Market Street Musings

Greetings and sorry for the delay on Day 2.  Technology is a wonderful thing, except when you rely on it to work and it doesn’t.  So, we’ve been driving for awhile and finally have some Internet service.   But that is Day 3, what you really want to know it “HOW WAS DAY 2?”   It was great!

Dwight is a great host and has taken very good care of us.    I had no idea what to expect, as he is living in his Grandmother’s house built back in 1955 in Peralta, NM.   But I will say, I think that he has done a great job settling in.   In fact, I might go so far as to say that his furniture and décor fit better in this place than they did in Green Valley Ranch, CO.   The dogs are happy, the horse (Sydney) is happy and Dwight seems so much more relaxed.  

De Ann did a great job describing the events of the day, so I’m not sure what more I can add.   One of the things that we promised ourselves on this trip would be to try new things.  So spending Day 2 of the trip on the Dairy Farms, learning about how Dwight made some spending money during the summers as a kid was very cool.  It was great to see Dwight in his element and also meeting his sister and brother-in-law.  They seem like great people and were very hospitable in showing us around their new home and their family farm, as well.

De Ann forgot to mention (or maybe she blocked it out) that Dwight and I got to spend some time swimming after a day at the farm.   Dwight received a pool from his sister Debbie as an early birthday present (Everyone remember to wish him a Happy Birthday on the 20^th!).   Four feet tall and 15 feet across (maybe)… filled it with a garden hose and heated it with a solar cover.   I wish we had taken a picture of Scuba Steve/Dwight, with his snorkel and fins and mask, swimming around this “huge” circular pool picking up all of the rings from the ring toss game.   Yes, good times were had by all.

Dinner was great, company was great, food coma and the early bedtime were also great!   Got us good and ready for the big day of driving ahead of us!  Thanks for checking in – catch up with you tomorrow!  

Until then…

We kicked off Day 2 with delicious red chile & green chile breakfast burritos from Burritos Alinstante, followed by a trip to Dwight’s family’s dairy farms, Jones Dairy and Pareo Farm. Jones Dairy has an amazing rotary carousel milking facility. The cows enter the carousel, are hooked up to the milking device, and ride around until they reach the starting point, then they back up out off the carousel and mosey back to the pen. It’s amazing to watch because the cows know exactly what to do (which makes sense, given they do this twice every day) and seem perfectly content going about their routine.

At Pareo Farm we met Ace, the enormous Belgian Draft Horse. I was glad I had spent time with Dwight’s much smaller horse, Sydney, before meeting this giant. The Pareo’s also have a number of antique wagons and other parade vehicles that they still use occasionally when “conned into doing another parade.”

We finished off the day with some cool beverages under Dwight’s huge shade tree and a fabulous grilled feast of steak, grilled veggies (the sweet corn was DELICIOUS!), roasted potatoes and baked beans. We all stuffed ourselves like royalty and entered a well-deserved food coma before retiring for the evening.

Thanks, Dwight, for being a great friend and a great host!

Now, we’re driving to my mom’s in Glendale, AZ. It’ll be a quick visit with the ‘rents before heading to Grand Canyon in the morning.

De Ann with Ace, a Belgian Draft Horse

De Ann & Ron in Dwight's comfy hammock

Grilled feast. YUM!

Greetings all,

9:30a on Sunday morning, so I thought I’d catch you up on our happenings. The drive was easy down from Denver and we made it to Dwight’s in under 8 hours. Saw some funny stuff along the way, but otherwise, pretty uneventful. Arrived at Dwight’s and got the lay of the land. Great house, lots of land and plenty of room for Sydney (Dwight’s horse) and the dogs to run and play.

Early dinner at “Ribs” If you ever have the chance, swing by. They’ve got good food and they are attached to the Tractor Brewing Company, which makes some pretty good beer.  We might have had one or two…

Then it was back to the house for a bit and then over to the Isleta Indian Casino  I played “Let It Ride” for awhile… I gave them a healthy donation and then went off to find De Ann and Dwight. They were camped out at the nightclub

Lounge at Isleta Casino

The rest of the night gets a little fuzzy, but Dwight made a friend and De Ann and I retired for the rest of the evening!   Milk, cookies, straight to bed.  Yup, that’s us…

Today, we are thinking about visiting the dairy farm, riding the horse and get some good Mexican food.  That is our mission – I’ll let you know how we do!   Until then, have a great day.  I know we will!

ROAD TRIP!! We are so excited to get this trip underway! Both woke up before the alarm (6-ish on Saturday morning is unusual, at least for me) and giddily packed up the car.

Day one took us from Denver south on I-25 to Peralta, NM, just outside of Albuquerque. Below are some highlights of the not-too-long trip:

Unusual cloud formations in Colorado Springs, CO

Ludlow Massacre Monument, honoring the 11 people killed by Colorado National Guardsmen during the 1913-1914 Miners’ strike. In response, the miners looted and destroyed the mines. Good times.

