Sunday, October 25
There is a saying that goes something like this, “If you want God to laugh, make plans.” If that is true, God was laughing heartily at our expense today.
For several days we have been making plans for today, almost to the minute of when something would happen.
As we wrote previously, we heard from our friends in Ruidoso, Barradine and Harold, who would be passing through Artesia this morning on their way to Galveston. We invited them to come by our place for breakfast before continuing their journey…we could eat at 9:00 and still have plenty of time to get to church and then go to Roswell for a 1:00 pm lunch with Jerry and Jane, another plan that we had put into play when we looked at options for the weekend.
God started laughing and the plan started changing when Jerry called early this morning to say he was under the weather…a number of cadets at NMMI have been in the infirmary with the flu, and he thought he might be coming down with it also; so, he and Jane called to say that they wouldn’t be able to get together with us today.
While we were disappointed in this turn of events, it was something that could easily be worked around in the greater scheme of today’s other plans, so we went to work getting ready for church and getting breakfast made so Harold and Barradine wouldn’t have to delay their long journey for the day.
God must have been at least chuckling at us as Harold and Barradine were delayed between Ruidoso and Artesia and didn’t get here until 10:00. By then, we knew that we wouldn’t be attending church this morning, but we still were able to work in a really nice visit while enjoying our breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, grits, and (for Harold, Barradine, and me) coffee. After breakfast, I joined Harold for a walk around Jean’s property and gave him the cook’s tour. Meanwhile, Barbara and Barradine were getting caught up on their conversation.
Around 3:30 we finally hit the road toward Ruidoso. Finally, our plan was coming together and we had a nice ride. The colors are starting to change up in the mountains…nothing yet like the fall colors that we experienced last year in Virginia and northern Georgia, but still a pretty sight for travelers along the Highway 70 corridor.
We decided we wanted potato and chicken bowls for our evening meal, so before checking in at the hotel, we went to KFC and picked up our order. As we pulled in to the parking lot at the east end of the Holiday Inn Express, we were surprised at spot three deer that were grazing right beside the driveway. I parked the car and while Barbara went in to register, I grabbed the camera, got as close to the deer as possible, and got a shot of two of them…the first of many photos that we would take over the next 24 hours.
After a v-e-r-y leisurely start to the new day (we slept in until 7:30, got the car packed, and had a nice breakfast at the hotel), we started our adventures for the day.
The primary reason for the trip was to drive to the Cloudcroft area and search out points of interest from our much younger days. Barbara and her family spent a lot of time in the area around Sacramento when she was growing up in Hobbs and has wanted for at least the past two years to go up there and look around. We had planned once to do that on a motorcycle day trip, but it never happened, so we decided this was the time to go.
We left the Ruidoso area and took U.S. 70 to NM 244, a narrow two-lane highway that meanders through the mountains to the east side of Cloudcroft. It became quickly evident that winter was approaching; the beautiful summer flowers were all dead and brown…the only colors were the greens of the evergreen trees and an occasional yellowing aspen.
There was also a tinge of white in the tops of some of the evergreens, a sign of the light snow that had fallen during the night at the higher elevations. As we got closer to Cloudcroft (and reached even higher elevations) the snow and ice became much heavier in the trees and we just had to make a couple of stops to take pictures of the pre-winter wonderland.
Barbara: Once we left Cloudcroft and began heading into the Sacramento Mountains, Jim and I began trading once again stories of our youth and though Jim didn’t spend much time here in the mountains he did have one experience which we’ll get to in a little bit.
First, I told him about the summer we were at Sacramento and this “hot” college kid that all the girls were crazy about had to bring a truck down the mountain to have the brakes fixed. However, Strick did not make it safely down as the brakes gave out and he and the truck plunged down the mountain before he got to Weed (that’s a wide spot in the road…not really a town). Since we were driving up that same mountain, it was easy to see how Strick could have lost control…he was hurt, but not badly which was a relief to all of us teen-age girls who adored him!
After leaving Weed, we approached the cut off for Girl Scout camp, Camp Mary White. We had to stop there so I could have a thumb down photo taken by the sign! What a nightmare that week that I spent there was! I must have been in the 3rd or 4th grade and Mom and Dad sent me there for a “glorious” experience. Somehow it didn’t work out that way. One reason it was so horrible was that I was placed in a cabin with all these cute, skinny girls who were everything I wasn’t!
Then, the girls’ restroom didn’t have doors, curtains, or anything on the stalls or showers…well! There was no way I was going to expose my triple size body to these skinny girls who kept making fun of me! There was no shower for Barbara that entire week, and I snuck off from activities to go to the bathroom. I was a miserable, stinky mess! (It’s kind of embarrassing now to think what I must have smelled like!)
Then, the icing on the cake was when we went horseback riding. Our tour guy gave this long lecture about how you never let go of the reins, no matter what happens. Well, you guessed it…my horse took off galloping and the reins came out of my hands. Boy! That guy griped at me all the way back to camp and all the girls were having a great laugh at my expense. Ahhh…the cruelty of youth!
Jim: Believe it or don’t, I had almost no sense of adventure when I was much younger. I never wanted to go to church youth camp (although I could have) and while I was pretty active with my scout troop, I went to summer camp only one time. I have no idea what possessed me to go to Camp Wehinahpay that summer, and I certainly don’t have any fond memories of it. I remember sleeping in a tent with a bunch of guys, going to the rifle range for target practice with .22 rifles (and not being able to hit a thing) and an overnight hike across the rim trail (on a clear night we could see the lights of El Paso, nearly 100 miles away).
My favorite memory of the whole experience was returning home in time to put on my Little League baseball uniform and join the team that Daddy coached for a game that night…really impressive memories, huh.
I’ve never returned to that part of the Sacramentos until today. In fact, I couldn’t have told anyone how to get there, but when I learned that Wehinahpay (we used to call it “We have to pay?”), was on our route today, I decided that I needed to have my picture taken by the sign and express an emotion from over fifty years ago.
Barbara: For the last 3 years it has been my dream to find the little cabin in the Sacramentos that Daddy built with the help of Mother and us girls. It was such a wonderful experience and I can still remember the pride we felt when we spent our first night there once the cabin was completed.
My fondest memory (wonder what this says about me?) of that cabin is holding Carol down and cutting off one or maybe more of her long fingernails (I bit mine and Mom and Dad were always holding Carol’s beautiful nails up to me!). To say that I got in trouble for this is putting it mildly, but it was worth it! (Sorry, Carol)
Anyway, with Carol’s help while we were in Roswell yesterday, I got the general idea of where the cabin used to be…Mom and Dad sold it years ago. But, even with these instructions, I didn’t recognize it when we passed it the first time! Our cabin was white and didn’t have siding…and it wasn’t that big! But, after traveling as Jim says “half-way to Alamogordo the hard way,” we turned around. This time when we got near the cabin, I recognized it and knew that though it had grown and been beautified in some ways, here was the cabin we girls adored in our teen years. What fun we had tramping up the mountain side, cutting our initials in trees, jumping over the creek when it wasn’t overflowing! It was a good life!
Tuesday, October 27
Happy Birthday to Cousin Paula Wright in Graceville, Florida!
God must have been chuckling again this morning as we made our plans for the day. I had planned to do the weekly black water dump and then get out and clear the last patch of Jean’s yard that hadn’t been raked and mowed and we thought that a little outdoor time with Benji might be in order. It all seemed so possible and fun on a clear morning with only a slight southeast breeze.
As I got ready to step outside to get the “honey wagon” from the barn, the southeast breeze turned quickly to a stiff southwest wind, far greater than what had been predicted for the day.
The dump project had to be completed, no matter what the weather, but all other outdoor plans were gone with the wind, so to speak, as we just hunkered down for the remainder of the day to ride out the noisy wind.
Jerry and Nancy invited us to supper with them, Jean, and Susie tonight. Around 1:30 Nancy called from work and asked if we’d mind going over to their house to turn down the crock pot. We jumped at the chance to do something other than listen to the wind howl and drove around to their place.
Benji was waiting for us and let us hook on his leash for a short walk after the crock pot was taken care of, but just a few minutes in the wind changed his mind and he scurried back to the door to be let in.
We were on pins and needles for a large part of the afternoon and evening as we waited to hear from Jimmy Clint. Daughter-in-law Cathey emailed us around 4 to say that Jimmy was back at the hospital with elevated blood pressure and heart rate. We didn’t know whether to just take off and drive to Lubbock or wait until we heard further from the kids that we needed to be there.
Finally, Jimmy was able to contact us and wrote to say that there was no need for us to travel, but that didn’t take away the feeling of uneasiness that we shared. So…we decided to at least keep our minds busy by going on over to Jerry and Nancy’s.
At a little after 6:00 we went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house for a fun-filled evening of food and fellowship and a rousing game of Chickenfoot (which was won very handily by Jean). Becky wasn’t able to join us tonight as she was at a rehearsal of the upcoming community theater production, Nun-Sensation.
Wednesday, October 28
We started the morning exchanging emails with Jimmy Clint. He said that his condition was becoming stabilized and promised to let us know if he thought we should come to Lubbock.
We decided that we’d better be prepared to travel, just in case, so we gathered up the laundry and made a trip into town to support our local laundromat. While the washers were churning away, I went to the cleaners to pick up some slacks that we had dropped off last week. I also drove by the local library to ask if they accepted donations of used paperback books, but they weren’t open yet, so I returned to the laundromat until everything was washed, dried, and folded or hung up.
When all was completed at the laundromat, we drove back to the library (it was the first time we’d been in it since our senior year of high school back in 1962---it still looks and smells like a library, but there has been some expansion of the building over the years) and then drove back to the cleaners to drop off Barbara’s winter coat before heading back to Big V.
As we left the library, the wind started howling again, even stronger than yesterday making Barbara wonder if she should have kept her dirty winter coat. But, it was too late for that decision now. As soon as we got to Big V and put everything away, we made the decision to close the bedroom and kitchen slideouts to eliminate some of the wind noise and cut down on the dust that creeps in when everything is opened up. It made for closer quarters than usual, but did cut down on the noise.
The weather rarely ever impacts our Wednesday lunch bunch at Chaos, so we once again gathered today at 12:30 for an hour of good food and conversation. Susie told us that she had heard from James, who has been elk hunting on the other side of the state this week; James and his group had decided to dodge some oncoming bad weather and have cut their trip short by a day. This meant that instead of staying over for another night, Susie will drive back to Hobbs tonight after work.
On the way home from Chaos, Barbara and I stopped at WalMart and got the ingredients for our crock pot recipe for lasagna before heading home to put it all together and get it cooked for supper tonight. Of course, WalMart didn’t have the Italian sausage I like to use, but I did a passable job of seasoning a pound of hamburger meat and cooking up a pretty good sauce for Barbara to use.
After a short nap, we went over to Jean’s house to take down her light fixture covers in the kitchen and sun room, wash them, and get them put back up.
Tonight we just relaxed, ate the lasagna, watched game one of the World Series, and worked at our computers…nothing exciting. Barbara had been up most of the night last night worrying about Jimmy so she bailed about 8 and fell promptly asleep leaving me to watch the Phillies whip up on the Yankees. Go, Phillies…I’ve never been a Yankee fan so I’m more against them than for the Phillies.
Before going to bed, Barbara did talk to Jimmy and found out that he has a small touch of pneumonia from laying down so much. Plus, they have given him medicine to try to dilate his arteries, hoping that this will raise his heart rate and lower his blood pressure. It is really hard for her to respect his wishes of us staying put for now.
Thursday, October 29
While Barbara worked on her part of this week’s journal and put in photos, I cleaned up the kitchen before making another mess by fixing a late breakfast. It’s very cold and windy this morning so don’t know that we’ll get much of anything accomplished.
Sure enough, at the end of the day we couldn’t say that we had done much of anything except make a quick trip to WalMart for some groceries and supplies…b-o-r-i-n-g!
Our good news for the day is that Jimmy Clint was released from the hospital and is back at home…our thanks go out to al for your prayers and messages of concern and support.
Friday, October 30
Since the day was going to be yucky, windy, and cold, we decided that we had to find something to do! So…after Jim returned from the Methodist Men’s breakfast at the hospital, we grabbed the camera, some water, and a couple of diet cokes for a road trip.
First stop was the rest area just outside Maljamar…Jim just can’t seem to make it past this area without marking the territory as his! Once back on the road, we found ourselves in Lovington at Good Samaritan Home where Jim planned to see his former mother-in-law Marie. However, he quickly returned as the nurse told him it would be better if he came around 1:00 or so.
