NOT AGAIN! ????

 I was merrily answering comments last night and got several done when all of a sudden, I got an error message. A little different this time. It did allow me to push the publish button, but the error message popped up saying my message could not be published. I am hoping by tomorrow that too will have been temporary and will try again. Has anyone else had a problem tonight? It happened at around 11.00 p.m.

The surprise I had the night before was this handsome fellow on our patio door above my head. I took my nightly look out the back window before going upstairs, and it was staring at me right in the face. I don't know who was more startled, yes probably the katydid. I couldn't see it properly and used the light on my phone, and then took a photo also with my phone. I made several attempts and all but this one were blurry. The ID online said it was a Katydid, also known as a Bush Cricket? It did say that this might have been after its first or last molt, can't remember which now. You can read about them at this link if interested. If any of you know for sure, let me know would you please? I had fun playing with one of the apps and came up with this.

A while ago I mentioned that several of the old homes that had been around for years, a mile so down the road, were finally torn down. This is the first house that has been built. I was amazed at how fast. We kept passing by and they looked like they were hollowing out the ground for a basement as there was this big hole. That seemed to take forever. A few days later this appeared. I will try and remember to take a photo once it’s finished. The place before was less than a quarter its size. I miss the old house.

This building is a church we pass by. When we moved here over 30 plus years ago it used to be a farm property where people kept their horses. I loved passing by and counting them. 

It wasn't such a wide road back then and we could slow down and sometimes stop to take photos. The church went up I want to say about 10 years ago. I still miss seeing the horses. Here's a closer look of the church.

I had a good time taking photos of clouds. The skies were full of them that day. It was hot but hardly any humidity, which is always a plus.

“Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice-cream castles in the air.” 

Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

I captured a plane on its way into Washington-Dulles Airport. I wish I had remembered to look at my airplane app to see where it departed from.

“I am the daughter of Earth and Water, and the nursling of the Sky.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud

The truck was huge and parked on the side of the road. There are town homes across the street, and this strip runs several hundred yards where people from those homes can park overnight. Parking spaces are at a bare minimum where they live, and the powers that be let them park there, for the time being anyway. This was still early so no one had made it home yet from work. Usually they are parked bumper to bumper.

It was a great day to sky watch. 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day. 

DRIVING AROUND THE OTHER DAY...

 we found ourselves on a road we rarely frequent. It was like driving along it for the first time. I am always interested in the architecture of the various homes we see and I took a few photos. Some were quite big, some quite small and others falling down. There were a couple of churches.  

It was a pretty blue sky that day as you can see. Below I didn't get the whole building into frame. I changed the settings on my cell phone which made them narrower. I thought I would get more of a panoramic look to my photos but didn't take into account I needed to be further back from places. I took this while driving along on the passenger side and couldn't stop because of the traffic following us. I kept missing bits!

The abandoned places, once someone's dream home, always interest me. I wonder who the people were, when was this built? What kind of lives did their occupants have, happy ones hopefully.

Here is a closer view.

And then we get places like this.

and a very English looking home that could have been near the village I originally came from, except that it would have been an all-white exterior with those black beams.

I had a very enjoyable time looking at all the different places.

This was the last photo. I took others but they came out not so good, blurry, cut off in places. I'm glad I got these as we weren't able to stop once, just kept clicking and I straightened a few.

It is 75°F (24°C) on May 6th, 2026 and a bit rainy but I am happy for the extra warmth. Gregg is with our son. I decided to stay home today. We are going off to Costco tomorrow to look at glass frames. I'm looking forward to that. Yes, I'm excited to go to Costco and I see the humor, but I do like looking around that place. I won't get much further than the eye department. By the time we finish in there I will be glad to get home, which always seems to be the way these days. I am eager to get my corrective lenses though.

I hope you are all having a good week so far, 

and thanks for visiting.

2017 CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP - FRIDAY, APRIL 17TH, 2017

Hi Everyone, we have reached California and are staying with Gregg's sister for a while.  Thank you so much for all the lovely comments.  I may be later than usual reading and publishing them, even more so than usual.

Monday, April 17th, 2017

Leaving Lubbock, Texas.

Odometer: 50783

Time leaving the hotel: 9:38 a.m.

Heading for Santa Fe , New Mexico.  Should get there in about 5 hrs 8 minutes.

10:46 a.m. We are seeing thousands of cows, more than I ever remember seeing before. 

Saw a sign that in 20 miles there is a town called Muleshoe.  Population 5,158. 

10:52 a.m. went through a town called Sudan. I took a couple of photos. This is one of them.  Population is 958.

11:15 a.m. stopped at Muleshoe's McDonalds. It was a great Egg McMuffin and Egg, Bacon and Cheese Biscuit. Staff are real friendly and it has a five star rating on Trip Advisor.  

Crossed over into New Mexico 11:49 a.m. 

We have traveled 2703 miles.

1:00 pm followed signs to the Gravesite of Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner. We were surprised to come across the sign and Gregg decided to turn left off Rt. 84 and check this place out.  We drove 3-1/2 miles and it was on the right.  My Dad, who loved his old black and white westerns, would have liked to have visited this place.  

There was a building nearby and on the outside walls were paintings of various people.  On the left is Raymond Naikai, Chairman of the Navaho Tribe Council. Billy the Kid is depicted in the center and I'm not sure who the person is on the right.  It would have been interesting to find out but the building was closed.  I don't think enough people stop by to warrant it staying open.  Maybe later on as the year progresses, more people will come through.

