On our way back from walking yesterday, she said, “If we found a house we liked out here, I’d probably be very happy.” I concurred. This isn’t about housing, though. It never has been. It’s about a survivor learning to get out of his own way. That’s the mission. I’ll never get it fully done [...]
Rio Grande del Norte National Monument
Changing scrub oak thickets light up burned over mountain
For the last nineteen years, I’ve lived within 30 miles of scenes like this. Could have been doing something else, I guess, but hey. To me this kind of space and clarity comes close to peak existence. It ruins you for ever moving to a city, though. We ate our sandwiches at a pristine picnic [...]
Managed almost a mile and a half before the weather turned us back
Yeah, we got a little wet. It wasn’t bad. That line of virga with rain behind it snuck up on us faster than I expected, or maybe not. I do love a certain element of weather risk. Quite the glorious foreshortened hike, otherwise.
Looking south toward the Rio Grande from the Rio Pueblo gorge
The vantage point above is very close to where we live. Yes, I know you’ve seen this view. I can reach it by driving less than fifteen minutes and walking briskly for ten minutes more, and every time, I’m simply stunned. So what, though, in the larger scheme of things? We have to leave our [...]
No one here at all
We were half an hour down the road at 10 to 15 mph except for crawling over black volcanic boulders. The Dakota’s V-8 chugged happily enough that in the smoother stretches, I had the brief sensation I was piloting a boat at low speed in the vast high desert sea. And then we saw the [...]
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