I haven't written a post in a while! It has given me the same feeling as missing an assignment in school. Yikes! But I find it hard to find the time and brain capacity to write anything coherent while I am weaving. I tend to spend every moment I physically and mentally can at the loom. And I have been working diligently on my next lightweight organic cotton/linen wrap! This one is turning out amazingly! I'll write all about in my next post once it's off the loom. In the mean time you can see my progress photos on my instagram feed. I am garnet_fiber_studio. Otherwise, and in more exciting news, I took some time to travel to see an old friend in New Mexico!
Even though traveling is difficult and stressful there is nothing like staying up WAY past your bedtime catching up. I don't think either of us had seen 1am in a long time!
Marcie and I became friends while we both were in the geology department at SUNY Binghamton with some of the most eclectic group of people, faculty and students alike, I think I've ever been associated with, I didn't realize it at the time but that was a cast of characters for sure! Through the years we have lost and gained contact several times. Each time, I feel, picking back up where we left off. And our lives have followed similar paths since undergrad, sort of. We both went on to grad school. She went to Salt Lake City, UT. I went with her when she moved out there and the cross country road trip we took to get out there could fill many blog posts... Suffice it to say neither of us have a great opinion of the KOA near Idaho Springs and Old Faithful will always put a smile on my face. She became a mining geologist and moved throughout the U.S. west while I became a petroleum geologist and eventually ended up in Denver. Recently Marcie has ended up working at a copper mine in Silver City, New Mexico. She has a hubby, cats and dogs and an adorable 4 year old son. I have a husband and a cat... So she has me beat there!
I, strangely, don't get any photos of Marcie & I. I did get one with her amazing son. If he wasn't such a handful I might have kidnapped him. He is such a smart, thoughtful, witty, funny kid. But he is 4 and literally has perpetual energy. I got my cardio in playing cars and trucks. And I made a discovery that could save hospitals a ton of money. If you want to see if someone's automatic nervous system has gone haywire skip the expensive tilt table testing and just have them try to play a game called Disney Junior Super Stretchy Game. It's $9 on amazon and it will highlight every nervous system problem a person has! They will also learn obscure Disney characters in the process, so win-win really.
We were inside a giant tire by the way! So cool!
We went to a spot that overlooks the mine Marcie works at and it was seriously impressive. This mine has been active since the early 1900's and Native American's were mining the copper here even before that. You can see some vehicles down in the distance and some of those ant-sized trucks have tires the size of what Marcie's son and I were in! This operation is massive and since I have a slight obsession with heavy machinery I was enthralled. Marcie said that even if I asked nicely they probably wouldn't let me operate the massive shovel though. Stupid health and safety regulations!
Mining for copper at the Chino Mine. Copper is extracted from a 58 Million Year Old granodiorite pluton.
Silver City, NM is a lovely small town tucked in the far southwest of the state and sits at an elevation higher than Denver. The people I met there seemed like the kind of people who are wonderfully friendly to everyone, but prefer to be left alone... The type of people attracted to a dessert town in the middle of no where. Aside from a lack of Starbucks, Target and a Trader Joes, I completely see the appeal! Located fully entrenched in the Native American southwest the area attracts a lot of artist, especially weavers! I was kind of in heaven. It seemed like everyone we talked to had floor and a tapestry loom. Every shop had woven pieces for sale, wall hangings, table runners, rugs, shawls, etc.... So cool! Then I show up at the Phoenix airport this morning and was entertained with these amazing weavings while in the security line! (I apologize for the rather awful photos. A security line in the airport is not exactly conducive to high quality photography😊)
After flying from Denver to Phoenix on boring old United I flew from Phoenix to Silver Silver on an airline called Boutique Air. This is a neat airline that specifically flies to these tiny towns on tiny planes. The one the flies between Phoenix and Silver City has 8 passengers, two pilots and a single propeller... that's it. The flights to and from Silver City were very smooth and calm. Other than only having 10 people on board and no formal drinks service, the flight itself felt like a flight on any other larger airplane.
My tip for flying Boutique Air is this
- If there are 8 passengers, don't be the last one on board!
There are no assigned seats and all the seats are nice and wide and comfy. But the seat in the back on the left does not have a window. So it's the worst seat on the plane. I made that mistake! Also, the 2 front seats face backwards as you can see in one of my photos below. I would not be able to handle that I don't think.
Here are some photos on the flights into and leaving Silver City-
Even though it wasn't "spa-relaxing", the trip was wonderful and I am so glad I went. We spent most of our time talking away about everything either at her adorable house or in coffee shops, restaurants, shops and galleries around town, after avoiding the curbs of death. Seriously, this town has like 2 foot high curbs! There is something so therapeutic about bitching to an old friend that all the spa's in the world can't compete with. Although next time maybe we should sneak in a mani-pedi!