Out and About - Scenes from ABQ

ABQ lawn art

Rio Grande Nature Center (about a mile from our home)

Butterfly Garden at ABQ Bio Park

Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood (about 30 min. drive from ABQ)

Textures in the outdoor patio of the Daily Grind Coffee House in ABQ

Plants we've seen in ABQ

Whasup with this sign at a park restroom??

Fiona and Chi Chi - To each her own

Chi Chi, our 3 year old Lynx Point Siamese, loves to be outside, but she's wisely cautious and doesn't like to stray outside the walled court yard in the front of our house. Even if we let her out the back door, we soon find she's walked around the house to jump over the wall back into the courtyard. There she relaxes in the shade and catches the occasional beetle or corners a friendly toad. She likes to walk around the top of the wall surveying from above. Somehow she seems to know about the coyotes who live in the neighborhood. We only let her out in the cool of the morning or evening.

On the other hand, Fiona, our old Snowshoe Siamese, prefers a soft chair in our air conditioned house. We got her as a stray about 3 years ago and she's had quite enough of the greater outdoors, thank you very much! The only thing on her mind is "When's the next meal?"

Making Music

We found a wonderful acoustic music shop called Apple Mountain Music. The clerk minding the store was playing a hammered dulcimer as we walked in. There was something very welcoming about the shop. It had 'good energy.' We found it because we had signed up for a dulcimer class through Univ. of NM and it was being held there next month. We had gone to this shop to buy the required book. The shop has all types of acoustic instruments and also hosts lessons by local musicians. The next morning was a singing lesson, and we registered for it on the spot! It turned out to be a lot of fun and very worth our time. The instructor was once an opera singer, so the class was much more about voice training then just being a 'sing along.'  The class has been an on-going group, and we will continue to meet with them.


We also signed up for a Mountain dulcimer all-day weekend conference in October with lots of workshops to choose from. I've played my dulcimer for more than 30 years, and although I can get a lot of music out of it, my vocabulary is very limited. Lee bought us a CD of leading dulcimer artists and I was amazed by the variety of music that can come out of a simple 4-stringed instrument. Although I love my new electric guitar, I'm now also excited about expanding my dulcimer skills and using my voice as an instrument. It's a wonderful bonus that Lee is also interested in exploring his musical side and we are taking the singing and dulcimer classes together.


The second day we were in ABQ, we visited Old Town which is a series of quaint tourist shops and artist galleries in the original ABQ business district. To get out of the heat, we entered a small deserted shop with lots and lots of necklaces and other jewelry. Because the tourist season this year has been so slack, the shop is closing for several months so the owner can focus on the other means she has for income. They were having a big sale, so we had to browse! I saw a necklace with an eagle. It spoke to me, so I bought it. I have been wearing it every day since. So many people have commented on it and someone asked me if it represented an eagle or a thunderbird. I hadn't thought about it, but in googling the question, I discovered is that the eagle is the earthly manifestation of the spirit thunderbird, the symbol of creative power. As an analyst, technician, and teacher I am left brain heavy. One of my life goals in retirement is to find ways to nurture my right brain. ABQ is becoming a magical place for me, and is connecting me to my musical path. 

Look up!! See the balloons over our house?

Finding Music

Hey, this retirement stuff isn't so bad. In Portland we used to sleep until 8 or 9, but now we wake up at 5:30 a.m. ready to start another sunny day. Lee opens up all the doors and windows to bring the temp in the house down to the mid 70s. We've been keeping the AC turned to 82 at night, so the house is pretty warm by morning. Then we putter around, usually all morning. People used to tell me they found themselves busier after retirement than they did before, and I couldn't imagine it, but now I understand. Instead of trying to find ways to avoid life, now there is always something calling me to do it. I visited a local guitar shop and restrung my dulcimer for the first time in probably 20 years!! I also restrung my electric guitar. Swapped the wimpy 'beginner' strings for strings with more voice.  I've found a blues teacher (I hope) - Stan Hirsh. To find a teacher, I did an Internet search and he popped up. When I emailed him, he said we might be able to start in August when he gets back to ABQ. He's on tour now. He's probably older than I am, an accomplished bluesman, and an experienced teacher.  He has put his first few lessons on the Internet for his students. I feel very comfortable with his musical philosophy. It's what I've experienced first-hand when teaching myself to play back in the 70s. Here are some excerpts:


The more you are “plugged into” the rhythm, the more musical your playing will sound. All good musicians are rhythm players. Even if you only know one chord, you should be able to get people movin’.



Simplicity or complexity are not gauges of musicality or measures of artistry. Dig into your limitations, strengthen them, your style must conform to them!  

Why do we use our strongest hand for the strumming or picking ? Because we need that accuracy and strength for the most fundamental and important part of music making; The rhythm! Most of us forget this because we become unavoidably preoccupied with the fretting hand and all the flashing, shinny, glittering details.

All musicians who play any music (complex or simple) that sounds solid can vocalize what it is they are playing. From the basic rhythm to the most complex arrangement of notes. This does not mean they can “sing” them in perfect pitch (although some can), but they can vocalize the phrasing (rhythm). They hear the part (inside their head) and can bring it out into the physical world by vocalizing it. Then play it on their instrument.


