We’ve done some damage to the New Mexico map. When we got there, it looked like this:
Now, we’ve passed through more counties, and it looks like this:
That bright red county in the middle is where Bosque del Apache is. We’ve recorded 159 species there.
Tonight, we’re at Cave Creek Regional Park in Arizona.
Love this place.
Waiting for the evening quail to come in.
It’s a 1922 portable air compressor! This one powered rock drills and jackhammers.
Three people got it!
Brian has been doing what he’s doing for thirty years. Thirteen years ago, he left Xilinx Software and went out on his own as an independent programmer. That independent endeavor has gone well. Today is Brian’s last day of work. He has resigned from his latest project. He is retiring.
And, not to worry, he has plans for how to enjoy retirement. Becky will continue to work at Taylor, Roth, and will be the primary wage earner. Brian will absorb the household, kid, and kitchen duties. Housefrau.
Congratulations, Brian. Well done!
Background:
We’re here for two weeks and we’re parked in a spot that has electricity only. It was time to dump and fill, and since I had to move the bus anyway, I drove out to a nearby truck stop to top off the tank for the next leg of our trip. I returned to the state park, by myself in the rig, and stopped at the entry station and spoke with a woman I’d never met.
The conversation:
“What can I do for you, darlin?” (That was her speaking.)
“We’re already checked in to our spot, thanks. I just tanked up the bus and I’m coming back in.”
“Great. What site are you in.”
“33”.
“Wow. That’s a really good spot. Good choice, and you don’t even look that smart to me.”
Possibilities:
Okay. New favorite person!
She is truthful and blunt to a fault.
This person has an instant impeccable sense of just how far she can let her humor take her.
She is constantly in trouble, and this is just the next job that she’s going to get fired from.
I’m going to go with “finely refined sense of humor”.
One would think that with as much time as we spend in Colorado, we’d have reported birds in every county by now. Not so. Although we have visited every county in Colorado, we haven’t been in some counties since we started recording birds in ebird.
We’re not averse to spending more time in Western Colorado, but it’s not in the plans for this trip. We’ll have to build that into future travels…
