Mach II With My Hair on Fire!

I have no clue where the time goes. I just can't believe that I have completed one full year of school and that I still have one full year to go, mostly. I'm trying hard to graduate by Dec of 09 instead of May of 2010, but it will all depend on what they offer for summer classes this coming summer session. I'm also trying to add a minor in history, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not.

I have managed to maintain my 4.0, I just need to keep my head in the game for the next year or so. I did get good news that the Honors College is going to let me graduate with Crimson Scholar status, even though they just changed the rules that would have taken that away from me. Since I'm a transfer student and a bit of a rare case (isn't that the story of my life) they are going to make an exception for me. YAY! I get screwed out of $$ because of being a transfer student, but the powers that be have decided to cut me a break and not screw me out of the academic accolades. I've also put in my application for Lambda Alpha which is a National Honors Society for Anthropology (which is what I'm getting my BA in for those who don't know).

Ok, so I haven't posted pics on here in forever, so here are a couple from WAY back in June when Bill and I went to Silver City, the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and the Cat Walk. Silver City was a let down. I had heard so much about how cool Silver City is that I was really expecting it be a lot more than it was. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were COOL and I would highly recommend a trip out to them. Also, at the end of the trail as you're coming back down from the dwellings there are two trees (see pic) one on each side of the trail. These are, I believe, lodgepole pine...or maybe pinon pine, I can't remember. Anyway, one was struck by lighting and the other wasn't. When you get your nose right up in the bark the one that was struck by lighting smells like vanilla, while the other still just smells like a pine tree. It's REALLY cool.

We also did the Cat Walk and I thought I had pics from that but can't find them now, so too bad. Well, that's about all I have for now...I'm sure it will be another 6 months to a year before I get a chance to blog again. Stay tuned.

Cheers~

;-)K

THE TRUTH HAS CHANGED

OK... Allow me to introduce myself. I am Bill, the ugly guy with the sunglasses in the pictures with Kari. I have taken over the blogging responsibilities in our home until she has more time to catch you all up on her own.

To say that Kari has been busy would be an understatement, but it is the best description I can manage at my current level of intellectual output. You see, I rake gravel for a living. That can be another post.

As Kari mentioned in her previous post, we were only supposed to be here for a short while - through 1 April.

Well... THE TRUTH HAS CHANGED... Kari had the opportunity to continue her education here in Las Cruces and to finish her Bachelor's Degree at New Mexico State University for a fraction of the cost it would have cost us in Oregon. So - we will be here until April, alright - APRIL OF 2010!!! Actually, May of 2010. Kari is majoring in Anthropology & Sociology with a Minor in Native American Studies. So far, so good. She seems to be enjoying her time at NMSU, and she is doing well in all of her classes. Kari is now an "Aggie", and she is happy. A happy Kari makes for a happy Bill, so Bill is happy.

Kari has also had a change at her work. You may recall that she was working part time at a "Curves for Women" fitness center in Las Cruces, right down the street from our RV Park.

Well... THE TRUTH HAS CHANGED... After a short while as a part timer, Kari was asked to work full time - and was subsequently promoted to Assistant Manager. She is also the lead trainer for a new line of computerized fitness equipment at all 3 stores in her Curves franchise chain. So - Kari is busy. Right. Busy like a tornado. But Kari is always at her best when she is busy. A happy Kari makes for a happy Bill, so Bill is happy.

So - here we sit, and here we will stay. In sunny Las Cruces. Enjoying the warm desert sun and gentle borderland breeze, right?

WRONG! THE TRUTH HAS CHANGED... As I write this (15 FEB 08), Las Cruces is under a severe winter weather advisory and HEAVY SNOW WARNING! No kidding. The weather when we first arrived was great, and remained that way through November. After winter arrived, it got comfy on the sofa and decided it would stick around for a while.

OK... I know - WAH, WAH, WAH, and... WE DON'T KNOW WINTER. The weather "back home" which has pummeled our family and friends in Pennsylvania, Washington, and Oregon has been FAR worse. But WE CAME HERE TO BE WARM! You people stay in the bad weather by choice! We left in search of sunny skies and warmer climates.