Besides the guitar and dulcimer, Lee and I both are learning to play the ukelele and we have a practice place set up in an alcove of the living room - very convenient! I'm beginning to get used to and even enjoy this bigger house with it's bigger footprint. It's a good thing we can't afford to live like this in our 'real' lives in Portland. 

Last night we watched the movie "Danny Deck Chair." In it, the hero, in a desperate attempt to find some excitement in his life, ties a bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair and accidentally takes off with no way to come back down. He ends up crash landing in a small town far to the north. He remains an anonymous stranger in this town and finds a new, more fulfilling life. "How did I get here?" David Byrne asks in his song "Once in a Lifetime." That's how we feel. We wake up every morning in this palatial, sunny, warm, adobe house listening to roosters, peacocks, horses, and guinea fowl and wonder... How did we get here! 

Our first day

After a long and slow start in the morning, we unpacked what we had, and Lee made a beautiful brunch of fresh OG veggies, eggs, and corn tortillas that we had bought at the Farmers’ Market in Moab the day before. Then we went to visit Old Town. Everyone was so friendly. People in the shops and art galleries volunteered their favorite places to eat and Bob, the volunteer at the visitors’ center was a mountain of information. He gave us enough ideas to keep us busy for the year we plan to be here. After another trip to the Co-op for basic supplies, we came home to eat on the patio. We let out Fiona and Chi Chi into the back yard. Fiona came right out to explore the territory, but Chi Chi hung back in the house to make sure nothing bad happened to Fiona before following her outside. Fiona went toward the fence to look at the horses grazing out in their paddock. They saw us at the fence and ran over to greet us. There was also an old, sweet and friendly Chihuahua who came to the fence and touched noses with Fiona. I didn’t want to push my luck, so I brought them both in and we will let them out again tomorrow.

We arrive!

Fiona and Chi Chi were refreshed by their day without driving and they ate better and seemed more relaxed. However, they still resisted another day in the car. But they quieted down for an uneventful final day and we pulled into Albuquerque at about 6:00 pm on Saturday night. We’d made it!! Our trip meter logged 1525 miles and told us that we’d averaged 38.7 mpg during the trip.

When we arrived at the house, there was a huge gate on wheels that had to be swung out of the way to pull into the driveway. We found the key to the front door just where Liz had said it would be, and we opened the door. It was Pueblo revival style home and palatial. All the floors are freshly finished wood or Santa Fe style large tile. The ceiling looks to be about 10 feet high. There are 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a walk-in closet as big as our bedroom in Portland, an office, a laundry room, and a nook of a wet bar with it’s own sink. Out back is a covered patio with two hammocks and a view of the horses, ponies, donkeys, and pea foul next door. The place is nicely landscaped and made our Portland home seem humble.

It was hot... nearly 100 degrees. As soon as we arrived there was a short-lived, but heavy rain.  After unloading the cats, we drove four blocks to Montanita Food Co-op and loaded up on groceries. Then we came home, ate on the patio, washed up and crashed in their wonderful bed.

Moab and Arches National Park

The next day was a long but very beautiful drive to Moab. We stayed at Kokopelli Inn, an environmentally friendly, hippie style motel with brightly colored walls and hand made furniture. That too was only $65 a night but each cat cost us $5 a night. Still cheap! We checked in, went to the Moab Brewery (yes, they have their own brewery) for dinner, and walked around this tourist town before settling down with the cats for the rest of the evening.

The next day we spent exploring Arches. BTW, whoever is 62 y/o or more can get a pass from the Forest Service that admits you and whoever is in your car to every national park and forest for free! I had one, and it worked! Arches is beyond my ability to describe it. For this writer a picture works better. No wonder the park is packed with folks who come to admire the colors and structures that took so much time to form. It’s amazing that the park was created on top of a salt bed that was deposited over millions of years by inland seas that came, evaporated, and came again to develop a bed of salt more a mile thick. The salt bed was fragile and collapsed under the weight of other sediment and rock deposits that came afterwards. After collapsing, the salt bed slid along a rock bottom and buckled, cracking the sediments on top of it that then pushed upwards like the fins of fish. These narrow “mountains” made of different materials eroded at different rates to form the arches and spires. You will have to go yourself to appreciate it.

Avon House

After stopping at the Baker City food co-op for snacks, we hit the road at about 11:00 a.m., ready for the nearly 8-hour drive to Avon House. It’s the longest drive-day we planned for the trip. Again, Fiona retired to the covered litter box (I put a padded liner between her and the cleaned out litter) and Chi Chi was once again, whiney and restless. She rode for a while in Lee’s lap while I drove, and then she finally settled down in her cage for the rest of the day.

