RED RIVER, NM, 2

Across the Fence

From The Hamilton Herald-News 



By Arvord Abernethy 

Will you permit me to say a little more about our trip that I mentioned last week? I said something then about seeing some flakes of snow falling, but soon after mailing the letter, snow really began falling and continued for over an hour. It was so pretty we got in the car and drove down the canyon just to watch it. We came back and holed up for the night.  Mary had slipped in a jar of popcorn and we had stopped at a roadside stand and bought a half bushel of apples for $1.50, so she popped popcorn and roasted apples and we feasted while watching TV. Some more snow fell that night. 

We drove up the canyon the next morning to see Wheeler Park which tops well above the timberline, and it was a perfect picture of peace. As we rounded a curve there stood the mountain draped in a mantle of snow gleaming in the morning sun. The valley had widened enough here for many nice resort homes to be built, and with their fireplaces sending up corkscrews of smoke, it made a... ... ... 

The sight of snow and the crisp mountain air made us feel young enough to tackle a dirt road trip up over the mountains to the north of the Red River. The road was well maintained, but was so crooked and narrow. Most of the road is just one vehicle wide, but ever so often there is a wide place where you can pass. Fortunately most of the traffic we saw was going our way and they were those Jeeps that take people on tours. Only once did we have to back up to a wide place so a car could pass. When we got to the other side we chose to take the long road back around the mountain, rather than going back over it. 

Before going to church on Sunday morning, we took one more trip up the canyon to get one more look at Wheeler Peak. It was as beautiful as ever. We did see something new that morning; the temperature was well down into the teens and as the clear cold river water would bounce from one rock to another it would freeze in long icicles from tree roots to limbs. 

We attended services at the Community Church there in Red River and found a very warm fellowship and deeply spiritual message. 

That afternoon we took a very scenic drive along minor highways to Los Alamos which is headquarters for some of our atomic work. Government ...are located over a large area around there. We spent the night at White Rock which one might call the “bedroom suburb” of Los Alamos. It is a very beautiful suburb of nice homes and well kept yards. 

As we drove on to Bandelier National Monument where there are some old Indian cliff dwellings, we began seeing some big flakes of snow falling. The ground was getting pretty white by the time we got to the canyon where the cliff dwellings are located. 

The walls of the canyon are several hundred feet high, nearly straight up and down, and are of volcanic ash. This material was soft enough for the Indians to carve out dome topped rooms that were entered through a small round door. 

We think of the explosion of Mt. St. Helens last year as being a great catastrophe, but it was only a bubble bursting compared to what has happened in the eons past. Here we saw volcanic ash several hundred feet deep and extending for miles. We also saw a plain that lay between two mountain ranges, covering several hundred square miles, that that was underlain with a thick layer of lava. No wonder that the Psalmist said that God was mindful of man. He waited until all this turbulence was over before He created man, His crowning creation. 

As we got out of the canyon and back up on the mountain, the snow began to fall heavier. It was a wet snow that stuck to things. As it began to stack up on the pine trees, a Christmas card picture was everywhere you looked. It began to stack up on the pavement and was slick, so we were glad to get down lower to open roads. 

We went through a section where the horror of forest fires was very evident. We had just been through that pretty Christmas card scenery when we came upon the burned section. There in a blanket of white snow stood those tall black fingers of trees as monuments to a dead forest. 

We came on to Albuquerque for a short visit with some of my dear friends of many years. Then we drove on to Kermit and Odessa for visits with Mary’s sons and families. If you have time, let me tell you just a little about our visit with Finis and LaRue Harmon of Robert Lee, which is out San Angelo way. 

LaRue is a step aunt of Mary’s, but they are about the same age and grew up together out there. It would take a book to record all the pranks and experiences that I have heard them tell, so we will not go into that. 

The Farm Bureau was having their annual barbeque and meeting that night, and Finis is one of the directors, so we attended. The Harmons have taken under their wings an elderly lady there, so we went by and picked her up.  She was Mary’s teacher out there at Green Mountain when Mary was 11 or 12 years old. Don’t ask me how long ago that was. As we were going through the food line, a lady said, “Hello, Willie Mary”. That is the name she went by then, so that gave her another chance to see an old friend. 

Pretty soon Mary spotted an old boy friend, so LaRue had his and his wife to come over th where we were. Pretty soon another old acquaintance and his wife came and joined the group, so a reunion was in progress. 

The guest speaker at the meeting was J. D. Jordan of the State Farm Bureau Office. J. D. was the Field Representative when the Hamilton County Farm Bureau was organized and worked very faithfully with us. He recognized me and mentioned his work here. 

We attended services Sunday in the country church where Mary attended some. It was the Pecan Baptist Church which is nestled right up at the foot of Green Mountain. One of the ladies there was one who played the piano for Mary as she sang for a special Mother’s Day program. A lot of pleasant memories went through her mind while we were there.

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE