Vacation - Part 3

New Mexico

This was on top of a mesa Tom took us too. If you looked at my feet, it just dropped off. See the river winding?

Since we girls told the guys we wanted to see what we saw, we gave them the day to choose where they would go off roading at. That was ….um…. I want so much to say a mistake.

We got into this national forest and went way up this mountain to like 10,000 feet. It was so beautiful. I have never seen ****A trees before. They are white and look like the bark is made from paper. Okay, that was neat.

How beautiful are these?

Then…we got down this road heading back to civilization. That’s funny. Road. There were big ruts in the road and thank GOD David was driving. He’s got lots of experience doing the off road thing.

This is where Robert wants to put a house.

Now lemme tell ya something. We live out in the boonies. We be rednecks. They don’t. This isn’t a slam on them. Not at all. And even though Robert and Dave have this “Hoss, I’ve driven a million miles off road.” Linda and I laugh in the back seat.

Down this road, I have no doubt David could do it. Honestly. They weren’t so inclined toward this manner. In fact, I believe they were a bit fearful. Well, that and the insurance on the rental is void if something happens and you are off roading. Sooo……..we turn around.

Go down the next road. Get down there and same thing. Turn around. We spent like 5 hours doing this. Hahahahaha! Linda and I shake our head.

We get to this lava field. Stop in at the info center to find that there are also ice caves to see. Ooooooooo! Linda and I want to see this! Well, being the time of day, we were running a little short of time. So we went to the first one and saw the lava spout and a few other things. It was neat. To imagine that many moons ago there were volcanoes shaping the land the way it was….neat.

This poor guy is used to show how big the spout was. How neat is this?

Get to Toms. I have to tell you first about his kitchen floor. No. First about Tom. Tom is a card. He’s got like two PhD’s. He’s very intelligent. He’s funny and catches Dave off guard a lot. He’s also an excellent wood worker. Makes custom cabinets and I believe that man could make ANYTHING.

He’s telling us one day about how he built the adobe walls surrounding his property. I get back and look at these walls. THESE WALLS? WOW! But back to his kitchen floor.

That pretty adobe, that would be just one of the walls he built.

There are big pieces of rock with color in layers. Apparently he knew this contractor who had this flooring ordered for these people who changed their mind. I’m looking at this flooring. (they changed their minds?) So he got it cheap. Good for him. He and his wife put it in.

This is gorgeous flooring. Gorgeous. I wish I had a pic of it. It’s shiny and so colorful. His wife was telling me the many steps they went through to put it in correctly. Wow. I was so impressed.

He built the wooden staircase that goes up from the kitchen and underneath this staircase are all these little cabinet doors. Oh my. You aren’t telling me….yes, I am telling you. These all open up to cabinets. In fact, one opens up and the drawer slides out. My mouth drops open a foot.

These are tumble weeds caught in the canyons.

Shooting Prairie Dogs

Okay, this was the best part of it all. Tom traps on this farmer’s property. I can’t describe how big it is cause he was telling us he owned like (pulling number out of the air) 178 ‘lots’. One lot is so many acres. It takes like 150 acres to support ONE cow. (cause there’s nothing to eat, you would think someone would buy a clue) This info is important later, remember it, there will be a quiz.

Tom says these are campfire scars from the Indian's. Imagine if they could tell stories.

Okay, so we go out and we shoot a couple prairie dogs. Not many, just a few and then we go out riding. Tom took us to the property he traps on. O M Gosh was it huge. The mesa alone was 22,000 acres. Put that in your brain and imagine it. Flat? Nope. We were bounced all over the place. It was fun.

The first killing fields.

At one point I saw a jackrabbit. Apparently they are competition for the cows. Not to be mistaken for the cottontail rabbit. These rabbits have really long ears. Tom keeps two loaded guns mounted between his front seats. He stops, hands me one and tells me to shoot it. “From the van?” Yep. I’m sitting on David’s lap in the front. Okay, but isn’t he gonna go deaf? Nope, just shoot it. OKAY! I did, and I got it! YEAH FOR ME!!!!! Direct hit! (Had I been standing, I’d a done a jig)

Now you know why we use scopes. Doesn't he look sexy with that slung over his shoulder.

He takes us all over the place. We saw the bottom of the mesa, from the top of course. The valley with a creek and water. There was water in it! (amazing, honestly) Wild burrows, elk, antelope and tracks all over the place. It was so interesting.

Can you see the burrows in the churro?

One place he took us to was where they are Indian hieroglyphics. They aren’t called that, they are called Petroglyphs. Tom, will know. I’ll email. We got out and climbed all over these huge rocks to see them. WOW, oh wow! Can you imagine an Indian out in his loincloth making these pictures way, way back? Here I am in sneakers and a digital camera googling over them. My only fear was finding a rattler.

This is taken from up on the Mountain where the petroglyphs were. Little high?

We saw where they had a HUGE flood in September. It actually ATE the road. We had to go another way. On the side of these mesas were long black scars. This is where the Indians made their fires way back. He even took us to Indian ruins for pottery shards. The reason we could pick them up and no one else had totally gleaned them is because we were on private property. I came back with an entire can of them. The girls were delighted.

This was by the indian ruins. See the chimney? We found many of these.

We went back and Tom refills his shells. That was so cool. Here’s my husband, “Tom, you aren’t doing a good job of teaching my wife anything.” He got all flustered. I got to remove and replace the primer. He wouldn’t let me refill the gunpowder no matter how much I fussed and insisted I was smart enough. But, he did let me put the bullets in. That was so very cool! We used them the next day. Must have done it right cause no guns blew up. (whew!)

The next day we went out and met Ernie. He was over an hour away. We met him on the side of the road. Everything looks like the side of the road, hahahaha. Ernie is serious about his prairie dog killing. He has this cart with a table on the back. Then this pouch to set your muzzle on to keep it from moving (cause I do a lot of that). It was so very way cool!

I’m looking down this scope. He’s spotting for me. It goes kinda like this:

See the telephone pole? Go to the left. Right behind the cholla……

The tire…..go about 15 yards down and to the left…..

This in Indiana would be: See the tree…….?

400 yards puts me out by the tire, can you see it? Here, use the scope.

I can’t describe to you how much fun I had. I’m looking down this scope and the cross hairs are the same width as the little boogers. And still I got them. Yeah for me! He got all excited. “She got a double!” I look up, ‘is that good?” He’s yelling over his shoulder, “she got a double! Two of them with one shot!” I did good, yeah for me again! I got a double. Geez, I was just happy I hit what I was aiming at. I got a double, bragging rights to me!

Then he was spotting another for me. I saw a different one. I go, “I see one.” He says, “Well shoot it.” Alright! He gets all excited. “She got one at 400 yards!” (is that good?” He’s pointing to this spot way out there. Bragging rights to me again. Being that I’ve shot a gun now like 5 times in my life. Yeah for me! I had so much fun!!

I had to put this one in cause I like that hat. That's my smooksie-poo.

Remember how much land it takes to support one cow? Anything that gives it competition or endangers its safety is considered expendable. Prairie dogs don’t eat much, but they make these holes for their houses that make the ground fragile. While we were walking, more than once I stumbled because of a prairie dog hole. They say the cows break legs because of them. There is apparently a prairie dog family that is 600 miles across. WOW! When do we hunt that one?

That's Ernie, me, Tom, Robert, and Linda.

The west was beautiful. It was a neat learning experience. I enjoyed it much. It was good to be home and see my kids again. The dry air had all four of us with dried, cracked sinuses. We got off the tram by the truck and I threw out my hands, tossed back my head and shouted to the parking lot: “Oh humidity, wrap your arms of love around me!” David laughed. I think it took 3 days for our noses to get right. :)

Nothing topped Bubs’ face alit, yelling, “Mommy!” , and being smothered in hugs from my children. Now that was priceless!