Winds here in Las Cruces have been clocked as high as 65 MPH, but gusts average 40, with sustained winds around 15-20MPH in the winter. In Oregon, we were beaten by the rain and blowing sand on the Pacific Coast. Here, we just get sand blasted in dust storms that - no kidding - limit visibility to less than 500 feet at times. The gusts right now are 30 MPH, but the temp is 53. The Land of Enchantment. Right.

When things are not so crazy, Kari and I still enjoy frequent visits to SONIC for Cherry Lime-Aids during "Half-Price Happy Hour", we still enjoy beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and the stars shine clear and bright in the night sky. Life is very busy, though, so our chances to enjoy these things TOGETHER are rare.

When these rare times come for us - when everything around us, including time, stands still - life is good. Our time together remains the focal point of our existence. For that, Bill is happy. I have my wife, my home, my truck, and my freedom. For that, Bill is happy. A happy Bill Makes for a Happy Kari. Life is good.

Yup - Life is good, and - yes, life is crazy... but I would not trade it for any other life I know of. That "TRUTH" will never change.

See you next time - maybe even with some photos?

Bill

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter

Ok, so I was going to post this as I Can’t Believe It’s Almost December, but the only thing that came to mind was the stupid commercial saying I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. This should tell you where my brain is right now.

The Last couple of weeks have been really busy, I know, I know….when is my life NOT busy? These last few weeks however have brought about some changes for me and some possibly changes for Bill and I together.

We arrived in Las Cruces, NM on September 30-ish and were only planning on being here for 6 months. This would put us as pulling out of here by 1 April. Well, it’s looking like plans are changing. Since life isn’t getting any cheaper we are transitioning into doing work camping and stuff like that to help to alleviate the astronomical cost of living life day-to-day. (As a side note: if you are interested in learning about work-camping, look it up online, you can find way more information online then I would ever be able to give you). In addition to this I decided to pick up a part-time job to help cover some of the bills. Actually, I kind of fell into this part-time job that will pay some of the bills, it also happens that I like the job.

In addition to working the arts/farmers market here in town with my jewelry business (www.woundaround.com) I started working out at a local Curves for Women. In talking and getting to know the manager, she was telling me that she needed a part-time person to help cover some shifts, I told her I was possibly interested in picking up a part-time job with them knowing that I would only be here until 1 April and the rest you can figure out. Well, just before I started (literally the day before) the other girl working for her went to work elsewhere, so my part-time job became a 30+-hour/week job. No problem, I really enjoy it.

Within the first week of my working there, Bill and I started talking about the possibility of me finishing up my degree at NMSU. He had looked up the tuition rates and if I could find a way to get in-state tuition then I really couldn’t afford to pass up this opportunity. NM has some of the best in-state tuition in the country. Low and behold, I did some research and found the WUE program. WUE is the Western Universities Exchange Program. This means that within the western states that participate, you can transfer and be automatically eligible for in-state tuition….guess what? Oregon and New Mexico both participate.

So, now it’s looking like if I can get all my ducks in a row, that I’ll be working 30-ish hours/week at Curves, going to school full time (with WUE you have to take a minimum or 12 credits a semester and carry at least a 2.5 GPA), and still work the arts/farmers market two days a week. Busy? Yes! Happy? Yes!

It’s not all finalized yet, I have to call NMSU next week to make sure they received my transcripts, and all that, and to make sure I’ll get in on the WUE and get in-state tuition. Then I have to do the financial-aid thing and schedule a meeting with a counselor to talk about my degree program options, etc,etc. But the ball is rolling and I’m getting this figured out one step at a time.

So, that’s what’s happening (mostly) in my life and why I’ve been so busy and incommunicado via the blog. I’m hoping that with or without pictures I’ll have more time to write as the days and weeks progress.

Cheers~
;-)K

First Couple of Weeks in LC

Well, we’ve been here in Las Cruces for a couple of weeks now and have really been enjoying our time here so far. We’ve found all the local Sonics and have our favorite one that makes the best Cherry Limeade. We’ve also found a place called Caliche's that is nothing short of pure evil. Frozen Custard…mmm….good. They advertise as being fat and dairy free, but isn’t custard an egg thing? What do I know? I know it’s good enough that I don’t really care.

