Vacationing with the BFFs

After months of anticipation, the girls and I met up and headed for Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch in New Mexico. What a great time! We rented a 4-Runner and stayed in Old Town Albuquerque. Before we drove out to the ranch (a four hour drive), we shopped for turquoise jewelry. Then we went up on the Sandia Tram for dinner and beautiful views. Our tram guide explained that "sandia" was Spanish for "watermelon", which describes the color of the rocks along the way. We had a great dinner and the views were spectacular. On top, the temperature changed from the 90s to the 60s and it was spitting rain and the wind was blowing. All week long we had beautiful weather--lots of thunder and lightning off to the distance and the temperature was in the 80s to low 90s. The sky in New Mexico is big and color was a deep turquoise blue; we saw lots of stars at night (even a shooting star) and beautiful cloud formations all day. It was as if our hosts had ordered up the perfect weather just for us.

Day 1

Getting to know our horses.

Shirley & Lips (dark chocolate bay)

Alisa & Blue (blue roan)

Lynn & Smokey (small bay with attitude)

Me & Jasper (red line back dun)

Met our fellow campers: Norby, from Switzerland (riding Rooster) & Anna, originally from Poland, but has lived in Chicago for 12 years (riding Casey) and the cats: Scaredy, Garfield, and Clementine.

Horses (the ones I remember!):

Johnny, big bay colored draft horse

Rio, big Appaloosa

Strawberry Shortcake, pony

Buffalo Gal, paint movie star

Red, small sorrel Morgan

Ned, the old guy

Shadow, big black

Lightning, a paint

Toto, a sorrel

Bucky, a buckskin

Hank, sorrel

Emmett, a blue roan who lost a shoe

First we went on a short ride out of the ranch to the east with Meris & Kelly. Saw Mimbre cliff dwellings, cows, a rabbit. (On drive here we saw 2 antelope, a herd of elk, and a cattle drive; Lynn and Alisa went into a swoon over a cute cowboy in the wash.) Meris explained that the Basque people, who were sheepherders, came along after the Mimbre people left and lived in the cliff dwellings. They changed them a little by adding wood and rock structures.

In the afternoon we went out with Seth and Kelly and turned left and then went south. We went up on "top of the world" to two overlooks. The first one was a sneak peek at our ride for day two. It looked down on Taylor Creek. The second one, Seth said we could see AZ and 365 degrees around was the Gila National Forest—approximately 3.3 million acres.

That night we played Uno with Meris and Kelly; Shirley made Lynn draw tons of cards. I won one, Alisa won one, Anna (pronounced Onna) won two, and Kelly two. We ate quail for dinner—a first for me.

Day 2

All the wranglers went on a picnic ride with us (all day). We went south west and rode all through Taylor Creek and The Narrows to Beaver Creek which is the Gila River headwaters. This was the playground of Geronimo. He was born near here and grew up around here. It was fun going through all the water. It rained on us, but we dried off during lunch. We looked at more sunken Native homes and saw more pottery shards. It was an awesome ride. At the picnic spot, one of the trees had been recently struck by lightning and was all twisted and broken. We saw a huge carp in the swimming hole.

On the way out that morning, she asked us if we wanted to trot and lope. I definitely want to work on loping and getting the feel, so I emphatically said, “yes!” We loped along the road toward the trail; to keep the horses from competing and going really fast, we stayed in a single file line. Jasper is tall and Shirley’s horse, Lips, was way slower than him, so we did not lope as far as I had hoped we would. Jasper had to slow down and just trot behind Lips.

In the evening, Norby played his flutes—one made out of a small pvc pipe, one beautiful dual Native flute he had ordered and just bought from his AZ Native friend—and a digeridoo he made from a pvc pipe at the campfire. The coyotes howled and came closer to our campfire! We loved it.

Day 3

We rode into Taylor Creek and Cox Canyon. We went up over a ridge where we could see Black Mountain and the Mogollon Mountains (Meris pronounced it Moggyowin). We saw more Mimbre cliff dwellings and Basque dwellings. We went into a big one where it had a bed frame, fireplace, and table. The floor was deep silt and the air was cool. Alisa and the others cooled off in the creek in their clothes, including their jeans. Even Shirley waded in. Lynn and I did not. However, we took off our tank tops and dipped them. We left at 10:30 and did not get back into the cabin until 6:00. Today, we loped along the trail. Jasper loped really nice and when he felt me become a little unbalanced, he went into his trot until I was comfortable and then loped some more. It was fun.

After dinner, we ate s'mores and sang campfire songs until 10.

Day 4

I asked Shirley if she was having fun; she’s been so quiet. She said she was just glad she got to come and be with us girls. She said this was the best thing. Her horse was no Star or Buster--he was a "ground pounder" in her words, but she also said (in front of her!) that Lynn was like her right arm—she needed her in order to feel whole. J She said she had always wanted a daughter so she would have a best friend and someone to share the things she loved. Pretty cool—tough to get her to say it out loud, and especially TO Lynn—but, definitely a heartwarming, cool statement.

Jasper mostly trotted today--we only loped a little; I think he was a little lazy and really just wanted to stay at the ranch. We went to Beaver Canyon today for our picnic. Although we went along Taylor Creek, we were high above it before dropping down to where the two come together. Unfortunately Hank (or was it Toto?) threw a shoe and Seth had to walk back to camp from there. He had to walk through our favorite part--the narrows--afoot. Lots of water in his cowboy boots!

We saw a large herd of mule deer heading up the mountain and lots of cows today; including a red bull that was blocking our path. Meris said he has challenged her twice. He does not belong to the family who owns the property we crossed over and they had come to look for him yesterday, so his rightful owner could take home and get him off their property. We had cows bellowing for their calves and we had to stop to let one loud, insistent, and long horned cow by us and then one cow who was following her put on a bucking show. What fun! I love cows. There were more Mimbre and Basque cliff dwellings, tin mine markers, and the Keeper of the Canyon's face to look at today. 

We played Apples to Apples with Meris & Kelly that night. It was a hoot. They are both so fun to be with.

Day 5

Leaving the ranch was kind of sad—everyone hugged and it felt like we were leaving family. I do hope we see them again. Along the way, we stopped at the Winston store—more shopping! The doorbell was the sound of an elk. Later, we accidentally took a wrong road which dead ended at Monticello. We lost some time, but saw two road runners.

Upon arriving in Old Town Albuquerque, we shopped some more. Everyone bought jewelry and gifts for the people at home (especially the dogs’ babysitters!). Lynn bought a new suitcase to carry all our new stuff, and then we went to bed. Not too much sleeping happened and then it was 2 am and time to get up.

Shirley gave us a scare at the airport and needed a wheelchair, I got flustered and couldn't unlock my suitcase to remove my extra 2 pounds, but we had easy flights and Gordy was Mr. On-The-Spot and we set off for Quincy.

Shirley slept most of day in the car--poor thing had her head hanging and probably had a painful crook in it the next day, but she wouldn't admit she was sleeping and just prop her head more comfortably.

Happy poodles met us at all three houses and after I loaded Shirley's luggage on the 4-wheeler and she sped off, I am sure she was met by a wagging Happy.

What a great vacation! I love being with those three women more than anything and getting to ride in new country is priceless! I will be ready to do it again next summer and every summer thereafter. J