Longrider

  Let me introduce you to another, our newest, by choice, family member, Joan.  A thing meant to be.  I was sitting on the steps of a local bar with my brother from another mother, Rick.  I looked up and there she was.......a sight I had never seen......A woman on a horse, carrying one small dog and leading another.  Not completely off the charts until you learn her story.

     Joan had ridden that horse, carried that dog, and lead the other dog all the way from Dallas!  Let me remind you we are in Northern New Mexico.  Now, I have camped more than some, and less than others but Joan had done it with fewer supplies than any other person I have ever known.  Joan is in her 50's, from Texas, a widow, a mother of grown children, and a wanderer who wandered our way.  Lucky us!  After watching her dogs while she took care of business we got to visit and I invited her to our place on her way north.  I really hoped she'd come and hang with us for a while and a month later she popped up.  We offered her our strawbale house to crash in but she stayed in the barn with her dogs and horse - for 6 weeks!  Eventually she took me up on a cot to sleep on.  I have never know anyone who lives so simply, even when more amenities are available.

     She eventually traveled on, headed to Washington state.  It was fairly late in the summer and I wondered how far he would make it before the weather turned on her.  I cried when she left, wondering if we'd ever see this extraordinary woman again.  I was grateful my parents got to meet her before she left.

     We heard stories from local folks who saw her as she travelled north so we knew she was okay for a while. Eventually we got a few cards or calls as she got further north.  I got the call I was looking forward to....she wanted to stay with us for the winter........that was almost 2 years ago and she's still with us.