The calm after the storm

It's beautiful to wake up this morning after days of ferocious wind to find not a leaf in the trees moving and the only sound the Union Pacific off to my left.

Red meat

It's tough to get a good vegie sandwich on the road.

Hanging

Annie Bones is a great traveler. Here she is, kicked back while we're buffeted by bigrigs on I10 heading west out of Silver City, NM.

Walls and weavers

Horse and rider, mural, Silver City, NM

Silco Theater

Old Town, Silver City, NM

Hosana at Wild West Weaving. She gave us a lesson and a tour of her gallery. Beautiful. See her weavings at www.hosanaeilert.com

New Mexican dusk

The sun slips behind the Chiricahuas and the rig rocks in the wind. The only thing missing is the soft glow from a lantern and the lingering scent of kerosene.
I'm watching for the nightly arrival of the coyotes coming to reclaim their land.

Dust song

Fifty mile per hour gusts. The wind whistles so loudly it's as if we've been swallowed by some deep throated warbler.

Family legacy

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.
I am terrified by this dark thing
That sleeps in me;
All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.
-Sylvia Plath

Rusty's RV Ranch

(I have no idea why there are two images here. But the 2nd one is free.)

This place is in open desert, few people and at first we feared this was to be the desert equivilent of the Bates Motel.

The people though are friendly, the Chiricahua's are nearby, coyotes are circling Annie's water dish, the snakes are out and there is a nice breeze from the east. It doesn't get much better than this.

Geronimo surrenders

We drove through Skeleton Valley in New Mexico today. We passed a border patrol truck with 2 agents and an apprehended illegal who stood at the back of the truck with his hat in his hand. Later we passed two men in heavy layered clothing carrying water jugs walking down I80 toward the Mexican border. Right toward the border patrol.
"They look like they want to get caught," I said.
"Maybe they've had it. It's hot out. They look tired," Irene added.
We rounded a bend in the road and passed another border patrol headed in the direction of the 2 walkers. We knew they were doomed. We looked out our window. We were staring at the mounument dedicated to the very spot where Geronimo surrendered to the US Army in 1886.
"Good as any spot," I said.

Back streets of Bisbee

Okay, so I'm in love. Is there someone out there willing to sponsor me into free housing in this town? I'm a good person...

(photo credits, Irene)

General merchandise

This woman, I'll name her Willa, looks out between the metal lattice in the window of General Merchandise and Farm Implements in Pearce, a ghost town 20 miles up the road. The town consisted of an intersection with a closed pottery shop and the sign, "always open", a boarded up house with two barking pit bulls and another sign directing us to the Pearce Cemetery.

Command Central

Note "IV poles" keeping the juice flowing.

Applauding applesauce

I bought this necklace in Bisbee yesterday. I thought it said, "applesauce". (don't ask why I found that appealing, I just did.) When we got back to the rig, I noticed it said, "Applause". Now it is a much noisier necklace than I'd intended.

Happy Birthday, Sol!

My son, Sol is celebrating his birthday today somewhere in Mexico with his family, a regular birthday weekend! (Sol is seen here looking very perky early one morning last week in his kitchen with his wife, Diane, also looky perky considering it isn't even light out and no one's had coffee yet.)

Flatlander

It is very difficult for me to make a decision on a hill. I feel precarious and I view the whole world the same way.

View from the hill

Night skies over Bisbee.

Happy Birthday, CC!

Today is my granddaughter, Sierra's 9th birthday! A very happy one to this kid who at this very moment is someplace in Mexico celebrating with her family! (what an incredible girl!)

Sardines

The RV park in Bisbee is so crowded we can't see beyond our neighbor's satellite dishes.

The Visitors

Some may remember our Witness Protection friends, Stan and Janet. Well, we just met up with them again in the Arizona desert. They're getting pretty cocky. This time they didn't even cover their faces. Just wait til the federales get a load of this! Great to see you guys....and what fantastic cookies!!! (that's what we had for dinner last night.)

Dot's Diner

1957 diner originally sat at the corner of Ventura and Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles and was brought by flatbed truck to the Shady Dell on Hwy 80, southeast Arizona in 1996.