We are staying at the Las Cruces KOA . This park is completely awesome and the owners are fabulous people. If you are ever in the area and are an RVer or Camper, make this a must stop and try out the park. They offer an awesome view of the Organ Pipe Mountains, as illustrated by my pictures here of both the sunrise over the mountains and the sun lighting up the mountains at sunset. Both of these images were taken standing behind out trailer. This next picture of Bill and I is taken of us standing at the back of our trailer where the sunrise and sunset pics were shot from.

We’ve found several local things that have become something quick and fun to do in a pinch. We’ve been down into Historical Old Mesilla several times. They have a market every Thursday and Sunday. It’s a very small market, but the history of the place still makes it fun to visit, not to mention the food. I’ll take and post more pictures as time goes on. We were walking into the plaza area when we walked right past these flowers. They were so bright and eye-catching I had to take a snap of it. I was going to take pictures of the plaza and the historical buildings and the market, but the honey stand sidetracked me. I found the best local raw honey. It’s produced right here in the Mesilla valley and it’s SO YUMMY. I picked up their Desert Wildflower Honey in raw for my allergies and Bill picked up some of their Red Chili Honey. It’s made from their wildflower honey but they’ve added powdered Hatch Red Chili’s. It’s amazing! Check them out at: www.zianet.com/sunmountain Another place that side tracks me when we go into Mesilla is The Chocolate Lady, need I say more? Evil, strictly evil…but OH SO GOOD! I tried to find a link to her online, but couldn't find it anywhere, I'll have to ask her the next time I'm in there...maybe today.

Moving along to my birthday...I knew that I wanted to go out to dinner for my birthday but I wanted to go where the locals go, not particularly where the tourists go. I asked around and had several people recommend Andele’s . I’m SO glad I listened. The Mexican food here near the border is different from what I grew up with in the Pacific NW. They cook with different spices here, or maybe they just taste different here. They also use a lot more salsas and sauces in the preparation of their food. I DIG IT! In the Pacific NW they cook primarily Jalisco style, which is a lot of cheese and ingredients, and light on the seasonings and sauces, I would always pick my favorite restaurants by their salsa since I was going to dump it all over my food. Here I don’t have to do that. The food here is awesome and Las Cruces is likely going to make my “10 places that make me fat” list. Good thing I joined a local Curves and have been working out, I’m going to need it.

Before gorging ourselves at Andele’s, earlier in the day we drove out to Dripping Springs Natural Area. We weren’t sure what to expect exactly and ended up deciding we’d have to come back another day to do the long trail (about 2+ hours). Instead just walked the 1-mile round trip trail out to La Cueva. The history of La Cueva is interesting, definitely read about it. One thing they don't mention is how the hermit used to light a fire every friday night so the villagers knew he was still alive. One friday the fire wasn't lit, so they sent some men up to check it out. They found the hermit dead at the entrance to the cave holding his curifix with a knife in his back. They still don't know who killed him or why.

When we visited Dripping Springs, it was a gorgeous day, high in the upper 70s, lower 80s, and the sky was such a deep blue. You don’t find skies this blue anywhere else but in the desert SW, incredible.

Along the path Bill took a couple of pictures of the Prickly Pear Cactus, and a heart shaped Prickly Pear that he noticed as we walked.

I really enjoyed by birthday, we’ve really enjoyed the couple of weeks we’ve spent here so far, and we are looking forward to experiencing more. I have several more restaurants I want to try, and of course as many trips to the The Chocolate Lady as possible.

Cheers for now~
;-)K

Las Cruces for Awhile

Well, here we are in Las Cruces, NM. We will be here for about 6months. I haven’t loaded any NM pictures yet, but did snap a few as we were driving through southern AZ. These are rock formations that are just south of Benson, AZ along I-10. We’ve driven past them countless times, and always said we should stop to take pictures, but never do. I figured I’d give it a shot out of the truck window at 70 mph. Only a couple of them turned out, most of them were blurry. At least I tried.

This post will be a short one, we’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting settled into the area and into the park. I’ve been busy getting ready for the farmers and crafts market here in town, there was a lot of paper-work stuff to do, now I need to concentrate on building inventory and variety. For now that will be my sole purpose in life, build inventory and variety to sell at the market.

