Mary vs the Road: The Hummer Edition

Hello dear readers!

I’m writing you now a month after the tour has vanished from my mind and from existence. 

As projected the last day went well and there weren’t any hiccups in the process. I read a little bit, played some Apps on my phone, had some chips and guac in celebration of it being the last day, and then when the sunset, got the hell up outta there!

I spent the night in St. Louis and the next morning did a little shopping while having a meal at Houlihans. I then set out soon after for Nashville, TN and set up camp for the night. The Hampton inn there was great, and so is the town of Nashville. i was a little sad that I had to leave so soon from that city, but at least I know it’s one place I’ll be anxious to visit again if ever given the opportunity. 

While there though, I did have breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, and that was great. Definitely get the Sweet Potatoe Pancakes if you go :)

After Nashville, I made it all the way to a town near Gaffney and spent the night there. The next morning I did a bit of FedEx packing and then went to HQ to return my vehicle. After getting paid all (except a day) of what I was owed, I hopped a plane and set off to Ohio to see my sister, nephew, and her husband for a little bit.

Mom and Dad joined us later on in the week in celebration of Remy (the nephew)’s 2nd Birthday Party! It was great, we all had fun, and there was a lot of food left over!

Soon after i was the first ducky to leave and head back to LA. Briar picked me up from FlyAway after I arrived to LAX a little earlier, and we spent the evening getting reacquainted at his place.

Next day was breakfast, car washing, and reassessing the damage and house cleaning that needed to be done when I got home. 

In Closing I would like to say that I am thankful for the tour. Although there were moments that it drove me crazy and I wanted to quit it was good to receive this opportunity and money for which I earned. I don’t mind doing marketing tours, but I am hoping that I will find something that is in Los Angeles and doesnt have me traveling anywhere else for a LONG WHILE. 

With this being said, I’ll be searching for a new job soon and starting back on writing for Campus Circle, Valley Scene Magazine, and The Deli LA very soon. Hopefully I’ll find a job either writing or in music management there after.

Thanks for reading everyone!

chow for now. 

Mary B

Well, as luck would have it, I was sent hence forth to St. Louis. ANd after my last entry, I received a call from Rob saying he was going to be in the area too, so we would meet up and reliever ourselves of boredom.

For those unfamiliar of my history of knowing every individual I would now deem a friend, Rob and I met in 2009 while working with a marketing company. Though we have never toured together, we did spend 2 weeks training together, and that was enough time to get acquainted, party, drink, and have many fun nights and bantering moments with friends in club 142. Memories are truly the prize winnings we have for life!

Anyways, he was on another tour, ironically, with another company I worked with before too. So we met up, caught up, and spent two evenings drinking and discussing our tours with one another, then outlooks and views on life perspectives with people…(yes I’m being vague).

Seems like things were getting back to normal and happiness after seeing Rob. And as a wonderful bonus, I had a long catch up on the phone with Briar and we discussed fun things to take on when I came home. However this bubble of joy was soon burst at 8:38am the next morning when I received a phone call on my ‘day off’ telling me I was supposed to be working today at an event that was 3 hours away.

The lack of notice was very irksome, I won’t deny, but instead of obsessing over details of peril and despair I will only just wrap that up quickly to let you all know everything turned out fine, and I got my days off. So, no harm, no foul, right?

First day off was spent going to see 2 movies back to back in Springfield, MO. I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love and One Day. Both were romantic films, but neither one comedies I’d say. I think C,S,L was more of a dramady, ya know? kinda like Sunshine Cleaning Company, or Little Miss Sunshine if you’ve ever seen those. One Day was a romance movie, but didn’t have tons of romantic music in it..I’m sure though the book of One Day is better.

After this day well spent was another day of work. I finished Julie and Julia and must say I am very disappointed with Julia Powell’s writing, and will probably not read her follow-up memoir Cleaving. Now it’s on to finish Skinny Bitch and Lord of the Flies. After this, there’s a whole slue of reading I’ll be doing once home. I have already ordered The Help, Water for Elephants, One Day, and Eat, Pray, Love  that were 50% off online, and I also just purchased the last 2 Twilight books at a used book store, so I’ll have plenty to dive into that will peak my interest once I’m home. 

