Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Day Five

I woke up a little stiff from yesterday's horseback riding, but that didn't stop me from running nearly an hour before a nice breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and some of my carrot bread that I made back home in Houston and brought along as road food.

Since my father had to go to a meeting in Hatch, Dan and I were on our own and decided to do a little hiking. We went into Albuquerque and found the La Luz trail, which we hiked a few years ago with one of my uncles. It's seven miles of switchbacks, but we didn't feel like spending all day hiking so we set my watch for only an hour and started up.











View just before starting up.





















Views toward the city.











The trail.











Up towards the mountains.











Switchbacks.











Looking up!











Making new friends on the trail.











Just lovely! Too bad we didn't start early enough to continue!

We ended up going about 2.5 miles up before heading back to where we parked. By then we were pretty hungry and I was craving a really good salad, so we went to Whole Foods and made fancy salads at their salad bar. We took the salads to a park where we watched bunnies and roadrunners while we ate. Then, since it was nearly 5:00, we headed back to my dad's place. We had spaghetti for dinner tonight and a nice chat that thankfully involved the television being OFF. But now the men are on a search-and-destroy mission for horseflies, which we suspect are getting in somehow from one of the farms in the near vicinity.

Nothing but the finest entertainment at the DadWays Inn! One year the problem was gnats. Or maybe moths. I no longer remember, except that insects and other wildlife are a constant presence in the country.

We don't have any firm plans yet for tomorrow or the rest of the week. We'll probably visit relatives and maybe check out a museum or something. There may be other hikes we decide to try. We also want to do a day trip to the Acoma Pueblo and maybe to the towns of Magdalena and Pie Town. We'll probably spend another night or two here though, to save money. Our plans can change quickly, though. One of the pleasures of a road trip is not being bound to any sort of fixed schedule.

4 comments:

Thomma Lyn said...

Wow, sounds like a wonderful hike, and what gorgeous pictures -- I love the look of that trail! :) And hee, I like your little lizard friend, too. I snapped a picture of a lizard on a recent hike, too -- isn't that a hoot? I haven't put him on the blog yet, but I call him Larry the Log Lizard because when I photographed him, he was sitting on a log. :-D

New Mexico looks so beautiful -- and I'm so enjoying following your adventures! And what fun, a road trip with no set schedule. :)

the Bag Lady said...

That was a lovely hike! Wore me right out! :)
What kind of lizard was that, do you know?
How's Dan's sunburn?
Can hardly wait to see what we do tomorrow...

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Horseflies? Ugh. Maybe being here's not so bad after all.

Anonymous said...

you are having an awesome vacation - that is so cool! i'm looking forward to one in a week but probably won't be as good about blogging it :-)

thanks for all the great pics! love that country

and thanks for your encouraging note on my new blog - yeah I think Archi lived a contented life with a pure heart!