West Texas Visit!

With barely time to unpack and repack after teaching at IQF-Long Beach, I flew out to El Paso to meet my family there and also visit DH’s family. I suppose that there are not a lot of glossy brochures that suggest an August visit to El Paso, but I love the spare landscape of West Texas. Besides, the Lyon’s are fun to visit and my MIL makes some mighty fine meals. I usually gain 1 pound for each day I visit-it’s that good.

It was fabulous to be reunited with my sons-both there at once! And yes, it was indeed Mommy bliss to see them. My oldest flew in from Maine and my youngest drove in from Tucson. And what a treat for my MIL to have two grandsons at once.

While there we visited Hueco Tanks, east of El Paso in the desert.The park is named for the natural rock basins that capture desert rainwater and is considered sacred land by several Native American groups. I find the landscape beautiful. It is an odd sight to see “tanks” of water in the middle of the desert.

In years past the park was over-used and some of the pictographs were vandalized. As a result, visitors must go through a lengthy orientation and they pretty much read you the riot act before you are allowed out of the center.

Our youngest son had already left at this point so it was just the three of us. We love it when there is one son and two parents-so many more opportunities to abuse and hassle them.

It was nice for the two of us to have some time also-it’s been a very busy summer!

I must have 80 photos of prickly pears from this trip. Really how much more odd looking can a plant get? My MIL makes jelly from the fruit and it’s good stuff!

The trip was so short and much of it was dominated by The Rescue of the Pit Bull. My soft-hearted DH was walking the local park before I arrived and this incredibly emaciated Pit Bull pup just latched on to him and followed him to his Mother’s home. She was the most emaciated animal I have ever seen. We fed her and took her to the vet for care. Of course she had no microchip. Remarkably she had no diseases and although she had been neglected, she  had not been abused.

We got her shots and the vet said she was probably about 6 months old, had not eaten in 3-4 weeks and was on the brink of death. Most remarkable of all, she was the sweetest dog I have ever met. I am not a big a Pit Bull fan so her sweet demeanor after such neglect surprised me. She just loved on us and soaked up all the attention she was getting.

In the end, our youngest drove her to his home in Tucson and handed her off to a friend who rescues Pits. She is in a foster home and will soon find a lucky person who will provide her forever home. Awwww!

This home is just around the bend from my MIL-I just love it when I see a house painted in bright colors! I’ve never seen a bright orange house before-isn’t this fabulous?

After traveling for 9 days, it felt so good to be home. My flight arrived around 6:30PM and the sun was streaming through the branch chandelier of the airport terminal. The photo does not do the scene justice but it was stunningly beautiful-the sun streaming through the faceted crystals dripping from the chandelier created an outrageously beautiful scene. What a lovely welcome home!