Perhaps since all these books have movies, I’ll see the movies first then read the books. Most people believe this is a bad idea, but I find if you see the movie first, then read the book, you can only be lead to believe you have saved the best for last rather then read the book, then see the movie and be disappointed. With Julie and Julia though, hands down the movie was way better.

Well, that’s the scoop for now. Tomorrow is the last day for me. I’ll spend the night in St. Louis, have a farewell dinner at Houlihan’s for myself, then head on out through Louisville towards Gaffney, SC to drop the vehicle off and catch a plane home. 

One more entry to go, at least I’m hoping, and this little journal of the road will be complete….for now ;)

Well, I’ll have to say that this last month has been grinding on me a bit. 

Yes, there’s the bonus i’m close to my sister so I can spend days off with her and her family, but I just wanna go home at this point. 

The people in Missouri are okay, but the heat is really getting to me, not to mention the fact that my umbrella I use while working to ward off any type of skin cancer from the sun is busted to bits. I try to keep myself entertained with books, and have been doing quite well, but after a while, even reading grows a little tiresome. Some people approach me with questions, half the time they really don’t wanna hear what I say to answer their question, the other half of the time they just want to make a joke about me sitting in the sun, or if i have free beer, or for those special Missourians with a predisposed southern drawl I can hardly discern, they want to have long random conversations I can hardly add to because I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE SAYING!!!!

Alas, this is the life I have come accustomed to these past three months, a life of limited conversation with friends, a life with few sources of entertainment, a life where it’s 24/7 me time. I enjoy the ‘me time’ if for any other reason then it’s helped ignite my passion for reading once more. However I also miss sharing my musings from the day with friends and lovers, and having a beach available only 30mins away to escape to and most of all i miss my bed. 

already I have compiled a list of things that I must do when I get home. For starters, clean the inside and outside of my car which, no doubt, has collected quite an amount of filth on it these past few months. There’s also the errand of cleaning my place, starting insurance on my car, electricity, and other bills again.

I can only hope I will be home in 2 weeks. This week seems to have gone by fast, I have one more set of events tomorrow, then it’s off for another weekend at Laurean, Adam, and Remy’s until more instructions of the tour come my way. I still wonder where else I will go? St Louis is the next obvious location for my travels, but after that, then where? Another week in St Louis? or will they have me go to Columbia or Kansas City? Hard to tell….

I suppose unless you really put an emphasis on the ‘Wha’ in Whoppin’ and ‘Jaw’ in Joplin, this title is only fairly good instead of cute and clever. For you smart ones, I hope you chose to use emphasis! Like Pauly Shore would say it shows you have “charisma!’

So I scurried back to Joplin, MO after visiting my sister (Note: This entry for my visit might have more then 2 parts to it, so it has been saved for a later entry). The trip was actually pretty short. I listened to the movies I Love You Man and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Both cute and cuddly movies…

There isn’t much to take in here. Well, except for the tornado destruction. After my first day of work, I actually passed by alot of the houses and businesses that were affected. It was pretty intense, there’s a bunch of neighborhood houses still up, but they’re badly damaged and either have no roof or a blue tarp one. There wasn’t anything like a car wrapped around a tree, wrapped around a house, wrapped around a plane, with a cow sticking it’s head out the window. Only thing intense I saw was a China Buffet sign, which was pretty huge, bent over on it’s side. 

The destruction made me think of Katrina. I had some friends check out the area that was damaged there, and they told me it was more along the lines of the ridiculous scenario I described above. I’d never seen an abundance of destruction, so Joplin made me try to visualize what it was like in NOLA.

Anyways, I found out Friday that I”d actually be receiving another 3 day weekend! Hooray! So off to Lo’s and Adam’s I’ll go again.

