Stary Stary Night
Thursday 11/9/06
Santa Rosa, NM
Waiting for the stars with great anticipation! For a change of pace I thought I'd start with the end of the day. Seven miles north of the one-horse town of Santa Rosa, lays Lake Santa Rosa, a Corp of Engineers dam and recreation area. Landscape is pretty flat with a few buttes. The wind subsided just around sunset and now the glow of the day is disappearing with the shadows of the lake fading into the horizon. It was a peaceful and quiet day.
Having arrived at Santa Rosa a full day earlier than expected I had the day to lounge and relax. We didn't check out of the hotel until 11am. I kept busy catching up on my blog and generally puttering. We stopped at a park in town to continue to relax, wash the van windows and let Gabby run in a creek. First I wanted to "see the town" – didn't take long, I always wonder what people do in towns like these. Seems most activity and commerce are focused on serving the folks passing through. It looked like the last construction of anything was completed at least 20 years ago.
It was a pleasant ride out to the State Park. Again I was the only one on the road. Speculation was dampened when I climbed to the top of the observation deck of the park visitors' center and saw nothing…emmm- I might have to work a bit harder on finding the wonder in this place.
Several of the campgrounds were closed, so I stopped in at the Park HQ office to get info and to check on security as well as critters I might encounter. They pointed to taxidermied animals of the area including a mountain lion. I was sorry I had asked.
When I drove into the campground there were maybe 3 huge trailers, all with dish satellite and cars out front. It was about 2pm. What were they doing? I quickly conjured up images of them working on covert projects, or sexual predators on the internet or maybe they were just kicking back watching TV –whatever they were doing, I found it intriguing.
The only sound was the wind shuffling through the evergreen trees. I rounded the camping loop once to get the lay of the land and then selected my camp site – I felt more comfortable when I saw there was a campground host trailer near by.
Gabby and I hiked down to and around a good part of the lake. I saw no one. The place was totally abandoned – quiet and peaceful. My only goal for the day was to try and quiet myself enough to stop my brain from racing with idle chatter. This was a perfect place for just that.
The afternoon slipped away, the crickets came out as the sun went down and more people started coming into camp – everyone of them had a trailer longer than my house. Each to their own. Dinner was a simple Tasty Bite meal with an apple for desert. As the trailer people settle into their campsite and assemble their dish for TV coverage, I popped the top of my van and waited for the stars.
Being on the eastern side of the time zone, dark fell before 6pm….and immediately there was no disappointment in the starry night. Blinking things, moving things – if I lived out here I might believe in "flying saucers". I was fascinated by flashing lights with the sound of the plane trailing considerable – sound and light traveling at different speeds.
The stars were the real draw for me to come to this place in the first place. It being 7 miles from town and with no lights to hamper the view, and the view was magnificent. Round about 9pm the moon came up like a lighthouse beacon…it wasn't full but it couldn't have been brighter.
Temps have fallen from around 80 to maybe 65 and are expected to drop into the 50's overnight – perfect weather for sleeping outside.
So for now, the computer goes off – and I will await the starry starry night.
