Our weekend getaway

Dave and Alan went on a hunting trip to Bitter Lakes. It is a wildlife refuge in Roswell, NM. Roswell is famous for their alien abductions. I decided to skip the aliens and went on a refuge tour instead. These are sink holes. There are several on the refuge. Each one is different. They are different temperatures and have different chemicals and depths so they all support different life.

There are several endangered species-things like snails and shrimp. They are unique to their pond. That means they only exist here. This sad story was lost on me though because to me a snail is a snail and a shrimp that is so small that I can't even see it- well does it really need to be protected?

This is Bitter Lake itself. It can reach a salinity level of twice that of sea water. Having come from Utah and having been to the Great Salt Lake (which is 7 times saltier than sea water) I was unimpressed with that too. However that sand that I am standing on is sandbox sand and I desperately wanted to scoop some up and take it some. If only I had had an inconspicuously large container and the guide would have turned his back to me for awhile.

Sad to say I don't really sound like the tree hugger that I like to think of myself as. I did have a good time though. I learned a lot of new things. One thing that I learned was they re channeled the river because it kept flooding the town.

Dave and Alan had a good time too. Alan shot a cinnamon teal. He was so excited because I always say how beautiful they are when we go to the bird refuge. When hunting them in Utah they do not have their pretty coloring yet so they are not a good specimen to mount. Here in New Mexico it is in full plumage during the hunting season. You probably see that I have set myself up for this one with out even knowing it. By the way the taxidermist called it "DIAMONDS".