On the road again....

Since GK starts school on Tuesday, Sweet Man and I took her on the last trip out of town yesterday. We headed north this time. Our destination was Chama NM.

The road between Espanola and Abiquiu Dam is other worldly. Maybe because I have always been a fan of Georgia O'Keefe, I can just imagine her in several spots along the area in her 1920 something car loaded with easel, paints and canvas or sketchbook and recording this area of NM in such a soulful way. The morning light on the monoliths of layer upon layer of Triassic sedimentary maroon, red, green, cream, white and Jurassic ocre, gold and caramel. Millions of years of show off bluffs and upcroppings everywhere you look. It is breathtaking.

It is no wonder that Ms. GK has an appreciation for "rocks and crystals" (to the point of obsession) with a geological nerd for an Oma. Historically enhanced Papa, shared the story of the native peoples of the northern pueblos and the genocide that occurred in central and northern NM at the hands of our ancestors to our ancestors. Funny that. We so want to give our grands the love and understanding of what is our state, our past so that that voice will live in them not just around them.

GK's comments along the way about what she has already learned on our adventures is the stuff that pride is made of. She has a real sense of nature's beauty, how it came to be and who was here before. And she is a giant 12 year old goof ball to travel with on the byways. Her latest back seat sensation was songs about the "fam". My tribute song goes something like this:

Oma got run over by a donkey
Coming home from thrifting Blue Moon night
Some others may not believe in Karma
But as for me and Papa, we know it's right.......to the tune of Grandma got run over by a reindeer

Okay the others get progressively....sillier but hey it was only 9 hours together.

We stopped at Abiquiu Lake and she just jumped in the lake with her clothes on. Wild child. Of course we did plan for that contingency with a spare set of clothes and a towel. She had a blast. Watched the folks who were setting up for their holiday weekend by getting to the lake early. Beautiful blue water set against red rocks. I may not have access to the ocean but even man made lake water is a source.

We also stopped at Echo Canyon, a naturally occurring amphitheater from a cliff face. You can whisper and hear your whisper echo. It is so cool. It's been years since we stopped to partake of the echo chamber and the walk is a good path of exercise for this old broad. We sent our early warning, snake scaring, varmint scaring younger member ahead of us, singing and jumping up the trail. I should imagine that every snake in the county was booking it to elsewhere as she made her way to the echo opportunity. And had a super fun time partaking of the opportunity. Sure am glad we were the only ones there at the time. She's a mess.

We got back on the road and made it to our destination of Chama. There is the Cumbres Toltec railroad in Chama and we toured the old station and got a chance to see the rusty dusty rail yard. The train was out along the tracks spewing the steam engines puffs between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO and back. We settled for lunch at an old looking restaurant and saloon. Relaxed for a bit and then headed back home.

Chalk up another fun day and two tired old people and a chatterbox filled with adventure to share with her Mom and bro. Ry by the way was a bit on the peavish side about being left here to attend school, but soon that gave way to his enthusiasm by adding what he knew of the land and peoples of NM learned on other trips and now he wants to go to see the different layers of color and search for dinosaur bones.....that came about from the use of the Jurassic prehistoric references. Those words always trigger that dinosaur mania in him.

We still have so many more day trips to make with the grands.......and they're fired up and ready to go.

Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and tonight dance by the light of the Blue Moon.

An aside, I am having computer difficulties and will not be able to post as often as I would like. Don't think I have gone far far away, I am simply having to eeck out posts on a catch can basis.