Standing in the middle of nowhere unprotected....

Yesterday morning I posted about a wonderful weekend in the company of Mary and Jennifer.  Shortly after, they awoke, ate breakfast, packed up, and headed off.  It was sad to see them go, and though Thomas could have made a day of yard work, neither of us knew how much of the wind we could take.  Thomas suggested we take off for Santa Fe to pick up a few things, including a new camera. 

 

After three or four hugs apiece, I waved off the girls, hopeful to hear from them in four hours or so that they made it home in one piece.  Jennifer's car had overheated on the way down, but Thomas had gotten the fan working in hopes of remedying this problem.  Away they went.  We turned our attention to shutting up the house and grabbing what we needed.  Soon we were headed down the road, too.

 

On the highway, halfway between Miami and Springer, we saw a small herd of bull elk standing very close together.  It was maybe 10:45 am, and they were standing in the middle of a treeless pasture.  It was quite peculiar to see them out on the plains exposed.  There must have been about 7 or 8, a cluster of racks emerging from a dark mass.  It is not hunting season, but all the same, in the heat we have been having, they are more likely to come down that low between dusk and dawn and take shelter from the heat higher up the mesa in the shade of the brush and trees.  Peculiar to see them in the middle of nowhere looking so vulnerable.  What an omen!

 

Thomas and I were pulling in to Las Vegas, NM when my phone buzzed.  Thomas opened the text message to read that the girls had almost made it to Raton before the car died.  TERRIBLE NEWS!!!  We were now two hours away in the opposite direction.  We stopped and waited for news updates, but they told us not to turn around.  They caught a tow to Trinidad and were looking into bus options.  I was terribly conflicted about what to do.  If they caught a bus, then we could turn around and not find them in Trinidad by the time we could get there.  I offered to grab the Honda on our way up, and let them take that up, but they refused.  So we waited.  We had lunch in Vegas before getting word that we should push on, and they would call if they needed us.  It really felt confusing.  I am sure they didn't want to trouble us, but I wasn't sure if there really was something we could do.  So much could happen in the time it would take us to get there.  So we continued south reluctantly.

 

Hindsight is always tricky.  Jennifer's parents ended up driving down to pick them up in Trinidad, but they didn't leave Denver until 3 pm, which meant they were in Trinidad from 1ish to 7ish.  If we had turned around, we could have picked them up at 2 pm and met the Davises halfway or just brought the girls home for a few more hours or, or, or....  So it goes!

 

In the end Thomas and I did not find a camera, but he got some new jeans for work, some work shirts, and freon for the Honda.  We picked up some groceries, as well as dinner out.  We struck out on the camera - not in stock, a copy of the Hyundai key, and a tank of propane - Home Depot didn't have a problem charging Thomas and making him wait for a service clerk, only to find out they didn't even have any propane.  We made it back to Miami only slightly before the girls made it home to Denver. 

 

So maybe those elk were an omen of two pretty ladies standing on the highway next to a cute little blue bug...