Assorted Musings on the Wind & Appreciating Your Health. . .

I'd like to say that when I started this blog, my intentions were (and still are) to post at least twice a week. Right now, I'm not entirely sure what direction these writings will take. While the title states it is to be about traveling in our motor home, I find I want to write about a variety of subjects, so it will probably evolve into something else entirely.

That said, it's been a strange week. I've started four entries and posted none of them, but hopefully you'll understand why as you read on.

The New Mexico winds have been out in full force. Unless you've experienced them personally, I don't believe you can grasp their power. Racing along at thirty to sixty miles an hour, they are quite a phenomenon. With little out in the desert to break their stride, they rumble on for miles, gathering seemingly unlimited strength.

They remind me of the cartoons I saw on television as a child. Remember, you would see the wind depicted as a large cloudy face with huge puffed up cheeks that could clear a landscape with a single breath? An accurate depiction, it seems.

Sitting in the rig, rocking away is a unique experience, not all bad. I like the way it makes me remember things seemingly forgotten and puts me in touch with places inside me where I don't seem to go often enough. I do find it hard to sleep through the night when the winds are up, but Terry sleeps through anything.

That's probably why my thoughts tend to wander so much.

Years ago, I read a short story of a pioneer woman who was left alone in her cabin on the prairie when her husband went off to do business. The wind started and continued, non stop for days, never letting up. The story followed her lonely fears and thoughts to the tragic conclusion of her descent into insanity and finally suicide; however it never struck home like these last couple of days, when the wind was so much like that described in the story. I listen to the power of nature and am amazed. It is certainly awe inspiring, but certainly not as vicious as in the story (but then I'm not alone in a wooden shack, miles from anywhere with no relief in sight).

I wish could remember the name, it struck me when I read it as a teenager and has stayed with me ever since.

The endless moans also remind me of a 1928 silent film called the Wind. This movie stars Lillian Gish (one of my favorite actresses, but that's another entry). Without going into the story too deeply, suffice it to say that the wind is not only the title character, but the force that drives the whole story. An amazing experience and a treasure of early Hollywood. If you haven't seen this film, it sometimes shows up on Turner Classic Movies and is well worth your time.

This might also be the time to mention a book that seems to pop into my mind more and more frequently. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey is a compilation of writings of the amazing women who made the journey west during the 1800s. Spending so much time in the southwest has made me think of it often and appreciate my life and the women who came before me. They were an incredible breed and we would all do well to remember them.

All right, enough ramblings, back to the present.

So there we were, in the rig for several days with the New Mexico winds howling. Then in the middle of last week, I woke up at 3:00AM and was suddenly, violently sick. This continued for about eighteen hours, with Terry waking in the morning with a similar ailment. It seems we had contracted some kind of stomach bug and it totally incapacitated us for three long days.

On the third day, still feeling poorly, we had to leave Rockhound State Park. With our Annual Passes, we can only stay for twenty one days, then we must leave for six days to another park. They had already let us stay an additional day due to our illness, but we felt it was time to move on.

So we came down to the LOW Park here in Deming, a short seven miles away. Technically a park for singles, they will allow us in since they also honor Passport America. It's fairly isolated and quiet so we hope to spend our six days here then go back to Rockhound. There are several interesting events happening in Deming during the month of March so we've decided to stay in the area for a while.

Just let me close by saying that I am currently in a position to fully appreciate my health. It's true that while we are feeling well, we rarely value this gift. Maybe we have to experience illness every once in a while to fully recognize the bounty of our daily lives?