Foreign exchange

So, last Sunday we packed up our troubles in our old kit bags and smiled our way east and north towards the tundra. Actually, it was pretty smooth sailing until we hit Montana, when it got kind of grim. Sort of blizzardy, actually. So, after a couple of hours on the interstate with eejits who didn't notice it was foggy and snowing and they couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of them, we headed in to Glendive for our last night on the road.

In the morning... well, at least it had stopped snowing. Resolutely, we headed out. Very picturesque and I would have liked to have stopped for some photos. You know, the eerie, things-appearing-out-of-nowhere-because-it's-foggy kind. However, there's no interrupting Mr T when he's on a mission to get somewhere. And to be honest, I was kind of on the same mission.

We hit the border around 11. What ensued at the crossing boggles the imagination.


Border guy: Hey, how are you guys today? (guaranteed to put my back up, since I'm not a guy)


Dave: We're good, thanks (hands him our passports).

Border guy: Soooooooo...... how long you been away?

Dave: Oh, just about 5 weeks.
Border guy: Oh, yeah? Soooooo...... (and he goes into the whole schtick about how much did we buy, did we have any repairs or alterations to the car, were we carrying any drugs or illegal immigrants..... well, maybe not those last two)

Dave: Answers the questions, gives him our truckload of receipts (hey, we have a grandchild now, ok?) and the itemized list of what we bought, where, how much, etc. etc. To his credit, he didn't offer the heart of our firstborn, tho' Border guy looked like he might demand it at some point.

Border guy: Sooooooo..... what kind of work do you do?

Dave: Uh, we're both retired.

Border guy: Sooooooo..... what kind of work did you do, when you were working? I mean, were you some kind of investor or something?

Dave: Well, I had my own business. I was a financial planner.

Border guy (grinning from ear to ear): Yeah, I know you. I recognized your name. You had that old car, didn't you? The station wagon. It had your business name on the side, didn't it?

Dave (smiling now too): Yeah, that's right. I've still got it and...

Border guy: You've still got it? Wow! That's amazing.... blah blah blah

Dave: Yeah, it gets out every summer for a few miles, but that's about it..... blah blah blah

And then ensued an actual conversation, albeit one in which I had limited interest and no part. It was a total aberration from any of our collective experience with crossing the border and thus can only be filed under the heading "Foreign exchange".

And then we just had to convert back to kilometres and litres. That was the easy part.

The neverending journey

Sunday, fresh from our fabulous hike at Cochise Stronghold, we packed up everything and headed out of Dodge. It was a reasonable day as driving days go, only about 5 hours, including a looooong lunch break in Silver City, New Mexico.

SC is one of those places that time forgot, full of aging hippies (we felt quite at home) and historical artifacts.

Such as the one time home of Billy the Kid.

Mr. T is 5' 10" or so, guess Billy was a shorty. Talk about the Small Man Syndrome.

And just up the street.....

In 1887 (or somewhere in that era), there was a serious rainfall in the area with major flooding. This is the last house standing (as it were) after the floodwaters receded. Now a trendy B&B for aging hippies.

From SC, we moved on to Truth or Consequences, known locally (and on many highway signs, for obvious reasons) as T or C. The town is home to many hot springs hotels which you might expect to attract a sizeable clientele (baby boomers moving into the age of aches and pains and all that), but for some reason is still a pretty hurting place. Or maybe it's just because it's January and daily highs are only in the 15-20C range.

Dropping into the local coffee shop, The Black Cat, for the first decent cup of coffee we'd had in a month, we got talking with the server, a woman from..... Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Her brother from Saskatoon had arrived the previous day for a short visit. Small world, non?

Onwards and upwards to Elephant Butte State Park. After a (mostly pretty homely) nature walk in the desert, we headed to the lake to check out the boats. Elephant Butte Lake has been created by damming the Rio Grande. Or maybe that's damning the Rio Grande. At 36,000 acres, EB Lake basically guarantees the Rio Grande is virtually non-existent on the downstream side. The lake is a major recreation area. Think boats. Big ones. Lots of them. The woman in the Visitor centre told us that last July 4th there were 140,000 people in the park, most of them in large boats dragging things. And people.

Since we had some time in hand, we decided to do our lookie-loo thing and drive around the residential areas. What's really amazing about a lot of American towns is the wide variation in the types of houses you see in any given area. For example, you might have a really nice place, like this one (well, other than the power pole):

And right next door, you have......

A whole row of units like this....

It's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

We're in love

Our last day in Arizona, Saturday, we headed back to Cochise Stronghold to actually do some hiking (as opposed to driving into the campground, looking around and racing off to our next adventure.)

Between our first and second visits, the skies had opened and the river was running. As in, there was actual water in the streambed. We and the arthritic dog headed up the path, lunch in hand (well actually, in backpack), hiking poles swinging, whistling a happy tune.

About 10 minutes into it, we entered the magic kingdom. Photos don't quite do it justice, but .....

We agreed it was one of the best hikes we've done in recent memory. More simply, I am in love.....