Other news? Hmmm…Well, on a long break between jobs on Thursday, I picked up the latest copy of the Sookie Stackhouse book. Book 7 was a little lacking for me, but after reading 3 chapters in this new book, I think it’s got my attention again. However, I also picked up another book, Julie and Julia, just in case I was over Sookie for a while and needed something to refresh on. J&J however, isn’t really holding my attention very well. There’s more Julie Powell then Julia Child in the book, and I think I liked JC a little more then hearing Julie P babble on in run-on sentences and inadvertently put her husband down (which I heard is no longer her husband). Oh well, I’m going to read it anyways…maybe this will be a trial in seeing if I can manage reading two books at once?

That’s all for now! ttfn.

So I zoomed on up to Tulsa on Wednesday, but not before fixing my car problem that was still in the air….

Note: I promise dear readers I had every intention of informing you about the catastrophe in my previous entry ‘In the Heart of Texas.’ However, I am only human and can only detail so much of my life at a time! Basically, in short, my manager told me I needed to move my car by a certain day for some type of cleaning, and I asked, Alexis, who was tending to my mail/car to do so, however she was busy, and we thought my manager could possibly take on the burden since it was such short notice. We’ll pick up from there!

My apt. manager got back to me finally and she said she couldn’t move my car because for some reason she could get in trouble…I suppose if it was stolen or something of that nature.

Alexis had already told me she couldn’t do it, due to plans she’d made both evenings surrounding when the car needed be moved. Therefore I called upon the wonderful man Im dating, Briar. Thankfully, he was just rousing from a deep slumber and was glad to help a poor ginger in need.

With that predicament wrapped up, and new information given about how my fridge smelled like a stinky shoe with year old cheese and eggs stewing inside (courtesy of Briar again for this info)I drove up to Tulsa, OK, and arrived in the early evening. The trip was uneventful. I listened to movies on my iphone, and thought about how I need to download more as my patience for listening to repeat flicks was wayning.

Since being there, I didn’t venture out much. Only this I can say so far, and I hope this doesn’t jinx me, is that the people in this town are some of the nicest I’ve met on tour.  I even learned a little tid bit from an ex-Bostonian about Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

Now listen closely Boston affiliates, because this tip goes to you! If you are in a Target, Walmart, or other store that sells groceries (perhaps a grocery store?) and you happen to come across bags of DD coffee, please be advised to look as to where these bags are distributed from. Based on the information, and proof I took upon myself to discover later from my ex-Boston friend, DD coffee that goes out west is distributed by Folgers under the name J.M. Smuckers (I think?) and therefore, isn’t really DD coffee! How annoying is that. Anyways tell your friends, children, and college students of this, because it’s very disappointing and kills the dream that we do have some DD in the West.

*A Second Note: as of last night, a while after I wrote this posting I was told by my brother-in-law that there could be the possibility that DD has their beans/ground coffee sent out to JM Smuckers for distribution…and therefore, the coffee COULD really be DD, however I still don’t think it is…

Aside, aside from this, I will have to say I’ve been in a rather off-put mood as of late. While reading today, my mind was a flutter, bringing up old sore wounds from friends, and then getting down on myself for remembering certain things I’d done in the past. Also there were a few moments of job contemplation and being 30 thrown in there too to get the brain-a-stirrin’

I had to shake myself out of this a few times, asking myself, ‘Why am I getting all down about these things? Where is this coming from? Things are fine now, I’m just sitting and reading, I have nothing to stress over.’ I still have no clue as to why I was a little off-put, but have contemplated, many a time that I should write down my day-to-day thoughts, well, I guess more moods or what I think about that gets me angry, or makes me upset. However, being constant with that little project is the only way I’ll be able to see if there’s really a pattern based on food, or cycles of the mood, or weather, or weeks etc. 

Let’s see, anything else? Well I have been a slug, I keep wanting to finish and start new writing projects, but get so drained from being out in the sun, then drinking coffee in the evening, then staying up a little later then planned to get my butt on top of these projects. Also I keep needing to get back to a consistent gym schedule. I might re-read Skinny Bitch to remind me what the dieting program on that is so I can stick with it. I went on it a long while ago and it made everything physically better for me. I lost weight, had no back pains, had better posture,  and slept sounder. It’s just getting off the crappy, lumpy foods and drinks. However I have a month left, so maybe I can stick that in to my To-Do’s blog for August.

