Wednesday, August 13, 2008

New Mexico... the good, the bad and the flooded!

Our trip to New Mexico was an interesting one. I reconnected with old friends from my childhood, I spent time with my family, I took my children to do silly things, I became a victim of a natural disaster and I took loads of photos! I took loads photos of pretty things, photos of goofy things and photos of scary things So I would say all in all, it was a memorable trip for sure! Here are some of the highlights:

Friends...
I was finally able to meet up with my good friend Cat. I have been trying to see her for over a year, but it has never worked out until this trip. It was so strange, finally meeting face to face, looking into her eyes and being zapped back to a time long gone, yet not feeling the need to stay there. It looked like the Cat from years ago, yet it wasn't the Cat I remembered. It was a Cat, 20 years later, with tattoos, piercings, teenage kids, a new marriage and baby, and an awesome outlook on life. It was refreshing! I felt an immediate connection and love and I hope we are able to continue with this newly discovered friendship. I also had the opportunity to see Amie and Christal, both of whom are friends from the high school years. As always, it was great to see them! They are both so diligent and so dedicated to their families and careers, they inspire me! It is SOOO amazing to have such a wonderful network of women in my life!

Flood...
I was to spend a wonderful weekend at our cabin in Ruidoso with my mother and my kiddos, then, after my Mom left, my Mom-in-law was to arrive and the kids and I would spend a few days with her. It was a perfect plan! The kids would get to spend quality, relaxing, stress-free time with both of the grandmothers, I would get to visit and get some help with the kids all at the same time, AND we'd get to have fun at one of our favorite places! The cabin is ALWAYS wonderful. Little did we know that Hurricane Dolly had other plans for that part of the world, dum, dum, DUM! Late Sat. night and early Sun. morning (July 26 and 27) the remnants of Hurricane Dolly dropped close to 9 inches of rain on the Sacramento Mountains and surrounding areas. This in turn caused serious flooding of the Rio Ruidoso which runs through the canyon where our cabin is located. Property was damaged, bridges were demolished and one young man lost his life. It was a sobering situation. We were trapped in the canyon with no way to get a car out or even walk out. I heard that there was an old logging trail somewhere on the mountain behind us, but I wasn't terribly motivated to leave my family and set out looking for this logging trail that may or may not have existed. Luckily, my Mom and I had gone grocery shopping on Saturday and had a decent amount of food in the cabin. Not alot, we only shopped to get us through the weekend, but with rationing, I could have made it last about 5 days if needed. Our biggest problem was diapers! I knew I was fairly low on diapers, but thought I had more than I did. We didn't buy any and ended up REALLY regretting it! I will never leave home without at least 60 diapers!

Once the water receded some, they were able to set up a makeshift "bridge" out of an extension ladder and they evacuated people with medical needs and small children that needed immediate assistance. They began transporting meals and water to the rest of us. The communication from village officials was pathetic and all information was based on someone talking to someone who spoke with this person who spoke with one of the firefighters and so on. But at least we weren't starving, we had the Piggle running around commando to save diapers and we had water. Well, that lasted until late Sunday night. The running water to the cabin was completely gone by Monday morning. We did have sense enough to fill every stock pot and cooler in the house. We were having to boil the tap water as it had been contaminated. I refused to fill the tubs though as I can't have full tubs and a 2 year-old in the house who LOVES to play in the water! I was handling the situation pretty well until the water stopped, then I got worried. I heard they were planning to put in a temporary foot bridge to allow folks the ability to hike into town on foot for supplies, or have relatives deliver supplies that they could carry over the foot bridge. I was putting plans into effect to hike the kids out of the canyon and have hubby's folks come and get them and take them back to Clovis while my Mom and I waited for them to build the bridge for the cars. There was much talk about scissor-bridges from the nearby air force base, but as luck would have it, the bridges, along with all of our National Guard were over in Iraq!

Monday afternoon, the governor of New Mexico did a fly-over and lo and behold, shit started to happen. Luckily for me, I had hiked down to the bridge to pick people's brains for info and look for water and diapers when the firefighters (who were so diligent and dedicated to helping us) called us together to give us pertinent info. The engineers that they brought in said that with enough rubble and debris they would be able to fill the ravine that once was a bridge, pack it down with LOADS of dirt and hopefully make it strong enough to allow the close to 300 people stuck in the canyon to drive out. You didn't have to tell me twice! I ran up the hill, ran into the house and starting slinging shit into suitcases and loading the car. Once finished, we loaded the kids, locked up the cabin and drove down the hill toward the bridge. I assumed my place as car #57 in a line of over 70 cars! We waited in that line for over 2 hours while they completed the makeshift bridge and FINALLY at almost 10pm, I drove over that bridge and then all the adrenaline that had kept me going and kept me focused left and I cried like an idiot and struggled to drive that winding road to Roswell. But the kids and I made it, stopped at a nasty Motel 6 and crashed hard. We got up the next morning and called my Grandmother who was gracious enough to take us out for breakfast where the kids and I all proceeded to stuff our faces like there was no tomorrow!

Fun...
Although we definitely did NOT have the vacation we planned with the flood and all, I did my best to make it a fun time for the kids. The Piggle did get to enjoy her first pony ride in Ruidoso before the storm hit. I was so mad that I had forgotten my camera, but I figured what the hell, I'd take them back the next day with the camera. The flood ruined that plan! But even amidst all of the chaos, we had a fun time hanging out on the deck of the cabin, feeding peanuts to the blue jays and chipmunks, watching the hummingbirds, cardinals, juncos and chickadees, and the Monkey Man and Mom both got to see a bear! I haven't seen a damn bear in 2 years, grrrr! We did art work on the deck, made coffee filter butterflies and watched movies. So although Mama and Grammy were stressed a bit, the kids were no worse for the wear! Once we made it back to Clovis, we stayed a few more days to visit with the folks and to let me decompress a bit before driving all the way back to Texas. I took the kids to the puny Clovis zoo a couple of times, we had playdates with friends, we went to the local ponds to feed the ducks and there was lots of fun to be had in Nana's backyard! Nana's backyard is beautiful, grassy, and full of turtles! Lots of fun for kids! So all in all, a successful trip, or as the Piggle would say, "An aventure!" I'll just hope my next trip to NM will be a little LESS of an adventure!

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