Road Trips and Staying Put

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Lee and I have been on many memorable road trips, and I hope we have lots more. We made a lot of memories the time we took our first big RV, Ursula, to New Mexico in 2012. We first visited my friend Steve from grad school and his husband, Guy. They lived in Las Cruces at the time.

The only photo I can find from this trip. There were tons in my old blog.

We did so much in southern New Mexico, and we’re only slightly creeped out by surveillance drones. This was long before Build That Wall. I had the best Mexican food ever and saw so many great rocks. And old Las Cruces!

I got to watch Guy work with his rodeo horses at liberty. It was the first time I ever saw such a thing. Guy was so good with the animals and I guess was good under saddle as well since he had a huge saddle he won at gay rodeo in the house.

Later we drove farther north and went through deserts and forests, saw White Sands and the Malpais. We visited petroglyphs and a trading post we returned to on later trips for my turquoise needs.

Since I have no photos, here’s our woods today.

Other than the RV breaking down, all was well. We need to visit Steve again where he is now that he’s a widower.


We aren’t going anywhere this weekend. We were scheduled to camp, but chose to stay home and prepare for the bad weather that’s coming tomorrow. It’s our turn at last.

Who needs to travel when you can watch horses play?

The highlight of preparation was getting some sides added to the horse pens to add a lot more shelter from the wind and cold. Here’s how it looked before.

I was impressed that they got red metal to make the sides from. I didn’t expect coordination! Here are some in progress photos.

It really looks snazzy now that it’s done, and it’s very sturdy. May as well do it right the first time. Next we will get more covered roof for summer shade and rain protection. There will be gutters! Anyway, here’s how it looks now.

We hope the horses use the new shelter. My guys looked pretty displeased.

Horses don’t like change.

Daily Bird

I’m just gonna declare all the sparrows birds of the day, because they were just so cute today bopping around through the trees. I didn’t bother them one bit. Enjoy them.

We’re ready for the cold and maybe snow tomorrow. Hope we got everything safe and snug.


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Author: Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall

The person behind The Hermits' Rest blog and many others. I'm a certified Texas Master Naturalist and love the nature of Milam County. I manage technical writers in Austin, help with Hearts Homes and Hands, a personal assistance service, in Cameron, and serve on three nonprofit boards. You may know me from La Leche League, knitting, iNaturalist, or Facebook. I'm interested in ALL of you!

4 thoughts on “Road Trips and Staying Put”

  1. Will there be 3 or 4 horses in the shelter and Fiona?

    Will they stand up all night? And probably not a need yet for blanket?

    And will run around outside next few days?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Four horses and Fiona. They can go in whenever they want to. All have heavy winter coats. If they start shivering we will blanket them. The shelter will get nice and warm when they are all in it.

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  2. I’ll bet your friend Steve knows my friends, Lisa and Sandy, who travel all over to be chute tenders with IGRA. They’re great gals – and Sandy’s almost my age. A couple of years ago, they posted a picture of underwear drying laundry for what was used in the local rodeo’s pig-dressing competition. It must be so much fun! Good luck with the weather. It’ll reach us a few hours later.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s been a while since they did roses. Steve’s now a minister, Lutheran, which was his original plan as a youth. He’s your age, so his career had many twists and turns.

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