Anyways, this entry is quite long. Laters. 

Well, I had a few days off inbetween my 2 weeks in OK, so i went down once again to Dallas to visit Erin and Evan.

After the short drive there, Erin and I went straight to the mall to grab some tickets for the latest Harry Potter movie! Erin, being the HP fan that she is, had already seen the movie twice, for me, it was my first time. The movie was great, the music amazing, the characters awesome, of course. I was mainly looking forward to the Epilogue to see how that would play out visually, and I guess the romance between Hermione and Ron.

Both scenes were pretty good. The Epilogue was very on point, aging the characters well. I think Ron and Harry looked best, Hermione looked the same just with her hair in a bun. Also her daughter was almost as tall as Hermione. Has no one in England heard of apple boxes?! They also acknowledged Malfoy, who had a surprisingly pretty wife, but there was no son-of-Lupin. But he wasn’t really mentioned in the movie anyways.

The kiss between Hermione and Ron was very quick and short. No close ups, or looking into each others’ eyes. Just, frightened! Kiss! Hug! scene. I heard that the two actors thought that was the most awkward scene to film, mainly cuz they’d known each other their whole lives, so it was weird. Although, it looks like there’s always been some kind of attraction between Hermione and Harry when you watch the movies…the movies almost even insinuate something!!

After the movie was over (tear), Erin and I walked around the  mall a bit and then we met Evan for din din. Evan told us a little about his day, and we shared our opinions of the Harry Potter movie. When we finished, Erin and I made a quick stop at Target to grab needed items, (mainly wine), for the rest of the evening.

STORY TIME!: While there though, Erin wanted to pick up some pomade for Evan. After she was stuck looking for it for a bit, I offered to help, and asked,

“Erin, is there a particular brand you’re looking for?”

Erin said,”It’s pomade.”

Mary said, “Okay, well, what’s the brand?”

Silence. 

At first I kinda just thought Erin couldn’t find it so she didn’t wanna bother telling me the brand, or maybe that she really didn’t know. I saw a Crew brand pomade that I thought would work, but since Erin looked over it I figured it might not be what she wanted. After looking around a bit more, I grabbed this brand and showed Erin.

‘Hey Erin, will this work? This is pomade?’

‘Oh!’ Erin exclaimed.’I was looking the actual brand pomade!’

…and we both laughed. It was just like old times where we’d both take things to literal and have to have the other ones’ help to sort it out. haha! 

The next day, Erin and I went out shopping and I finally got myself a new purse. We then had lunch at the Corner Bakery, then went back to Barnes and Noble for Erin to make a few purchases, including the first Sookie Stackhouse book!

Erin recommended I get the app called GoodReads, and after seeing it in action on her phone, I have been a little addicted. It’s very good at creating a list of books you want to read so you won’t forget, and works like a bookmark keeping track of page numbers for you. So far, it’s been quite helpful and is keeping me motivated to read. 

After a few more stops, we went back to Erin’s again, and settled in watching a movie and playing on the internet til Evan came home. That evening he made some AWESomE! fajitas…probably the best chicken I can recall tastin’ eva!

Afterwards, we looked online for funny videos including ‘Threeway’ by Justin Timberlake and that SNL dude, another SNL video with Michael Boltin singing about Pirates of the Caribbean, and McLovin’ and James Franco’s little bro doing a ‘You’re So Hot’ challenge. 

All soo funny, all soo wonderful! Now that I look at this picture, the SNL guy reminds me of the actor who plays Alcide on Trueblood…hmmm….

Then I went on my Mary way to my hotel and left for Tulsa the next morning. 

Upon settling into my Hampton Inn for the week in OKC, I was greeted with a hotel Happy Hour! Usually, Hampton Inns have nightly snacks out for their guests to partake in, however this specific hotel used it’s spending money to have a Happy Hour with free wine and beer every Tuesday. 

This was a great surprise, and very fitting as I was just on the subject matter of alcohol with Matt and Rob on facebook, and they convinced me I was lacking in consumption of said beverage…see what peer pressure does to you, kids?

