Melvin, Lady DaGa and Daisy

It was time to visit my friends, Alexandra Stevens and her son, Gary Walden in Santa Fe. Alexandra owns and operates an art gallery and has a giant furry dog named Melvin;  Gary owns and operates an RV (bigger than mine), and has a small black pocket pet named Lady DaGa.

Daisy was enchanted....

and occasionally in awe.

Lady DaGa was eager to show off her extensive wardrobe...

and she even seemed to enjoy 'dress up' time.

Daisy wasn't interested.

But play time was great fun.

Clovis, New Mexico

I have a rule while traveling, not to drive more than 3 hours per day.  On this day my rule brought me to Clovis, New Mexico.  Needing a map of New Mexico and an idea of what might be interesting to see in Clovis I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and discovered, tucked away in the basement of their building, this interesting museum... 

I was in a time warp--back to 1957!

This museum is located in the original Norman and Vi Petty recording Studio.

Only a female my age would snap back in memory to bobby sox, poodle skirts,  and lacquer hairspray; or for a male, duck tails, tight jeans with turned up cuffs and cigarette packs rolled up in a t-shirt sleeve.  Good grief!  That was 60 years ago!

The Norman Petty Trio came along later in the fifties.  "Mood Indigo was a good-sized hit for the group and was followed up by "On the Alamo".  The success of the trio allowed Norman to build a recording studio in his hometown of Clovis, New Mexico where Buddy Holly became one of the most important figures in the history of rock music.

The juke box was playing the entire time I was there.  I wanted to dance but I was the only one in the museum.  If some poor tourist had wandered in I would have accosted him with a challenge to 'bop'.

In 1955 Norman Petty opened a recording studio in his hometown of Clovis.  A risky venture at the time, the Petty Studio went on to produce some of the greatest rock and roll of the late fifties.

Petty's earliest recordings included early Roy Orbison, Charlie Phillips (Sugartime), Buddy Knox (Party Doll), Buddy Holly and the Crickets (That'll be the Day, Peggy Sue, Fade Away, It's so Easy, Heartbeat), plus many more.

The Studio had a unique feel and sound.  Petty used state of the art recording equipment and technology.  The recordings were rockabilly in flavor but had a cleaner and more polished feel than sessions cut at other studios.  

After Holly's tragic death in 1959, Petty shuttered the original studio.

The Altec Control Board is the original board from the Norman Petty Studios used on the Buddy Holly hit song, "That'll be the Day", recorded in 1957.   

February 3, 1959, the day the music died.

I spent the night in a small RV park then took off very early the next morning for Santa Fe.  As I left the town I saw a sign directing to the 'dig' where the first Clovis Spear Point had been found in 1929.  (Clovis Spear points date to the early Paleoindian period roughly 13,000 years ago) 

I did not have time to explore but now I want to go back.  Who knew the tiny town of Clovis would be so interesting?

Louisiana and farewell to Ft Worth

I have now searched through 1/2 of the 35,000 photos and these are the only ones I have found of the several hundred that are missing.  

While in Louisiana I saw my Lambert cousin, Jo Beverly; second cousin, Kim; friend, Brenda; Maxwell cousins, Elizabeth (Tinker) and Patsy; Aunt Doris; cousin, Jamie and wife, Linda; a bunch of Linda's family; 

...and finally, Uncle Merrill and cousin, Denise.

Denise with husband, Dwight. 

  I am just sick about losing so many of the photos.  They are my record of family and friends and places I've been and it hurts not to have them here. To me, the importance of the photos is significant.  In the years I've been traveling, I have lost so many friends (Warren, Hal, David, Harve and Gretchen)  brother-in-law, Don; aunts (Pauline, Lucille) and uncle (Joe).  

Even on this trip Jo Beverly, Kim, Brenda and I were on the way to spend a day with another Lambert cousin, Dot, when we received word that Dot had suffered a stroke that morning. She was gone by that evening.  She and Jo Beverly had been friends as children--some 75 years ago and had not seen each other in years.  So sad.

Being on the road, living in an RV, traveling to visit relatives and 

friends, has given me the opportunity to reconnect.  When I started this Odyssey I was determined to find them all--some I had not seen in years, some I had lost touch with, and some I barely knew existed.  Now they are a part of my life and have made this adventure so special.

And speaking of 'Special', while visiting Aunt Louise, she received an invitation to attend a luncheon in her hometown of Sulphur Springs.  The occasion was to honor past residents who were over 90  years of age.  Since Aunt Louise will be 97 in October, we weren't going to miss it.

We packed a bag with her favorite slippers, hopped in her car and drove three hours to spend the night at a Hampton Inn.

 There were a surprising number of nonagenarians from Sulphur Springs.  

Aunt Louise's cousins, Grace and Glenda, came for the grand affair.

While we were gone, Daisy spent a night in the Doggie Hotel at PetSmart.  I think she had a good time because she was totally exhausted when I picked her up.

It was finally time to say farewell to Aunt Louise, Suzanne and little Erin.   

