Notes from the Road - Day 30

2/28/04 10:50pm Mountainair, NM

I was supposed to be up for breakfast at 7:30am this morning, but when Carl came over to the trailer to get me, he said he didn’t see any signs of life and let me sleep. I didn’t have an alarm, so it was ten ‘til eight when I made it over there, and everyone was finished but still at the table. Scott took off to set up the shop for the day, but Steve and Linda stuck around for a bit to chat. I met Linda at Ruth and Carl’s 50^th anniversary party last year, but only briefly, so it was good to see that she’s very happy and easygoing. I had a little bit of everything to eat, then went into town with Carl to see the store. First, though, we dropped by a couple properties he’d acquired: an old house that used a steam heating system he’d bought and fixed up for Joe before they found out he’d be staying in Washington, and the house Scott’s currently living in, where Mary will soon join him.

The shop has seen at least one new addition since the last time I was here, two and a half years ago. They built a new garage on one side of the building for Scott’s business, and he’s still putting up the insulation and collecting the equipment he’ll need. Steve found out this morning that one of his good friends in Arizona just passed away, and he’s been calling people with the news. Carl still takes part in the everyday business of the shop, and we saw three or four people come in for various things. Then we came back to the house, and while Ruth and Linda met somewhere to work on wedding decisions, I stirred the beef stew we had for lunch.

Everybody made it in just in time to eat before Steve and I had to leave to make our tee time of 2:30pm in Socorro. It was snowing while we were at the shop, and we were afraid conditions might not be good enough, but Socorro is more than an hour south, and when we called, the golf place said conditions were great there. As we drove we escaped the snow, and it warmed up as we descended altitude, so that we were comfortable with sweatshirts and no jackets as we played. My game today has improved over the previous outings, but on the eighth hole we started getting hail and by the ninth we decided to call it a day and try to make it back for Ruth’s home-cooked supper. A huge, dark cloud covered the mountains as we neared, and we ran into some hard snow, but nothing was sticking to the road.

Strangely enough, Mountainair hadn’t seen much of any snow when we got back, and Steve and I sat down shortly after everyone else had started. Eric and his wife Maggie, and their son Isaiah, were there this time, and Scott had a lot of fun teasing them. They’re clearly two young people in love. After supper and a blackberry cobbler with ice cream, we sat in the living room and talked for a bit while Libby the cat made the rounds. When Carl decided to turn in, I headed over to Steve’s house just down the street to watch the end of the college basketball game and Shallow Hal. I couldn’t stop yawning however, so I came back to the trailer to write and get some sleep. I’ll leave for the last leg of my trip after breakfast.