We brought Mollie home from the pet clinic on Saturday and she is slowly becoming herself again. She is on antibiotics, pain meds and has to eat a bland diet of white rice and chicken for a couple more days. Her belly, left side, and part of her front legs were shaved for surgery and she looks like she just had a cheap haircut by a crazed groomer. Judy can't wait to fix it.
We came within yards of the Mexican border this morning as we made our way from Amado to Bisbee. In our quest to avoid the expressway we headed south to Nogales and then up to Patagonia, through Sierra Vista and 2 1/2 hours later we arrived at the Queen Mine RV Park.
This is our second visit to Bisbee but it's the first time we have stayed at this rv park. It's located up on a hill overlooking downtown and is an easy walk to the shops and galleries. We are really enjoying the view.
We walked into town this afternoon and made a quick stop at our favorite coffee shop, Old Bisbee Roasters. We got to say hi to the owner Seth, and bought a few pounds of fresh roasted coffee. We also visited one of the few open galleries. Most are closed on Monday, so we'll hit them tomorrow.
Mar 24, 2008
Mar 21, 2008
Long overdue update, and Mollie goes to the hospital!!
After spending 2 weeks in Santa Fe, including a great seminar at the Santa Fe Photo Workshop,it was time to head towards Tucson for our Life on Wheels conference. We decided to stop in Silver City, New Mexico and spent Sunday just looking around and relaxing.
Sunday evening Mollie was being extra feisty and getting into things she wasn't supposed to. We had some leather gloves laying in a basket on the floor and she pulled one of them out and began to chew on it. When we noticed what she was doing we took the glove from her and realized the nylon care tag inside the glove was in shreds. Mollie seemed to have something caught in her mouth and John saw a string wrapped around her tooth. He started pulling and ended up with 3 foot long string that she had swallowed. We couldn't believe it! Little did we know that this was only the beginning.
Monday morning we left Silver City and drove southeast about 1 1/2 hours to Benson, Arizona.
And soon our week began to get interesting.
Monday evening Mollie came down with a severe case of diarrhea. John was up during the night either taking her out or cleaning up messes when she didn't make it outside in time. We figured she had gotten into something during one of our walks.
Tuesday we arrived at the Pima Community college in Tucson for our Life on Wheels conference. This is a series of seminars aimed towards people who either live full time in their motor home or are planning to. There were people there who were just learning and haven't yet purchased anything, people like us who go on extended trips, and people who live full time in either motor homes, 5th wheel trailers, or travel trailers. There were at least 50 of us dry camping in the parking lot and more who either stayed in local rv parks, or hotels.
Mollie continued to have intestinal problems and started vomiting as well. Tuesday night was a repeat of Monday night. Not much sleep. The seminars started Wednesday morning and we were attending classes all day. Wednesday night Mollie was no better, in fact she was worse. She was restless all night so we once again we didn't get much sleep.
By Thursday morning she would not eat or drink anything. We decided that this was serious so we found an animal clinic that could look at her right away. They ran tests and x-rays and it was decided that she had a blockage in her small intestine. After some serious discussion with the vet, we decided to have them operate on her. She was seriously dehydrated and they started her on an IV before surgery. Since they weren't going to operate until late afternoon, we left her in the care of the vet, who promised to call us when the surgery was over, and headed back to the conference.
Around 4:00 the vet called letting us know that the surgery was successful. Mollie had apparently swallowed some thread and a small stone. Some how it all got wound up together and caused her intestine to bunch up so nothing could pass through. If we had waited another day or so to go see the vet little Mollie would not have survived.
It's now Friday and we finished the LOW conference at noon. Mollie can't come home until tomorrow but they encouraged us to come to the clinic to visit her for a few minutes. It was so good to see her but she's still on IV fluids and pain meds so she was a bit "out of it".
This afternoon we moved the RV south to Amato, about 40 miles south of Tucson. If everything goes well we will drive the jeep to Tucson in the morning to pick Mollie up and bring her home.
We had a great time at the conference, but we are both beat and ready for a little less activity.
But we are thankful for a great ending to the week.
Sunday evening Mollie was being extra feisty and getting into things she wasn't supposed to. We had some leather gloves laying in a basket on the floor and she pulled one of them out and began to chew on it. When we noticed what she was doing we took the glove from her and realized the nylon care tag inside the glove was in shreds. Mollie seemed to have something caught in her mouth and John saw a string wrapped around her tooth. He started pulling and ended up with 3 foot long string that she had swallowed. We couldn't believe it! Little did we know that this was only the beginning.
