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Published: February 13th 2010
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Feb 9 Noah and I slid out of Stace’s and Reed’s at 4 AM for the long drive to Alamogordo, New Mexico. The prior evening I watched as Noah, Reed and Stace played on the Wii system. Games of bowling, golf and tennis soon reduced the three of them into whirling grunting laughing human windmills.
Noah and I thanked Reed and Stace for their wonderful hospitality. It was difficult to leave their comfortable home and Stace’s dinner table masterpieces but life moves on. I first met Stace when she was two years old. Now a practicing attorney in San Antonio it is gratifying to know that Karen and I played even a small part in her development into the great human being she’s become. I was happy to see strength of her relationship with her husband Reed. They play well together. We wish them a long future of continued good fortune. It was cold when we left. Real cold. The day before was rain and wind filled. This morning’s temperature had us racing the Camry’s engine in an attempt to get the heater going as quickly as possible. While I crashed in the back seat Noah took the first leg
of what would be a 650-mile stretch on I-10.
Fortunately the speed limit in this area is 80 MPH and the road is straight so we made good time. Eventually we entered an area of rolling hills and flat mesas. Mesquite trees and creosote bushes lay as far as the eye could see. On a large wide mesa just east of Fort Stockton I saw a windmill farm populated by hundreds of tall generators. There was little traffic to deal with and what there was seemed to consist of Fed/Ex freight trucks and flatbeds hauling armored military vehicles. The towns were few and far between. Bathroom breaks were taken at truck stop/ casino operations.
200 mile east of El Paso we caught our first glimpse of the snow-capped Guadeloupe Mountains as the sun finally broke through the leaden skies. In El Paso we swung north towards Alamo and a much-needed rest. I started coming to Alamogordo with Karen back in 1986. Her Uncle Jim and Aunt Ila’s home was and is a very loving and hospitable abode. The kind of place where relatives and friends wander in and out during the day sharing news and meals and love.
Dinner at My Mom's Place
Wonderful food courtesy of Jim and Ila. I remember my earliest visits here spent at the kitchen table surrounded by a gaggle of honking kidlets drawing pictures, reading stories and dunking Oreos. Jim would lie on the living room floor watching a Disney film with two munchkins perched on his back like monkeys on a Clydesdale. Bare babes splashing in kiddie pools. Wes chasing butterflies in the garden. Even today I can still detect the echoes of their laughter in the yard though the kids be long gone grown with little ones of their own. To help fill their time Jim and Ila adopted a Schnauzer named Chloe who greets all visitors with a slobber and nary a bark which puts her on my all time top list of agreeable hounds.
After a greeting hug Ila’s first question is if you’d like something to eat and only a stone fool says no lest you be pursued throughout the day by Ila and her skillet intent on fulfilling her maternal instinct to feed. Jim and I sat in the living room and caught up on our doings over the past few years. Jim’s Air Force pilot stories are the best to be had this side of Chuck
Yeager. His tales given dramatic flair by the Holloman based jet fighters passing overhead. Wes’s son Bradley paid a visit after school. He stands a foot taller and a stone heavier but Bradley all the same. Jeff showed up for dinner after his job at the local Air Force base building new housing for our Nation’s warriors. It’s good to be home.
Alamogordo sits on White Sands National Park about 84 miles north of El Paso. The main drag through town is White Sands Boulevard lined with chain restaurants and motels. Here they have a Motel 6, Motel 7 and Motel 8. We’re still waiting for number nine. There is a space museum located on the edge of town with a collection of missiles, rocket engines and a rocket sled, which at one time was used, for human G-Force testing. Now it provides humans with a photo op prop. The town was established in 1898 as a railroad junction for trains transporting lumber from the mountain forests. You can still see the old trestle on the hi-way to Cloudcroft. Nowadays the town of 40,000 is almost entirely dependent on Holloman Airforce Base which houses an F-22 Raptor wing as
well as a German air group of Tornadoes.
Feb 10 Wes came by and he and Noah went out for lunch. Wes invited Noah to go skiing up in Sierra Blanca along with Sarah on Friday. Apparently ski areas have been blessed with a load of the cold white stuff this year. Sarah rolled in from her job as an ICU R.N. in Las Cruces. Seeing the little girl I had colored pictures with just yesterday standing before me an accomplished woman had me feeling very old and very proud very quickly. It’s a fast life we live my friends. Sarah's Mom, Peggy, stopped by after her business trip to Santa Fe. She recently got a promotion in her work in public social services. As a result she now spends more time at business luncheons where no business is transacted and seminars. She looks great and looks very happy with her life.
Plans made for the next day; Noah and I went and saw a movie at Alamo’s new 10 theater Aviator Cineplex called; ‘The Book of Eli’. It was a composite of Mad Max, Waterworld and Fahrenheit 451. Noah liked it. It’s hard to argue with a
movie where Denzel Washington dispatches 30 bad guys with a machete in the first 20 minutes.
We ate dinner at ‘My Mother’s Place’. The chef is a guy named Tim whom I hadn’t seen in 22 years since he spent a month at Karen’s and my home in Silver Spring helping Jeff remodel our kitchen. Starting as a Navy cook he went on to work on Princess cruise lines in Alaska as well as a deluxe train service from Anchorage to Denali National Park. Today he runs and manages a couple of restaurants here in Alamo. I guess many of us end up back at home eventually. Which kind of scares me. I was born in Chicago.
While the kids skied on Friday I took the opportunity to do a solo hike in Dog Canyon at Oliver Lee State Park a dozen miles south of town. I consider this to be one of the finest trails in the United States. A somewhat taxing climb that leads you into a beautiful box canyon graced by a towering waterfall at its terminus. Park admission is $5 and there are camping facilities on site. I usually hike to the waterfall and
back which is a distance of six miles. From the heights you are gifted with a stunning view of the Tularosa Basin and White Sands National Park. The more ambitious can climb the entire route to the top of the cliffs near Sunspot. That climb up and back is about twelve miles. Make sure to pack some water and food.
The kids rolled in about 6 PM. Exhausted, rosy cheeked and more than a little happy with their day. This was Noah’s first time on skis and bruised but unbroken he bubbled over with enthusiasm for the sport. He was a joyous sight to behold having discovered another facet of life to love. I wish Karen could have been here to see the kids and share stories. Noah was surprised to learn that both his parents had done a lot of skiing in their youth. While our young athletes regaled us with tales of the slopes, Ila prepared her world famous pot roast. The entire family turned up for dinner. We filled both of the kitchen tables with happy hungry yakking people who in the end left just enough food for a Chloe snack. A very good day for
Our Benefactor Surveys The Scene
Actually he was checking to be sure that nobody was eating all of the chocolate pie. all but then again I didn’t have to do the cooking!
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Ellen
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Where does Maine fit in to this journey?