Home again home again

May 28, 2021

17 days, 8 cities, 3,400 miles later, and we are home again.

Lulu was very happy to see us, even though she was very well taken care of by our friends. I think she will be missing our vacation as much as we did.

But for now she is content to have us home.

It was great fun to see graffiti that came from WWII, and more images (below) that came from thousands of years before that.

We met people at the peak of their careers, choosing Marfa as a place to be while they make their bones in the journalism or art worlds. I hope they don't feel locked down.

I met an old friend who lived out his career as what we used to call a Tramp Miner, and is now retired to Silver City, NM, a place I almost moved to when I was 24.

We saw amazing things that you read about your whole life, like the Petrified Forest, and realize that yes, you should see things like this at least once.

Or twice

There are amazing things that get preserved in a county that gets no rain. Like a thousand year old meteor crater.

Then there are cities, like Sedona, AZ which has become nothing more than a punch line in a political joke that turn out to have views like this:

and this. And you realize that we have a huge, great country that can contain a multitude of opinions and beliefs.

And here is the thousand year old graffiti that makes you realize that we, people, want to let others know WE WERE HERE and that we want to be surrounded by beautiful things.

Like this

And that natural disasters happen with such regularity that we should be grateful that we are not all boiled in our own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through our hearts. This is a ash field from a volcano that erupted for 200 years, and could be seen for 200 miles away. They found pottery in the ashes.

and the grandeur that is this:

And this:

and this:

and the foresight that preserved it for all of mankind, but mostly for all Americans. Where would we be without Teddy Roosevelt?

And a state that gives you that, also gives you this:

and this:

Where the remnants of old mining claims are celebrated even as we deplore the current mining operations. Our touch on the land is not light.

and yet touch it we do.

We leave our traces everywhere.

and it is shocking when we see what we used to do, and what we still do.

We enjoyed hiking in this world, and we saw so few people as to think we were mostly alone, most of the time.

And were astounded by the natural world over and over again. And we endeavor to capture it.

By photos and memories and plants. Yes, I bought a 1" tall saguaro from a Native American shop and I hope it lives. I have bad luck with cactus.

It will never grow this big, and given Houston's humidity, I may never have to water it.

and we saw "The Wall" as we drove on NM 9. And we were warned off, over and over again against driving on that road. But for over 4 hours we may have seen 5 cars. And 3 of them were Border Control. We were so isolated, it was eerie. I would not hesitate to do it again.