Plans

Here is a picture of Kathy (my sister) Althea (Kathy's niece) Jesse, and Lindsay. You can see the Gorge Bridge in the back ground.


There has been lots of talk in the news lately about vacations. It seems that few people have time to take big vacations anymore. Supposedly, people do not want to leave their jobs for two weeks or more because they feel insecure in their job or feel like they cannot leave their work to someone else for very long. That all seems silly to me. With technology as it is today, no one is every very far from work. Phones and computers have made "checking in at work" easy. No, I think people can take big vacations if they want. I think they choose to take several smaller vacations instead. It is nice to have a some summertime vacation as well as winter vacation. I think people just want to see and do as much as possible taking short vacations to various places rather than one long vacation. We like to have a few days of vacation to make short trips to see family, and some of Toby's vacation is used for work around the farm.


Our trip to NM and Lubbock was going to be the first time Toby and I have gone off together for a vacation in several years. Oh, we take weekend trips to Lubbock to see his mom. A few years ago we went to Aspermont, TX, on our anniversary, but we were actually looking at tractors. We just rarely get away for more than a few days and those are usually to see family. Building our house took up all of Toby's vacation days in the last couple of years. I guess our last big vacation was in Italy - actually Toby worked while Jesse and I played, but he did take off an extra week to spend with us there.


Toby took off about four days for this vacation, but wrapped around a weekend, it made a nice get-a-way. It took us all of Thursday to drive to Red River. We ate out with family when we got there. Friday was spent with family just visiting (and eating). Saturday we drove to Taos for our float trip down the Rio Grande. Sunday we ended up coming home early with Mom (who is doing quite well now). Monday was spent making sure Mom was good and getting home to do chores. Tuesday was spent working around the farm - typical vacation for us.


The raft trip down the Rio Grande, the part they call "The Box", was the best part of the vacation. I talked quite a few of my family members into rafting, and they all seemed to have a good time. There were three rafts with four of us in each raft. My brother's family and another cousin floated with another raft company that put into the river ahead of us. There were two other rafts on our trip with young men from a construction company in Albuquerque. It made for a fun group. Although the boys kept more to themselves, they were still friendly and fun. The water was not at it is highest level, but it was really good. I have rafted this river several times throughout the years, and I have never seen anyone fall out of the raft. This trip we had four people fall out including one of the guides. My cousin, Trevor, fell out of our raft in some pretty serious rapids. Fortunately, he is young and athletic, but it was just pretty scary. He was picked up about 100 feet down river by the raft with all of the girls (photo above). They teased him saying that he did not have to go through such drastic measures to ride with them.


I was disappointed that we did not get to see more friends in NM. We had planned on doing that Sunday, but the plans changed when Mom went to the emergency room in Taos. I think my biggest disappointment was not meeting Buck in person. Our plan had been to drive through Clovis on Monday and stop to see him there. When that fell through, I called him to let him know our plans had changed. For some reason I was as nervous as a sixteen year old waiting on a blind date. Let me tell you that Buck has a great voice. It was like talking to an old friend. Someday, we will get to meet. Someday, I will get to NY and meet Laurie and maybe to the South to meet Becky. Ah, best made plans of mice and women...


Here is our raft coming through the rapids about the time Trevor fell out.
Here is the girls pulling Trevor into their raft. Notice their guide and his dreadlocks.