Logistics

Sometimes it takes a lot of work to make things come together.  For the first part of our trip, we had to figure out how to get three groups of people to Taos by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.  That wasn't so hard, as we all stayed with Bart and Jerri in Angel Fire, and Jerri graciously agreed to take care of Babs.  She was worried that 15-year-old Babs would die on her watch, but both Jerri and Babs fared just fine!  The only logistical problem we had was that Bart had the cars parked at the parking lot rather than at the Bavarian restaurant, so while Don and I stayed at the restaurant (and I had the biggest Diet Coke I have ever seen, while Don drank a beer), Travis and Bart had to walk another two miles to the car.  Glad they still had the energy, because Don and I would have really been dragging by that time!

The logistics for the second trip were MUCH more complicated.  It took the gracious gestures of two wonderful spouses to pull this off.  (OT . . . why is the plural of spouse "spouses" if the plural of mouse is "mice."  I think the plural of spouse should be spice!")  Anyway, we finally decided that the walkers would stay in Santa Fe, so Don had to take Kenneth, Melinda, and me to Santa Fe and drive back to the cabin, an hour after we had returned from Santa Fe.  Otherwise, we would have had to awaken at 3:30 a.m.  YUK!  (In the meantime, Travis had to drive from Albuquerque at 4:30 a.m. after having gone to a Beach Boys concert the night before.  He got 4 hours of sleep!)

It also meant that Jerri would have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to take us to the ski basin and drive back.  She then had to transfer cars when she returned to Santa Fe and wait until Bart called or texted that we were going to go through with the hike.  Although Bart's calls and texts never went through, she figured out that we had gone on, and she was able to finish her day.

In the meantime, three groups of people had to meet at Cowles.  Carol and Annelle came from Santa Fe, Chuck and Clark came from Albuquerque, and Katie and Don came from the cabin.  They were to meet us at the lake, where we would get our lunches.  Guess again.  Unfortunately, a few of us went a little hungry since the horses didn't quite make it before we headed down.

Finally, we hoped we would all get the Cowles about the same time.  And glory be.  Within ten minutes, we were all gathered in the parking lot.  Kenneth is not the only one in the family who can
"logisticize."  I think Bart and I did a pretty good job!