A day off... Really.

We actually took a real day off yesterday. No working on the house or the Excel. We didn't even talk about anything we needed or wanted to do.

Instead, we took a very long ride. Since we've never visited the Kiowa National Grasslands and we wanted to see something new, that's where we went. I envisioned something like vast vistas of tall grass swaying in the wind, untouched, as it must have been when bison freely roamed the west.

Right. Not even close. The mostly abandoned town of Mills is in the center of the western unit and seemed to be a good place to start. In Mills, we turned west on a dirt road leading further into the grasslands expecting at any minute to be overwhelmed by the grandeur of it all. Didn't happen. First of all, it's all fenced off and there's no access. Second, the reason it's all fenced off is to pen the cattle grazing on the land. They have eaten all the grass. The tallest blade of grass I saw wouldn't shade an ant! We were disappointed.

One aspect of exploring I've come to expect is that no matter how dull the trip, something interesting and memorable will always come along. On this trip it was the strangest critter sighting we've seen in a long time. After visiting Mills Canyon and the Canadian river, we headed north with the intent of turning west into the mountains. A few miles north of Mills, while still in the grasslands, I spotted something at the base of a power pole along the side of the road. As we got closer my first thought was that some strange individual had put a wood carving of a bear trying to climb the pole. I asked Liz, while pointing to it, "Is that a bear?" At about the same time, the bear heard us and took off running.

It was a small bear. About 2-3 feet tall while standing on it's hind legs. So I assume it was also a very young bear. We didn't see a mama bear around which also was strange. I swear, there wasn't a tree or bush over 6" tall within 10 miles of that spot. We have no idea how it came to be there or what will happen to it. Just a strange and interesting sighting.

We finished the day by driving south from Angel Fire along NM 434. A beautiful drive.

Today, it's back to work. I have to finish securing all the loose stuff in the Excel. Tomorrow we hook up and test how well it's going to travel as well as get the rig weighed. The county landfill will weigh us for free. Ain't that special? I'm a little worried we're overweight (the trailer, not us, smarty). If so, we'll have to jettison some stuff, of course. Liz threatened to jettison me first, but she's just kidding.

I think.