit to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Reserve. later.)

    Highlights of Las Cruces:
  We had wonderful meals at Jan's house: green chile stew, mushroom quiche, a salmon recipe to which we all contributed with beets, red peppers, walnuts and a special sauce, fruit salads, egg dishes, and a spicy avocado appetizer, a specialty of Jan's. We also experimented with one of the new non-meat burgers which taste like hamburger and all of us pronounced it more than acceptable.
   We went to Sprouts Market every day but one. Mark got his much-wanted fresh dates and we also got ingredients to make various green chile dishes when we get home.
   We also had wonderful meals at restaurants. We ate at Josephina's in Mesilla where Jan had stuffed avocados, Mark had enchiladas, and Barbara had a New Mexican salad.
  We ate at The Shed in Las Cruces where we had eaten before, and it did not disappoint. Jan had breakfast enchiladas, Barbara had calabasitas (vegetables, green chiles - totally delicious) and Mark had delicious green chile enchiladas. We feel quite addicted to New Mexico's Hatch green chiles, which, surprisingly can vary greatly in their heat despite being the same type of chile.
   We also bought a ristra to take home - a braid of red chiles to dry. We will drive home with it and hope it survives. It should be ground into powder in about 2 weeks.
    We all did quite a lot of bird watching in Jan's garden. We saw two types of quail, lesser goldfinches, a rock wren, white-winged doves and Western Cardinals (they have another name that I will look up

      We spent a day in Mesilla which has very interesting history and is well worth a visit. (Add more)
      We went to the Zuhl Museum on the campus of NMSU. The Zuhls had a business around fossils and petrified wood which they cut and polished, and, in fact, perfected the art of cutting and polishing. After retiring, they created the Zuhl Museum where some of their best pieces are exhibited. It was enlightening and beautiful.
    But, mostly we visited, talked, laughed and talked some more. It will be sad to leave as we so enjoy Jan, but she's so far away.
 
   

 

Tucson, Saguaro N.P. October 26

Inn-and-Out Burger

  We drove about 450+ miles today, leaving San Diego around 7. We stopped for coffee at a Winchell's as a nod to our memories of Egypt, probably the last time we stopped at a Winchell's.
   It was a day of a huge variety of elevations, from sea level to 4000 feet and spectacular scenery. We went through a pass which was mountains made of huge rocks, no soil, no plants. (We did not take photos as we were driving.) We dropped into the desert flats and passed through the Imperial Valley which is irrigated.

Cactus Wren

   We were close to the border for most of the day and felt great sadness for the way migrants are being treated today and passed through one border checkpoint. The terrain is so inhospitable that it is hard to imagine people being desperate enough to risk the crossing.
    We decided to take the time to go to Saguaro National Park which was probably not too much more than a 20 mile detour, but, of course, longer in time because we had to leave the interstate.
     The park is starkly beautiful. We stopped at the Visitor Center and took a walk through a cactus garden which identified the various cacti. We saw a lovely Cactus Wren which Mark managed to photograph. We went through Gates Pass over the Red Rock Mountains and dropped into Tucson where we are staying at a Ramada. We were too tired to go into town for food, so visited the hot tub for our weary bones and then went to the hotel lobby and had some mediocre food.

La Jolla/San Diego, Oct 23-25

 October 23 - We left Venice Beach via Costco for gasoline and arrived in White Sands at La Jolla around 11:30. Frank Morral was there to greet us and we checked into a guest room, thanks to Frank and Linda. We can only stay one night because the guest rooms are all booked.
   We went to lunch with Frank and Linda. It was so lovely that we were able to sit outside. Later, Barbara joined them for their hour-long dog gathering in the early afternoon. It was nice to get to know some of their friends. (Ocho and Rojo are their dogs) At 4 o'clock we went to a gathering for Octoberfest outside their dining hall and then went into lunch. They have really good food where they live with lots of variety.

 October 24 - We met Frank and Linda at 7:30 for breakfast. We checked out of our room and met Frank and Linda for a program called "Great Decisions." People read essays, accompanied by a video, about major topics. The topic today was the State of the U.S. State Department. It included a history of the department and the way the Trump administration has denigrated and decimated it. Thought provoking.

White Sands from a beach walk

   Afterwards, we drove to University of California at San Diego where we met with Michael Maury who works there.  First, he gave us a tour of where he works. Michael got some acting work there a number of years ago, hired by the school to work with their medical students. For the last five years, he has worked there as an administrator. The facility is amazing. He took us to the state-of-the-art mock Operating Rooms where students are observed by two-way glass in their diagnostic skills, interaction with the 'patients' etc. He also showed us very sophisticated mannikins where doctors learn/practice lapraroscopic surgeries. And, he showed us a not-yet-opened futuristic Operating Room.

    Walking around with Michael, it is clear that he is well liked and appreciated. Then he took us for a tour of the center of campus - very impressive. We saw the Geisel Library and we got food at the Student Center and went outside on some shady steps and ate.

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Geisel Library

   Then we drove to the Best Western Hotel on Shelter Island where we will be for 2 nights. We went to the hot tub and relaxed for a bit and then we walked to the end of the island for the sunset.
October 25
  First, happy birthday to our NEW daughter-in-law, Maura, born on the same day as my dearest childhood friend, Kathy!
   Today we drove over to see Frank and Linda and joined them at White Sands for lunch. We also accompanied them to the Puppy Gathering that they attend most days. We sat in their apartment, chatted and solved world problems.
     We went back to our hotel and had a nice stay in the hot tub while we charged the Clarity at the Blink charging station across the way. (Our first use of Blink)

      We went out to eat at a very good Thai restaurant, Supannee on Shelter Island. It was fantastic. We had delicious summer rolls with shrimp to start the meal. Mark had Thai hot basil stir fry which was excellent and Barbara had lemongrass chicken, also very good. It was a real find.