Fare the Well Winer!

Procrastination time!  I am having a hell of a time with my comprehensive accounting problem and I need to distract myself from it. So I figured I'd get a blog post done.  It is no longer winter, yet it has been lingering on here in Minnesota.  I love the snow, but let me tell you, I am not a fan of it this far into the spring.  I am a rain girl.  Weird I know!

But I figured I'd give it a bit of a homage or a goodbye if you will.  Snow!!!  I love the stuff, honestly I do.  I've been skiing literally my whole life.  My cross country skiing not as good as my downhill.  But I try.  I am sure I mentioned it previously.  The skiing is a lifelong love.  It will never go away, I hope.  I learned the sport in Michigan and have been lucky enough to get to ski in the western mountains, including a great spring skiing trip to New Mexico.  Exciting I know. 

The skiing is different in the Midwest.  For one thing the hills are a heck of a lot smaller! And it is a bit icier, not a lot of powder.  That's ok by me though, I grew up with it.  Honestly it was much harder for me to adjust to powder than I expected.  Kinda like moguls.  I know how to ski moguls, I just don't like it.  I feel like I don't have enough control.






So New Mexico, I went in the spring, I won the New Mexico fight! I didn't get sick!!!! Yay, I am not a New Mexico fan (for reasons I've previously mentioned).  But I put it aside for the joys of the snow!  We (my parents and I) had been up in the Colorado Mountains.  It was great fun!  Gorgeous weather! Gorgeous Mountains! Amazing skiing!  New Mexico was a different horse all together.  The weather was great, although much warmer.  This led to slicker skiing.  A bit more work and a lot more speed.  I have a need for speed, always have- always will.




Don't get me wrong as spoiled as I've gotten I still love Minnesota and Michigan skiing!  The problem is that the hills are so short in comparison and while you get a ton more runs in.  But they are short and quick!  Not always the most fun.  Oh and if you fall, the ice is a bit more painful!
 



I am not actually sure what this blog is about today.  It is kinda a rambling of my winter/skiing thoughts! Golly!

In a Cavern

Still in New Mexico... this time to one place I want to drag my best friend too.  She is the subterranean type.  Not sure where it ranks in the largest known cave category, but I am certain that it is towards the top of the list.  It is beautiful!  And I totally fell in love with caves.  Funny story, but it was warmer inside the cave than outside.  And here I was looking for warmth...

Carlsbad is pretty cool.  Like most caves you go down an elevator and exit into a strange new world... Well at Carlsbad you enter an underground lunchroom (gift shop).  You'll never guess what they call it... yeah, the underground lunch room.  We ate and gift shopped, my mom bought a bat visor.  And then we headed out on the tour of the Big Room (creative, I know).  That was the only room I toured.  In a previous trip my parents saw one of the other large rooms.  But I figure that you can't see everything or you'll have no reason to come back.  Always leave something for next time.  Words I live by.

So, the big room, it was huge, every time you though you were near the end, you went a round a corner and it was bigger.  Sometimes smaller, and you'd look in one direction and you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you face.  You'd see a little opening and behind it there would be a bigger room.  Or a pit that seemed to go on forever.

So they got bats.  Lots of bats, I really wanted to see them, but it was too cold.  Seems that at that time of year they send a few scout bats out and if it is cold the few that stay year round, won't venture into the cold.  Lame in my opinion.  But hey, next time!

In a Canyon

New Mexico.  I have mixed feelings about New Mexico.  I had a great trip there once, I went to Chaco Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell and a bunch of places.  It was great.  But the 1st visit, I had let myself get pretty dehydrated, and was sick as a dog. (BTW where does that phrase come from anyways?)  So I didn't get anywhere.  Spent the day at a hotel being miserable and the vacation was over at that point.  Wasn't interested to seeing anything at that point.

So I went to the desert with my parents after my 1st Snow Lodge.  I was looking for warmth, and didn't find it.  Well, there was that day in Roswell.  But that was about it.  The wind.... the wind in New Mexico is crazy and cold.  Even though it was windy, Chaco Canyon was pretty hot.  But because of the wind, it wasn't unbearable.  I am not a hot weather climate kinda of girl, but I can deal in the short term.

A Great Kiva

Chaco Canyon is a mystery.  At least that is what they told me.  It is chalk full of Ancestral Puebloan Great Houses.  And they are all aligned with each other, even though they are miles apart.  Not only that, they are aligned with the solstices, the solar and lunar cycles.  It is crazy!  No one is quite certain as to what purpose Chaco was created for, was it a ceremonial area, was it something else?  Much like the amount of licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

 

I love this part of the south west, the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, Chimney Rock, Hovenweep, they are all so amazing and beautiful.  You can feel the history at these sites.  The emotional imprint (if you believe in that sort of thing) is intense.  The place really speaks for itself. 

Oh and I don't have a picture, but the stars were amazing.  And I have been in many of the few remaining dark spots, but I don't know if I've ever seen a more amazing display.