Weekend gettaway.

Andrea and I decided it was time to get away for the weekend. Well, it was more Andrea than me, but I agreed. We went to Alto NM. We have a friend, Fawn, who owns a house there and she lets us stay there when we have a situation such as this.

It's nestled in a cluster of tall pines in the lower mountains. Fawn has named it "Casa Relaxio"

There is some spectacular scenery there. This mountain range is just down the road from her house.


I look forward to seeing these every time we go up there.

While we were there I was doing some yard chores for her when I came across this interesting little item.

I thought of you nikv.
Lichens on a dead stick is nothing new to me. It's the needle like growths that caught my attention.

The little pads look like paws to me.

Of course, as with all trips we do lately, we had to make it a business trip. So we bought some crystals and a fossil ammonite for the store.

It was very cold up there so we didn't do very much outdoor activities. We enjoyed the peace and relaxation. We did take a ride to Alamogordo NM, to check out a rock shop we heard about there. A complete waste of time.

Before we knew it, the weekend was over and we headed home. That trip was not with out pleasant surprises.
About five minutes into our trip back, we had a coyote run out in front of us. We didn't hit it, but it was exciting to watch as it wandered into the woods. It didn't stay still long enough to get a picture, so we proceeded on our way. We were still talking about the coyote when we notice two horses drinking water from a puddle in a driveway. Andrea loves horses, so we stopped to get a couple pics.

After a few moments they noticed us.

I was thinking it was pretty odd that these two horses would be roaming around free. Perhaps they got out of a coral somewhere. We briefly discussed letting someone know along the way. I started on our way, but had to stop abruptly as more horses walked in front of us.

This time it was a whole herd.

They were all looking to get a drink.

The rest of the trip home was fairly uneventful, but we talked about the horses all the way.
When we got home we told Fawn about them and she informed us that they are wild horses that are allowed to roam around the community there. I had heard about wild horses roaming the plains of the southwest, but never imagined we would encounter a herd; especially there. Amazing!