Three day countdown

Anyone who knows me might think this is about Dunkin Donuts coming to Las Cruces, but it is not. Well, DD will be mentioned again so perhaps it is, but the underlying theme for today is 3 days to vacation. My vacation or Mycation as we used to say where I worked. On Thursday morning at some ungodly hour, we will put the dogs in the car for a ride south to the Doggie Spa (more about that later) and then head north for day one's adventure - Trinidad, CO. No, there is not much to see there but it is a stepping stone to Day 2's goal, Estes Park Colorado, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. There we will attend my best friends, son's wedding, play and drink at the Lodge, catching up on old times and then leave for Rocky Mountain National Park

Over the next several days we will also visit Arches National Park and also Mesa Verde National Park with the cliff dwellings. I hope to post almost every day, include some iPhone pictures and then do a couple of photo blog posts when we return.

We will finish up our trip in Taos, NM before returning home. Our friends Bill and Clair visited there and raved about the little social and artistic mecca of the northern New Mexico frontier so we are looking forward to that too.

This will be  one of our typical whirlwind tours but hopefully will give is some ideas about future vacation trips. I know the National Park Hat Trick (Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion) are in our future as is Death Valley and San Diego so our trips out are stacked up for us.

Just to whet your appetite and mine, a couple of pictures of what to expect, courtesy of the National Park Service;

RMNP 

RMNP

MVNP

MVNP

MVNP

ANP

ANP

Why U Mad ???

Yea, so it has been almost 6 weeks since I wrote last. Part of it was writers block, part recent medical stuff and part is that along with reddit boy, we have been working to move the blog (and a photography portfolio) to their very own domain. This is been hard to coordinate because, first I did not know how to use WordPress, and secondly, reddit boy is the urban social media type, in his job which eats up significant parts of his type. But we are moving there slowly. If you would like to see the progress, go to http://www.dylanhulser.com/PatHulserPhoto/ a take a look. Not too much there but construction is under way!

Life in Cruces continues its slow meandering pace. Retirement is good, the sky sunny, the time to work on projects etc. is delightful. I continue as the event planner for the State Park and just had a storyteller come in for a show. They usually charge about $350 for a show but because we are a state park and they were going to be in the area, and we had become friends with them in T or C at the hot springs, they did it for free. Attendance was not great but there were 8 people at the evening story tell and they were fantastic. We went out for a drink after and spent a couple of hours swapping stories and experiences with them and some friends. Again a wonderful time.

Two other things are on my horizon for late summer - I have been asked to run the annual symposium on photography which is a big learning experience for me. Also I am planning a Native American Heritage Day at the Park in November. That same day we met the story tellers, I met a NMSU business professor who was working with the Native American program at NMSU for NA entrepreneurship and he is going to make the project a class event where the students  will earn credits for all the work they do, which is significant. I got the Friends of the Park group to give $500 seed money and we are off. More about this as it develops.

Anyway, this has been my last six weeks and I am looking forward to continued work on the blog and photography site. By the way, I also taught myself basic inDesign, an Adobe graphic arts program and Lightroom, an image editing program for my photographs. And WordPress too!

Just because, here are two of my latest images:

Trapped

Trapped Again

Three Days in Tucson: Day Two

Me: Hi, my name is penguin and I am a dunkinaholic.

The Group: Hi Penguin

Me: It was 509 days since my last drink of Dunkin Donuts coffee until we went to Tucson

The group: Tell us more.

Me: OK, Here is my story

After day one in Tucson and a nice dinner, while driving home we passed a DD about 500 yards from our hotel door. I knew this is where we would be on Day 2, bright and early, and we were. When we got inside of the store, I smelled the coffee and fresh baked goods and broke out into a cold sweat. By time the lightly toasted bagel, smothered in cream cheese and hot coffee, large, arrived I had developed the shakes. We sat outside and after each sip, an “ahh” escaped my lips. It was the best morning of my life but then I realized I had given into the crack infused coffee dream and had a problem. The new DD in Las Cruces will open in May and it is a quarter mile from our  home. What should I do?

The Group: Get on line there NOW! What are you waiting for?

Me: I knew you would understand.

(the above is a dramatization of the actual event.)

Our first goal for day 2 was the Sonoran Desert Museum. Everyone we told that we were going to Tucson, and I mean EVERYONE, said to go there. It was a bit of a ride but worth every single mile. We knew we only had limited time and dove right in. The museum, most of which is outside, features a 2 mile paved trail, through various areas of desert features like a butterfly garden, a bee garden and the like. The flowers and cactus along the way were spectacular and we planned to go as far as the hummingbird exhibit. We were not disappointed. There were hundreds of hummers all around and I got to see my first hummingbird nests ever which was wonderful. We spent a total of about 2 hours there and enjoyed every second.

