sunday drive.

As any normal adventure-seeker would, I spent my weekend away from home. This past weekend I experienced the thrills of the fine city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's been nearly two years since I've graced Duke City with my presence, so it felt like an appropriate time to re-visit. Naturally I was accompanied by my dear gentleman friend, so with that alone the level of fantasticness increased tenfold.

Day one included me driving down, guzzling two 12-oz. Red Bulls, scoring a really high energy buzz, and promptly crashing once Kyle got into town. Awesome.

Day two included sleeping until noon (WHAT? I know, right?), one of the best Whole Foods trips of my life, running 5ish miles up and down the side of a hill, then rage-facing in Nob Hill on Gay Pride Day. Score.

Day three included sleeping until 11 . . . yesssss . . . brunch, laying by the pool, then driving home. Oh. The drive home.

What started out as a quick thing to check off my Sunday to-do list suddenly became a freaking catastrophe, one incident after another.

First, I had a couple on/off issues with my overdrive. Whatever. These things happen people.

Next, as I was approaching Raton, NM (about the halfway mark), I was admiring a giant smoke cloud coming from the hills northwest of Raton. It was lovely, really. Huge, reddish-pink, spanning across about ohhh 3,000 acres. Well, next thing I know, traffic has stopped and cars are being detoured because the lovely cloud is a raging wildfire which has just jumped the interstate and thanks to Mother Nature's violent wind, is uncontainable. Sweet Mercury. SO. I start to head southwest. The exact opposite direction I wanted to be going.

My 6ish hour drive ended up being over 8. Gross.

BUT, on the drive I encountered all of the wildnerness wonders Colorado and Northern NM have to offer: a big dopey elk crossing (literally), ferrel cat crossing, gorgeous back-country (if only I could have seen it) with winding roads and plenty of oh-shit moments, about seven million cow crossing signs (really, CO?), deer.deer.deer.deer. antelope. deer.deer. antelope. deer . . . you get the point, but then. THEN. As I was passing an old pickup who was clearly and annoyingly abiding by the speed limit, I noticed a few blobs in my near distance. What.The.Fbomb.Is.That. Horses! There was a band of horses scattered on the road just south of San Luis, CO. Thankfully I was able to slam on the breaks in time to dodge a few of the less intelligent ones standing in the middle of the road before they scattered off, but I almost wet my drawers. Going through town there was no one in sight nor any open stores to notify of the horse issue going on behind me. I tried to flash my brights at oncoming traffic, but I'm pretty sure all that did was annoy people into flashing me back.

I made it home at the ripe hour of half-past-one and settled in for a short night of kitty nuzzles and George head-wraps (his new thing).  

If I could have three wishes today, one of them would be for better weather in the southwest because I don't know if I can handle another 8-hour reroute through back-country Colorado. I'll keep my fingers crossed.