Monday morning we left Silver City and drove southeast about 1 1/2 hours to Benson, Arizona.
And soon our week began to get interesting.
Monday evening Mollie came down with a severe case of diarrhea. John was up during the night either taking her out or cleaning up messes when she didn't make it outside in time. We figured she had gotten into something during one of our walks.
Tuesday we arrived at the Pima Community college in Tucson for our Life on Wheels conference. This is a series of seminars aimed towards people who either live full time in their motor home or are planning to. There were people there who were just learning and haven't yet purchased anything, people like us who go on extended trips, and people who live full time in either motor homes, 5th wheel trailers, or travel trailers. There were at least 50 of us dry camping in the parking lot and more who either stayed in local rv parks, or hotels.
Mollie continued to have intestinal problems and started vomiting as well. Tuesday night was a repeat of Monday night. Not much sleep. The seminars started Wednesday morning and we were attending classes all day. Wednesday night Mollie was no better, in fact she was worse. She was restless all night so we once again we didn't get much sleep.
By Thursday morning she would not eat or drink anything. We decided that this was serious so we found an animal clinic that could look at her right away. They ran tests and x-rays and it was decided that she had a blockage in her small intestine. After some serious discussion with the vet, we decided to have them operate on her. She was seriously dehydrated and they started her on an IV before surgery. Since they weren't going to operate until late afternoon, we left her in the care of the vet, who promised to call us when the surgery was over, and headed back to the conference.
Around 4:00 the vet called letting us know that the surgery was successful. Mollie had apparently swallowed some thread and a small stone. Some how it all got wound up together and caused her intestine to bunch up so nothing could pass through. If we had waited another day or so to go see the vet little Mollie would not have survived.
It's now Friday and we finished the LOW conference at noon. Mollie can't come home until tomorrow but they encouraged us to come to the clinic to visit her for a few minutes. It was so good to see her but she's still on IV fluids and pain meds so she was a bit "out of it".
This afternoon we moved the RV south to Amato, about 40 miles south of Tucson. If everything goes well we will drive the jeep to Tucson in the morning to pick Mollie up and bring her home.
We had a great time at the conference, but we are both beat and ready for a little less activity.
But we are thankful for a great ending to the week.
Mar 8, 2008
Tesuque and O'Keeffe
It was overcast and cold this morning but we wanted to go check out the Tesuque Pueblo flea market that we had heard about.
Eight miles north of Santa Fe, the flea market is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Spring through Fall. In fact it just opened for the season last weekend.
When we arrived about 10am we discovered very few vendors open for business and very few shoppers. We had read good things about the flea market where local painters, sculptors, and Native American jewelers, and clothing designers sell their wares. I guess the recent cold temps have resulted in a slow start to the season. We didn't stay very long, but long enough for me to buy a turqouise pendant from a very appreciative vendor. No photography is allowed on the premises, so no pictures.
Our next stop was the Georgia O'keeffe Museum . Georgia O'keeffe (1887-1986) is one of our favorite modern day painters and lived for many years in Northern New Mexico at her Ghost Ranch house and her house at Abiquiu. Many of her famous paintings were inspired by the beautiful landscapes and vistas in that area.
Also on display today was an exhibit by another New Mexico artist, Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). We learned he lived here in the early 20th century and stopped painting pictures of New Mexico five years before Georgia O'Keeffe began painting it.
This was our second visit to the museum and once again, we throughly enjoyed it. Again, no photographs allowed.
Now it was time for lunch. We went next door to the O'keeffe Cafe that features dishes from a European chef . We had "blunch" as they called it. We each had eggs benedict made with lump crab meat. The food and atmosphere were excellent.
After visiting a couple of photographic galleries we drove down Canyon Road, known for it's many artist galleries and historic adobe houses that line both sides of the street. We didn't stop and look around.
So much to see and do here in the Santa Fe area. We'll just have to come back.
Mar 7, 2008
It was shortly after 6:30 this morning that Mollie...
It was shortly after 6:30 this morning that Mollie began licking my hand. This is her way of letting us know she wants us awake and wants to go outside. Ignoring her doesn't do any good, we've tried. So, as hard as it was, we got up (ugh).
John took her outside for her morning ritual and I made coffee. We both sat at our computers with our coffee for about an hour before we had breakfast enjoying the bright sun streaming through our windows.
While John was working on photoshop, I worked on my knitting project with Mollie napping by my side. John has been brushing up on photoshop in preparation for his workshop that begins on Sunday. It was still very cold outside again this morning and neither one of us was anxious to spend much time out there until it warmed up.
