Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

It's difficult to believe that I haven't been back to Southwest Texas in 37 years.  I've been to New Mexico numerous times, and I've visited San Antonio and Houston, but how strange to not return to Lubbock.  I'm reminded of the feelings John has when we visit Ireland--he's told me repeatedly that he feels a sense of peace there that he doesn't feel anywhere else, and he attributes that feeling to the Spirit of Elijah.  It's the land of his forefathers.  I believe I feel the same way about Lubbock.  There was a comfort there that I haven't felt in a very long time.  Everywhere else I've lived, I've felt like I need to curb  myself.  I need to watch what I say, or I stress about what to wear, or I frequently just feel like a stranger.  But being back in Lubbock, I felt a sense of belonging.  A sense that these are my people .  One of the memorable moments of the entire trip came when Johannah said to me, "Mommy, being here, I can see...

Hannah and I had our morning all figured out....once we realized that our flight was leaving two hours earlier than we thought.  We would go to Walmart, pick up some fresh fruit, have breakfast at the Cast Iron Grill one last time, and then go feed the Prairie Dogs at Prairie Dog Town. This is an actual memory I have from my childhood.  At some point, I rode a school bus out to Prairie Dog Town to see the prairie dogs.  At the time, it felt like we drove forever (even though I know now it couldn't have been more than 20 minutes), and it felt like the town was HUGE even though it's smaller than a suburban house lot. From what I understand, prairie dogs were endangered in the mid-1900s from farming and chemicals used to farm.  So two men had the idea to trap two couples of prairie dogs and bring them to a safe plot of land to do what prairie dogs do.  I mean, it's not like they eat bamboo or anything.  Over the years, the population has naturally multiplied, ...

Last full day of our trip.  I was a MESS.  Seriously, I couldn't get my crap together and smile.  All I could think about was leaving, and even Hannah told me that I was as bad as "Daddy" when he's ending a vacation.  Hannah decided to try some of my curl cream, and holy smokes did it bring out the natural curl in her hair! Before leaving El Paso, I found a jewelry shop.  My kids associate New Mexico with Native American jewelry, but being so close to Mexico, I don't think there's much of an indigenous population nearby.  When I finally found a shop that held a sparse selection of jewelry, the woman told us it was mostly Navajo, and it was "from up north". It was strange to not see the inlaid jewelry of the Zuni tribe which is what I usually like, and it was also strange to see silver jewelry that isn't being constantly polished, because let's be honest--silver that has sat awhile and is tarnished isn't exactly appealing to the eye.  Howe...

As we pulled into El Paso after finishing up at Guadalupe, we were driving west on I-10, and I looked over to my left.  I had heard that El Paso had some pretty sketchy parts of town, but I was unprepared for what I saw: I couldn't believe the people of El Paso would let anyone live like that.  After all, it looked like the slums and ghettos that we had seen in Central and South American countries.  And then it hit me.  This wasn't El Paso; this was Juarez, Mexico.  And even more unbelievably, I saw what I had only heard of: the Wall. Yes, "the Wall" that had been hotly debated during the 2016 presidential election; "the Wall" that then Candidate Trump promised he would build; "the Wall" that had been through various designs to come up with the perfect solution to keep the Mexicans out of the United States.  I could hardly believe my eyes. Well that night, we went out for dinner, and everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) was in Spanish.  In fact, it w...

So, one of the "things to do" in Guadalupe Mountains State Park is to hike Guadalupe Peak.  Sitting at 8,750 feet, it's the highest point in Texas. The beginning of the hike starts 3,000 feet below that so it's an estimated 6-8 hours of hiking time.  Johannah and I had been going back and forth on whether or not to hike it.  My asthma had been fully controlled this entire trip (thank you, Nucala!), but 3,000 feet of elevation would definitely be pushing it.  Too, with only nine hours of daylight in January, we would need to start early.  We asked the ranger about doing it, and she didn't discourage us at all, but she did warn us that after hiking it, the most difficult part of the hike can be getting back down the mountains on the rocky trail with tired legs.  She said people slip all the time. So, we woke up early that morning, and Hannah had suggested we have a look at the trail.  As we drove into the park, there was dense fog at the lower elevations...

When I think back on this day, I wondered why we hiked so little....and then I remembered exactly what day it was.  It was January 20, or Inauguration Day! I thought that maybe we could skip the inauguration because it started at noon EST, and I didn't really want to lose half the day, but because we were in New Mexico, it started at 10:00 a.m.! Yay! So I turned on the TV in the hotel room, and shoot am I glad we did! Being a democrat, it's always nice to have a president who reflects some of my beliefs, but I believe the biggest takeaway from the day was relief .  Relief seeing Donald Trump leave the office, knowing that he will NOT be my representative or my country's representative anymore.  It was a painful four years because of his lack of class and statesmanship, and I look forward to having a person who is a diplomat and a human being . So as soon as Joe Biden was sworn in as our 46th president, we left the hotel and stared driving towards  Guadalupe Moun...

Monday morning dawned dark and early for us--we needed to get Glo back to the airport in Lubbock (a good 4.5 hour drive).  Thankfully we got there early enough to make another stop at Cast Iron Grill, and lucky me, their special of the day was chicken and dumplings (or as they say in Michigan "chicken fricassee").  Seriously, being back in Michigan now, the thing I miss most about Texas is the food.  The restaurants make made-from-scratch food, my belly never got sick, and we didn't eat anything that wasn't delicious. After we dropped off Glo, Hannah and I drove the three hours straight to Carlsbad.  We needed to do laundry, and bless the hotel worker's heart because she gave us the room straight across from the laundry room.  I passed out from lack of sleep (and possibly the huge amount of hiking we had done over the last few days), Hannah did laundry, we ordered some food for dinner (the food in New Mexico wasn't anything stellar), and watched El Bachelor ...