Albuquerque Visit

Albuquerque is an interesting and beautiful city, located in the middle of New Mexico.  We are spending a week here.  We have visited the area numerous times over the years we have been RVing but we still found a lot to do, places to revisit.

One day we walked through the bosque (trees) along the Rio Grande River.  We saw a lone cormorant sitting on a branch in the river.

I can't remember what this line of metal beams along the river is called but I think it has something to do with flooding.

There are huge cottonwood trees along the bank.

We saw people riding horses on the path.

Another day we walked out to the Petroglyph National Monument.  

There are something like 23,000 ancient petroglyphs there, as well others added by the Mexican sheep herders who were in the area before New Mexico became part of the U.S.  There are also examples of modern graffiti.  (I didn't take pictures of those 20th century additions.)

One day we drove into Old Town Albuquerque to see the shops in the oldest buildings constructed here.  I love this painting.  So colorful!

Many of the doors in the old buildings are attractive and brightly painted.

This door is a sign of the current economy and virus shutdown.  Even when we found shops open, we were the only customers in the store.  How sad for the owners.

The windows in some of the old adobe walls are interesting.

I will end this blog post with this quiet neighborhood in central Albuquerque.  Unfortunately, our country is not as serene as this scene.

Boom or Bust, Feast or Famine

A few days ago we drove 165 miles east on I-40 from Winslow to Albuquerque. We saw a number of RVs on the road, probably headed home at the end of the three-day Memorial Day weekend. There were also a lot of trucks--most noticeably, a lot of blue trucks with the distinctive white swoosh--Amazon Prime trucks. I wonder if online shopping is taking the place of buying from small local businesses--which are closed by the government in this pandemic shutdown.

Obviously, Prime is doing well, as are the businesses that produce the products that are being sold there. Main street isn't doing as well.

We arrived at American RV Resort in Albuquerque, an RV park we have been visiting since 1990. It is virtually empty. We are in the new section with approximately 38 sites--only 10 are occupied. The main section of the park is equally empty. This is the first week of the summer season. The financial consequences for the park must be devastating.

I wonder how many businesses will fail and close forever by the end of these shutdown orders?

Homolovi Ruins State Park

We enjoy Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow and have been here at least four times.  The sites are really spacious.

There are lots of pretty things to see here.

Flowers are blooming.

And we saw this beautiful 1958 Flying Cloud Airstream, pulled by a 1961 Chrysler.  It has been fully restored.  I loved the license plates on the car and trailer.  Cars with those fins were sure cool when I was in high school!

And the ruins, of course.  There are two main sections of ruins visible to visitors.  We walked to Homolovi I the other day.  Here are pottery shards.

And some structure walls have been restored.

This, however, is not something you want to see.  Our campsite has water and electric but no sewer at our site.  When we drove to the dump station, the black tank valve wouldn't open so we couldn't empty the sewer.  An RV technician from Winslow came to try a repair.  He wasn't successful so he ordered a new part.

He returned yesterday with a new part. What he found was that the black tank and the black pipe between the tank and dump valve were full of calcium deposits. The water in Arizona is extremely hard and white deposits develop on (and in, obviously) our plumbing. We couldn't believe how many large clumps of white deposit he was able to flush out of the tank. When we tried to empty it originally, a chunk of that stuff had blocked the tank opening.

Everything seems to be working correctly today. We hope it stays that way.

Visiting Flagstaff

The first stop on our summer travels was Flagstaff in northern Arizona. One day we went to the downtown area of the city, not knowing what would be open in this time of Covid 19. A number of the buildings are decorated with murals. Here are a few I noticed.

The streets and sidewalks were almost deserted. To encourage people to come to the area and, hopefully, spend some money, the street parking is free.

We did find a juggler out in the park.

Flagstaff is a college town--home to Northern Arizona University.  Do you imagine that is what this wooden pole is covered with staples?  Surely not all of them are there to hold up posters!

On the Road Again

As Willie Nelson sings, "On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again." That is what we were saying in the hot, very hot, Phoenix valley. And Friday, we did just that.

But just look at this great sunset we had the night before we left.

Here we go, leaving our site in Gold Canyon.

So now we are parked under this great maple tree in much cooler Flagstaff.  We will have four nights here before heading east.

The exercise room in our resort has been closed because of Covid 19.  It opened the day before we left.  Note the shrink wrap that closes off some machines for social distancing.

To mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the end of World War II in Europe, these historic war planes flew over Phoenix on May 8.  We watched them from the upper deck of our neighbors Tom and Jody's house.

John completed this beautiful wooden intarsia door topper for our home in Arizona.

Our plans for the summer are to travel--safely we hope--across northern Arizona and New Mexico, then north up I-25 in Colorado, spending time in areas where our family lives. We will slowly head west again, across Colorado and Utah, then back here to Arizona in the fall.

Never Take Anything For Granted

Today we walked from our resort to the Bashas grocery store across the highway. Mainly, we wanted a little change of scenery for our morning walk, not just zigzagging around the streets where we live. There were a couple of small items on the list, however.