After grabbing some vino and cheese, I went ahead and posted my whereabouts on facebook. Immediately, I received a comment from my friend Jenn, who informed me she lived in OKC! To my delight she was just getting off work so her and I met her husband, Ryan, for dinner at an awesome steakhouse. The atmosphere reminded me of a fancy NYC restaurant you might find that was trying to pull off the cowboy look in Manhattan. The food, the company, and surprise of said company, was most excellent and very much welcomed for myself.

The weather in Oklahoma was really hot. I know, I know, everywhere is hot these days, but standing outside was not so great. Luckily though, I had an umbrella and plenty of water to keep cool.

Aside from work and watching a few TV shows here and there I hung out with Jenn and Ryan twice more. After one evening of working I went over to their Ducati dealership and checked out the bikes and their store. I don’t own a motorbike, but have always thought it a fun idea to, so  I found it rather lovely to look at all the bikes they had there. Jenn and Ryan recounted tales of people looking for bikes, which I found most interesting. One prospective buyer took a bike on a test run and didn’t come back! Don’t worry though, they finally caught him, and got their bike back :)

Other little places they took me included a sensory overload cupcake store, a cajun restaurant, a gelato shop, and a Vietnamese restaurant. All were exceptionally unique and I was especially interested in the Vietnamese coffee I had, and plan on trying to create the beverage when I am home in September. 

Minus the surprise, it was just a usual visit for the ol’ B…except for one day….

I was just standing outside doing the usual promotional spheel, when this sort of quirky old man came up to me and started chatting. After I told him about the program, he started telling me about his surrogate son and asking me if I was single. He was really trying to sell me on this guy I hadn’t met, and he even called him on the phone to help with my program by donating tabs he had himself. The surrogate son didn’t answer his phone, so the nice old man left him a message about me and the program and went inside the walmart to shop….or so I thought. A few minutes later, he reappeared, his cell phone in hand, and gave it to me telling me the guy he was talking about was on the other end. I didn’t know what to do, and I’d never been put in a situation like this before, so being polite I just took the call and made conversation. After speaking with the surrogate son, his and is surrogate father’s plans were thwarted by the fact that one, i’m seeing someone, and two I don’t live in OKC. Oh well, it was an interesting day, and something that happened. After my event was finished I went inside the store to find the nice old man and gave him back his cellphone. 

Hmmm… anything else worth noting? I’ve made MAJOR progress in the Sookie Stackhouse (Trueblood) books. I didn’t realize til today why these books held so much of my attention. Could it be the immortal (get it?!) discussion of vampires, the fact the books take place in the south (one of my many homes), or the lusty romance factor (book #4, perfect culprit for this)? No. What really has kept my attention is the consistent mention of coffee. I didn’t realize that Charlaine Harris had such a fixation with the beverage, but it’s mentioned more times then synthetic blood, or even, real blood in the books. I have the same theory as to why I like the 3rd Harry Potter book too. There is much mention of chocolate in that book. 

Anyways, that’s enough nonsense for now kids! Get back to work ;)

If you’ve followed the timeline of these posts, you’ll notice that there’s a town missing between TrC and Oklahoma City. This would be the lovely city of Albuquerque.

I stayed in Albuquerque for 2 weeks and was told by my parents this was a great town, so it immediately gave me a dose of positivity before settling in.

The local newspaper, I think called IQ, had a special article on hand-made products around the area. Being a fan of all things hand-made, I did a little research on all these locations to check out for the two weeks i was here. As I was beginning my research as luck would have it, How I Met Your Mother came on the TV and I was reminded I’d also read an article in American Ways magazine featuring Neil Patrick Harris who is from Albuquerque. I looked online for the article and highlighted a few extra locations and restaurants to check out including the Frontier House restaurant and Los Poblanos Farms.

Here’s a few things I purchased/ventured to while here:

Los Poblanos:

This place was the big find. They offered classes for cooking with lavender, days you could pick your own lavender bushels, farm tours, and other interesting things all involving lavender! I bought a few things from here including lotion, salve, and mint soap. I am a big fan of lavender as I get stressed out pretty easy and always need relief when going to sleep at night. Their lavender was super potent, and at a great price too.