Other than that it’s been pretty relaxing. Bill snapped some shots of our view last night, but I haven’t downloaded them yet so I have no clue if they turned out or not. We are backed up to a view of the Organ Pipe Mountains and they sure are pretty when the sun is setting, they glow pink and orange, it’s beautiful. I’ll have Bill keep trying to take pictures until we get some really nice ones, especially with his camera.

Gotta run for now, I have work to do.

Cheers~
;-)K

Kingman, Grand Canyon, Wupatki

The last week of September was a busy one for us. After skipping Las Vegas, we drove into Kingman, AZ. Kingman is one of the towns along the original Route 66, the Mother Road. I’ve enjoyed the times that we’ve visited towns along old Route 66. I only wish I could have seen it in it’s prime. Kingman is still alive and well, but the main road through town isn’t Route 66, you kind of have to drive to the ‘other side of the tracks’ to even find it. Once you do though there are still some diners and nostalgia to be had. Both times we’ve been through Kingman we’ve stopped and had lunch at Mr. D’s. It’s a nostalgia diner that has AWESOME burgers at very reasonable prices. I just like the way they mark the bathrooms. Don’t forget to try their homemade root beer and sweet potato fries….mmmmm…….beer and fries!

From Kingman we drove into Williams (not far from Flagstaff). Williams is another Route 66 stop, but we didn’t do any of the 66-nostalgia stuff this time around. Instead we visited the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is nice, but really just a large hole in the ground. I personally like the view from an airplane better, you get to see the true size and depth of it. It would probably be a lot better experience without all the people, but what are you gonna do?

By far my favorite trip from Williams was out to Wupatki National Monument . What an awesome place! There is a lot to see and do and I’m glad that we took an entire day to explore this area. We started with a picnic at Sunset Crater Volcano. From there we drove into Wupatki and stopped at every pullout you could stop at. I drug Bill all over the desert that day, but he didn’t mind. He had been there years and years ago, but got to see stuff with me that he hadn’t taken the time to see before. So it was both new and cool for both of us.

I think I appreciated the fact that you could really explore some of these places, that probably won’t stay that way as the area get’s more popular, people ruin everything. Despite the signs that say not to disturb, touch, or remove the historical items, people still do. They think ‘taking just one thing won’t harm anything’, what they don’t think of is that if everyone has that attitude that’s millions of people removing ‘just one little thing.’ So I beg you, if you visit these places, leave only footprints and take only pictures! Here are a couple of pictures of Bill and I. First the picture of both of us, can you tell by the blinding whiteness that we’ve spent the last 9 months on the Oregon coast? Sunscreen, lots and lots of sunscreen! The second is to illustrate how tiny the doors of these house-ruins are. I’m 5’10” tall in bare feet, those doors were tiny. Well built though, I was astounded by how cool the rooms that still have walls stayed. It was easily in the upper 80s, lower 90s that day, but those rooms where comfortable and almost chilly. It was fun to learn about how and why they built the way they did. I think history needs to rethink its view on calling ancient peoples primitive.

I also really liked the natural formations the rocks would take. I was walking along a path at the Wupatki ruins and saw this person in the rock. If you look it looks like a lumpy-person on their knees, it’s kind of like finding shapes in the clouds. Bill took the picture of the rock lines, I really liked the way it turned out. It’s such and amazing place, I only wish I could show you pictures that really does it justice, but like so many other places and things, you really have to go there yourself to experience it.

Ok, I’m almost ready to finish up this installment. But first I have to post a picture that Bill took so you get his point-of-view while driving. I thought it was a cute idea so I had to post the image. He really doesn’t get to see as much as I do since he has to pay attention to the road and keep us alive and all that.

The last pictures I’m going to post are of a couple of lizards in Wupatki. Lizards are EVERYWHERE in the desert, but I think they’re cute, so here are these pictures.

That’s it for now folks. I still have a post about our trip from Phoenix to NM. Hopefully I’ll get that posted in the next couple days.

Cheers~
;-)K

What Happens in Vegas can Stay in Vegas

We left Cedar City, UT on Monday the 21st. The drive through southern Utah is really pretty, very scenic, it’s hard not to just keep shooting and not really watch the road at all. I wasn’t driving, but I’m still the second set of eyes for things like deer and elk. Being that it’s fall and the rut is in full swing, watching out for animals as big as your truck is a good thing. The original plan was to drive from Cedar City to Vegas, stay an overnight in Vegas and do some touristy crap, then head into Arizona. Here is a picture of Bill and I in the truck, doing what we do. I of course had to include the Hula Girl, she's been neglected lately.

