Going to Albuquerque

We are on the way to Albuquerque to visit our daughter, son, and grandchildren.

Very beautiful scenery along the way.

We are approaching a village called Sapello (saw-pay-yo) when you're heading south from Mora toward Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA on highway 518.

As you pass Sapello and get closer to Las Vegas, you will pass Storrie Lake on the right. Because of the drought we have been experiencing, the level of the lake is pretty low.

But, even as low as the water is, it is summer and there are always campers in the Storrie Lake State Park.

I always enjoy our drive down from our mountain no matter how many times I see it.

Holiday Weekend is Over!

The "Fourth of July" Holiday weekend is over! Had a marvelous time. We went to the Las Vegas Fiestas to see Al Hurricane, a famous "Northern New Mexico music" band.

When we arrived at the park in "Old Las Vegas", we parked and walked to the central park area where the vendors,  music and dancing were to happen.

There were hundreds of people walking, standing and talking, sitting on lawn chairs and on the grass. The lines for the food vendors were long as they usually are for hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cake, ice cream, sodas, snow cones, indian tacos, sopapillas, red or green chili, ribbon fries, turkey legs and various t-shirts, bracelets and other trinkets.

We were lucky enough to find a spot to sit on the grandstand in front of the bandstand and dancing area. The music was good and loud! As we were looking around for anyone that we might know, my husband's family is from around the Las Vegas, New Mexico area, I felt a raindrop! Oh No! I told my husband we would have to leave if it started raining. . . and sure enough! The amount of rain escalated so rapidly that by the time we ran (as fast as I could with my healing hip) to the parking place for our truck, we were both drenched to the skin. I had no towel to dry off with so I used the inside of my sweatshirt sweater, LOL! I usually carry a towel in our SUV but we were in the truck. We took the truck instead of the SUV because we were planning on moving boxes and furniture from storage after we had listened to the music at the festival.  But, with the rain, we decided not to move anything. We didn't want to risk any items getting damaged by the rain.

So, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, "The Hillcrest" in Las Vegas. By that time it was lunch time and we had to wait to be seated because of the lunch time rush. We had a good lunch in spite of the fact that we were still in very wet clothes. Before we headed home we stopped to do some grocery shopping. It was still raining on our way home to Guadalupita, which is 40 miles away.  As we approached our home village, the rain slowed and stopped completely. But, as we finished putting our groceries away, the rain started again.  This time we were inside our cabin, completely dry in warm and comfy clothes.

The rest of the evening, we watched our usual Saturday lineup of country music shows on RFD TV. Then we watched the fireworks from the capital. It was still raining so no one was shooting off fireworks in our vicinity.

While we were on the way to and from Las Vegas I worked on my Hexie project. I got quite a few hexies basted. Since we were bouncing around in the truck, I couldn't do the fine stitching needed to connect the hexies so I settled for basting the individual hexies.  I only have about a thousand more to baste so it was an accomplishment!

Sorry there are no pictures! I was so preoccupied with the rain at the festival, I totally forgot to take pictures.  Maybe at next year's festival.

Not snow. . . FLOWERS!

We were headed home from shopping in Las Vegas, New Mexico and I saw this white streak on about 10 acres of land. Sorry for the remoteness of the picture, I took it with my phone.

Since it has been hailing the past couple of weeks and the weather has been so freaky, I thought it was left over hail or snow. Some of our higher hills still have peaks covered in snow.

My husband said no, that's not snow its flowers . . . white daisies!

Oh my! They were so beautiful! Then I began to notice they were everywhere!

Not on every piece of acreage, just here and there.

I had forgotten that every year at this time of year, with all the spring rains, we get these fields of wild flowers. They are never in the same field every year, the locations are very random. You never know where you will see all this beauty.

It seems the colors are never exactly the same. Last year they were golden yellow, the year before they were light lavender, and so on.  I have never seen white or red.

Whatever color they are they are so beautiful and so plentiful, they take my breath away. Being a city girl from California, I had never seen this beauty before.

Spring Has Finally Arrived!

