They killed Indians and we broke the bed

April 29, 2018

All of our traveling through Florida, Texas, and New Mexico has reminded us of the horrible way the white settlers in the 1800’s treated the native Indians. Fort Stanton in New Mexico is a place that was established especially for helping the local  white settlers protect themselves as they took over lands that the Mescalero Apaches had lived in for thousands of years.

Officer's barracks

Sunday afternoon we visited Fort Stanton and found its history fascinating. First it was a military post (Kit Carson, Black Jack Pershing, Billy the Kid) -to kill the local Indians who were threatening the white settlers - and then it was a TB hospital for Maritime Marines - when the only treatment we had for TB was fresh air. Then it became a mental health facility, then a low security correctional facility for women, and finally it became a State Monument.

I tried to imagine being a nurse there for TB patients. I loved seeing the nurses quarters. Aside from the fact that it is an isolated place in New Mexico, there were so many staff- doctors, nurses, cooks, patients, that I do not think they got lonely.

Hospital then Mental health then correctional facility

Nurses' station

More nurses' stations

Monday we went to a museum of Western History and mainly learned about the history of gun manufacturing in this country and some about the use of horses and different types of wagons used to settle the west.

We had picked a trail to hike above Ruidoso but a woman coming off the trail with 3 dogs said she was pretty sure there was a momma bear with cubs  up there. Steve was not in the bear-meeting mood so we hiked the 6.3 miles around Grindstone Lake that we had not taken the time to do before. Steve thought we would be better off turning around at 2.5 miles but I said, “What fun is that- seeing the same things we just saw? I feel fine, let’s go the whole way around the trail!”

I do not regret it but it was an effort to not complain and whine about how tired I was the last mile.

Sometime during Sunday night I found myself laying on a board. The air chamber (Sleep Number bed) on my side had collapsed. After trying a variety of things to make certain it was not tubing or the pump, we decided it was the balloon part that was busted. So the rest of the week we have slept out on the queen sofa bed. Still waiting on the new part which should arrive today.

One of our memories of this week will be that we binged on “Call the Midwife” episodes we had missed. Steve downloaded the whole 7^th season and we watched 2 episodes the first night from our sofa bed. After the first episode we were both crying. I was remembering my dad saying goodbye to my mom right before she died. We both were remembering how fulfilling birth work is and how rewarding it was to make pregnancy and birth better for women.

So we talked awhile about what we will do when we finish roaming in our RV. We know we still have a lot to offer and the world needs our skills. But how to find jobs that allow time for grandkids, time to go to Haiti for several weeks at a time, time to do the hobbies we want to pursue? And then there is sleeping in as late as we want—a perk of retirement that we love.

We will find it…. We just know we do not want to sit on our butts the rest of our lives.

After watching episode 3 Steve cried even harder and longer. His mother died of Huntington’s Chorea and he was remembering what his father went through the years before she died. He also was remembering getting tested for the gene in his 40’s, and waiting on the results, and wondering if he had it and had passed it to his children. Getting a negative result was such a relief. After that episode we decided we have to space the episodes out a bit as we are wrung out emotionally after each one—but we love that show!!!

The RV park in Ruidoso- (Eagle Creek)

Elk and deer were seen right next to the RV park

The RV and car got much needed baths at Ruidoso

We left Ruidoso Thursday to come to Albuquerque. The only deadline we have had is that I needed to be at the airport Friday morning in Albuquerque to fly to Raleigh-Durham, NC so I could watch my daughter graduate from UNC with her MBA. I enjoyed being with her and her husband, children, and other family to celebrate her accomplishment. It was a difficult 2 years for her but she made some really great friends—and lost one of her best friends to a massive stroke on a class assignment in South Africa.  That was a terrible loss for her.

North Carolina was so green and beautiful and the azaleas are blooming in Richmond. We miss that color. We could not live here-- where the dust and wind are constant, rain is scarce and everything is some shade of brown- with occasional color to the mountains and occasional flowers on the cacti. Natives tell us when it rains it gets prettier- this is just a really dry year. There are signs everywhere:

 NO smoking outdoors, NO wood fires outside of fire pits, etc.

So the blog is a day late. I am looking out the window at more desert and rows of RV’s parked at the Route 66 RV park which is right next to the Route 66 Casino. Casinos do not tempt us at all. In fact I think they are very sad places. We walked in the other night to eat at Johnny Rockets and seeing all those people putting money in machines is very weird and sad. In most cases it is not something they do with friends. Just individuals trying to entertain themselves in isolation and losing money in the process. Steve said I should think about it like video games. That is also a way people entertain themselves- mostly in isolation from others. That helps me a bit- because there are things I do- like Sudoko and Jigidi puzzles- to entertain myself alone—but at least I am not spending money in the process.

 

Rt 66 RV park- there's a mesa in the distance. 

Albuquerque this week and Santa Fe next week!