Deliriously Ecstatic To Be Back In NM!!!!

We took a car trip back home to Ohio and Pennsylvania to visit relatives. Very busy with tons of visiting. In my case, relatives I hadn't seen in 8 years. Three day car ride back home was grueling. We took I-81 and I-40 from Chambersburg, PA back to Los Alamos, NM. Went through lots of pretty country but I spent a lot of the time with head down furiously documenting the trip in my journal. No time at all to write in it in Ohio or Pennsylvania! Nearly got drowned by passing semi truck going around Oklahoma City. The last night on the road was spent in Sallisaw, Oklahoma near a nice, quiet neighborhood where I enjoyed the best jogging practice of the whole trip--no unbearable humidity like in Ohio, fireflies sparking here and there, no traffic, last few remnants of sunset.

Last night we got home around 8pm. I unpacked a few things, put some food in the refrig, dressed in my exercise rags and took off for loops on the Mesa Trail behind East Park. I went out around 8:31pm and was just in time to see an incredibly beautiful sunset. Turquoise blue skies with a brilliance and color depth that you would not believe. Long rafts of contrail-like clouds--golden yellow, then rosy. The sky faded, the clouds turned gray but then, closer to twilight, the bright blue color returned. The sky wasn't fully dark until after 9:30pm. I am so grateful to be back home in New Mexico!