Here are three pictures from our most recent run to Albuquerque.

Dennis with Navajo Tacos.

San Felipe de Neri Church, in Old Town.

Wild Sweet Pea Blossoms

And then, on July 24th, we went up to Cloudcroft to camp for two nights - Just to take a break. 

Scenes in the woods.

Campfires.

Dennis at the campsite.

Thistles with Butterflies.

Little flowers with a fly on them. 

Nuthatch.

Dark-eyed junco.

Pine cone.

Young Buck watching us very carefully. 

Young Buck and Doe snuggling.

A squirrel telling us to get away from his picnic table.

Cow Elk eating little green apples in a yard in Cloudcroft.

Wild Horses sheltering from the rain.

In late May we were in Albuquerque for over a week for the surgery, hospital stay, and time to begin to heal before traveling. Then Michael spent a month back in Las Cruces continuing to heal. We took short walks every day in the cool of the morning. Last week we went back to Albuquerque for a one month follow-up with Michael's surgeon. These photos were taken over that time period.

Albuquerque

View from our hotel room

Free breakfast at the Holiday Inn

Long hours of waiting

Hotel corridor at the Holiday Inn

Second breakfast at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Bronze sculpture of Native American woman at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center

The Albuquerque Museum

La Virgen de Guadalupe

Contemporary Mimbres-style Pottery

Bronze raven on museum roof

A Shower in a Dry Year - painting by Peter Hurd

Karl - painting by Andrew Wyeth

Message from a concerned parent

Back in Las Cruces

Colorful adobe house in Mesilla

Torch Cactus bloom

Hedgehog Cactus blooms

Organ Mountains at sunrise

Curve-billed Thrasher

Great Roadrunner

Organ Mountains and field of Golden Poppies

Organ Mountains and dust storm

Organ Mountains with storm clouds at dawn

A pre-dawn walk in the neighborhood

Home Sweet Home

Most of the last month has been taken up with doctors' visits, lab results, diagnostic images, difficult conversations, treatment plans and too much time spent on medical websites. But when the going gets tough, the tough go camping. At least that is what we do.

We went on a short road trip. We spent a night in our trailer at the Riverbend Hot Springs Resort in Truth or Consequences just 70 miles up the road from us. When you stay on the property you get unlimited soaking from 3-11pm and from 7-11am. We departed the next day like limp prunes.

From there we drove another 70 miles up into the Gila National Forest for the night. The forest was almost empty of other humans. It was us, the Ponderosa pine trees, and a night sky full of stars. On the way back to Las Cruces we stopped at our favorite Mexican restaurant for the second time in two days. We got back into town a mere 48 hours later rested, rejuvenated, and grateful to be alive. 

Mike's Birthday Eclair

Riverbend Hot Springs Resort

Gila National Forest - Continental Divide Trail

Early afternoon moon

Early evening moon

Our Cabin in the Woods

Sunset

A weed growing in the twilight

Female Mountain Bluebird in the twilight

Cold Morning - Warm Fire

Home is where the Heart is!