The storms kept rolling in so I changed my plans a bit and decided to head straight toward New Mexico.  The hail was becoming a constant worry and I have had enough of 'tornedo warnings'.

Woe is me....

It has been two months in Ft Worth--with a two week sprint through Louisiana in the middle--filled with rain, threats of tornadoes, wind, leaks, broken bits and pieces--including my beloved camera--and lots of humid heat.  An expensive all-day trip to Camping World fixed the leaks;  Ace hardware fixed some broken bits but the pieces are still giving me headaches; and the weather is getting hotter.

I tend toward frustration when inanimate objects refuse to operate in their instruction-booklet-promised manner.  After downloading weeks worth of photos from my new camera into the computer the photos all disappeared! Every last one!  There are presently 35,000 photos stashed away in my computer library and I know those new ones have hidden away somewhere in the lot but, try as hard as I might, I can not find them! In addition, everything I have been able to search out looks fuzzy.  I have tried over and over to adjust the camera settings, only to make things worse.

Suzanne, my friend and Aunt Louise's caregiver, tries to keep me laughing but I'm getting more testy by the day.  We did a lot of sightseeing on back country roads and I took lots of pictures (Clark Gardens, Italian Restaurant, Dog Park, Blah, Blah).  Just try to imagine them.

See the ring in the pavement in front of Aunt Louise's chair?  It's for tying up one's horse.  Try to imagine the rest of the little country town we stopped in for lunch.

Aunt Louise's best friend, Louise Farmer and her daughter, Connie.

Finally!  Some pictures appeared under the date 01-01-1980!  Were there any photo programs on personal computers in 1980?

Connie and her husband, Scott.

These are two very talented people with many activities going on in their lives all the time.  Connie sews, quilts, makes jewelry and writes and publishes romance novels under the name of Constance Anne Scott. (I pout and look for photos.)

Even Daisy is having a pity-party.

Saying 'Goodbye' to Aunt Louise's House

It has been a busy couple of weeks in Ft. Worth and the most noteworthy activity has been saying "Goodbye" to Aunt Louise's house.  

 

I had a few pictures in last year's blog postings that showed the HUGE amount of 'things' that Aunt Louise had amassed over her 96 years of life.  Those things were sold in a giant Estate Sale last May and June.

The house was then put up for sale and it was quickly purchased by the owners of an adjoining ranch.  

The new owners wanted it as a guest house, primarily for their children and grandchildren.

Walls were removed, bathrooms were gutted and new tile put in...

New fixtures....

new cabinetry. 

A transformation is definitely underway.

The backyard, once overgrown with vegetation....

....is now opened up.

Aunt Louise laments the loss of her wildflowers and worries about the wildlife that lived on the property.  But not all has been lost. The new owners have assured her that the wildlife will be protected.  And the irises that her mother (Grandma)  planted over 50 years ago are suddenly much easier to see.

It is undeniably hard to close this door on a life that she was most proud of.  It is something we never, deep down,  think we will have to face.  However, none of us escapes it.  Life changes, sometimes more rapidly and other times so slowly we hardly notice.  Still it changes.

How complacent will I be when I have to give up the keys to the RV?  Not very, I suspect.

West Texas --Bring on the Locusts.

The wind stopped by the next morning.  I headed east out of El Paso with no whirling dust clouds in sight, lots of sun,  a determination that West Texas would not defeat me and a new mini-vacuum to clean up  the grit.

 

This part of the US is the least inviting of all my travels but, since it is the fastest route to Ft Worth, I go as fast as I can.  I even break my 'only 3-hours-driving-per-day' rule to get it over with faster.

By the time I reached Midland it was raining--hard--and did not stop for 24 hours.  Daisy and I sat in the Cracker Barrel parking lot and waited.

If I thought the sandstorm was the worst West Texas would throw at me, I was wrong.  Spirit sprang a leak!  Right over Daisy's bed.  The whole upper bunk

 above the driver's and passenger's seats was wet.  Very wet.

Another day lost.  Immediately,  I unloaded all the storage stuff off the wet bunk-- and there was a lot of stuff.

 I raised the mattress up onto glasses to dry it out and set up a fan is to try and stop mildew. 

The water stains on the mattress (note the stains to the left of the fan) are my souvenir.   The turmoil of boxes would torture me for a week before I could get into Camping World to find and seal the leak.

My reward was to finally see Aunt Louise and Suzanne again.



 I would be camping in the parking lot behind Aunt Louise's apartment complex for the next few weeks.

 

Daisy was so happy to see grass instead of sand, rocks and cactus.  The moment she jumped out of the RV she stretched out in the soft cool green carpet , with legs spread-eagle,  and just lay there.  I think she was also frustrated by the grit, the inability to move around in our living space,  the rain, and the confinement caused by endless driving.

One week later Camping World went to work and recaulked every place they could find on the roof.  Last night we experienced another major rain storm--HOORAY!  No water anywhere inside!

Did I mention how much I enjoy crossing West Texas?