Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day.... that time of year when all of us mothers should be doing what we want and spending our day being pampered.

Yeah, right!

Well, I DID get to spend my day doing what I wanted -- which was enjoy the beautiful Spring weather by working outside in the yard (yeah, I know, I'm nuts -- I LOVE to weed!!), and to have my kids around me, or at least to hear from them.

I started the morning by opening my cards -- one from Jake that he left for me earlier in the week, and the other from Derek -- richly embelished with his new-found cursive writing and lots of do-dads all over the envelope. Then Kirk in California called a couple of times, wishing me Happy Mother's Day and to make sure I'm okay, and what was I planning to do, etc. etc. So sweet! It's always good to hear from him. Then Derek and I were to leave for Trinidad, Colorado to go to see Jake.

Well, I didn't want to drive up to Trinidad without hearing from Jake in case he had to work -- he's always working, it seems. So I went out into the yard and started working on our forest of weeds -- mainly the sticker ones before they dropped seeds. By 3:00 I decided to leave, hoping to at least catch Jake for dinner. So off we went.

What a day for a drive! Gorgeous, just gorgeous! We go through Eagle's Nest and Cimmaron to go to Trinidad, so the drive is always interesting. And the light always makes things look differently, too, so it always seems like a new drive.

The trees are beginning to get their leaves -- that bright tender yellow-green -- and the grasses and plants alongside of the road were definitely green! The river we follow (what is the name of that, anyway?) is super full! All of our rivers are really full this year! Birds were singing everywhere! We only saw 2 herds of buffalo outside of Cimarron this time. Last time we saw a full 3 herds. And this time we only saw a few antelope. The buffalo and the antelope are all in the Valle Vidal, where they are drilling for gas. That's where Jake is working, uh-huh. Very very controversial. Well, like he says, it's not actually in the Vidal, it's on Ted Turner's ranch. So drilling in the Vidal actually is not happening -- yet.

When we arrived at Jake's place (he has a room in a prospector friend's house), he was just going to bed! He had to be up at 4:00 a.m. The place was littered with new gold pans, lots of gold sand to pan or run through the chute, and rocks. Of course, always rocks!

The latest in rocks is some really great siderite that has absolutely perfect cubes on them! Lots of gold in them, too, according to Jake and his friend Mack. (of course there's always gold in their rocks -- you think they'd bring home rocks withOUT gold?!?). Then I had to do the tour of buckets of new rocks found on their outings. I couldn't even begin to tell you what they are -- they just looked like plain old rocks to me. But I guess these new buckets are for the crusher (Jake has a rock crusher to crush rocks, and then he puts the dirt from these crushed rocks on his shaker table to separate the different metals in the rocks).

We then went to dinner -- Tequila's in Trinidad. EVERYthing else seems to be closed on Sundays in Trinidad! I wanted to go to that little Russian restaurant in the basement of the hotel on Main Street, but it, too, was closed. Bummer. Trinidad is an interesting little town -- almost everything is made out of bricks. Trinidad used to make bricks for just about the whole country, I understand. Brick streets, brick buildings, brick walls -- you name it, it's got bricks. Right next to where Jake works are the old kilns for the bricks. They look like great big beehives made out of -- you guessed it! Bricks!

On the way back home in the dark, it was the usual vigilant drive for elk and deer. Came really close this time to hitting 2 big deer! The elk always seem to know to stay by the side of the road until you pass. But not the deer -- they just dart right out. Well, unless the elk are already in the road when you come up to them. Then it's like driving through a herd of cows -- they kind of part to let you through.

I have such a hard time driving at night any more -- especially on this drive. It's a very windy road going up the east side of the mountains, and then coming back down into Taos. And, of course, there are trees everywhere, so all I can see is that small area to the edge of the trees that my headlights light up. Between my night blindness, the animals, and then the windy roads, it's kind of like a "white knuckle" ride! But oh so beautiful... (did I mention how beautiful the trees look on this road looks when it snows at night? Ahhhh!)

So, just who are we?

We're those types of persons who seem to live in their vehicles -- and, sometimes, live is literal.

We have trucks, not cars. For us, cars just don't hold enough stuff. Well, my grandparents had a Willy's Jeep and then a Ford Econoline van that my grandfather (an inventor and mechanical engineer) revamped the interiors to meticulously cram in everything needed to live while on the road.

Actually, our story -- or traveling and collecting habit -- starts with my grandfather, Alfred, and his artist sister, Laura. Aunt Laura was 20+ years older than Granddad. She never married because she never wanted to give up her art. She taught at the Chicago Art Institute for decades, and during the summers would haul her little brother along to help her set up her easels, change the tires on her Buick, and whatever else a teenage boy could do to help out. This was back before 1920.

Aunt Laura loved the Southwest! She painted all the landscapes and people she saw, from Santa Fe and Taos, and even down to Mexico where she spent time with Diego Rivera and Freda. And everywhere she went, she collected "pretty things". Not things to use, mind you, just things that she thought were pretty -- bits of cloth, pieces of pottery, blankets -- you name it!

In 1928, my grandfather married my grandmother, Alda, and they took their 3-month honeymoon on the back of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle -- which my grandfather modified with a tent that attached to it. They went from Keokuk, Iowa all the way to the California coast and back, all on roads that were barely roads back then. Needless to say, my grandmother was now in love with the Southwest.

So my grandparents moved to California. I think they would have moved to the desert, but my granddad had a job in the aeronautics industry in California. I remember constant travels with them to the desert where we studied plants, animals and rocks. Of course, many of the rocks we found were brought back to adorn our gardens and table tops. And we seldom left home without books to look up all the fascinating things we saw! And once back, we spent hours reliving our adventures through my gramma's stacks of slides. Yes, she was a prolific photographer!

Okay, so fast-forward to today. There's me (Christine) who loves plants. I can be a walking encyclopedia at times when it comes to plants. There's my son Jacob (who is 35) who is the walking encyclopedia of rocks and a true gold prospector. And then there's Derek, my grandson all of 9 years old, who is into chess. Chess??? Where did that come from? Well, he also likes rocks, plants and animals, adores his Uncle Jake, and tries to help him find GOLD. I think he likes bugs better than gold, though. I have one other son, but he lives in California so he can surf and fish. He prefers the city to the Southwest deserts and mountains, so is rarely traveling with us. But he does create art.

So now you basically have an idea of who we are and why we're on the road a lot -- and why our yard looks like a junk pile (I vow to someday make it look like a yard!). I will try to keep you tuned in to our travels and what we find. Sometimes it's just ho-hum, but a lot of times are really exciting!