I think it’s been an awesome few days for Sean. Friday was his fifth birthday. He got a new Sonic game. (He called me up today to tell me he’d unlocked a new level and then again later to say he’d unlocked the other character.)
Then we went camping with some friends in the Jemez mountains near Cuba (New Mexico). It rained heavily the first couple of days. It’s apparently hard to sleep in the rain. It soaked a few tents, causing some early departures. It’s also very noisy. I think you shouldn’t count on sleeping when you go camping…although Sean slept just fine. We took a couple of folding cots that kept us off the ground. They just barely fit into the tent, but worked reasonably well.
I learned that you probably shouldn’t trust a car GPS when camping. Ours starts by asking what city your destination is in. (uh…none?) Also, it seemed to have no idea where some dirt roads were. On the way home, it wanted us to turn into a field behind a closed gate. That’s when I learned about its ability to route to a destination while avoiding a particular part of the route.
The second day’s weather was even worse, with cold and heavy hail. It was apparently free-range cattle country and we saw a huge bull roaming around.
On the third day, I got an ATV ride with a friend. With a good driver, it’s as good as a roller-coaster. He also let me borrow it and take Sean and his cousin riding around a bit. We saw what I think was a wolf in the distance. I learned that you should always wear eye protection while driving them, as I got mud in my eye on the way back to camp. I was driving down the road squinting and passers-by surely thought I was son of Popeye.
It was a beautiful area with a grassy valley, forest on either side, aspen, and an area of rocks to climb on. It was great hiking around out there with me boy. Ug ug ug ug ug.