We did find what we were looking for--salad dressing mix, taco seasoning and Bisquick. But we also hit the mother load: THEY HAD TOILET PAPER--AKA BATHROOM TISSUE--IN STOCK. In my whole life, I have never seen such a mundane item get so much attention or be so in demand. As we walked back to our house, several people commented, "Bashas has paper goods in stock." "You found toilet paper at Bashas!" John commented we might be robbed, since we found such a valuable item.

What has our world come to when being able to buy toilet paper is a remarkable event? In my entire life, I have never worried about having paper towels or toilet paper in the house. It has, literally, been possible to buy these items almost everywhere I shop. And we have stayed in some pretty out of the way, remote areas. Take Kodachrome State Park in Utah, Organ Pipe National Monument, and Bryce Canyon National Park. I even sold it in the park store at Lathrop State Park near Walsenburg in Colorado.

Lots of shortages make sense during a pandemic or other national emergency. But toilet paper? Why?

Coping With Heat and Virus Restrictions

So, what are we doing these days? It is hot, really hot, here in Gold Canyon. Not as hot as it will be mid-summer. But hot. Just look at this temperature!

In addition to the heat, there are the restrictions of Covid 19. Everything in our resort is closed. The swimming pool, the gym, classrooms, tennis courts and pickle ball courts. It is the same all across the country, I know. Some people in our resort are trying to make do. These people put up a rope or something so they could play pickle ball on one of the parking areas.

If nothing else works, how about arranging small rocks in front of your house?

We have been trying to clean up and pare down some of our files. I have used my iPhone to make digital images of thousands of the photographs we have accumulated. Many of the pictures are ones we have taken throughout our married life. We have pictures of our children over the years, pictures of our homes and friends. And many, many photos from our travels. In addition, we have many of the old photos from our parents.

I have finished copying them. Now, I have to put them into digital albums so we can find them if we ever want to.

We also have been trying to clean out old files. Here you can see some of those John has been going through.

I have been working on financial files. I don't have to keep everything, for ever. For legal reasons, 7 years of financial data is all that is required. We also have deeds to property we have bought and sold, as well as to property of our parents. The paper really accumulates.

We also have many genealogy files. I was surprised to find those had already been pared down. I didn't have to do anything there.

We are trying to put this time to good use. And so far, we haven't been bored. And when we die, our children will appreciate what we are doing. Their job will be simplified.

So, What Are We Doing?

We are staying home, of course.  We don't have any choice.  We only leave our resort to go grocery shopping.  Since everything in our resort is closed or cancelled, we only leave our house to walk.  It is the same for everyone here.  Lots of people are walking, some riding their bikes around the resort.  We saw a woman on roller blades yesterday.  And if exercise isn't their interest, people just drive around in their golf carts.  Reminds me of Sunday afternoon drives when I was a child.

I did a lot of house cleaning when the stay at home order first came out; recently we have begun going through our storage compartments.  John found a box of old letters.  In 1973 he spent 13 weeks attending the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The FBI established this academy to provide training to local police department command officers  John was a lieutenant on the Boulder Police Department.  I stayed home in Boulder with our two boys, Doug age 5 and Eric 18 months.  We wrote letters to each other every day.  Since it was before the cell phone era, we only talked once a week.  Long distance calls were expensive.

We have both been reading those letters before destroying them.  We feel like we have stepped back in time 47 years.  Nixon was president, Agnew resigned during that time and the Watergate hearings were underway.  Our parents were all still alive and we almost feel we should give them a call this afternoon, just to see how they are doing.  We are in a real time warp.

We have been a keeper of old family photographs in both our families.  We all know printed photos deteriorate.  I have been making digital copies of these photos periodically over the years.  I decided now was the time to finish the job.  Yesterday I copied 620 photos, mainly from the first 25 or so years of our marriage.  In the past I have copied many of the family photos from before we were born.

I am almost done with the copying.  Now I am trying to move them into albums so I can find something when I want to.  So far, I have only done that with part of the 620 newly copied pictures.  I wonder if I will finish this task before we are free to travel and shop again?

Other folks in our resort have different ways to keep busy. We see notes on the streets, written with colored chalk, hearts cut out and put up in windows, banners of encouragement. Here are two cute signs put up in one yard. We saw the top display today for the first time. The second was from late March.

Stay safe and healthy, everyone.

Signs of Our Times

I am sure none of us has ever lived in a time like we are in now.  Social distancing, wash your hands, stay at home, no gatherings, no funerals, limited travel.  I feel like everything I touch might be infected.  Today we went for a walk.  I didn't touch anything.  But as I straightened my glasses, my first thought was--now I have to disinfect my glasses!  Really?  Probably not, but I feel everything is a threat.

These signs around our resort help build this fear.

Even the grill is closed.  No carry-out available here.

We went to the post office the other day.  Look at the plastic hanging from the ceiling to protect the clerks.  And notice the empty mail crates stacked in front of each window to keep is 6 feet away.

This is an encouraging sign we saw yesterday in someone's window here in our resort.  In case you can't read it, it says, "Social Distance Hugs to all!"

There are signs from God throughout the park that brighten our days.  The cactus plants are in full bloom.

Follow the guidelines and stay healthy, everyone.  Hopefully, all this will be over in the not-too-distant future.