Spent 3 days in Silver City, NM.  Took a couple of day trips and one R & R while sleet pummeled us. Beat the lousy weather by traveling up the Trail of the Mountain Spirits up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings on the first day.   It’s a beautiful, twisty ride along the Gila River.  Patience was the perfect word for this part of the drive.  No center line and lots of curves.  Climbed up to the cliff dwellings and met two volunteers who gave me a tour of the rooms.  These 13^th century, 42 connected cliff rooms are perfectly designed to take advantage of the warm sun in the winter and shade in the summer.  But you need to be pretty agile to move from your home to the gardens on top of the mesa and down in the canyon.

The next day I wandered another part of the Trail that took me thu Pinos Altos, an almost deserted town except for a lone, grizzled hold-out who runs the museum.  The structure was built by his great-grandfather and is loaded with mementos from the grand times when it was flush with mining money.

Started working my way to Albuquerque up the Geronimo Trail and north to El Malpais National Monument. An incredible variety of landscapes from sandstone cliffs, black volcanic rock, a huge arch and volcanic craters. There’s a valley that was created by a collapsed volcano and is now a huge source of geo-thermal energy.

Over 25 years ago, Manzano High School in Albuquerque hosted a National Student Council conference, the year before SHS held theirs.  I was on the “take notes” committee so set out to visit some of the sights I remembered.  The Old Town Square was lovely, this time with a huge Xmas tree in the center (we visited in July) and the trip to the top of Sandia Mt. on the tram was just as exciting.  Hanging out 4,000 ft. over boulders by a steel cable is pretty sobering.

Shared lunch with a young man from Colorado who repaired technical instruments and traveled all over the country (by car, when possible).  Quite a character – he’d carved out a niche for himself and discovered his skills (and his reputation) had allowed him to work the jobs he wanted and do the sight-seeing he enjoyed.   We traded stories about the common sights we’d seen and he gave me a list of “don’t miss” places. A very contented person

Took another trip through the Jemez Mountains and discovered a little one-lane side road that went thru a river-guided canyon with a couple of great tunnels.  Back on the main road there was a wall that continues to be formed by hot springs and another that looks just like the front of a battleship. Pretty cool. Ended up near Los Alamos before heading back to Albuquerque. 

Got a bit of spiritual renewal at the ABQ UU church and noticed they’ve established a certified wildlife refuge on the grounds, right in the middle of the city.  In addition to using it for their Sunday school program, they also invite classes from surrounding grade schools to make use of it.

Parked Patience in a parking lot near the Albuquerque airport and spent three holiday weeks in San Diego mooching off Tim and getting my grandma fix.  Back to Albuquerque, picked  up Patience and back on the road the second week in January.