Joe & Amanda move to Missouri

 I don't know if you can see the mountains.  I think they're the San Juan's down by Alamosa.  Anyway, it was REALLY blowing and that is a dust storm obscuring an entire mountain range southeast of the highway going to New Mexico.  It was really blowing. 

Loading up for the move to Missouri from Albuquerque, 1200 miles plus away.  My poor car is really sitting low.  Joe loaded everything in the trailer and was soooo hot and sweating.

This isn't a very clear picture.  Joe is sitting in the car port/porch on his computer and listening to Stephanie Miller.  Amanda's family is very nice.  Her Aunt Jill came over last night and I have to say that I identified particularly with her.  We had a very nice discussion about books... almost all night.  One of my favorite things.  OK.  Amanda's sister just got here so I have to do more later.

Blue doors and rainy mountains

 An artist we talked to in the gallery next to World Cup was interested in all the blue painted gates, doorways, windows, etc. and I thought it made for interesting pictures too, so I took this one of the stairs across from the outdoor table we were sitting at in the Cafe Tazza patio.

 Here's R.C. Gorman's Gallery.  We went in there yesterday.  A lot of pictures of Indian women wrapped up almost to their eyeballs in colorful blankets... and not much else in the picture... just women sitting around in blankets.  A few with minimalist hills behind them.  I didn't count the pictures in there but it was obvious that he certainly could shell them out.

Here's a storm blowing in over Taos Mountain.  It rained a couple of days here.  It wasn't all that noticeable though because it must be really dry since there wasn't any standing water in the morning after an all night rain.  This evening we're driving over to Albuquerque to see Joe.  We're leaving late because Jojo is taking a driving test with our car at 3:45 PM.  He's using our car because it's automatic and he's still nervous with his mom's manual transmission.  We have to come back tomorrow because Jojo is going to prom with his girl friend, Sam, who is graduating.  Visiting Taos, I have to say, isn't the same without Joe here.  The boys are fun and we love seeing and hanging out with them... but Joe is ENTERTAINING!  You're entertaining Joe!!!!

Sunday Sol is fifteen

 First thing this, Sunday May 6, morning, Jay and I got Sol up and headed down to the Plaza for some World Cup coffee.  Here we're sitting in the gazebo in the plaza drinking coffee and reading.  Jay got the Sunday New York Times at the Taos Inn where Joe and I sometimes go to have nachos and to "See and be Seen" in their outdoor seating on Paseo Pueblo del Norte.  Joe's term, not mine.  Though, it did seem very apt.  And I like it, so I always use it.

 From the plaza we proceeded on down Kit Carson Road a couple blocks to our old and favorite hangout, Cafe Tazza.  Apparently, Joe was in town by this time but we didn't know it... because Joe doesn't have a cell phone!   He says we had arranged to meet downtown at some certain place, which he didn't say what that was.   This was during an early morning phone call (before I was awake) Joe made to me saying he was leaving Albuquerque and where should we meet.  I still don't know where that was, but the poor guy was wandering all around town to all the places I like to go, looking for us. 

 Our second visit to Cafe Tazza, this time sitting outside because Joe got here and has Max... who can't go inside... for multiple reasons that I won't mention here.  So this is a picture of the three Joes.  We celebrated Sol's fifteenth birthday this afternoon with an ice cream cake that Janelle and Bea made.  Right now Joe and Jay are at Brodsky's Book Store and Sol and I are going to Wal mart to spend his gift card.

 Here is Jay stealing a sip of my Americano at The Conch House where we had breakfast in Key Largo Saturday morning.  This is where Rhonwyn and Steve always breakfast when they go down there.  The coffee was OK but not great.  Jay had macadamia nut pancakes and thought they were really good.  We spent the night in Homestead at an Econolodge motel.  then came on down to Key Largo where Jay fished in the gulf AND in the Atlantic.  The highway is so narrow going south  from Key Largo that Jay said he could have fished both at the same time, the gulf on the forward cast and the Atlantic on the back cast.  He probably would have hooked someone in a car going by though so it's good that he didn't try.

 We stopped again at the Wide World of Sports just so we could look at Hemingway's boat, The Pilar.  Here Jay's sitting in the EXACT SAME SEAT that Hemingway sat in to catch some of those big fish he's always posing in pictures with.  Hemingway didn't actually own this boat, he just fished in it and liked it so well that he had one built just like it.  On  our way back to Miami from Key Largo we took a side highway, Card Sound Road, so we could eat lunch at Alabama Jack's.  They have really good Conch fritters and Conch Chowder there and there's a deck built right over a canal shadowed on the other side by densely growing Mangroves.  So we had lunch  and sat there throwing crumbs over the railing to the needle fish and some other kinds too.  We also lucked out and saw a manatee swimming by.  I said it was the size of a man but Jay thought it was bigger.

 Today, we met Bryan and Karen for brunch in South Beach.  We were going to go to a Starbucks by the ocean for our after brunch coffee but it started pouring down rain so we went back to The Lincoln Road Mall, which is what they are standing on above, and sat in a Starbucks there.  Karen is on the left above and that's Rhonwyn with the Madeline hat on.Karen is Rhonwyn & Steve's sort-of adoptive daughter.

I'm getting worse at this instead of better

Here's another blog that I can't even download pictures to without some other weird thing going on so you're just going to have to put up with these things I guess.  Though I don't suppose I have to let you know it's been posted.

Well, I didn't mean THAT!  Sorry Jay!

More video

Here's another try at publishing a video.  Can you hear Jay happily whistling there somewhere nearby?  Anyway, it's another couple of alligators.  Hope you can see it.  It's shorter than the last one I tried to get on here.

Everglade Nat'l Park

I am trying to put a video on here as an experiment.  I have trouble with this so I hope it comes out OK. (Alright.  I put it on again so I hope you can see it now.)  This was a place we stopped at in the Everglades National Park on our way down to Flamingo, Florida.  There were so many alligators there that we stopped looking at them unless there were a lot.  I don't know how many were here but there had to be over twenty.  We didn't know why the vultures were hanging around them.  They kept fighting with each other .  Once again, the alligators didn't do anything besides just lay there.  We drove down from Miami about 70 miles to here and are staying in Homestead for the night.  In the morning we will head on down the Keys to Key Largo  where Jay will fish in the gulf and I will visit Lori, Eric and Ben.