Go West young man...to Taos!

Here we go...again.  This time we headed to Taos, NM as most of you already know.  We headed out from our temporary home in Birmingham (thanks to Carolyn Johnson!) on 11/24 toward Dallas, TX where Auntie Linda and Uncle Onie (Mandi's aunt and uncle) live and we arranged a two-day stay for Thanksgiving, reconnection with Auntie, and a rest.  We drove the 11 hours from Birmingham to Dallas without much trouble.  The big change was the new addition to our family: Thelma the one-way U-haul trailer that we used after paying a chunk of money to have a hitch installed on Stella (Mandi's SUV).  That installation was an adventure in itself, but to make a long story short, what was billed as a 1 day, 2 hour job turned into a 2 day, 8 hour job that threatened our departure time and nobody at U-haul really cared!  Oh well, off to Dallas with the new hitch and our new friend Thelma...

Ms. Penelope is always anxious when we start to pack but she is improving greatly.  This time she decided that if she was part of the luggage there was no way we could leave her behind...she's a creative little gal!

The aforementioned new family member, Thelma.  We were scheduled to get a 4x8 trailer which Uhaul said was the smallest one they rent, but my smart honey saw this "low-profile", 4x6 model on the lot.  She asked the manager who said it is a relic from the 70's and they don't use/buy the model anymore.  She then asked if we could rent it anyway and he said why not and just gave it to us for the same price as the 4x8 model.  It turned out to be a brilliant decision because it was the perfect size for our stuff and nothing slid around on the journey...furthermore, it was lower on top and easier to drive with.  My honey apparently knows her trailers!  Also note that Stella is still pretty even with her hitch.

Sadly, we don't have any pictures of Auntie and Uncle at this time...our pics with them are on Auntie's camera and we'll post them when we get them.  Anyway, after our arrival to Dallas and their house, we rested up and then headed out the next day for "family" Thanksgiving at the large, beautiful home of GP and Sal, the father- and mother-in-law of Onie's brother Linny.  Their family was over and we just slid right in.  It is amazing, but GP has said from the beginning that any family of Linny is his family and therefore we were not even considered guests and everyone was fantastic.  GP is a very nice older gentleman who apparently did very well in his working days and is now able to host folks like us (basically strangers) at any given time.  Sal is a fantastic character (her name is Sandra but she's always been called Sal for some unclear reason) who shocked us with a thick South Carolina accent and straight, loud, boisterous talk which I loved.  She is also an artist that has sold many things and showed us her impressive studio in their home.  The food was fantastic with all the Thanksgiving regulars and we all played games and watched football.  It was truly home away from home.  The next day, we headed 2 hours south of Dallas to the ranch of Elihu Dodier and his clan, who happen to be Uncle Onie's family.  All of his aunt's and uncles as well as his two younger sisters were there.  Everyone was impressively loud and outgoing which we loved.  Since they were all Mexican in heritage, I was excited about stuffing myself with fine homemade Mexican food...boy was I in for a surprise.  Apparently when a Mexican Texas family gets together, they eat a buffet of beef brisket, mac and cheese, mozzarella cheese sticks (tons!), rolls, and many other standard American foods!  The only thing Mexican there was tasty tamales made by Auntie Linda, who is a white gal from Alabama if you don't know!

Also in true Mexican fashion (ha!), we rode 4-wheelers around all day and then there was a time for firing a wide variety of guns at their own range on the ranch.  There were even cattle there, but they were mainly for show and apparently belonged to the next farm over but needed a little extra area so Uncle Elihu said they could stay on his land when he bought it.  We drove all the way to south Texas in a rural area to hang out with a Mexican family and have an afternoon that we could easily have had in Cullman or Athens or some other rural area of Alabama with some good ol' boys!  Note our helmets on the 4-wheeler...we just couldn't tell kids every day to wear helmets and then spend the day on 4-wheelers going 30 mph or so without them.

 

The next day we headed out for Taos.  That was a doozy of a drive, for many reasons.  That morning, I was in a haze when giving kitty medicine and accidentally overdosed Mr. Winston with 15 mg instead of his normal 5 of his travel, sleepy medicine.  We were worried and Amanda called an animal ER who said it was fine (phew...)  In the mix-up, I gave Penelope Mr. Winston's normal anxiety medicine and then we decided to go ahead and give her her normal, higher 10 mg dose of the sleepy car medicine and headed out.  Well, she had a reaction to the medicine and wigged out, fighting to stay awake and falling around the car while unable to open her eyes...funny now but worrisome for about 8 hours.  At various times she bit and clawed both of us and then settled in a heap by the scratching post, biting and attacking it wildly in between sleeping (as shown in the above left picture).  We eventually had to lock her in her cage and let her ride it out with my honey wearing earplugs and me listening to headphones.  On top of this, Mandi got a migraine!  Lastly, the journey took about 13 hours and ended with us at our new condo at 11:30 pm.  They said in our planning for this assignment that there was an after hours clerk to check us in, but apparently after hours means 7 or 8 pm, not any time actually late!  I called my agent and he arranged for us to stay in the Hampton inn for the night which was nice but crazy as we snuck the kitties in the back door.

Today, we headed to our condo home and moved our stuff in.  This was no small task as I was very winded moving many heavy boxes in this altitude (7500 feet in Taos and 11000 on the ski mountain 15 miles away!).  Now we're somewhat settled in, sitting by a real fire and ready to get some sleep.  Above are the views off our large deck and below are views inside our condo.  The only catch is that the laundry is probably 200 feet across the complex and it is 35 degrees during the day and snowed 4 times today!  Mandi is investigating changing rentals Jan 1 to a place nearby with in-house washer/dryer, but that consideration is better left for another day and another blog.  For now we are happy and relaxed in a very beautiful place.

Talk to you all again soon with updates on our final living plans and more pictures of our journey.  We both start work on Wednesday...yikes.

Jason