It was a very dusty little cemetery. 

His grave is surrounded by iron bars and....

Billy the Kid is still under lock and key.

This explains why.

There are actually three graves here.  Billy's is the one on the right.  The other two are his friends.  You can see where people have chipped pieces off the headstone for souvenirs, pre incarceration.  His grave is on the right of this picture.

Gregg is standing near the smaller headstone of Billy the Kid, and to protect it they have clamped it down and surrounded it in a heavy iron grid....

which you can see more clearly here.

People have thrown coins on his grave, as they have thrown coins on others throughout history.  It is thought that to do so is a precursor to leaving flowers.  Also that a penny you own is still a part of you in spirit, and it shows anyone who visits the grave that the departed is still loved by someone.

This man was a victim to Billy's gun.

And so we left this dusty little cemetery, wondering about the people who were buried here. 

On the road again.

1:34 p.m. driving through Ft  Sumner.  

2:00 p.m. In the middle of nowhere, driving along a road in New Mexico, miles from any towns, who would have thought that we could have received a FaceTime call from our niece in Germany.  We were also able to talk with and see our niece,  brother-in-law and extended family visiting her from Ireland, my niece's husband and his parents, and also a couple of other friends we have gotten to know through our visits over the years.  We exchanged several videos and photos.  Ten years ago, if you had told me this was even possible, I would have said not a chance. 

3:08 p.m. we just ate at this really neat little place called The Silver Moon in Santa Rosa.  It is on the historic Rt. 66 and is also on the historical register.  The first link in this paragraph will take you to their Facebook page.  I couldn't find their regular website for some reason.  

It serves Mexican and American Food. 

A dish I wanted to try while in the southwest, was Huevos rancheros. 

The lady asked me if I wanted Red, Green or Christmas. I didn't understand at first but what she was asking was what kind of chili sauce, red, green or red and green mixed.

It was hot physically as well as spicy.  It was good!  Gregg was laughing because I had a tear coming out of one eye.  I reached for my tissues many times. 

Yes it was hotter than I am used to but it was oh so good. I haven't had this dish in 35 years, and probably won't again for quite a while. 

Here's Gregg taking photos of his tacos.

 I hope we get back one day.

Filled up the car with its meal too, just down the road from the restaurant. Back on the road for Santa Fe and seeing interesting scenery along the way.

3:15 p.m. we are going over the Pecos River. 

At 5.16 p.m. we arrived at our hotel for a few days, the Hotel Santa Fe The Hacienda and Spa.  It was very southwestern in motif, and as it turned out, the only hotel in Santa Fe that is owned by Native Americans.

It is located in Historic Downtown Santa Fe and in the heart of the Santa Fe Railyard District, with museums, galleries, shops and restaurants all around.

It has its own shuttle service and we were told we could ask to be taken downtown, or to any of the places in the area that we wanted to see.  It looks like an old London cab, and in the front had a really neat license plate.

There is also a much larger vehicle for multiple guests, painted the same color.  We saw a couple of dozen people being transported one day.  I think they were part of an overseas convention.  It was a very popular hotel and true to our way of doing things, we did not book too far ahead.  When we knew we were going to be in Santa Fe that night, Gregg got on his phone a few hours before at one of our stops,  and booked our room.  Gregg chose this one because of its southwestern decor.  Fortunately there were still two rooms left.

There are some wonderful sculptures on the grounds.  I particularly loved the one below, which was on the wall near the entrance.  

Taken when we first arrived and later after our walk.

There was also this lovely painting in the foyer. There were more paintings I enjoyed all over the hotel.

We had half an hour in our hotel room and then walked into town.  It was longer than we anticipated, but still a lovely walk. The shop windows caught my eye, all kinds of artwork and clothing, jewelry. 

 I'm going to have to do one more post of our walk around Santa Fe another time.  Sculptures were everywhere.

They slowed my pace some but Gregg was also enjoying the sights and taking photos. We never seem to lose track of each other.  

More colorful paintings on the wall at Starbucks.  By this time we were ready for a sit-down, and we didn't feel that hungry.

The young man behind the counter told Gregg he was from Portland, Maine.  We took our time over our drinks, Gregg his iced lemonade black tea and me with my latte.  

It was very quiet downtown, hardly anyone around, but later we passed several several people and their friends heading to local restaurants, or just enjoying the walk like we were.  

We walked to a very pretty church at the end of the road. Added note on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026: revisiting this post today, and thankful that searches are so much easier, I found that we were at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi (Santa Fe, New Mexico). You can read about it if you here.

There are more bronze sculptures on the church grounds. 

The statue below is that of Kateri Tekakwitha, (pronounced gah-day-lee day-gah-gwee-dah/gaderi dega gwita”), a Mohawk Indigenous American Indian woman. You can see more info here and here where there is very interesting information about this lady. She is the first Native American woman to be recognized as a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. I should say that it isn’t a happy story, she had a very hard life

While standing in the courtyard the bells told the time, a beautiful sound. We walked through the garden at the back of the church, and made our way to our hotel. 

We came across another courtyard full of incredible sculptures, and my camera came out again. It was a slower walk back, and not just because we were getting more tired.  

I loved this sign.

We went to bed early without bothering about dinner, we were so tired. It had been quite a day.