Hillery Occasionally

I find myself on the Acela Express to Boston, with The Man, en route to his opening there, which I feel certain will be a lot of fun and a great success. However, dear reader, the last time we revisited my goings-on was months ago. Let us mind the gap. As I remember it, I was just settling into The No Place as it became time to leave.

I managed to get my seedlings into the planters The Man had made me just in time.
However, winter in the middle of nowhere does drag on and on. This is probably why The Man had planned for us to return to New York for a real spring. It did pose a problem for my gardening ambitions though. We were unable to put the planters outdoors and were thus forced to rely upon the sun coming through the windows in my writing room to sustain my babies until the freezing nights passed. This was worrisome and I had to face the fact that whatever progress they might make would be unchartable—I would have to wait until we got home to observe what fate had in store.

But we were off in the general direction of civilization, and wasn’t that something! Instead of heading directly back to New York, we took three flights to get to Albuquerque, New Mexico! Nothing doing there, actually. But it’s where you can fly commercially that’s close to Taos and that’s where my childhood friend Christina was getting married. We like little adventures, so we rented a car for the week and booked a direct flight back to JFK from Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome to our fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Southwest road trip!

First we took a gorgeous drive up into the mountains along the Rio Grande to Taos.
Arriving at the Casa Benavides bed and breakfast, we were presented with a room that could easily be rented as a spacious studio apartment in Manhattan (complete with a kitchen and fireplace) for well over two thousand dollars a month.
We had dinner with some of Christina’s friends from college, including my old friend Doug from high school (who I haven’t seen in fifteen years). The warmth at the table was deep and genuine, such lovely people and all of us so excited for the bride and groom.

The nights are cool at this elevation and I made full use of the fireplace as soon as we got back to our room. The firewood was all from sagebrush and juniper trees, so the room was toasty warm and aromatic.  The Man had on the television, a John Wayne western—The Searchers I think, but I’m not sure. I remember tuning in just as the Duke held the girl in his arms and said, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, angel.” And I could relate.

Days before we left (before the suitcases had even been taken down to be packed) Rodney, one of The Man’s two cats—the one I love, was on to us.  He moped, he marked our property, and finally he got game. Thirty minutes prior to our departure he appeared at the French doors opening into my writing room upstairs with a still live robin in his mouth. He was bringing his bounty to me and I was so proud that finally I could call myself his mistress. Looking through the glass, knowing that I could not let him in, I wished I knew cat for, “it’s not you, it’s me.” Or at least, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, angel.”

The day of the wedding we got up early-ish to go horseback riding to an old miner’s cabin. The Man has not been on a horse for approximately thirty years, but this was his pick out of the brochures I collected at dinner.
The terrain was gorgeous and we had a so much fun, returning just in time for a nap before the ceremony. Unfortunately, somewhere between the overly chlorinated pool at the hotel in Albuquerque and the sun all morning on horseback, my constitution went kaput. I became quite ill at the reception. No dancing for me and no pictures for you!

After a stop at the Taos hospital, we met up with Harlan, an old friend of The Man’s and longtime denizen of Taos, who took us to the Rio Grande Gorge.
The view was absolutely mesmerizing, but as we approached the center I could feel the bridge sway with each gust of wind and I ran back to the car like a little coward. I know it’s designed to give a little, but physics is not something I completely understand…and you just never know where that line is, between a little and a lot.

Harlan then suggested we head toward Truth or Consequences to take advantage of their natural hot springs.  In fact, before the town changed its name to that of the game show, it was called Hot Springs. We hit the road again and saw a good deal of dessert before we made it to the Fire Water Lodge. T or C is an odd little town and our hotel room felt just as strange, but the courtyard held a gorgeous collection of dessert blooms that were obviously laboriously cultivated.

 

We decided to seek out slightly more luxurious lodgings before heading to Phoenix to catch our flight to New York and ended up at the Los Abrigados Resort & Spa in Sedona. I hadn’t been to Sedona in ten years or so and while the outlying area is far more commercial now, the town itself is every bit as gorgeous as I remember it. We got a great deal at the resort as they are mainly a time-share operation and they rent out the unoccupied condos at a very reasonable rate. It’s located right in town on a picturesque lot amidst all the unusual rock formations. We finally got to relax, with no immediate responsibilities except getting to Phoenix on time for our flight. As much as I loved seeing old friends and touring the natural landscape,
just hanging out with The Man was my favorite part of the trip.

As I wrap up this little tale of our excursion I am back home from Boston, getting us ready to head to The No Place again. Our house sitter says my tomato plants are already a foot high and they’ve finally been able to move the planters outdoors, but just recently. I do have a few more turns in the road for you though. I’ll be back as soon as I can…