Albuquerque New Mexico

I love playing drums. I don't know how really, but I love to play them anyway. One of the highlights of this trip has to be playing instruments in the basement of Ben's house in Albuquerque. We had a blast staying and Ben and Melissa's place. They have a cute little adobe house right downtown. (Their downtown doesn't resemble Chicago's Loop at all.) We stayed 4 nights in Albuquerque, 3 nights at their house. The first night at their house we just hung around, drank some really good local beer and relaxed. Ben and Melissa were stressed because of drainage problems in their yard. They had tried to hire some guys to fix the problem before we arrived in order to free themselves up for a good time. But as happens with those things, the drainage problem didn't get resolved,it got exacerbated. It was a small-jobs contractor from Craig's List they hired and he turned out to be a big loser who stood around in the shade more than he worked at all. In fact, the first day after a couple of hours of standing around, he left without a word pushing his truck, taking their shovel and wheelbarrow and was gone for about 4 hours. Turns out, he went to the dump for some
reason, ran over his phone, went and got a new one, jump-started his battery and got some food. Not necessarily in that order. He told them that the job would be done on Tuesday. As far as I know, it's still not done today on Sunday. It added that bizarre extra layer of experience that flavors the memory of the visit. Unfortunately, instead of being amused by it, Ben and Melissa were stressed out about it. Isn't the point of hiring someone to do some work to keep from being being stressed out about doing the job? Anyway, the next day Gabe and I decided to walk the dogs about a mile away to the Museum district to snap some photos of sculptures and investigate sculpture as we have made a habit of doing. It was beautiful in the shade and deadly in the sun. I sat in the shade of a lushly grassy park for an hour with the dogs rolling blissfully around while Gabe took pictures in the sculpture garden and fought off the heat with only his cowboy hat. On the trek back home, the heat was almost unbearable and I started to worry about the dogs. Conrad seemed to get skinnier right in front of us as he suffered from dehydration. When we got home, the dogs slurped up water noisily and collapsed on the cool wooden floor in front of the fan. They were fine, not even phased within thirty minutes. We all napped. That night Ben took Gabe and I out to dinner and we met up with one of his friends, an easy going cool guy named Heath. Unfortunately, Melissa had to work. She works at a cool music venue that has a soft roof that can open up at night so that while you're inside enjoying a band, you can still look up to the stars. Dinner and then to a punk bar called Atomic. We saw a pop-punk band that looked like it was headed by the rap star Big Pun, more likely, his doppelganger. We finished the night
on the town with nightcap at the Launchpad where Melissa works. On a side note, New Mexico has the highest drunk driving rates in the country and as a result, has the strictest drinking rules. Bartenders cannot, under any circumstances, have a drink while working. No more than two drinks per person, even if you are buying for other people. (Whats the fun of bartending then?) Again, anyway, we then head home, drink some more beer and head downstairs. We set up the amps and the drum kit. Ben shows me what to do with the one drum stick and the bass drum. Gabe turns up the bass amp and we all start playing. I certainly didn't know what I was doing but I could immediately feel how hesitating even half a split second can throw off the rhythm of the music. I have a whole lot more respect for drummers now that I've had a taste of it. I also now, really want to drum again. However, we were drunk and loud and Melissa came home informing us that she could hear us playing down the street! So we had to stop. But then, I decided to open a bottle of champagne to toast to Ben and Melissa's engagement. And the brothers drank a bottle of Belgian Trippel! We didn't finally crash until around 5:00am, very possibly later. We were hungover the next morning! Whew!



The next day Ben took us to the Petroglyph National Park to try to find some volcanoes and petroglyphs. We drove around for over an hour looking for the park. I swear, at one point we were lost in the desert. We saw a sand tornado, dust devils as they are known. Finally, Ben found the park entrance. We walked along this sandy trail that wound between huge and small black lava rocks that literally littered the landscape. It was a strangely awesome and desolate place, no shelter from the sun at all, lizards and small shrubby plants. We saw what we
thought were some petroglyphs but couldn't really distinguish between graffiti and actual Native American picture scrawls. Ben took tons of pictures of me and Gabe and I snapped some of the brothers. But man, it was hot and dusty and bright. Then some weird, bright red, shirtless guy came running from god knows where, rounded a bend and disappeared. We left and went to Old Towne to shop. I found the most beautiful pair of turquoise earrings. Which I didn't get. We're nearing the end of our trip and you can tell that by our bank account levels. We walked around and I found the most beautiful shell and turquoise necklace. Which also didn't get. I tried it on but I didn't get it. We found a calico cat sleeping in a plant pot, smashing down
the flowers and then we went home. That evening we went and had some true New Mexican cuisine. Spicy! I had blue corn enchiladas with beans and what they call "Christmas" chiles. That's green and red chiles. I definitely like green chiles the best. After that we went to a steak house (eww!) with the intentions of having a drink and seeing their friend Nels perform. We were so full that no one could fit a drink in. We stayed for about 2 songs and then went home. We vegged out in front of the t.v. and crashed. We are getting too old to be partying until dawn!

So we left Albuquerque and drove up to Santa Fe and met up with Shamba and Samantha. We didn't get to stay but it was awesome to meet up with friends from Chicago who are on their own similar cross country trek. They turned their truck into a veg-oil truck and are camping around before attending a Perma-Culture workshop in Oregon. Meeting in Santa Fe gave us a chance to trade stories and compare advice. I hope (and believe) that they have as great a time as Gabe and I have had. Shamba has turned out to be a great friend after all these years and it's cool to watch him and Samantha grow/work towards their own life goals. They seemed tired
but happy as we left them, this little knowing smile on Shamba's face as he waved good-bye.
Up through Colorado and into a storm we drove and we finally crashed at another strict-ruled KOA in Colorado Springs. Gabe drove another 8 hours the next day through Wyoming and into South Dakota. We passed through Lusk, Wyoming which is where my mothers family's Ranch is. It's actually 18 miles outside of Lusk. We couldn't stop and I think I broke my moms heart about it but we discussed it with her and we just didn't have the luxury of time. I have distant cousins that still work the ranch out there. There's a huge dramatic story about how we were supposed to inherit some of that land but I'll save that for another time. We found Big Pine Campground in Custer South Dakota, close to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. It's an incredibly
beautiful area and close to my family. It's cool and fresh here with the smell of pine sap lightly flavoring the air. The pine trees are hugely tall and perfectly straight. The gravel drives are sprinkled with sparkling mica. It's very comfortable here. I'm sure we'll be back here again and then we can visit the Ranch in Lusk.