Plans

Heya folks. Sorry I have been really lax in my posting lately. I can't really give a great reason why... so I won't even try.

We have been biding our time and slowly preparing for our departure from Santa Fe which will occur in about 4 weeks. Our days have been long ones full of house cleaning and organizing, reading, walks and talking about this crazy world we all live in. And of course Billy has been doing a lot of painting as usual.

We have been watching the news about the California wildfires and in particular about the fires burning in and around Big Sur (since that is our destination for this fall.) It seems as though the back country will be greatly affected but that the immediate area to our campground has been protected and saved from the fires.

When we leave here our route will take us back up through Monument Valley which I am very excited to visit again. I will get to spend my birthday there which will be a very peaceful and beautiful place to spend it. After that we are going to stop off in Zion National Park for close to a week. It will be our first visit to this park. Then we shoot up and across Nevada on "the loneliest highway" all the way to the Lake Tahoe area. I am actually kind of interested in seeing the ghost towns along this stretch of land in northern Nevada. I have a few FSA (Farm Security Administration) photography books with images dating from the 30's and 40's depicting the mining boom and the whole wild west scenery of the area. A few of the towns we will drive through on HWY 50 used to be hugely populated (albeit with poverty stricken peoples), bustling places of trade and business and now there are maybe a couple hundred people (if that) living in these towns. I hope to capture my own series of photos in these ghost towns as we pass through.

Once we have hit California we will creep down through the Sacramento Valley and into the Carmel area and eventually land in Big Sur where we are set to stay for a minimum of 3 if not 6 months. We are SO looking forward to arriving there (which will be in mid to late September.)

So that is pretty much our plan. If anyone has any suggestions for this route feel free to lay them on me.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and I would like to recommend the book "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. It's a story relaying the life of a Sudanese Lost Boy. Whether you are familiar with these boys from Sudan or not this book is well worth picking up for more reasons than I can even say. Another interesting thing I can recommend is a documentary titled "I Like Killing Flies." Get it. It's hugely entertaining.

I am currently reading "The Air Conditioned Nightmare" by Henry Miller. Anyone want to read it along with me? I just picked it up this afternoon so feel free to dive in and let me know if you are on board. I would love to have a few people to chat with about it as I go along. And yeah... I came back in and edited this paragraph after I realized I had named the book as "The Refrigerated Nightmare." Sorry Henry.

Dog Days

Yesterday we had to get out of the house for a few hours so the owner could show the place to potential new renters. Since we are leaving outta here in just over a month she needs to find someone to move in.

We headed over to the little park that is part of the post office complex down the street from our house. It's a good spot to let Rudy run around if we are feeling too lazy to go on a long walk. We basically laid in the grass for about two hours looking at a stack of new art books (that we grabbed at yesterday mornings book sale at the Santa Fe Art Museum) and I took a million pictures of Rudy doing his thing. It was a gorgeous day... the weather was just perfect. It was a nice change from the dry as Hell 93 degree days we have been having.

Here's a selection of shots from the day. Because I know you all can't get enough of Rudy. You lay awake at night wondering when you will get to see him again. Well, here he is.

Monument Valley Is Where You Should Be

If you have never seen or been to Monument Valley... you are missing out. It is not exactly in a location that affords a lot of other possibilities unless you are doing all the canyon lands of southern Utah (which is a trip totally worth making btw.) But Monument Valley will hold my heart pretty much forever. It's one of the best spots I have had the priveledge of experiencing.

The entire area is part of Navajo Land... they have a tribal park which encompasses the more thrilling areas of the landscape that costs you $5 a head to get in to. There is a 17 mile loop drive that you can do through the park and it is so worth it to take the time to do it. It is a bone jarring drive... the road is really rough in some spots but it will afford you some views that will blow you mind. Especially if you are lucky enough to hit the scene on a cloudy day when cloud shadows are racing over the landscape. We were there on such a day and lingered until sunset and it was so incredibly beautiful that it literally brought me to tears. The only other place I have been that did this to me was Point Lobos near Carmel, CA. We spent 4 days at Gouldings Lodge Campground which is inside of a red rock canyon area with a view out over the valley. They have a little grocery store, a gas station and there is a restaurant at the lodge if you want to go out to eat. Other than that you will have to drive for a couple of hours if you want to see something different or go out to eat someplace other than in Mexican Hat which is 22 miles north of the valley and has maybe two small roadside places to eat.