Flowers along the Museum Trail

Hummer in action

Docent and Harrison Hawk

Next up was a drive through the western part of Saguaro National Park, which is so different and more rustic than the east part. The views there were more spectacular and the cactus and flowers seemed to be in a more natural desert setting.

Saguaro in the afternoon sun

Having ignored the dogs in their crate in the hotel for several hours, we treated them to a trip to the local dog park where they ran around with other dogs their size for over an hour. They really seemed to enjoy themselves. Their second treat was a hamburger from a fast food joint which they also loved. Overall Skippy and the Desert Rat did well on the trip and that makes it easier to plan future trips.

We went to dinner at a place that served Mexican and was also recommended. President Clinton dined there when he was in office in 1999. The margaritas were great, the chips and salsa excellent and the meal itself was very, very good.

Day two was complete and we were all very tired. Enjoy several photos I took on this day in Tucson.

My new Hawk buddy!

Pensamientos al azar sobre el Three Days in Tucson*

*translation:
Random Thoughts on Three Days in Tucson

We just returned from 3 days vacationing in Tucson, AZ and had a great time. But before I talk about the trip, some commentary. I was a little hesitant about going to Tucson, perhaps the racist capital of the southwest. I decided to just deal with it but it very early reared its ugly head. We were looking for a steak house for supper and found one that was universally touted as being the best of the rest. However, as I researched it there was a comment - This owner is RACIST - which piqued my interest so I looked it up. It seems that the owner, angry old white guy, is a racist and bigot. He has a Karaoke bar and refuses to allow anyone to sing songs in Spanish there. Like that will keep our brown friends from crossing the border, no Karaoke. So I have decided to dedicate this series of blog posts to this big jerk. I figure he will never read it because the title is in Spanish and that just encourages undocumented aliens. And to this bigot I say “Usted señor es un idiota.”

Now for the trip. This is how Day One went.

The early drive over to Tucson was uneventful and maybe the easiest 4 hour drive I have ever made. No traffic, no rush, no problems. We decided that the first stop was to be the east section of The Saguaro (pronounced swar-o, not sa-GOR-o) National Park. I love National Parks and this one met if not exceeded my expectations. We got in on my handicap pass, drove the 8 mile loop and took lots of photos, several of which are here at the end of this post. We stopped to walk the dogs, now veteran vacation travelers and nicknamed Skippy and the desert rat, and had a picnic lunch in the shadow of 20-30 foot tall saguaros.

We checked into the hotel, rested a while, and then went out not to that Racist Restaurant but to a place called “El Correl.” As we walked in, a gentleman leaving said hello to us so I asked him how this place was, and he responded, “it is great, I recommend the prime rib.” No one needed to twist my arm about this. We had a fresh salad, tossed at the table, a pitcher of Sangria (little light on wine and too heavy on ice, fruit and soda but good) and perfectly cooked prime rib. Unfortunately, there was no doggie bag for our boys.

On the way home, we drove around the city a bit and found a Dunkin Donuts! With a Baskin Robbins inside!! Marking the site for the next morning we drove home only to find one right around the corner of the hotel. I was in heaven. More about this in Day Two.

Some pictures from day one.

View from the Saguaro National Park picnic area.

Dead cactus with woody spines that the Native Americans used

Dead vs. alive

Late day sun on a cactus

Rather majestic cactus

First Photowalk

My friend Rob, from the photo club, came up with an idea for a photowalk. He is part of the group teaching the digital photo workshops at the State Park with me and several times in the various classes and in discussions afterwards we have gone on and on about practice. The class students understand the need to go shoot. I have, over the last year and a half, 

greatly increased my time out photographing with an obvious increase in the quality of the photos I have made. As Malcolm Gladwell theorized in “Outliers”, 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in a given field or area of expertise allows a person to become truly “expert”. I have taken that advice to heart. In the last few years I averaged about 500-700 images a year. This last year I shot more than 3000. A lot more practice.

Rob is from southern Texas and he and a group of buddies would just go out and stop at an area of interest and take photos. Afterward they would meet to compare pictures and notes and use this as a way to improve as photographers. When he mentioned this to me, I encouraged him to embrace the idea here and thus the “Photowalks” were born.

The first walk in late February, attended by 6 people ended up in the Mesilla Plaza, a very picturesque part of town. I have posted event pictures from there before, Dios de los muertos, Christmas Eve and the Farmer’s Market there. Below are some of my shots from that day. 

You should have the bad photo before this one. The photo club will.

This pickup just says NM to me.

Blue skies between the branches

Love these street lamps on Mesilla Plaza. 

Again the deep blue skies of New Mexico

Lamp shadow...

More budding trees.

