Horseback riding opportunities have been sparse of late, so when my friend Stephanie invited me to come riding with her on her farm in Beaver County (about an hour north of me—when I don’t get lost), I jumped at the chance. The second the heat wave broke and the monsoons stopped, we made a date. Tuesday, I printed out directions, punched the address into my GPS, and headed out. Beaver County , Pennsylvania is beautiful. Lots of woods and big hills. Rugged and rustic.  I used to have family up there. My parents used to take me to visit when I was a kid. Some areas are vaguely familiar. Others, not so much. Yes, I got lost. Thankfully, my new GPS doesn’t growl, “Recalculating!” every time I make a wrong turn. I would have heard it a LOT. I finally arrived, only about 15 minutes later than planned. Stephanie brought Jonas, who was to be my mount, in from the field. He’s a big (BIG!) flea-bitten rose gray off-the-track Thoroughbred who’s been trained for dress...

One afternoon, very early in our trip out west, I received a text from my friend Sara, who was checking on Skye and Kensi back at home. Just receiving a text from her sent me into a panic. The opening lines of it did little to calm my nerves. I don’t know if you can receive texts or if they cost extra, but I figured it was the fastest and easiest way to reach you… Oh, my God. The kitties are fine… Phew! But what do I do about the woodpecker??? To which I texted back, “WHAT WOODPECKER?” I was picturing Woody loose in my house with the cats trashing the place trying to catch the laughing little fool. http://youtu.be/5Xan2dkMouM Sara assured me the woodpecker was on the OUTSIDE of the house, so I didn’t think much more about it. We’ve had them drum on our log house before from time to time. I put the whole woodpecker issue out of my mind. Until the morning after we returned home. Then I took a stroll around the house…and nearly fainted. We’ve b...

Sunday, June 16, 2013 My soul may have completely fused with the southwest, but my body—especially my sleep habits—never really made the switch from Eastern Time. I awoke at 3 AM and stayed that way. I dragged myself out of bed at 5 AM. The atmosphere at Leta’s house was subdued with both of us battling tears. And failing miserably. Hubby and I loaded up the Edge and said our sorrowful farewells. We were on the road by 7 AM. I think I wept most of the three hour drive to El Paso . I finally came to grips only to burst into tears again when I spotted the “Leaving New Mexico” sign. And again when I turned over the keys to the Edge in the airport lot. We were early and easily reached our gate well ahead of our 1:00 flight, in spite of being pulled aside during the security check for a brief inspection of my carryon bag. The mount for my GPS apparently triggered questions. But once they determined what the weird-looking item was, they waved us on with a smile. Hubby and I ...

Saturday, June 15, 2013 My biggest challenge was trying not to think about this being our last full day of our trip to the west. This wasn’t easy since we had to box up all our dirty clothes and Hubby’s fishing gear to take to the UPS store to be shipped home. A brilliant idea, by the way. No checked luggage to be lost. Or transferred if flights got mixed up, delayed, or diverted. It also meant I wouldn’t have to wash those dirty clothes until the UPS man delivered them back to my house. But I digress. Silver City is an old mining (silver, of course) town and boasts being the home of Billy the Kid. The cabin where he grew up had been razed, but a reproduction cabin, which had been used in filming the Tommy Lee Jones movie The Missing , stood in the spot. Next we toured the Silver City Museum , which had a really nice gift shop. Hubby bought me a pair of turquoise earrings that matched my necklace. Happy belated anniversary! After lunch at a Mexican rest...

Friday, June 14, 2013 It never fails that when I have a long drive the next day, I don’t sleep well. Having a critter in our motel room didn’t help. It sounded as though a mouse had gotten into our trash. But Hubby climbed out of bed several times, turned on all the lights, and searched for the source of the rustling to no avail. A mouse, I could live with. But the thought struck me that it could be a snake. So much for sleeping. When dawn finally graced the skylights in our room, I spotted the culprit. MOTHRA. The darned thing was the size of a hummingbird! At least it wasn’t a snake. We gathered our gear, leaving Mothra behind, and checked out. The gal at the front desk turned out to be a mystery lover, and I just happened to have a spare copy of Fish Tales with me, so I personalized it to her and made a new fan. Pleased that we were actually ahead of schedule, we headed out to our vehicles only to discover that someone (not me!) had locked their keys in their truck. I w...

Thursday, June 13, 2013 I dropped Hubby off at his new favorite fishing hole at the crack of dawn. Over the last couple of years, Leta and I had formed a habit of having coffee together each morning, and this was no different. Except that we were in the same room instead of at our computers two time zones apart. At 9:00 AM, I picked up Hubby so he could spend the day with us. The three of us set off to town. Our first stop: the Aztec Ruins , a 900 year old Pueblo Great House. This is Leta and me at the ruins. We wandered through the remains of what was 400 rooms. The Great Kiva, a reproduction of the original, which had been destroyed when the inhabitants moved on. Next, we hit the road north, back to Colorado , to explore the town of Durango . We had lunch at the historic Strater Hotel 's dining room loaded with Old West atmosphere and a ghost or two. I had a stuffed Poblano pepper that was to die for. Leta raved over the Green ...