The wild Southwest

Hello from sunny Albuquerque, New Mexico. Just pulled in here after 2 days off the grid around Jamestown, New Mexico. We stayed with Mark Bush, his wife Tina, and their son: Cowboy Zach. What a kind, generous family. They call the 7600 acre "Bass Ranch" home. Tina's family bought the land with winnings from a poker game a couple generations back.

When I say "off the grid" I mean that literally and figuratively. For the last two days, I've been mostly out of cell and computer range so blogging was a stretch. During those two days, I was also getting my boots dusty in the red hills of New Mexico, sleeping under the creepy watchful gaze of a monstrous taxidermy'd elk, and getting out into the fields to shoot Mark's assault rifles and Dirty Harry revolver (44 Magnum). New Mexico is as beautiful and as wild as I had imagined.

Arizona was also beautiful. We made it up to the Grand Canyon and got to peer into that giant hole. But alas, the crack and kick of the 44 Magnum has made everything that happened before it seem like a distant memory. Now having pulled into Albuquerque, I think it's time to dust off my boots, get a latte, go for sushi, and put this cowboy-hillbilly fantasy behind me. But I gotta tell y'all, it ain't gonna be easy. Especially in Texas.

Loren