Three days ago we had snow in Guadalupita and the temperature was in 20's and 30's.

 But yesterday it was in the high 70's and today its supposed to be in the high 70's also.

My husband cut our lawn for the first time today!  YAY!  I have moved my hand crank machine to (what we call) "the new trailer". I will be working in there during the summer.  Of all our living quarters, it has the best views out its many windows.

I am still trying to sort, toss and organize my fabrics, patterns, knick knacks, what nots and other assorted stuff.  Now that our storage shed is almost finished, I decided to start bringing boxes from commercial storage in Las Vegas and sort, toss, etc.  This was our storage shed's foundation laying days.

I can do the sorting, tossing, etc. a little at a time and start converting from moving boxes to plastic storage bins and labeling and placing them in our storage shed.

The storage shed has walls and a roof, just has not been wired or the outside finished yet, but it's useable while they finish the outside.

Time To Sew!!

Now that my daughter has gone home, its time for me to get back to work on my basket weave string quilt!

Here is my container full of strips ready to be sewn.

 

This a.m. I had my tea ready and started bright and early!

  My cabin feels so lonely and too quiet without my granddaughter running around!  I texted my daughter this a.m. when I awoke to see how far they had gotten during the night. They should have reached Los Angeles Union station around 7 a.m. 

I received the most awful news about their trip. They were not even to Kingman, Arizona yet at 7 a.m.!  Apparently the train experienced some kind of mechanical difficulties during the night and they were stopped for 2 hours in the desert. She said the worst part was that the air conditioning was not working in their coach so it was very warm and stuffy! She carried my granddaughter to the lounge/observation car where the air was working and it was cool.  Thankfully my granddaughter slept through the night, even though she was sweating most of the time.

Amtrak was not forthcoming with any information and did not offer any comfort about the inconvenience.  She said the passengers were kept in the dark, literally, no lights! Conductors and porters were nowhere to be found to be questioned about the status of the train.

When my daughter caught the train in Las Vegas, NM they must have been experiencing problems already because they were over an hour late getting to Las Vegas.  They will be over 6 hours late getting to L.A. Union Station.  

I guess you get what you pay for!  Even though the train is cheaper than airlines, they are also starting to charge extra for everything!  My son-in-law said they no longer hand out free pillows!!  They offer an $8.00 package of a tiny pillow and a small blanket. . . . WOW!

Well, back to quilting . . . 

Aveli

Trip to Vegas!

Yes, we went to Vegas today! And home in time for Supper!

Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA that is!

95 % of the population of the U.S., maybe the world, do not know that there is a Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA. It has been here way before the usurper in Nevada.

It is on the road known as the Santa Fe Trail and used to house some very famous people in the 1800's and 1900's. If you are ever in the vicinity, just off highway 25, north of Santa Fe, take a tour of old town Las Vegas and some neighboring streets. You will see the Plaza Hotel that used to host all the cattle barons when they were selling their cattle or at the end of a cattle drive. Side streets have beautiful Victorian houses that many barons, cattle and railroad owners used to own in times gone by.

On Grand you can visit the "Rough Riders" museum which is dedicated to the memory and memorabilia of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Take a road out of town and take a nice hot mineral springs bath. Then, go visit the "Castle". The railroad made this spectacular hotel to house all the employees while they worked the railroad, later it became a college. Why Castle? Because it looks exactly like a fairy tale castle.

Did you know that the famed boxing champion Jack Johnson trained and fought here? Neither did I until I saw an article in the local paper. The Amtrak Railroad Station has some very interesting historical pictures of the late 1800's, or early 1900's.

True, you will not find a single slot machine or roulette wheels here.  But if you take the highway a few miles away from Las Vegas there are the Indian owned and run Casinos.

Well, I guess I am done being the tour guide! LOL!

As I said, we went to Vegas today! We went shopping for those last minute things that are necessary when you go on a trip. We will be leaving Saturday early in the morning.

Any orders placed at my website www.avelisquilts.com will be filled after we get back from California on June 22.

Thanks for your patience!

Keep on quilting!
Aveli