Geezer X - Day 2: A Day of Relaxation

September 18

As usual, everyone is responsible for their own breakfast and wandered in at various times, and by 9:00 we were all up.  Nothing was planned for the day so the morning was spent getting things organized, working on the puzzle and general catching up.  This area was the area where Billy the Kid spent his last years and was actually killed by Pat Garrett near here.  Because of that, we have made Billy the Kid the theme of this year’s gathering so Val had downloaded a copy of the only authentic picture of Billy and had a puzzle made from it, so that’s the puzzle that’s being worked on.

John and Jack work on the puzzle.

This is the front of the house. With all of the trees you really can't see much of the house in this photo.

This is the view from the deck.

A view of the house from below.

Every year Val puts together a gift bag for everyone, which includes a t-shirt that she designs, and some things that reflect the year’s theme.  We usually also include some things we pick up on our travels so this year there were things from Hawaii.  She also had candy bars commemorating this 10th anniversary Geezer Gathering and in keeping with the theme, old west masks and bandanas.

Val gave us each a commemorative candy bar.

There's a new sheriff in town.  That's Jack wearing his mask and modeling the 10th anniversary t-shirt.  The picture of Billy the Kid on the front is the same picture used on the puzzle.

Staying in character, Jack, John, Val and Steph work on the puzzle.

It was time to eat and we all made sandwiches from the assortment of meats, cheeses and breads and that John and Greg supply every year.  There is also an ample supply of snacks so none of us go hungry.

I shouldn't even show this, but this is our snack table.

After a great lunch Jack and I decided to go for a walk, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge.  The house is up in the mountains so there is no flat land to hike on so we decided to follow the roads in the area and do a little exploring.  We had an enjoyable walk and found a nice loop, but we started downhill and the walk back was mostly uphill with some of it being very steep.  This might not be too bad, but we are at a 7,000 feet altitude here so we were huffing and puffing  and exhausted by the time we got back.  We did enjoy our walk, but we certainly paid the price on the way back.

The rest of the afternoon was spent not doing much but talking and munching on the plentiful snacks that everyone provided.  Jack and Steph had friends in Albuquerque who were driving down to meet them for dinner so Val, John and I were on our own for dinner.  We ended up being lazy and just kind of eating out of the refrigerator.

Jack and Steph returned around 9:00 and we decided to finish the evening with a soak in the hot tub.  We spent an hour or so watching the stars and chatting before we all decided to call it a night.  With the exception of John, who is used to the high altitude, no one has been sleeping very well so we have been going to bed relatively early.