Other little places that made some neat things included

Sandia Soap:

Lusty Monk Mustard:

and Beeps

Sandia Soap didn’t have a store front, but sold their soaps through places like Whole Foods and at the mall. After checking out a variety of different kinds on sale, I settled with one soap that smelled like minty pine scent.

Also with the Lusty Mustard, they had 3 kinds to choose from. Original Sin, Alter Boy (Honey Mustard), and Burn In Hell (very hot!) Seeing that I am a wimp when it comes to hot things, I settled on the Alter Boy thinking it would be mighty tasty, however I was mistaken and it was just as hot and spicy. So naturally, I still have plenty leftover that I am widdling away at a glacial pace.

Beeps was neat. I purchases a birthday card there for Alexis and a small pendant that I am either going to give as a gift to a good friend of mine, or might keep for myself. I think though, it might end up being a gift as the item seems to be more my friends’ style then mine :)

I would like to say all these things were very amusing for the 2 weeks I was there, but after a while I grew bored and depressed being in this location for so long. It kinda proved the theories of the book The Secret. I gave off negative energy and more just came flying in toward my direction to make things more depressing…

I blame this extra notch of negativity courtesy of a few special people I spoke with at Walmart. I do wonder about those stores. It’s remarkable as to how many of the same types of people, with the same natures about them, all congregate at those shops. Me and Matt were having an in-depth discussion about Walmart goers a few days ago. However a complete conclusion on the subject still remains a mystery to the both of us. 

However now I am a little more optimistic as the tour has reached it’s peak, and after this week it’s only really a countdown time. I think the main thing that makes me antsy is not knowing how long  I am going to be in a said area. However this is not a direct fault of my company, they’re on top of their business.

For now though I am in Oklahoma City, and it’s already been pretty pleasant here. However that story shall be saved for another entry. 

chow for now.

We’re at the middle of the tour now

It’s been

Weeks: 7

Jesus signs: 3

Small talk made: 20

Books read: 7

Movies in theaters: 3

Movies on laptop: 8

Drinks had: 12

As of now, I”m located in Amarillo, TX, and about to begin my journey towards Oklahoma City for the 3rd leg of my tour.

There have been a few hiccups thus far though. The main one being I do not know where I”m going to be headed after July 17th, but not to worry, I didn’t even know until yesterday morning where I was headed today either! There has been a bit of a stall in getting me the rest of my schedule. Mainly I think this is due to just getting everyone to agree on where I should head next, then as we all know who have experienced the inner workings of a business, that assesment then trickles down the totem poll to those sitting at the bottom tapping their fingers in anticipation…this would be me!

So Oklahoma City it shall be for a week. If I am ‘lucky’ enough to be there for another week, I will probably head south down to Dallas to see Erin again. However there is also Cari’s wedding I’m trying to see if I will have time off for on the 23rd. Hopefully, that too shall pass as it’s always wonderful to see the Cuz.

However if plans take me straight to Missouri, then I suppose I might try and take my days off inbetween staying there to zoom over to Ohio to see my sister and her husband. We’ll see though. Just having people to see and making little plans like this is really refreshing and I hope will get me through the rest of my trip.

I kinda hit a brick wall about week 5-6 of this tour. Being alone and having nothing but your mind to keep you company can be very trying, and make you think to much on certain issues in your life. That being said (cryptically, of course ;) ) I’m trying to take up reading a book a week on the road. So far I’ve worked my way through 4 of the 11 published Sookie Stackhouse books. With the show airing right now, it also gives an extra dash of motivation. Also, on top of my Spanish book, I have a guitar now to learn, perfect, and write songs with. Camila and I have agreed to write 5 songs a piece and hopefully use one or two of them for our EP. I am also hoping we can ask Rocky to take another song and mold it into something he can sell for us since he’s got connections like that. We’ll see though. 

