SNOW

Left Lakewood, NM on Thursday the 17th. Weatherman said that there would be a headwind of about 15-20 mph and if I went about 300 miles north I had a 20% chance of hitting a little snow, less than an inch. So headed off. Passed through Roswell, NM with the sun shinning and only one alien spotted. Got about 140 miles down the road, about 10 miles south of Vaughn, NM, which was the planned stopping point for the day, and things started to get damp, not with water but some snow. Lightly at first but it increased and with the wind we were close to being in a blizzard. Since there was no where to stop, there is nothing between Roswell and Vaughn except open range farms, we slowed down and kept going. Got into Vaughn at about noon and parked in a small park. Took this picture out the back window after the snow let up some.

The gravel campground road on the near side of the fence and the paved city street on the other side of the fence did not get covered. But the rest had about one and a half inches. The day before this it was about 80 or 90 degrees and the dark roads absorbed some of that heat and kept the slippery stuff off the roads. By about 3:30 pm almost all the white stuff was gone.

The next day we went farther north and did not see any more than a little snow in some of the shady spots. We arrived in Tijeras, NM (about 10 miles east of Albuquerque) and at 6,600 feet with the tempature about 60 degrees.

On Sunday April 20th we got a call from a friend in Sedro-Woolley, WA and she told us that she woke up to about five inches of snow and it was still coming down. And this was happening on the 20th of April! The day, 34 years ago, we got married. I do not recall any snow falling after the first of April the 48 years I lived in the Skagit Valley.

To "celebrate" the day we went with some people that we meet in Lakewood who were from Anacortes, WA, to old town Albuquerque. This is the site of the original town and the old buildings are currently used as stores. Albuquerque was celebrating it's 302 birthday that day. Then we went out to dinner.