With that change in plans, I quickly called Susie in Hobbs to see what was on her agenda. We’d just mosey over there for a while until it was time for Jim’s visit with Marie. Thankfully, Susie was home (she was trying to clean house after the trips she and James had been on) and we made arrangements to meet for lunch.
When we got closer to Hobbs, Jim broke out into laughter and about broke his neck looking back at something. I had no clue what was going on, but I soon found out.
There’s no doubt that one Sunday or Monday we will have to come worship with the Cowboy Junction! What a sense of humor those folks must have!
As we piddled away the time, I was delighted to find that Hobbs has a Cado’s though I didn’t find anything I wanted to purchase today.
Finally it was time to meet James and Susie at Quizno’s, a sandwich shop. We arrived earlier than they did so I had the camera ready and waiting to capture their entrance! As most of you know quite well, no one is safe from the camera when either Jim or I are around!Though we had just seen Susie over in Artesia when she spent the night with Jean, this was the first time we’d gotten to visit with James since our return to New Mexico. James is an accountant and normally he is too busy for a leisurely lunch so we felt quite fortunate that we got to spend some time with him. Much too soon, it was time for James to return to work and for us to wander back over to Lovington.
Today I got to spend over a half hour with her and we had a long talk and lots of laughs along the way.
With this being Halloween weekend, the folks there were having their big celebration this afternoon, so part of our laughter was about the interesting costumes and makeup that we saw all around us…they were really going all out for the season.
I asked Grandma if I could take a picture of her to share with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and she readily agreed. When I had taken the first shot, a close-up of her, she asked if I also took a picture showing the Tootsie-Pop/pipe cleaner spider that was sitting on her tray. I told her I didn’t, but that would be the next picture. Later, I prevailed on a staff member to take a shot of us together.
The trip back to Artesia was uneventful except for the wind and dirt (which isn’t all that uneventful in this part of the country).
When we got home, Barbara started supper (leftover lasagna). I took some over to Jean for her evening meal and then Barbara and I ate together before she settled in to watch a couple of her special Friday night programs and I went back to Jean’s house to watch the Celtics dominate the Bulls in a NBA game, and the USF Bulls upset West Virginia in NCAA football action.
The hometown Bulldogs traveled to Roswell tonight and guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs by defeating the RHS Coyotes 48-7. Jerry, Nancy, and I didn’t make the trip because they were scheduled for an early trip to Knox City, Texas, tomorrow morning to visit Amanda, Zeke, Daniel, and Jonah for a Jonah’s 3rd birthday.
Saturday, October 31
Happy Halloween Everyone!!!
After a slow start this morning (we weren’t in much of a hurry in the first place, but we place the blame on the cold early morning temperatures) we made up our minds to take advantage of a beautiful, windless day to take care of some yard work around the place.
A couple of days ago, Nancy asked if we’d be interested in mowing off part of their lot while they were out of town this weekend. Barbara was all over that, but the weather has been so bad that outside work was just out of the question.
I went out about 10:00 this morning to get the mower out of the barn and ready to roll, then turned over the controls to Barbara and she rode off into the prairie to do battle with weeds, wild grasses, and the dust she would stir up.
Barbara finished her part of the work well before I did mine, though in my defense, I did take some time out to get Benji and take him for a walk.
Around five o’clock, as I was hauling away the last of the grass and trash, Barbara went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to check on Benji and feed him. When she came back by while taking Benji on a short walk, she asked me if I hadn’t fed him this morning. I said that I had…I had carefully shredded the chicken and put it on top of his bowl of crunchies before taking him for a walk. What I evidently hadn’t done was set the bowl down on the floor so Benji could eat the food. Oh well, just another in a series of “senior moments.” I guess I’ll tell Nancy I was just trying to teach Benji how to jump, not that she’s going to believe me.
Everyone was worn out from the day’s activities, so when we finished eating, we returned to Jean’s place and said our goodbyes and good night’s, and I returned to Big V to work on the journal and watch Texas put a heavy thump on Oklahoma State.
“The heaviest load to carry is a grudge.” - Sign at Cloudcroft, New Mexico, United Methodist Church
From Artesia,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams
