As I left Flagstaff a few days ago, driving thru high deserts… I wondered what our ancestors saw. For one, there were no power poles, no highways, no fences. Those were the only things I could see that probably wasn’t there when our ancestors found the wild west. But wait, the biggest thing missing was millions of buffalo.  I tried to envision what these wide expanses of land with millions of buffalo grazing these lands was like. There hooves let sparse water get thru the hard-packed earth to the roots of plants, there scat fertilizing the land, their hides gave warmest on cold winter months, bison meat a worthy endeavor as well, all parts of the animal were used to sustain life. Yet today, just miles upon miles of parched land, with a fence around it (to keep what out or what in?). No wildlife to be seen, nary a cow to be had.  How boring…  It would have been grand to see the buffalo roaming them hills…

I spent the night after Flagstaff in a hot little gravel pad of a so-called RV park. Full of permanent seasonal workers, but so did a few others that had been in Flagstaff at the same campground as I. We all commiserated on our situation, as this was the only park available – nothing at Gallup, nothing in Grants. The only good thing, the price was right for nothing.  There was a casino in Gallup, but had learned they no longer supported RV’s like they once did. And construction was murder in Gallup. So kept going.  I have been told just stop wherever… well, I’m not comfortable doing that alone, but am figuring out what and the where’s better than I did when I first started this adventure.

I am now in Albuquerque, arrived yesterday – hit Camping World before I came on into Albuquerque. My long time friends, Karen & David, picked me up last night – I shared left-overs with them (only friends can come up with such great left-overs!), got a wonderful tour of their new home, a classic Adobe home. We were stationed in Adak with them, lots of fond memories. We re-acquainted with Karen last Fall when they still lived in Utah, but David wasn’t home then. So it was a grand evening spending time with them. They also gathered my one-time delivery of mail to NM. It was like Christmas, opening all that I got.  Today, I tagged along with Karen to do some shopping and for me to pickup prescriptions, and a package at post office. We went to a Farmers Market, strolling thru, the many venue was a delightful way to spend some time. Consumed a fair amount of samples too. Managed to pick up some fresh salad greens, a custard pie, veggies.  Then we went off to a Tile store. Karen wanted to get tiles to cover a table in her bathroom.  So she managed to find a little 2″ tile with a pattern she loved. From that point, it was relatively easy to pick what went with it, but then to figure out how much tile to fit a 16″ top of a table.  Beautiful combo she picked and it has flexibility built in to let her creative juices flow when it comes time to make it. I had suggested she take a picture of what she did in the store, as she would not remember later. So she did.  Now to wait to see what she does with it. Karen is magical in her creative ways… so anything goes. What fun! Then she took me thru the old sections of town, some very interesting stores, will one day take a stroll down these streets, venture into the stores and meet the people. Delightful, just delightful.

Karen tempted me with a trip to Whole Foods, as there are two stores in Albuquerque. We just might do this Monday…  Time for dinner, a nice fresh salad is in order for today. Yum!