This tour was originally in-tended to be a 10 week program, but as Matt (another dude on this tour) and myself quickly realized, the tour might last a little longer for us. This was okay, seeing as how it would mean more money, which we both need. It’s just enduring the lulls in the tour that I think is the challenge and is painstakingly trying on us. Since my tour is up in the air, I did ask again if it was certain my tour would end August 31st, and she reassured me. I am hoping that’s the case, but without a schedule in hand, it makes me nervous.

On my way to northern NM, I arranged to stay in Truth Or Consequences. TrC, as the locals call it, is located right next to Elephant Butte, NM. Of course, the name is what enticed me to stay there, also the knowledge that TrC has lots of natural hot springs was a nudge in the right direction too. 

I arrived in the late afternoon, and cruised through the center of TrC on my way to the hotel in Elephant Butte. TrC had a few possibilities for entertainment on my days off, however when I road in around 8 at night, it was already ghost town central. This being the case, I cruised straight to my hotel, got some food at the hotel bar, and settled in for the night. The atmosphere at the hotel was pin-drop quiet. It reminded me of when I went to Joshua Tree a year earlier, as it was soo peaceful and you could see the night sky very clearly. Also as an added bonus, they had tons of rabbits hopping around everywhere, some of them were super huge, but lacked the big pointy teeth (MP reference).

The next day I went into TrC in the late afternoon to grab some food, do some shopping, and take in the hot springs. Of course, it was my mistake to get such a late start, but I had a few articles I needed to finish writing for The Deli and Campus Circle. As I waltzed into town, I went straight to Riverbend Hot Springs. The story about this spot dates back to the 1940s. Originally it was a minnow bait shop, but after the residents found that the natural springs they dug up for the minnows to swim in were killing them from the heat, they changed their direction and opened up a Hot Springs Mineral bath. It was located right next to the Rio Grande and was a very relaxing and beautiful experience. there were about 5 different pools in the public area, and then you also had the chance to jump in the river if you wanted to cool down. 

I relaxe here for about an hour, probably didn’t need that whole time there though. After jumping from pools ranging from 102-108 degrees, I dried off and went into town to grab some late lunch/dinner. However, again, the town was pretty much shut down. I was able to locate an Italian restaurant that was still opened and had some type of pomodoro linguini and a glad of pear cider there. The only other place that was opened was a convenience store called Bullocks. Very amusing, but not very resourceful. 

After being defeated early in my efforts to explore the town, I went up to Elephant Butte Lake to see what that was all about. I drove right up on the beach and walked towards the shoreline to get a good look at the water. There wasn’t really anything interesting going. A few hippies/campers were about a 100 yards away having their own little shindig. I decided to walk in the opposite direction and see what was around a large sand dune. Turns out it was more sand and water! Crazy. The only other interesting this is that I found clams that had been beached on the ground. They looked like they were still in tact, and the curious cat in me decided to open one up and see if there was in fact a clam inside the shell. There was! I was half expecting it to squirt me in the eye when i opened up the shell, so I was a little wary. None of that happened though ;) I proceeded to throw the clams back in the water, figuring they’d be better suited there anyways, and headed back to my hotel.

The next day I woke up and packed up. Before heading town i went back into TrC to finally get a little shopping in. There was only one road to do any shopping on, so it probably didn’t take me more then an hour to go through everything there was to see. There was a shop with rocks and stones to buy, an old western art gallery/ice cream/craft shop ( I bought honey there), a hippy store with the usual far east novelties, an old bookstore/antique parlor, and a regular gift shop. There were a few stores still closed, like a music store that was in town, but I wasn’t waiting all day for that to open. I grabbed some food from the Budda’s Belly before leaving, and made one more quick stop after. There was a Natural Heatlh Food Store that I wanted to check out yesterday, but it was closing by the time I had made it over there. Today, it was open though, and I purchased a few all natural skin/body products. Normally, working at Lush on my off time I don’t buy more products, but they just smelled soo good and the girl who made them was right there, so I felt I was contributing directly to a good cause by buying some lavendar body butter and salt scrub. After chatting with her for a while, I finally left to go to my next location.

On ward and upward to Portales and Clovis, New Mexico! And then on to Albuquerque.