After a great visit in Ohio with Max, my sisters,and their families, my cousin, and friends - during which I took not one photo, other than the one of RuthAnn and me at Boca - I headed back to Taos.
Sunday, December 31, 2006:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I made it to Tulsa from Ohio on Dec 31, thinking there would be fewer, if any, weather issues on the southern route from here to Albuquerque on I-40. WRONG! The night manager at my hotel, who used to be an OTR trucker, said I-40 is still closed from Amarillo (4.5 hours west of Tulsa) to Albuquerque. They MAY re-open it Monday afternoon, so at least he offered me a late check out of 2 p.m.
But I digress….back to New Year’s Eve in Tulsa, OK. I purposefully did not bring a bottle of wine, anything, with me, thinking I’d get one wherever I stopped for the night. Who knew that there are no sales for anything but 3.2 beer in the state of Oklahoma on Sundays. So I’m enjoying a cup of tea for NYE ’06 …. Did I mention that I’m in a hotel in Tulsa???? What was I thinking????
And there are no interesting guests on the Dick Clark countdown……
But it’s all good….I expect to be back in Taos by mid week.
I want to wish you and yours the very best 2007!
Monday, January 1, 2007:
Again, Happy New Year! The first day of the year – only one of those ….
Ok, enough philosophy. Can I just say that for some unknown reason I actually believed the retired OTR truck driver when he said it would only take 7.5 hours to get from Tulsa to ABQ…..he must have meant if I flew, not drove. So, as a result, I didn’t leave Tulsa until 11 a.m. after making a pit stop at Starbucks and Wild Oats, thinking I had LOTS of time.
I am writing this while in Tucumcari, NM. It was as far as I could get today and I’m now only 3 hours from ABQ…..I-40 is clear here, now, but still dicey nearer to ABQ, and I’m not interested in driving on dicey roads in the dark. And from the snow on the roads here in Tucumcari, they are still digging out.
I also was in a roaming area from just east of OK City and am still in a roaming area…..I made only the calls I had to make, i.e. hotel reservation cancellation in ABQ, re-making one for Tucumcari. I only realized I was “roaming” (cell phone language, as opposed to driving across the country) AFTER talking to Patty Anthony, who lives in OK City for about 1 hour……should have planned ahead better and spent new year’s eve with Patty and her husband, Tom. They had wine!
So until I got back into Verizon coverage, I didn't talk. I have no idea how much roaming costs these days, as I haven’t been in an area of the country where I had that situation.
Hope you enjoyed a wonderful first day of 2007. And it could be worse. I could have been stuck in my car on I-40 near ABQ for 26 hours like my friend, Robin was, en route from Taos to Austin, TX. YIKES!!!
Here’s to a healthy and prosperous year full of laughter.
Oh, and to pass the time while driving through Oklahoma and Texas today, I listened to Dan Fogelberg’s Nether Lands cd - vintage 1977 – WOW!!! And he has a great website, too:
www.danfogelberg.com
I’d forgotten what a poet and romantic he is! Remember “Love Gone By”, “Missing You”, “Auld Lang Syne” “Lessons Learned”, “Heart Hotel”, “Run for the Roses” (not one of my favorites, but played every year for the Derby), “Part of the Plan”, “As the Raven Flies”, “Once Upon A Time”, “Nether Lands”, “Loose Ends”, “Hard to Say”,
“Promises Made”, “Give Me Some Time” (with Tim Weisberg on flute, with whom he made a GREAT album called “Twin Sons of Different Mothers”, and lots more……..And now he’s battling prostate cancer, so all positive wishes are welcome, especially since Dan has kept me company for 2 straight days of driving!
Tomorrow, on to ABQ in the a.m. and to the Hyundai dealership to discuss my struts!
Tuesday, January 2, 2007:
This blog post finds me (finally) in ABQ (the name is just too long and too hard to get to on the keyboard) – from my favorite hotel near UNM where they LOVE me – and have a corkscrew. So I am sitting in the breakfast room finally celebrating the new year with a NM Pinot Noir – actually very good, too!
My friend Jan sent me an email today that just says it all…..”For crying out loud, where are you now?” …… isn’t that great? No one uses that expression much anymore. It just cracked me up.
I've added photos that I took en route from OK City - the natural gas windmills - to the breathtaking scenery between Tucumcari and ABQ. The sky was cloudy today, so the photos may not detail the topography as well as my eyes did. And have you walked outside to view the full moon???
What a fantastic day!!! Nothing but good news!! I drove from Ohio to NM thinking I would have to invest in 4 new struts and 3 new tires for my car, at a minimum. Imagine my expression today when the service manager at Hyundai came to my table in the waiting area (of course I had taken over an entire area with my computer, files, and was listening NOT to my man Dan Fogelberg on the headset, but to Lowell George and Little Feat sing “Willin’” – my buddy Stuart emailed it to me today in honor of Tucumcari being mentioned in the song…..bravo, Stuart, plus it’s just one of those great tunes….and I’ve attached it for you Little Feat fans – Tari & Lisa, especially!) to inform me that my struts are fine (thanks, I knew that….oh , right, the car’s struts) and that all my car needs is a strut insulator – practically costs nothing! Holy cow!!! They are sending the part via overnight something and they’ll get in done in the a.m.
And it gets better still…..after that, I drove to Costco to get the 3 new tires I needed, and their service mgr calls me (I had taken over a table in the eating area inside the warehouse) to tell me that I don’t need 3 tires, only 1, and that it’s mostly covered under their warranty…….unbelievable!!!
All the more reason to celebrate, eh???? This pinot is tasting better and better as I recall the gifts I was handed today.
Oh, and to really top it off, a new friend from Taos, whose husband is a champion skier from France, has informed me that they have room in their condos in Park City and do I want to come up for the Sundance Film Festival???????
It’s just been a great day!! In spite of those people in Tucumcari who are so over the snow and ice that they behaved in a rude manner, but I think they are just frustrated beyond capacity.
Tomorrow, I will drive back to Taos…..just ahead of the next predicted snow fall……
This has been an incredible journey……with the exception of no Verizon cell phone service from Tulsa to ABQ (a very long way, by the way -- at least 5 inches) I’m interested in hearing from VZ why they don’t have this area as a home area yet) it has been fun, peaceful, and perfect.
