Good to be here

We arrived at Mom and Dad's in Vilas, Colorado on Sunday evening. After an overnight stop outside Gallup, NM, we drove on through to here the following day. We had stopped at a couple of places to look at some things but it seems everybody is in it for the money. There's a meteorite crater we thought we'd like to see but they charge $12 / person just to look at it. Nice visitor's center but that's getting out of hand. Fine, if there's the "added value package" that some enjoy. I prefer the way they've done it at Mount St. Helens. They too have a visitor center and charge for certain "extras" but they don't prevent you from being able to see the mountain if you just want to stop and take some pictures. This one did. Not imressed.

We had a similar experience with the Petrified Forest. I suppose we could have paid the toll to drive through but we're trying to be conservative on our expenses. After all, $12 is enough for a campground overnight stop. We weren't quite ready to stop -- just wanted to see a few things so we passed. Besides, they close the gates at 7:00PM and that would not have given us enough time to enjoy it.


Cathy had a new experience with the thunderstorms of the plains. They can be fierce at times with the rain a solid sheet of white blocking all vision. Many drivers pull off the road when that happens. I got through before that wall came, I guess, though slowly. We passed through a few more squalls but nothing as severe as the one in Arizona. The one sweeping across northern New Mexico was fun too. High winds and lots of lightening. Not quite as much rain so we were able to keep moving. Things started cooling off as well. Quite a relief. We tried to bring some of that moisture here (been drought conditions for some time now) but only managed a few sprinkles. Enough to keep the dust down but not much more. We saw cloudbursts all around us but nothing quite made it through here yet. Temps have been high, as expected, but it cools off in the evening making our stay much more pleasant. Drier air helps, too. We're not really comfortable outside in the sun but at least we're not miserable.

We may be heading to or near our desired final destination next. That last expense put a major ding in our budget and we may find it necessary to get a feel for employment opportunities sooner than intended. Recent stories in the news makes one wary but I'm sure we can find something. We'll be in that "under-employed" category but our's is by choice. People we met coming back from the area told us that Silverton is really building up so maybe that's the place to be. We'll see.

Mike and Edna have been very busy with baseball this week so we've not seen them yet. Congrats go out to Cory who pitched a shutout recently and has been a major contributor to his team making it to the playoffs. I understand that they play today and if they win, will be going to the Championship game. Good work, guys. And, good luck.

We'll be here at least a few more days. Where to from here is still uncertain. Other's plans have caused us to review our own so we'll see.