A Sunday Drive, Part 2: City of Rocks

(Continued from February 28th post)

So we continued our day out in the Deming area with a plan to see one more thing. We decided to pass on the Pancho Villa State Park because it was still further away from Las Cruces meaning a longer time to get home. We passed on Rock Hound State Park because we’re not the hiking type and so settled on City of Rocks State Park

When I first heard about this state park, I was not overly impressed. Yea, big rocks, nice views but nothing really grabbed me. As we rode along I began to wonder if this last leg of our day was so important. It was breezy and cool and a nice warm home beckoned me.

As we turned off the main road and advanced toward the park, in the distance one could see these large rock columns rising out of the desert. You couldn’t grasp their size as there was only the horizon as a guide but they looked large. The closer we got, the larger they looked up until we arrived at the park gate. They were huge! There seemed to be hundreds of them! They were spectacular.

All at once there was a feeling of power and quiet all at the same time.You could hear the wind whistling through the trees and rocks yet the campers, and there were lots of them, made no noise or at least none we could hear. We drove around the park road, marveling at the sculpture of rocks and the tucked away camping and picnicking sites. The afternoon light added a nice soft golden glow and all seemed at peace here. It made me glad we adventured here and we made some plans to come back and camp here sometime soon.

Below is some pictures of that day. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them and experiencing them.

This car gives perspective of the size of this rock group that is NOT one of the largest!

I can never get over the color of the sky...

These last two shots show a hole to the sky which is why I liked them Can't tell if the horizontal or vertical is best but I like the vertical because of the rock texture

A Sunday Drive

 When I was a kid, we did not have much money with 5 kids in the house so  often times our entertainment needed to be cheap or free. Thus, we often went out for a ride on Sunday. We went to watch airplanes land, visited relatives on Long Island, drove upstate NY, that sort of thing. When Mrsfabp and I hooked up, we kept doing that. We had just moved to Massachusetts and enjoyed our little trips, to the Cape, Newport, Vermont, museums, little quaint towns and when our kids arrived, it was more of the same.

So, it should not be a surprise that Mrsfabp and I have continued this sort of tradition. We have enjoyed our little trips, with friends or on our own. We have gone to see the cranes at Bosque del Apache State Park,to Hatch for Green Chile Cheeseburgers and music, to the Lava flows north of the city, to Santa Fe on the Railrunner express train, as well as the things right around town, like driving around neighborhoods, picnics up at Picacho Peak and trips out to the desert.

So it only seems fitting that Mrsfabp has had a desire to see Deming, NM. It was the first town we researched in the area and she thought it would be fun to see if we are missing anything not being there. So one Sunday, we packed the car with 2 dogs, snacks for them, water for us and headed out to Deming.

We can now sum up Deming in 3 words - out of business. There were more empty stores then working ones. Downtown was just about a ghost town. We stopped at the visitors bureau but that was closed too. At least the dogs enjoyed a few minutes out in the fresh air. We went and visited the place we were looking at to live to see what was there and again were totally underwhelmed. Country club estates was a grid of SW style homes next to what would have appeared to be a golf course, except there was no grass, lots of sand and it was flat as the eye could see. My friend Fred, a golf fiend would probably turned down the opportunity to play there, and he plays everywhere all the time.

Center of Deming
Nothing else to look at there

Then we got our first break. We saw a listing for the Adobe Deli and thought it might be good to get a deli sandwich and maybe a cold beer but the directions seemed unusual. Basically they said travel 15 miles south by south east. I thought Mexico was there but that what the directions said. After 10 minutes of driving there were just the occasional home. After 20 minutes, there was only grazing cows and as we approached the place, there was nothing but desert and barbed wire fence. The place itself looked like an abandoned car repair place, lots of chain linked fence, razor wire and abandoned cars. Out of the back there was a barbed wire fence in the distance that I was sure was in Mexico. But we pulled into the parking lot because there were quite a number of cars there. As we walked in we realized this wasn’t a deli but an old fashion honky tonk bar with plenty of tables for eatin’ and drinkin’ and moving around for dancin’. The decor was pure hunters lodge as you can tell by the picture below. I am sure that the person who coined the phrase "out in the middle of nowhere" was sitting at the bar of the Adobe Deli.

All it is missing is a deer blind!

Outside in the parking lot of the Adobe Deli

Two things to tell about the place. The food was great, including hand cut onion rings and Sam Adams, Lager and Alpine Spring on tap and cold as could be. The other is a story. While we were waiting on our food, a family (yes, apparently it is ok to have families come into a honky tonk DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS. Anyway as they settled into a table, their little girl, maybe 4 years old, wandered over to the pool table, looked and turned to her dad, pulled on his sleeve, and said “Daddy , what is this?” He quickly answered that it was a pool table. She turned and looked at it for a bit longer and turned to her father again, pulled on his sleeve, and said, “well, where is the pool then?” There was a murmur of giggles throughout the bar and the dad quickly got her into a seat at their table.

In my next post, a bit about the second half of our Sunday ride adventures.