The drive to Vegas was harder than we thought it would be as they had Hwy93 closed to anything larger than a car over the Hoover Dam for construction. Bummer, Bill thought maybe we could fake it and claim ignorance until we passed the big sign with a picture of a truck pulling a travel trailer and big red circle and bar through it. That pretty sums it up. Not only was the drive hard and hard on the truck, with steep upgrades for 20miles at a time, once we arrived in Vegas it became clear this wasn’t a place for us.

We had to gas up at a truck stop before trying to continue. What madness! Getting into the truck stop was hard enough, but getting out was practically impossible. They shuffle the car and RV traffic to a different entrance than the trucks, and you have to try to get out the same way across 4 lanes of traffic with no suicide lane at a major intersection with freeway ramps…AWESOME! Who ever thought up that slice of heaven shouldn’t be allowed to breed, we don’t need more stupid people in this world.

After gassing up and having to drive down the road several miles before finding somewhere safe to turn around with 45 combined feet worth of vehicle, we started heading back to the highway. I’m hoping that by the pictures of Vegas that I’m posting most people who know us understand why we decided to skip this place. This is to say nothing about the RV park (I'll leave it unnamed) that wanted to charge us $60 a night to stay there. Oh, that includes the $8 charge per night for not having a reservation. If we ever decide to 'do' Vegas, it will be cheaper for us to get on board with a travel deal. Cheap air-fare, hotel, etc. I understand that The Strip is probably pretty cool, the Bellagio Fountain is beautiful, and it would be fun to say I played the slots in Vegas. However, my sanity and quality of life are far more important to me than the novelty that is Vegas. Nope, what happens in Vegas can stay in Vegas, I have no desire to be a part of it. We don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we don’t party, we don’t gamble, that pretty much makes Vegas nothing more than a novelty for us, and we don’t need it.

We pushed through Vegas and headed for Arizona. We arrived in Kingman, AZ that same day (the 21st) and set down for a couple of days. I’ll post about that later.

Cheers~
;-)K

Catching up on Blogs, Zion and Kolob

Catching up on my blogs. We’ve been out of Utah for several days now, but I still need to post about Zion National Park .

For my money and drive time I really enjoyed Bryce Canyon and the surrounding area better than I did Zion. If you go to Zion National Park you really need to heed the advice of getting there extremely early. If you don’t get there early you have to park in the town just south of the entrance and take a shuttle bus in. Not that it really matters since even if you park at the visitor’s center you still have to hop the shuttle busses around the park.

I understand why they have the shuttle bus system, it cuts down a ton of traffic and carbon emissions and all that, but I’m terrible ok with sitting in a shuttle bus why people sneeze and cough and don’t cover their mouths when they do it. And the body odor, my god, why isn’t hygiene a priority? On top of it all, our last shuttle driver looked like he had enough, I think it was nothing short of a miracle that he didn’t drive the bus into one of the cliffs. Can’t say that I blame him, I got hip-checked a couple of times and tourists were rushing to the next thing to see. Why are people in a hurry to have fun, doesn’t that kind of take the fun out of it? ‘By god I’m going to have fun and I’m going to do RIGHT NOW!!’ Seriously, where’s the fire? I would have loved to have taken the time to walk some of the more extensive trails and paths, but the people just ruin it. I have no interest in hiking a path, no matter how beautiful, with someone on my heels, or someone who doesn’t understand personal space, or the people who walk 2-3 abreast and look at you like you kicked their dog when you say excuse me to pass them. How dare I interrupt their walk, don’t I know the sun rises and set’s on them?

All that aside, the one place in Zion I did actually find very interesting was the Weeping Wall. This is were two different kinds of stone come together and one lets the water through while the other doesn’t so it get’s squeezed out of the wall and makes it look like the wall is a waterfall, but the water doesn’t poor over the wall, it leaks out of it. Scientists have studied the water coming out of the weeping wall and have determined that is was originally rainwater that fell on the top of the cliffs and has taken 1200 years to work it’s way through the stone and come out of the wall. When you walk the path you get ‘rained’ on, it’s really like being blessed, kind of a cool feeling, no pun intended.