Again, the scenery was expansive and majestic. The highway has been constructed in a valley surrounded by low foothills. Occasionally our old 2001 Prius had to climb over those foothills to get to the next valley. We were amazed by the perseverance of our old car. 2001 was the debut of the Prius, and our car has more than 112,000 miles on it, yet it climbed every hill at 65-75 mph without a single complaint. Even over-loaded, with the air conditioning on full bore to protect us from the 100 degree heat outside, it is getting almost 38 mpg.  We admired its fortitude and endurance and were glad we sprung for the $1200 for a tune up and an oil change before we left.

We usually get 55 mpg on the highway, so we aren’t used to having to get gas every day. When we stopped at an Idaho gas station for a fill up, we remembered that we’d left the wonderful convenience of Oregon’s anti-self-serve gasoline policy.

Avon House was as beautiful as pictured on airbandb.com where we found this rental for about $45 per night. It is located outside of Salt Lake City about 14 miles from the town of Logan where Utah State University is located. Avon house was more than worth the drive off our route. We arrived near sun down and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. As our hosts returned from their evening duties, they greeted us and we stayed up until ten sharing stories. It was fun.

Baker City, Oregon

Baker City is an iconic Eastern Oregon small town, which among other things, makes its living off tourist traffic from I-84. A couple of surprising things struck us as we entered the town. First, the streets are as wide as a 4-lane highway, but uncluttered with traffic and lined by buildings built in the 1800’s. Second, the beauty of the architecture was startling. Engravings, cast iron edifices, soaring towers and steeples – one building looked like it belonged in New York City, not a town of just under 10,000 people. That evening, while the cats explored the motel room, we walked to dinner on the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway along the Powder River. Barn swallows swooped along the river’s surface. We saw several townspeople biking and walking along the trail, and each one remarked on the beautiful weather. It had been a long, cold winter everywhere in Oregon and tonight the sun was warm and the breeze was cool. It was perfect!

The next morning we had breakfast at the Oregon Trail Restaurant. Lee looked at the local paper. He discovered that Wally Byam, who invented the Airstream trailer, came from Baker City. He died in 1962, and every year, original Airstream owners come from all over America to meet up in a local park to celebrate his life. (basecampbaker.com/blog/?p=134)

The paper quoted him as observing that you can choose a life that will make you successful and wealthy, or one that can make you happy. For the lucky folks, he got the first life by choosing the second one. Lee remarked that you could tell a lot about people by whom they pick to be their heroes. As we were packing our car to leave, a grey haired man who was cleaning rooms, told us he had lived in Baker City since 1970 and he bragged about how safe the town was. He said you do occasionally hear a police siren, but that’s only to blow the bugs and cobwebs out of the horn.

On the way to Baker City

We headed out of Portland on I-84 along the Columbia River. Once we passed the end of the Columbia Gorge at the Dalles, the scenery transformed from imposing rock walls and conifers into rolling hills, dotted with graceful wind farms, and covered by dried yellow grassland and grey-green sage brush. Bare, wrinkled foothills framed the scene. The cloistered feeling of the lushly forested Willamette Valley was gone, replaced by open, unrestrained landscape. The trip was underway. We’ve planned 4 nights along the route: the Bridgeview Inn in Baker City, Oregon, The Avon House (airbnb.com) in Avon Utah, and 2 nights at the Kokopelli Inn in Moab, Utah where, depending on how well the cats are doing, we may stay over a day.

The Day of Departure

There were only a couple of glitches to take care of on Tuesday morning before we left. One, our trunk, Yakima box, and back seat were fully loaded, but there was NO ROOM FOR OUR CLOTHES!! Oh well, it’s hot in Albuquerque, so don’t need clothes, right? So, at 8:00 am on Tuesday, we were at the UPS store mailing 5 boxes of clothing (nearly all the clothes Lee and I own now). It only cost about $150, and we felt that was a bargain. The second glitch wasn’t as easy to fix. Our credit union had ERASED ALL OUR BILL PAY INFO when Lee had closed his other credit account on Friday. The credit union told us that there was no going back and the best they could do is print out the information we had entered for each payee on our “bill pay” function and fax it to our local branch for us to pick up on our way out of town. We would have to re-enter all that info when we got to Albuquerque.

With photos to mark the event, and farewell hugs, we left Liz and Bill in charge of our house, yard, and koi pond. Bill had already unpacked his toolbox and had repaired our front screen door, so we knew the house was in good hands. Our cats were in their cage in the back seat and neither of them was very happy. Fiona, our older and wiser cat decided to curl up in her (clean) covered cat box and she slept for the entire 6-hour trip to Baker City, our first stop. Chi Chi, our 3-year old, cried and fussed until I let her out for a “guided” tour of the car, then she too managed to settle down in the cage for a 5-hour nap. Good girls!!!

Liz and Bill Arrive

Liz and Bill arrived Monday on the 4^th of July, just in time for our neighbors’ “Welcome to Portland” party for them. Our neighborhood is made up of vegan, bike riding, dog loving, farmers’ market shopping, progressive Democrats. They fit in perfectly!

Lee and I had finished loading the car the day before, so we were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful day with them. Cosmo, their senior yellow lab, was appropriately social at the party. At our place, he politely averted his eyes when he saw Chi Chi’s arched back and fluffed up tail. He seemed to know it was her territory, not his and he was a polite guest.