After lunch, we took the jeep and headed for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which are about 15 miles to the northeast. We wanted to check out the campground at
Hyde Memorial State Park and also see the popular Ski Santa Fe ski area. Ski Santa Fe is high in the mountains. Some of the runs start at over 12 thousand feet. It's amazing that it only 30 minutes from downtown Santa Fe.
As the road twisted up the mountains we were treated to awesome views. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The higher we went the snowier and colder it became. About half way up is the State Park. Only one of the campground loops appeared to be open and it even had a few campers in it! What hardy souls they must be! This would be a beautiful place to camp in the summer.
As we made our way up the mountain the snow levels got even deeper. Some of the snow piles along the road were higher than our car and higher than the road signs.
When we reached the ski area we were over 10,300 ft in elevation and 25 degrees.. Judging by the number of cars in the parking lot the ski resort was doing a very good business today.
We enjoyed being up in the mountains and enjoyed the snow... maybe because we knew we would soon be out of it. :)
John took her outside for her morning ritual and I made coffee. We both sat at our computers with our coffee for about an hour before we had breakfast enjoying the bright sun streaming through our windows.
While John was working on photoshop, I worked on my knitting project with Mollie napping by my side. John has been brushing up on photoshop in preparation for his workshop that begins on Sunday. It was still very cold outside again this morning and neither one of us was anxious to spend much time out there until it warmed up.
After lunch, we took the jeep and headed for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which are about 15 miles to the northeast. We wanted to check out the campground at
Hyde Memorial State Park and also see the popular Ski Santa Fe ski area. Ski Santa Fe is high in the mountains. Some of the runs start at over 12 thousand feet. It's amazing that it only 30 minutes from downtown Santa Fe.
As the road twisted up the mountains we were treated to awesome views. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The higher we went the snowier and colder it became. About half way up is the State Park. Only one of the campground loops appeared to be open and it even had a few campers in it! What hardy souls they must be! This would be a beautiful place to camp in the summer.
As we made our way up the mountain the snow levels got even deeper. Some of the snow piles along the road were higher than our car and higher than the road signs.
When we reached the ski area we were over 10,300 ft in elevation and 25 degrees.. Judging by the number of cars in the parking lot the ski resort was doing a very good business today.
We enjoyed being up in the mountains and enjoyed the snow... maybe because we knew we would soon be out of it. :)
Mar 6, 2008
Snowy Santa Fe
The snow began falling around 7pm last night and this morning there was snow on the ground, and on the trees, and on the rv....a total of 6 inches! It was enough to cancel the Santa Fe schools for the day.
But by late morning the sun was shining and the snow was melting and most of it will likely be gone by tomorrow. One of the things we like about Santa Fe is the abundant sunshine. In fact, they average over 300 days of sunshine a year.
Just as most of the country, Santa Fe has had colder temps and more snow than usual this winter.
This week the overnight temps have been below freezing each night. Our winter coats have come out from storage (under the bed), and the bed now has the down blanket on top of the down comforter. Even Mollie wears her sweater day and night. We're trying to conserve our propane so we keep our thermostat set low and run our small space heater around the clock.
The rv park management has asked everyone here to disconnect their water hose after 7pm. This has been a bit of a hassle although we understand their concern. We don't want any problems either. This weekend the temps are supposed to be much warmer and near 60. That sounds very good!
Mar 1, 2008
One last hike and on to Santa Fe
Yesterday morning the 3 of us went on one last hike before leaving Mesa. I think we wore Mollie out.
We had a safe and uneventful drive up from Mesa, stopped for the night 50 miles west of Albuquerque and arrived in Santa Fe this afternoon. We went from desert saguaro, through snowy mountains,
back to desert, and now here in Santa Fe we're up at 7,000 feet in elevation. Snow is in the forecast!
We'll be staying at the Trailer Ranch RV Park for the next 2 weeks. It's small and clean and is close to the location where John will be attending the Santa Fe Photo workshop next week. It's also close to downtown. The city bus stops in front of the RV park so we don't have to drive to the downtown plaza unless we want to.
We had a safe and uneventful drive up from Mesa, stopped for the night 50 miles west of Albuquerque and arrived in Santa Fe this afternoon. We went from desert saguaro, through snowy mountains,
back to desert, and now here in Santa Fe we're up at 7,000 feet in elevation. Snow is in the forecast!
We'll be staying at the Trailer Ranch RV Park for the next 2 weeks. It's small and clean and is close to the location where John will be attending the Santa Fe Photo workshop next week. It's also close to downtown. The city bus stops in front of the RV park so we don't have to drive to the downtown plaza unless we want to.
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