We got fed up with the shuttle system and the rude tourists pretty quickly, so we decided to be done with Zion and started heading back to Cedar City. On our way back we passed the entrance to Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park. We took a spin through there and found it to be pretty and peaceful. The rock formations were interesting with the striped uplift areas and the forming arches. All in all not a bad experience, but if we ever return to the area we’ll likely stick with Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. Or maybe head out and see Arches and Canyon Lands. Who knows where the wind might blow us.

That’s it for now, I have to go through the next set of pictures before I can post more.

Cheers~
;-)K

Cedar Breaks to Brcye Canyon

Bill and I have been in Southern Utah for a couple of days now. We’ve seen several of the parks and I’m going to post about Cedar Breaks National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park.

The day we arrived we spent setting down, setting up, and generally recovering from our drive through the state of Utah from Montana. The following day we drove into Cedar Breaks National Monument. The hardest part of posting about these parks is picking which pictures to show, there is SO much to see in all of these places that there is no way I’ll be able to post it all, so I’ve picked just a couple, it was hard to do. Cedar Breaks NM is a pretty cool place, a little windy too. The temperature at our park when we left was over 70 degrees, as we climbed in elevation it dropped to 50 with wind. Not horrible, but I was dressed for 70's. Cedar Breaks averages 10,000', most of the overlooks were 10,300+. The colors and shapes of the rocks in incredible, they seem to go on and on. The depth of view is also something hard to depict in the photos I chose. Southern Utah is a weird mix of a bunch of different places we’ve been while still being wholly unique at the same time. There are many pull-offs in this park and several trails. We didn’t take the time to walk trails, as we wanted to see Bryce Canyon on this same day.

On our way through the backcountry roads to Bryce Canyon from Cedar breaks, we hit a wild-life-jam, but not the type we are used to. Normally when we hit a wild-life-jam it’s behind lot’s of cars stopped to see something like Elk, Bison, Bear, etc,etc. This was truly just Wildlife jammed up in the road. I laughed so hard at this I almost cried. The funniest part was driving through them, I should have kept shooting, and seeing some them get uppity about us trying to drive through. Also when you rev the engine a little, this is apparently a signal to the males to mount, it was funny. Mostly they just ran along with us for a while and it took us about 5 minutes to drive through them all. And when I say they ran with us, I really mean they kind of pranced, sheep don’t really run. The hardest part was keeping an eye of them to make sure they didn't walk into the truck, or in the case of the one that was peeing while it tried to get out of our way, making sure they didn't mess on the truck. We might have ended up with lamb dinner and wool for my mom to spin if one them peed on the truck. Those of you who know my husband and how much he loves his truck will understand.

Just before you drive into Bryce Canyon, you have to drive through Red Canyon. This is a beautiful place that is listed as a less traveled area, I’m not sure why. If we ever make it back to this area I would love to take the time to walk some of the trails through Red Canyon, what a beautiful place. My pictures really don’t do it justice. The reds, greens, and blues are intense and I just couldn’t get my camera to see it the way I was.

Bryce Canyon National Park, Wow! I have so many pictures I want to post and I’ve narrowed it down to still too many. Gorgeous absolutely gorgeous. Bryce has similar rock and color structures as some other places, but the scale of it is what hits you in the face. When you stand on the rim and look into miles and miles of these rock formations, and it looks like it goes forever, it really puts things into perspective. These rocks are hundreds of thousands of years in the making, what’s my 32 years compared to that?

I particularly enjoyed the Natural Bridge (actually an arch by definition) ,

The Grotto,

and what I call the Tulips. We also had to take a picture of Thors Hammer since it’s a big enough attraction to make it onto the National Parks Map.

I’m going to finish this blog by posting two of my favorite pictures so far. The last stop we made coming out of the park had the sunlight hitting some of the formations just right to get great color and depth. Then I turned around and saw the rock glowing like fire, these pictures come close to showing the reality of it, if anything reality is again more intense, it was really something.

We went to Zion and Kolob today, but I’ll be posting about that another time. It’s almost 9pm and I need to finish this up.

Cheers~
;-)K