The Land of Enchantment

en·chant·ment: n. 1. The state of being frozen in fear when in the New Mexico desert

I dodged a large tarantula on the way to a meeting today. That's the 7th one I've seen this season. The camoflauge on it's back looked remarkably like a set of desert BDUs!

On a bike ride later in the day a large bull snake was sunning himself in the middle of the dirt road I was traveling. Bull snakes, I'm told, can be aggressively mean, and since I was far from my car I didn't want to pick a fight. With a rock wall on my left and a precipice on the right, my only option was to "calmly" walk around the tailside of his body with the bike between him and me. As I passed by he twitched at me but that was all, thankfully.

Just another day in New Mexico.

Fall in New Mexico

Kristin took the kids to the state fair again this year. The best thing there is the McDonald's farm and trying to figure out why the prize chicken is the best when it looks just like the rest of the chickens. Another strange thing is some of the acts (dancing pigs, white tigers) are the same that we saw in Georgia over 5 years ago. What a strange career it must be to go from state fair to state fair telling the same jokes and doing the same routine over and over!

Eli and I also hiked the La Luz trail this weekend; that's the trail that goes up to Sandia peak. We started at the lower tram, took the connector to the La Luz and then ended at the upper tram and rode it down. It's about 10 miles hiking all in all. He did well despite the long distance and still recovering from a cold.

Next stop, Balloon Fiesta!