New Mexico Drivin'

Interesting few days. So Ashley and I got ready Wednesday morning to leave for New Mexico. But just as she's about a mile from picking me up, her van decides to dump it's oil all over the place, and she barely makes it to the house without seizing her engine. Funny, considering we had the oil changed the day before. So we call the shop, and one of the mechanics comes out to take a look. He says the filter is dented and torn, and pushed the adapter into the bottom of the engine. So, the van gets towed to the Goodyear across town. Only two and a half hours late, we hit the road. The drive is pretty calm, interrupted by our stop for lunch in Walsenburg. After lunch, we find that the AC fan isn't blowing, but after some playing with the fuse box, that's fixed. Interesting start to the trip.

Thursday, Mom, Ashley and I took a trip to Santa Fe. We hit all of the good stores, Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, Pier One and the like. Blegh, girly shopping! We had lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe, always a treat.

Today was the big exciting trip. ATV'ing in Angel Fire! Mom, Dad, Jeannie, Ashley, and myself. Zach had football practice. This was my first time driving an ATV, and Ashley decided it would be too hard on her hands, so she rode on back of mine. We're taking a guided tour through a trail in part of Carson National Forest. Everything is going great for half an hour. That was, until I come a bit too close to my mom's bumper going down a rocky slope. I tried to brake and get off to the side a bit to avoid a collision, but instead the machine veers off hard, down off the trail and into a gully. As we're going over the edge, we hit a large rock and it flips me off. I could only watch while it kept rolling with Ashley still on the back, finally stopping with her leg crushed between the machine and an aspen tree. I rushed over, but Ashley calmly tells me she's not hurt and to put it in reverse. I raced to the other side of the machine and put it in reverse, while my dad pulled Ashley off of the seat. Neither of us was seriously hurt, but it sure wasn't fun.

Our tour guide came back around, and after he checked that everyone was ok, he started trying to drive the machine out of the gully. The terrain just wasn't right. He hooked up the winch on his machine and started towing it out, but just at the peak of the slope, his machine overheated and stopped. He'd also dug his tires in, trying to back both out. Eventually, with the help of a third ATV, we got all of the vehicles onto flat ground, but the guide's machine was still refusing to start. So, we continued the tour. We saw some amazing scenery! It was great. When we came back around to the dead ATV, the guide hooked it up to Dad's, and they towed it back to the ranch. Quite an adventure. I hope this hasn't scarred Ashley from riding an ATV ever again!