January-April 2007 Ramblings

This is my first posting to the new blog site. I hope you will find news of Zia, my cat, and my adventures interesting.

To bring you up to date, Mother and I drove from SD to NM after Christmas where we picked up the motorhome and began a 4 month odyssey around AZ, southeastern CA, and southern NM. We saw several friends along the way in addition to seeing both new and old familiar places. New experiences included "doing Quartzsite" for Mom (she doesn't care to return); seeing the London Bridge at Lake Havasu City, AZ, as well as the Nellie B Saloon outside Parker, AZ, and the hospital bed races at Oatman, AZ (what a find that town was!). I also introduced Mom to a couple of my favorite parks in AZ where we enjoyed quail and migrating birds come through our campsite. We parked at Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus, NM, for 2 months while I volunteered for the park. Numerous friends came to visit and stay at the park while we were there and it was fun to visit with folks in the relaxed atmosphere of my favorite NM park. Columbus is 3 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border, so we had a few trips to the Pink Store in Palomas for meals and shopping. One highlight of that particular period was a van trip with several friends to Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua,. We stopped at the Paquime ruins at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, which were very impressive as was the first-rate visitor center. We stopped at three homes in Mata Ortiz where we looked at locally-made pottery—and we bought some, of course. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing so hard that day that we were not able to observe potters at work. There is a longstanding strong cultural connection between the potters at Mata Ortiz and U.S. Pueblo Indians as well as other southwestern Native Americans which shows in their art work. Mother went back to SD in mid-April with my nieces, Nicki and Heather, who drove down to get her and Molly, her cat. I think Zia was very happy to have the coach back to herself again! Soon it was time to leave Pancho Villa. I departed April 25th just as the park was really beginning to blossom with cacti and wildflowers in bloom. I must plan to stay into May at a later time.

From Pancho Villa I drove to Albuquerque where I stayed about 10 days to have the coach and Zia checked out prior to departing on a four month drive to Alaska. I will continue with my progress on a later posting.