Trinidad, CO, the “Sex Change Capital of the World” (which is hard to imagine in ultra- conservative southern Colorado) since the sixties. It’s not much to look at from the highway, but Trinidad boasts Cougar Canyon Golf Links, a Nicklaus-designed, world famous championship golf course. It’s unclear if the Cougars are pre- or post-op.

As I type, we’re driving through New Mexico, making our way toward Dwight’s house. Wireless Internet is awesome!

Hello, Pueblo!

Thanks, New Mexico!

Like a kid on Christmas, I was awake for an hour or two before we were supposed to get out of bed. We are both excited about this trip, it would seem.

So, we will leave our Denver home…

View from the Patio. Bye Coors Field!!

… and say goodbye to the cats (Thanks Libby for watching our place for us!!)

We are off!! Peralta, NM here we come!

We have added an Event Calendar to give you an idea about where we are currently, and where we are heading next! Check it out (to the right) ====>

As soon as people hear about our road trip the first question is, “Where are you going?!” Starting from Denver, we’ll hit Las Cruces, NM – Phoenix, AZ – Grand Canyon – San Diego/Orange County/Inland Empire – Monterey Bay – Napa Valley – Portland, OR – Victoria, BC – Seattle, WA – Spokane, WA – Yellowstone National Park – all in just 3 weeks!

It will be a wonderful collection of driving, laughing, camping, eating, friending, hoteling, drinking and more laughing!

The preparations continue… Last night, it was pre-packing and figuring out what we needed to bring.   So, we are hitting 9 or 10 states over a 3 week period. Hotels, friends houses, camping, we have to cover all the bases. So many things to think about!

I wanted to post the first picture of the “ride” that we will be rollin’ in for this little adventure.

What do you think? Nice, eh? See what they were saying about the stickers? Anyway, if you see me rollin’ through your neighborhood, give me a shout (We’ll be the only Hybrid you see with Colorado plates.)

As for the interior, we will undoubtedly pack way more than we need to. We have a mini-fridge and a DC/AC Converter with a power strip to plug in a ridiculous amount of electronic devices… Computers, Ipods, Phones… we even have a DVD Player in case one of us wants to crawl into the back and watch a movie.

Next two days will be interesting. First stop – Mr. Dwight Clarke’s house in beautiful Las Cruces, NM. Hope you are ready for us Dwight!!!

Greetings to all of our adoring fans.  Okay, no one knows that this blog even exists yet, but we’ll get the word out (with your help – tell your friends, subscribe, fbook us, whatever you need to do!)

So, to recount the last 6 weeks in a glance:

New company was formed “Insight Professional Services” and the work began on getting it up and running (shout out to “Up and Running”, Ash’s new business services to help companies do just that…)   De Ann, Ron, Libby, Ash and Bridget… with some newer additions on the tech and legal sides.  More on that in upcoming blogs.

We moved – 2101 Market street.  One half block from Coors Field with a patio for entertaining, right on the first floor.   The new place is awesome, which you would know if you came over for the house warming.  Come on by.  You can’t miss us – we are the only people that installed green outdoor carpet and have a plethora of furniture on the patio (21st between Blake and Market).

De Ann left her position at the Alzheimer’s Association after 3+ dedicated years.  Still her charity of choice, but now she is focused on her own gig withing Insight, and assists the Association in a consulting capacity.

I got a new car.   Yes, I loved my Avalanche and I didn’t really want to get rid of it, but I’d used up the 3 years worth of miles in 2 years of my lease, so I was going to have to pay dearly if I kept it.   Traded it in for a new Chevy Tahoe Hybrid – both Lemke and Mirabal had the same comment “was it mandatory for the car to have 100 hybrid stickers, each six feet long”?  Yes, apparently it is.  Love the new truck.

And finally, I am modifying my role with Progressive Home Colorado by shifting my General Manager role there into a client/professional role under the Insight umbrella.  My last day of full-time work with the company, after 5 years of non-stop running, will be this Friday, May 15th.

Why did I need to catch you up??   Welllllll, because this all leads to the original purpose for this blog – to keep everyone updated about our Road Trip!   Yes, we are leaving on May 16th for 3+ weeks of driving around the southwest, West, Pac NW and circling back to Denver.   Should be about 5600 miles or so.  NM, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, San Diego, the OC, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, Napa, Portland, Seattle, Victoria BC, Spokane and finishing up with 2-3 days of camping at either Glacier or Yellowstone.  Suggestions are welcome.

So, now you know it all.  Subscribe to get posting of the latest happenings.  We have one week before we take off to get a whole lotta stuff done.   We are being careful not to pack to early, otherwise we will just keep adding to the pile and wind up needing to tow Libby’s Trailer just to bring all the “stuff”.

I’m new to blogging, so suggestions would be helpful if I’m being ridiculous.  I think that we will be doing He Said / She Said blogging, so you’ll get to hear about our adventures from both perspectives.

Until next time…