The lodge is busy with international tourists. We met people from Wales, Holland, Slovenia, Japan and so on. It makes for a cool crowd at the restaurant and it is fun to strike up a conversation with your neighbor to find out where they are from and what they are going to see next. Anyway... without further adieu here are a few photos from the valley. I think they are sufficient to explain the grandeur of the place.

Here is a view from a pretty good distance as we were on the approach driving in...



Here's Rudy and I and Big Berta taking a break roadside to watch the sunset...




A few shots from the valley loop drive...









At this point I need you all to understand that we took almost 20GB of photos while on this trip. I could post images for days. It was such a photogenic landscape we just plain could not stop.

While in the tribal park there is a 3.5 mile hike you can do which takes you down around one of the mitten rock formations. We did it and it was amazing. The best part is when you get around back of the mitten and you are standing there in it's huge shadow. Here's a few shots from the hike...






I am just now starting to have white feet again. My feet were orange from the dirt for a week or so after walking around out there. The color is just insane... so rich and intense.

So there you have it. I did not want to come back to Santa Fe. I wanted to stay out there and wander around in that red dirt landscape for awhile. It was so beautiful and bizarre.

We are here now working our asses off trying to get caught up and to get ready to leave in two months for California. Billy will be doing paintings of the canyon lands over the next few weeks... I will try to post a few once he gets them done.

Happy Father's Day to anyone to whom it applies and hope you are having a grand Summer so far....

Motorcycle Chases, Snakes, and Lightening

And we are back. Whew. I had meant to try to post a few times while we were out on the road but as it turned out the internet and all of it's wily ways did not hold much interest for me over the past week. Also... there were only two or three days when I even had access. So.... let me try to give a short summary of the trip and it's main highlights...

We started off in the painted desert and Petrified Forest parks in Eastern Arizona. Very cool place to see. After that we spent on night in Flagstaff before heading up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. There was an actual Airstream Caravan of about 30 trailers that were headed in to Jacob Lake at the exact same time we were passing through so there was some confusion as we were not part of the group but at several junctures they tried to reel us in. Ladies dancing in the street with flags tried to direct us in to their campground and screeched at us when we passed on by.

It is about 40 miles down a long and winding road to the North Rim from Jacob Lake. At about the 25 mile mark we pulled off to let Rudy stretch his legs. There are massive meadows there than span out to the forest line (It's the Kaibab National Forest.) When I say massive I mean it. We figured we could walk him back to the tree line and let him off the leash and throw some tennis balls for him. I will post this image of how far the road was from where we were stationed throwing the balls for a visual reference point for you...


See the truck and trailer there? TINY. FAR AWAY. Right? Safe for dogs off leash? Well, yes...probably for MOST dogs. For dogs that are not crazy assholes anyway. Let me tell you what our crazy asshole dog did. At a certain point in tennis ball throwing and chasing about a dozen motorcycles emerged from the far right hand stretch of the road heading back North and out of the park. They were loud Harley bikes and were zooming along at about 50 mph. As you can see in the photo above the perspective from our position would make the motorcycles look TINY. Apparently Rudy thought these were obnoxious loud chipmunks or something because he TOOK OFF LIKE A SHOT across the massive field in hot pursuit of them. At first we were like... yeah whatever Rudy... like you can catch them, and we were yelling at him to stop and come back but there was not much urgency or sense of emergency. It looked stupid to see him streaking with all his short legged might across that huge field. At one point he fell head over ass tumbling about 8 times and creating a huge cloud of dust. This did not phase or stop him... he kept going. This was when we realized that there was a chance he would intercept the last few bikes at the tail end of the line. We freaked out. We screamed and screamed at him. You can't chase him... because that will do nothing but make him think you are along for the crazy ride too... that you are actually chasing the bikes as well. So we stood there like idiots at the far back edge of the field screaming at him and watching as the space between him and the last motorcycle became smaller and smaller. All I could see in my mind was him popping up over the edge of the road directly in front of the biker and causing a fatal accident for everyone involved. Can you imagine? People... THIS is why they have leash laws everywhere. Keep your dog on a leash unless your dog is 52 and so lethargic that he can barely stand up to walk. So anyway... there was about a 2 second delay in Rudy's timing with the last bike and he (thank GAWD) missed his chance at vicious attack. Did he come back to us then? No. Did he spend the next few minutes weaving in and out of the road? Indeed... he did. Billy finally was able to trick him into coming back to us by throwing tennis balls and chasing after them himself to make them look more appealing. This is not a fun or easy thing to do when you are blindly pissed off. *Sigh* So there you have that story. Sorry it was long one... but I feel it had to be told. Someone else out there with an insane terrier may read it and learn from it and in turn the life of a biker may be saved.

The Grand Canyon! What can I say? It is a cool thing to see. We spent several days peeking over the edge, listening to the wind howl through it and talking big about "going down in there" which we of course never did. We did drive 30 miles back into the Kaibab Forest on dirt roads to various points on the Rainbow Ridge Trail and had a great time that day. Rudy was not allowed on any national park trails so we did this drive to get him out on a trail and to see something different ourselves. I thought the view from a few of these areas was actually better than the one right at the North Rim Lodge. Here's a view of our favorite spot. If you click through on this one Billy is actually in there out on that outcropping. Seeing him gives great perspective of big everything is.



Here's a zoomed in view deep in to the canyon. Props to the Nikon and our new tripod for allowing us to capture such images.




And one more view from somewhere on the rainbow rim trail...



We ended up leaving a few days earlier than scheduled from the North Rim because our battery crapped out. There are no hook ups at their campground there. Normally we can ride for about 5 days with no problem on our battery power but apparently we need a new battery because less than two days in to the stay we were totally dead in the water. So we stayed for three days instead of five. It was wicked cold at night up there (in the low 30's) and our heat did not work. I just did not feel like freezing my ass off, having no running water and sitting around in the dark for two more nights so we peeled out.

We side tracked to Glen Canyon. This had not been a part of our trip plan and I am glad that we got to see it. Lake Powell is huge and looks super weird in that desert landscape. We stayed there for two days and had a great time. In short... I came within one inch of stepping on a five foot long snake while trying to keep Rudy away from a huge jack rabbit, Rudy was nearly struck by lightening by the edge of the lake during a thunder storm, the inside of the trailer was filled up with sand during an actual sand storm and I got plowed on margaritas at Fiesta Mexicana in Page, AZ. Here are a bunch of pictures of Lake Powell and the weird, weird landscape around it...








And here is a look at what Rudy did at Lake Powell... all of his dog dreams were comin' true out there. Holes were dug, rabbits and ducks were chased and he was allowed to get as dirty as he could.









You have never seen a dirtier dog. Large amounts of dirt were consumed, up noses, in eyes and eventually it was all brought in to our bed. Everything was orange and sandy. But a good time was had by all.

OK. That is it for today. I will post tomorrow with the rest of the trip pictures and stories.

Last Post for a Week!

Tonight we are in Flagstaff and will head for the North Rim in the A.M. Today we decided to check out The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. It was way cool and totally worth doing. Here are a few pics from the day. I am so freakin' tired I am pretty much good for nuthin' as far as writing anything more tonight. So hope you like the photos and I will be back on here in about a week with stories and images from the Grand Canyon. Wish us luck.... it's gonna be colder than a witches tit in a brass bra up there at night. Bleh. And also know that Billy is wanting me to get up at 4 A.M. to photograph the sunrise. That should be generating a story or two... surely.

Aaaannnnd... we just ate dinner at Denny's.

So. We are on the road on our way to the Grand Canyon. Remember? I have only mentioned it about six times that we are going. We are finally going! Right now! Today we had to go to an Airstream dealer in Albuquerque to get some stuff fixed on the trailer and because we did not get out of there til late afternoon that landed us no farther than Gallup, NM for the night at a KOA. This is one of those KOA's that sits about 4 inches off the highway and is essentially a patch of gravel. We are surrounded by a La Quinta Inn, a Sleep Inn and a Denny's. On that fourth side is the highway... 4 inches away.

We went right on ahead and ate dinner at the Denny's. We risked it all for a grilled cheese and onion rings. We are both thoroughly lubed up now. This days eating has consisted of full fat Greek yogurt with honey for breakfast, a chocolate glazed donut for a second breakfast (with a venti sized coffee from the EVIL EMPIRE), hummus and crackers while driving in the car, a bottle of Sprite and now a grilled cheese and onion rings. For those of you who are not 'in the know' this means I will be sick in the car all day tomorrow. Do I care? Right now I say... no way! It was worth it! It's a road trip! Eat like shit! But we shall see tomorrow.

Rudy is on the floor below me chewing the plastic grunting esophagus out of a stuffed hedgie. If you have a dog who rips up toys you know the esophagus I mean. He seems to be doing fine with being back in the trailer. I was worried that he would be all "Are you people kidding me? Take me back home to the casita, Pronto! Bitches!" But as long as he can destroy a toy he is happy just about anywhere. He went to the vet this morning on our way out of town... and you will be glad to know he is in top shape. He's 19 pounds, has perfect clean teeth and ears and he has no worms housed within his wee body. This is good news. I don't think I could look him in the eye if I knew worms were in here somewhere.

So I have one more night of internet... tomorrow night we will be camping just North of Flagstaff, AZ and will still be able to get online there, but after that we will be out of reach of civilization for 6 whole days. This is actually very exciting for me. I want to go hide in the woods for 6 days. No offense internet.... but I need a break from you.

OK. You can expect pictures tomorrow. I promise. For tonight I am going to retire to the bed with a book and let the Denny's grease choke my arteries and bring me one day closer to an early death.

ROCK

This past week was pretty much the usual scene around here. All except for the night that Chelle and I went to The Camel Rock Casino to see a Joan Jett concert. I think I had recently mentioned that this event was up and coming for us. I can't even remember the last concert I went to. Maybe Bonnie Raitt in Hawaii? Not exactly the same sort of vibe as Joan Jett in the middle of nowhere Northern New Mexico at a small pueblo owned casino. Anyway... we got "dressed up" and off we went. And when I say dressed up I mean it in the cheapest way possible.



To put it mildly it the whole experience was weird. Casinos always give me the creeps. All those zombied out people poking their money into the mouths of slot machines for hours. Yikes. And the show was held in a room that resembled a small conference room at a Holiday Inn... complete with those dusty pink faux leather upholstered hotel chairs for seating. The room was never more than half full for the whole show. And the audience was stunning in ways that I shall not mention.

When the show started I was completely unsure what I was going to do with myself for the duration. The fact that I was not totally wasted presented a challenge. I think the only reason concerts are fun at a certain point in your life as that you get wasted and go act like a pig for a couple of hours with a whole bunch of other people who are wasted and acting like idiots in a big, dark venue where nothing really matters for the night besides clapping and perhaps banging your head. Unless you are at an Englebert Humperdink show where clapping is entirely inappropriate.

So, I stood there and watched Joan. I watched people. I drank half of a beer. I spent long moments wondering what Joan was feeling as she looked out on what I deemed to be a totally depressing scene. How was she doing it? I mean... she put forth a great effort. She was rockin' it out to a room with maybe 250 people in it. It felt really weird TO ME so what must it have felt like to her? We will never know. I can say that somehow I came to love her for it. I love Joan Jett. She seems like a great gal. She looks great. She sounds great. She is a real gem. So in answer to the enigmatic question of WWJJD? I say... she would kick ass and rock the face off of a room with 12 deaf and blind people in it if you asked her to.

So the show ended after one encore performance and we sat down to watch the weird parade of people filter out of the room. We then discovered that it was only 9:30! What should we do now?! It's only 9:30?!!! For about 2 seconds the possibility of reckless casino madness, or perhaps painting the town of Espanola red flitted through our heads and then...Yeah... we went home and went to bed.

There has been talk of doing this whole thing again in a few weeks when Great White comes to Camel Rock. What do you all think? Should we go? I mean... it's Great White! And they are playing on Friday the 13th! What a rare opportunity. I will let you know what we decide.

Random Acts of Photo

This past week has been all about the picture takin'. Why? Cause we got a new camera. I thought I would share a post of random images just because I love ya. And because we are like crack junkies with this new camera. We lay in bed at night and take pictures of our feet and the ceiling. We take pictures of the dark once the lights have been turned out. We take pictures in our mind while we are sleeping. Don't send help... or try for a televised intervention or something else drastic like that. We will calm down in a few years. Remember you can click through on each pic to see a larger version.

Rudy looking very handsome and very much like a Wookie at the Plaza Park.

You had no idea I was such and athlete right? Well, I am. I can run and jump. I am all good up to that point. It's the landing that proves to be a problem for me. Seconds after this image above was shot I was rolling around in the dirt having crash landed on my face. My knees were apparently not awake at the moment of hitting the ground and therefore did not participate in the event. I went down like a pro. Old school. I skinned my knees and had gravel in the palms of my hands. Oh yeah.

Out on a walk with Chelle on the banks of the raging Santa Fe River. See it there? Raging! It's a powerhouse that Santa Fe River. It stirs your very soul to see it.

Sometimes at night Billy and I become transparent if we have not had enough dinner.

Sunset from Fort Marcy Park

Blackbird on creepy dead tree. Moments later he tried to peck our eyes out. But we hit him over the head with our camera and ran away.

OK. It's Sunday. Today I am making French Onion Soup because Billy has been talking about it for three days straight. So on the first 80 degree day of the year we will be eating hot soup. I hope you all have a better plan of attack for your day.

It's Thursday

What significance does Thursday have? None. I just could not think of a better title for the post. At least it is a good, honest title.... because no one can deny the fact that it is indeed Thursday. Now that we have established that we can move on.

What goes on around here lately? Well, we are making decisions about what to do at the end of the Summer and getting ready for our upcoming trip in the Airstream to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. We leave in two weeks for that trip and if those two weeks could just hurry up and get it over with I would be very appreciative. I can't wait to be standing on the edge of the canyon feeling like an insignificant speck of dust lost in the enormity of the universe. Because that is how the Grand Canyon always makes me feel. It also makes me feel like I want to eat hearty "victuals" instead of boring old "dinner."

My only worry about the upcoming trip is Rudy. He has become a real puss about riding in the truck. He cries and shivers and pukes and carries on like a sick baby. This is going to make for a long drive to Flagstaff on the first day out. We may have to gag and bind him and tie him in a sack on the roof of the truck. Is that against the law? It probably is... so don't tell anyone our plan. He has also become "scared" at night lately. This new development is bizarre and unexplainable. It started one night last week when we let him out front for his final pee of the evening (he does this every single night around 11 so there is nothing new about it) and he freaked out barking at something in the dark. We could not see or hear anything out there (our front yard is the size of half a postage stamp and completely fenced in) and had to physically drag him back inside. That ended up to be a looong night. He never gave over to calming down. He was fully committed to the idea that we were all in serious peril and if he did not keep a diligent watch we would all be dead by morning. He patrolled the house growling and whining. He watched the door and the windows with wild, wide eyes. The hair was standing up on his back. I can only assume he came in to direct contact with the actual boogie man of myth and legend in the front yard. We tried to put him to bed in his crate but he was not havin' it. So we ended up dealing with Mr. Scaredy pants for most of the night. Try sleeping with a growling dog standing on your chest.

This behavior has remained in that now if he hears the slightest noise outside after dark he barks and patrols and grumbles and carries on for ten to fifteen minutes no matter what you do to try to shut him up. This is not gonna fly once we are back camping in the AS. It's not lookin' good for the rest of the summer in this casita either. We live next door to a small dirt parking lot (the only thing dividing us from it is a half assed coyote fence) for a bed and breakfast and people are in and out slamming car doors all hours of the day and night now that it's tourist season. Once we hit hot weather that requires open windows it's gonna be a constant battle against the barking. Ohhhhhh, the high pitched, sharp barking. Do I love my dog? Yes. Do I sometimes want to skin him alive? Double yes with a cherry on top. Do they make doggie ear plugs? If they do we need some. Send me some if they are out there. Or a sound proof booth! With a built in treadmill! That would be the best all around answer. Run Rudy on a treadmill encased in a sound proof booth for about 4 hours a night. Then everyone could get a good night's sleep. I am sure the people at Sharper Image can come up with something... this kind of crap is right up their alley.

So. Dogs. This has turned in to a really doggie blog over the past year has it not? Well, I am rollin' with it. Like it or not, you come here... you will be met by dogs and all of their vile behaviors.



As I have said before... Dogs keep it real. I like that about them. They may be dirty. They may eat garbage off the ground on the street. But unlike most people I meet they are genuine and enthusiastic about life for the most basic of reasons. They don't require fancy trimmings. Dogs just want everything to be more fun than boring and for everyone to feel OK. Truly.



There is one exception to the above rule in the world of dogs and that is our friend Larry. He wants everything to be more boring than fun. I kind of like it about him though. He is as mellow as mild cheddar and he just wants everyone to relax, relax, relax. Why the hurry? Why do we even need to go out today? At a certain point in any walk with Larry he decides that enough is enough and he becomes one with the ground he stands on. You cannot make him budge an inch unless you concede and walk back in the direction of home or the car. Once he is sure that he is on his way home he perks right up and marches ahead of the group to lead the way. Billy shot this portrait of Larry yesterday at the dog park in his moment of deciding that he would go no further.



You can also contemplate the calm demeanor of Larry in the humpy fight photo above where all the other dogs are engaged in either fighting or humping but Larry is steady as a rock and somehow just caught in the middle (unfazed.) Way to be Larry, way to be.

33 Years of Smooth Movin' Billy McLane

Today was Billy's birthday... number 33. We kept it pretty low key. What else is new though? Like we ever do any thing high key. Or even medium key. Our keys are all hangin' low baby. By the way... we did not plan or color coordinate our outfits. It just happened like that. It also just happened that I have my apron tied so high on my waist that my boob looks like it is made from a balloon filled with lead. Go ahead... look at it. Yeah. These are the visual dangers of photo ops with aprons.

We went out for breakfast to Pasqual's. Billy had smoked trout hash. Because that is what you should always eat for breakfast on your birthday. Fishy hash. It's delicious. (Gross.) I had eggs with tomatillo salsa and hash browns. And an english muffin with orange marmalade. Mine was a much more festive entree by far.

After breakfast we finished up our Mother's Day shopping... so look out you Mothers, stuff is comin' your way. I shipped out presents today!

The birthday fairy came to us on our way home in the form of a huge beautiful hummingbird moth... it congratulated Billy on being 33 and then flew off to avoid being eaten by Rudy.




The rest of the afternoon was spent piddling around the house and prepping food for dinner. We had home made green chile corn bread, grilled baby artichokes, grilled carrots and vidalia onions and marinated grilled tempeh. It was mighty good grub. If anyone is interested in how to cook the BEST grilled tempeh drop me a note and I will post the recipe. It's crazy good and easy to make. Here's a ridiculously close up shot of the artichokes.....




For dessert we had stuff from Cafe Paris... a fruit and almond tart and some sort of crunchy, sugary chocolate meringue torte. The sugar content was off the charts. I am now nursing a cup of peppermint tea to counteract the effects of mucho shugah. Billy is of course fine. He can eat sugar like it's meant to be his one and only sustinence. But then again, he is only 33. You can get away with stuff like that when you are 33.

In closing I will share with you a shot of Rudy which I find most disturbing. Sometimes he really gives me the creeps.


What a slimy pervert. Can you stand it?