A quick trip to the Land of Enchantment- New Mexico (Aug2011)

Thought I'd post a little here about our recent trip back to New Mexico. It was a short and fast trip as you will see. We drove to Alamogordo, New Mexico where we spent the weekend with my Mom. We were blessed with a couple of afternoon showers. It was so wonderful to smell the fragrance that the desert gives off after a summer shower. If you've never smelt that smell then you've missed a truly good experience. It takes me back to when I would wonder around the desert with my 22 rifle out looking for jack rabbits. It was mostly to just be out wondering verse the hunting of jack rabbits. You could stand in one place and get poured on then walk 20 feet and be perfectly dry. There is a beauty about the desert that unless you've lived and experienced it,  it is hard to describe.

Here are a couple of my shots of the dunes.

My Mom's house is about a 15 minute drive from the entrance to White Sands National Park. So while there we had the chance to spend two evenings enjoying the cool breezes sitting on top of the white sand dunes watching the sun set over the Organ mountains. While Mom and I were relaxing Becky was busy snapping away on the camera.

White Sands is like no place on earth. As the gypsum sand blows up from the heart of the Tularosa Basin. It  is truly one of the world's great natural wonders. The  white sands of New Mexico. It spreads out over  275 square miles of desert creating the world's largest gypsum dune field. I was able to sit and listen to a geologist explain where the white sand comes from. He had been hired by the Army through White Sands Missile Range to survey the entire Tularoa basin. In his report he showed that just south of  the Maiapis lava beds on the north end of the basin is where the gypsum sand comes from. The wind blows the top soil off of a bed of pure gypsum. Then the gypsum is blown south and over time created the wonderful dunes we have today.


We also were able to go over to Ruidoso.

Then a short stop Albuquerque to visit with our son Chad who is finishing up his masters in Architecture at the University of New Mexico. We were also blessed to be able to spend a few hours with some close friends over Blue Corn Enciladas with Green Chile. We had to stop by and get some freshly roasted Green Chile shipped back to us in Mississippi and boy is it good.

Then off to Denver to spend some time with our son Shane and daughter in law Lauren. They were blessed to be able to purchase a new house last December and this would be our first time to see it.

While we were there we got a chance to enjoy the Denver Butterfly Pavilion. Boy did we take some pictures there. Here are a few. Hope you enjoy the beauty.

We also were able to take in a Rockies game. They were playing the Dodgers but couldn't pull it out and lost the game. But a fun night with wonderful cool Denver rocky mountain temperatures.

The fun couldn't last forever so we saddled up and rode home spending the night in Tulsa with Becky's sister Susan's family. Then setting out for the final stretch home. Over 3000 miles on the car, a thousand photos in the tin and a ton of priceless memories. I'd say that was a really fun trip.

Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge 7/24/2011

You know how it is on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you want to do something but not sure what to do? Well Becky and just hop in the hummer and see where it takes us. This past Sunday afternoon it decided to drive north towards Yazoo City. Which is the home of our Governor Mr. Barber. As you approach Yazoo you take a left and end up at Panther Swamp. We didn't know what to expect and hadn't heard a whole lot about it. Panther Swamp is dominated by Delta bottomland hardwood forests interspersed with numerous wooded sloughs, cypress-tupelo brakes and bayous.
During the afternoon Becky kept saying that she hadn't yet made the shot of the day and then there it was... You'll have to read below to find out.

Here's a little slough with a bunch of white egrets.

And of course we always like to get a good Gator shot.

Reaching for the Sun

this was a very beautiful field

We turned down this one dirt road still looking for the shot of the day and there they were. A humungous field of full grown sun flowers. I knew as soon as we saw them we'd be here a while... ;-)

 It was a very overcast afternoon that eventually gave us a good down pour at home.

Here is the most beautiful flower in the field.

 Another beauty.

What a nice surprise just outside the swamp.

Then we really got a surprise in that we were just about to leave when Becky spotted what she thought was an alligator swimming through the algae. We jumped out real quick and she started snapping off shots. I took the binoculars and looked but it wasn't an alligator. This guy was a little ways off from us and this was the best shot we were able to get. I told Becky that it wasn't a beaver or an otter but it looked like something I'd seen in wildlife shows from South America. I thought is was a Capybara which is a large creature that lives in the amazon region of south America. With doing some more research and talking to a few people it became clear that this was a Nutria Rat. It was a very large one at about 3 to 4 feet long. No one we talked to had ever seen one before. But we learned that they have a paid bounty on them in Louisiana. It seems that the French fur traders brought them into Louisiana to build up a population for the fur industry. They are an invasive and destructive creature. It is believed that they are to blame for burrowing into the levees in New Orleans and weakening them so as they gave way during Hurricane Katrina. In my research I even found some tasty recipes for Nutria Rat. So you never know where the yellow hummer will take us or the sites we will see. Until next adventure.

Our first trip to the Southern Coast July 2011

We flew our son Chad in from Albuquerque for a little vacation with us. We picked him up in the rain at the New Orleans airport and hit the road for adventure. We decided to treat this trip like a cruise on land and set up a couple of excursions along the way. Or first excursion was to ride an air-boat through the Mississippi swamp lands. We arrived just in time for the last outing of the day. So we were set for a private air-boat fun ride.

Of course we chased Alligators. He was right beside the boat.

A railroad bridge through the swap.

Here we are ready for a fun ride.

This was a big one.

Air-Boat swap fun.

and there were a lot of Aligators.

Our next stop was to stay at Pensacola Beach, Florida. The beach bums.

Sunset at the beach

Becky having fun.

Another beautiful beach sunset

A beautiful Blue Heron at the beach.

Sailing into the sunset.

Our Hotel Beach

More beach bums.

 And of course we had to do another excursion on our Land Cruise. So we all agreed to go and try Parasailing. We had a cool, calm morning for it and had a blast. Very relaxing sailing away up in the sky. No wonder people like skydiving. Maybe next???

Chad and Drew taking off

Up they go

1000 feet of rope and about 400 feet off the water

and of course a little dip on the way back in

Having fun

Chad and Becky discussing who's first

The fearless flyers

Dean and Becky being very brave. HA

We were able to have dinner one night with Shane's best friend from Albuquerque and his new bride Katie. He is stationed at Pensacola attending the Navy's flight school. He was just about to start flying the T-6 trainers. It was good to see them very happy.

Gavin and Katie and Us. All from Albuquerque in Pensacola.

 What a fun trip had by all. Until next adventure - 
"Life's an Adventure, Enjoy the Journey"