US Land Logs 3, Year 4: Second Week in Santa Fe
Date: Monday, May 4, 2009
Weather: Sunny and Warm; PM Temps Hovering Around 70
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

This time last year we were just arriving in Australia after spending five months in the US. One month ago we were still in Phuket, Thailand, and had just gotten Windbird back in the water after her refit. I’m really having trouble believing that it has only been a month since we were in Phuket, but the calendar tells me this is true. How time does fly and this past week was no exception. This was the week of Mirabelle. Mirabelle is Justin and Jo’s 1973 bright yellow VW Beetle whose engine needed some serious help. Mark and Justin decided they could take the engine out and they did this working only in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, Jo’s parents rented a car to go to Albuquerque to pick up Jo’s sister Katherine, so Jo went along with Ziggy and Mirabelle’s engine which she traded in for a rebuilt. All Thursday afternoon, Mark and Justin followed the VW manual directions for reattaching everything to the engine and hoped to have it installed by the end of the day. But there was a hitch. A bolt coming out of the engine to which the heat exchanger would attach was the problem. The bolt was fine but the threads in the engine were stripped so the bolt could not attach anything. So Friday morning we rented a car and Mark took the engine into a local VW garage to have the machine work done. After talking to the mechanic, however, Mark made the decision to tow the car to the garage and have the mechanic do the engine installation. The installation will be on us, but Mark just felt that he couldn’t learn enough fast enough to do the job right. We still don’t have Mirabelle back, but hopefully she will return tomorrow in good working order.

Late Friday afternoon, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy played music at the art gallery where Jo’s art is on display. It was a lovely evening. Ziggy arrived attached to the front of Jo with the most amazing baby wrap I have ever seen. Jo just whips the Moby wrap around Ziggy and off they go. Ziggy slept attached to his mom while she and Justin played their music. Since both sets of grandparents and Jo’s sister were there, we finally convinced Jo that she must let us hold Ziggy. We all danced around with Ziggy and enjoyed the music. After the performance, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy came to our casita for dinner. It was the perfect end to a busy week. It had been such a busy week, however, that we all decided to take the weekend off. So Jo’s parents and sister headed to Albuquerque on the train while Mark and I just stayed close to home. I’m working desperately to get a pair of overalls embroidered for Ziggy and Mark can always find things to search on the internet. We did take a walk downtown on Saturday afternoon just to check out some of the shops, but that was the extent of our activity. On Sunday, Mark and I took the bus to Museum Hill. There are three museums there, but the most striking thing is the setting. The hill overlooks Santa Fe and gives a great view of the surrounding mountains. We walked more than halfway back to town just to enjoy the desert hilltop scenery. It is beautiful.

Sunday evening was the highlight of the week. Both sets of grandparents and Auntie Katherine all gathered at Justin and Jo’s for a Sunday night barbeque. Jo’s dad bought a tent gazebo for the backyard and he trekked from his casita through the neighborhood streets with the barbecue grill so we could grill out at Justin and Jo’s. We all sat under the gazebo and enjoyed Ziggy and a great dinner. We had fish, shrimp, chicken, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and a salad. It was quite a feast and a great family gathering.

Week three in Santa Fe will be spent doing more gardening and all of the odd jobs that we started in week one and never finished. Thursday is Ziggy’s one month birthday, so we will certainly have to celebrate that in style. We are going to Taos on Saturday and spending Mother’s Day Sunday back here in Santa Fe. By this time next week, we will be packing our bags and getting ready to head to Albuquerque to catch our flight east. Then we start all over again getting ready for grandchild #3 on Cape Cod in June. It’s a wonderful life!

090502 New Mexico–Last Week of April in Santa Fe

090503 New Mexico–Sunday in Santa Fe