riashi

I’m looking forward to getting on a plane tomorrow and heading for Chapel Hill! It’s in large part a conference for my job, but I want to eat Southern food, walk in the woods, enjoy its downtown bookshops and stores. Coming from New Mexico, I’ll enjoy all the greenness and moistnesss.

The cafe is now Tina’s Cafe, and I haven’t eaten there yet. I will have to try it. Lemitar is a village just off I-25 between Socorro and Albuquerque. I got off at the exit the other day and headed through Lemitar and a short distance toward the Rio Grande. I stopped at the Socorro Nature Preserve (which is closed) and walked through it to an irrigation channel and across that to some cottonwoods along the river. And I shot a photo of the river (and another of the irrigation channel). Lemitar is quite a pretty spot.

I stopped off in Reserve on Sunday, and it was a pleasant stop. I had a good lunch at Ella’s Cafe, got gas at a pump at the Emporium next door. and found everyone quite friendly. Ella’s has quite the collection of roosterania, and has Fox News broadcasting to keep you up to date even though you are miles and miles from anyplace where you might have to really worry about what’s happening.

And I’m no exception. One of the things I liked best about the CatWalk was that there was a rushing stream the whole length of the hike. And at the top the stone ledges amplified the water sounds.
Spring touched the trees and grasses along the walk, too, providing touches of bright, light green. The hike has a suspension bridge, metal catwalks, wooden walks, stone steps, you name it.

I was returning home to Albuquerque from Silver City on Sunday and I stopped near Magdalena to see the Very Large Array - 27 giant (94-foot-tall) radio dishes - that are used to pick up faint radio waves from out in deep space. The dishes are moved around on railroad tracks set up in a big Y over 34 miles. You remember the Very Large Array—it’s where Jodie Foster went in the movie Contact to try to contact life elsewhere in the universe. It’s a little creepy to drive along a very rural highway and all of a sudden there are these gleaming white structures in the distance.
In this photo you’ll notice a tiny man standing by the base of the dish and under the dish in the far distance you can see a couple more of the dishes.

and walk on the CatWalk that goes back a narrow canyon that Butch Cassidy and Genonimo both used to hide out in.

makes me even more intrigued with the idea of traveling to Alaska or living there some day. Maybe after I finish my Master’s in early childhood education, I’ll just move there. Father Michael Oleksa, the author of the book, has lived in Alaska for many years and writes so humorously and sensitively about Native cultures in Alaska and his adventure of getting to know them. I met him recently when he gave a keynote at an early childhood conference in Albuquerque.

at the Black Range Lodge in Kingston. I was there with a group of people so we were focused on our project, but the setting was wonderful. The Gila National Forest is close by. There’s a delightful cafe or two in nearby Hillsboro. It was so quiet, and I loved hiking around. In the center of this photo just below the horizon line is Hillsboro and just below that it tiny Kingston, also way in the distance. The photo is shot from Emory Pass in the Gila.

I had my early childhood conference - a terrific one - this morning at the Western New Mexico University Child Development Center. One highlight was a drummer, Rosario Carelli, who had all the conference participants using African drums and other instruments. It was an inspiring finale! After the conference I walked all around the historic downtown, including the Big Ditch park that runs right through the downtown. I shot a photo of a guitar player in front of the Silver City Food Coop, a place a love.

Until I take the beautiful drive through the mountains to Silver City, and I’m looking forward to it! I know I’m going to a conference for work, but I’m going to try to enjoy myself, too!