Irene yuks it up at Dot's Diner with Cha Cha, who recommends the burger and chocolate malt.

Farkle in the pole barn

We spent last night at Deb and Phil's in Cochise, AZ playing Farkle in their pole barn. Nothing but the starless sky and the slim outline of the Stronghold to the west. And under the rafters near the Xmas lights just a soft rustle as the Cactus-wrens and their spring brood settled in for the night.

In bloom

Another roadside shrine. Sadly as abundant as the wildflowers.

Persimmon Tree

I have a poem published in the spring issue of Persimmon Tree On-line Magazine. Please visit www.persimmontree.org to read, "Cornstalks and Crows."

The heat has begun to turn hot

Leapin' lizards

Irene and Annie Bones take a dip in the Colorado

It's like carrying a 2 ton boulder around on your back. Nice in camp though.

There are wildflowers everywhere! (seriously, there were more than these 3 little daisies.)

The land of the powerless

We're taking our weird freaked out selves on the road in the morning....We'll be back about April 6th. Will blog, facebook and twitter where ever we find a plug....

At the pitch

"..I want to live at the pitch which is near madness but disciplined by art."
-Morton Marcus

Whirlwind

18 hours with my son, Aaron from Toronto who is on the West Coast for a work conference. Fleeting and sweet.

Bestsellers

Sisters Singing and The Dalai Lama, both best sellers in Santa Cruz, CA.

Reading Margaret Atwood

She writes, "....his lean feet stick out, toes with the deprived look of potatoes sprouted in the bag." (just how can you not love this Canadian writer?!)

Stabbed in the heart

My latest offering to the Found-Art-Goddess. Turn the wheel at the base of this seaweed woman. She says, "I've been stabbed in the heart so many times but I'm still in love with you honey."
(click on image to fully appreciate.)

Comfort zone

My good friend's father was the political anchor for CBS News in Los Angeles when I was invited to dinner at their house. I was an unsophisticated young hippy who rarely wore shoes. Confronted with an array of forks and spoons at my place setting I sat immobilized.
My friend's mother looked over the rim of her wine glass and asked, "Would you be more comfortable in another room?"

Day light savings time

We've lost an hour of sleep. When will I do all my night flying?

Pack leader

In our house we are trying to redefine the 'pack leader' concept. Not one of us gets it yet.

Recession depression

The juggler

My father used to entertain us by juggling oranges and apples in our kitchen. I was mesmerized. I thought he was a genius and I thought I was the luckiest girl around to have such a dad.
One day he tried juggling half-gallon glass milk bottles. At that point I just thought he was insane.

The truth about trees

Today we went tree shopping. It's not as easy as it sounds. We wandered nurseries for hours. We studied tree size and root systems.
One nurseryman told us almost anything will grow in this zone.
At another business the guy told us we don't have good soil, proper drainage or a hillock to plant a tree on.
By now every leaf and every branch is looking the same. We're tired and discouraged and we're beginning to think all trees are evil.

Tough love

Years ago I was in a hospital ER room behind a curtain and next to me behind another curtain was a man who had just had his leg severed by a freight train he was trying to hop. The man was drunk, delirious and drugged. Basically out of his mind, he yelled and cried and tried to grope a nurse.
"If you don't knock it off, we're calling the cops," one incensed nurse said.
The man wept.
"It's your fault you lost your leg, now get control of yourself!"
I remember thinking, 'well, that's a little harsh.'

Clutch Cable according to Wordle

So I’m sitting by the side of the road and big rigs roar by like they own the road and about a mile away is a diner and I know it’s there because I can smell the gravy and I can hear the waitress Bunny clicking her gum and I can almost see the sun glinting through their front window and shining off that gold molar of hers. My car has popped a clutch cable again and I know the only way out for me is to crawl underneath and stretch the new cable from front to back and attach the thing. But the trouble is, I’ve got a job interview today at George Air Force Base and I’m wearing a dress. Some colonel is waiting for me right now and he has a crease in his trousers and his hair glistens with Bryl Crème and he’s tapping his pencil on his bare desktop. He’s not going to wait forever, not for a civilian. (click on image for clarity.)