Days 94-99: Reaching "The End"

UpAll this month, I've been in a double race. First off, there's NaNoWriMo. I reached the 50,000 word goal on the 8th, which is the fastest I've ever made it there. But my focus has always been on "finishing the book" when I do NaNo. This week, I did. Part two of my challenge is getting Mark Sawyer's new book, Master, Swami, Nun, Sinner, Swinger, ONE, laid out and back to Mark for final edits. I managed both this week.

I left Roswell on Monday morning and headed for Albuquerque. My target was to camp at a little campground near Tijeras. GPS routinely screws up. I fed it the coordinates and it tried to land me about ten miles away. I made it in and camped, then headed into Albuquerque to take a look around and get some groceries. That was the first success of the day. I found a Trader Joe's and stocked up with two big cans of coffee. It was right across the street from ABQ Uptown a whole bunch of chic shops and a Starbuck's. Managed to grab a cup of coffee and while I was wandering around I thought, "Gee this is just like a shopping center only there's no roof." Then I realized it was a shopping center and I'd just lived up north for way too long.

I did manage to get an inverter to plug into the truck so I can charge my computer in the truck. It cost almost $40. I figure that just saved me $1,000 for a generator since that seemed to be the only thing I need one for. My next outing was for a write-in on Tuesday evening at a burger place near the University. There were eight people there which made it my biggest write-in during the month. They were really nice and friendly and we all got a lot written. I ended the evening with 4,000 words for a total of 79,000.

The next day, I headed into Albuquerque again to explore. For years, I've heard about the Sandia Tramway. About two-and-a-half miles long, you ride a gondola up to the peak. I'm not wild about rides like this. Even Disneyland gives me a little jolt when you ride that Swiss gondola thing. Do they even have that anymore? I'd talked myself out of going to the tramway a dozen times and finally got disgusted and said "This is what I came on this trip for. To do things that I used to pass up." So I went. Driving the fifteen miles out to the base of Sandia peak and pulled up to the guardhouse. It was closed for fall maintenance. I don't know whether to be upset or relieved. Both, I guess.

So I headed for Old Town. It was pretty cool. The anchor of Old Town in Albuquerque is San Felipe de Neri church, in continuous operation since 1704. It's a beautiful old church.

 

I drove on out to Petroglyphs National Monument--once again over the objections of my GPS. I only try to get close with the GPS now. Then I screw around hunting things up online and following their directions. Regardless, it was getting pretty late and the ranger asked how rigorous a walk I wanted. I said only moderate and she pointed me to Boca Negra Canyon where it was a nice paved path. I'm glad I didn't ask for anything rigorous! It was a steep trail around many rocks in order to get near the top of the mesa where a number of very good petroglyphs were visible. I took the side trail all the way to the top of the mesa as well and it showed a beautiful view of the entire city.

 



I stayed in Tijeras one more night before decamping for Santa Fe and in the process managed to write "The End" on my manuscript. 89,653 words. Of course, I already knew that I needed to go back and fill in a bunch of other stuff, but I had a finished work and it wasn't bad. The next day I left for Santa Fe.

I traveled the Turquoise Trail east of the Sandia Mountains. I really love the New Mexico Mountains. they are beautiful and this fall weather has been glorious. I love it out here.

My next campground was in Espanola, NM, about 25 miles north of Santa Fe. It is a small and pretty crappy campground. Gravel sites are not particularly level. There was power and water and sewer connections, but I already knew the forecasts were to be too cold for me to connect the water and leave it. One of the reasons I chose this site was that it's website talked about its newly remodeled restrooms and showers. Yes they were. But there was no heat in them. Brrrr.

I went to one of the local casinos, the Ohkay Casino and discovered they had a $15 special on their all you can eat crab buffet. Of course, one order was all I could eat, especially when you combine it with the oysters, salad, shrimp, and slab of roast beef that would have been a meal in itself. Still, it was good and I won enough at my first sit-down at a blackjack machine to pay for dinner and take five bucks extra home with me.

Saturday I went into Santa Fe and tried to follow the signs to the Plaza. I ended up several blocks away and walked a lot more than I intended. Hiking around at 7,200 feet is still a little tiring to me. I had a nice lunch, though and headed to the write-in.

 

The first thing I did at the write-in was delete a little over a thousand words and start filling in the places that I needed to set things up that occurred later in the book.  It was good and I started getting into the swing of my characters again. Also met a couple dozen other writers and agreed to get together again on Tuesday. When I got back to the trailer, I managed to get the layout finished for Mark's book and got it off to him so he'd have it when he got to Thailand.