Catching Up

Where has the time gone? Today would have been Gary's 66th birthday. A lot of things have been happening but I've just been too lazy to post all the fun things. It would be too hard to go back and catch up, so I'll just begin with Cousin Bernie's visit beginning February 11. I took him to the Rotary meeting on Thursday and they described the trip over Emery Pass, so he conceded to that and the Gila Cliff Dwellings. A really nice couple from New York shared their ski poles with Bernie when they saw that he was having a problem with the heights. He was really grateful. Isn't it great when perfect strangers are willing to help you out for no reason other than they are nice people. Bernie was really impressed with the scenery. Then Sue and Marty came for the weekend as they had originally intended to do. We showed Bernie around the lake. Then on Monday morning when Marty and Sue left for ABQ, Bernie and I left for White Sands. It was a perfect day for the dunes and I could have stayed there all day taking pictures. We needed to get to Carlsbad in time to find a Chili's so that Bernie could have a margarita with his dinner. He learned to like those when we took him to the Dam Site Restaurant at Elephant Butte. The pictures inside the caverns are not very good because I was experimenting with settings and the lighting was tricky to say the least. He called me the perfect tour guide and I was beginning to doubt my abilities when I thought I was running out of gas about 50 miles east of El Paso out in the middle of nowhere. I guess we were both praying hard, because all of a sudden there appeared a gas station with the most outrageous price. Who cared? He ended up staying a week and we both had a great time: me as tour guide and he as the reluctant tourist.