May trips

Well this past May I took a couple of new trips just for a change of pace.  In the middle of the month, I used a Groupon and headed to Temecula, Ca, for a chance to discover their wine country.  A beautiful area and the cooler temps made it a perfect weekend escape !

Then over Memorial Day weekend, Caryl and I headed to a little town in southeastern New Mexico, Silver City, for their annual Blues Festival.  We left on Friday and took an extended route over there, heading up into eastern Arizona through the mountain pine country, then took a scenic road down alongside the mountains into New Mexico.  The only down part of this day's drive was to see the massive forest fire burning thousands of acres of pristine land in New Mexico as we drove along SR181.  Once we arrived in this pretty little mountain town, though, all cares were left behind as we enjoyed  cooler weather than in Phoenix, and two days of great blues in the city park - for free no less!  All in all, very neat new additions to the places I've been able to visit.