It was like a scene out of Huckleberry Finn; three boys, fast friends, walking along a river discussing what it is that matters to boys and occasionally stopping to set stick boats afloat. This scene of simpler times happened during a stop in Albuquerque on our way to Colorado for the Holidays.
We had stopped to visit our friends James and Irene and their son Ben whom we hadn’t seen in several years. And, although the boys were very young on a previous visit, it only took about 90 seconds for them to find common ground and spend the next few days immersed in lego projects, DS games and just plain giggling.
above: James and the boys decorate the Christmas tree.
The day before the storm that smothered the Southwest closing I-40 and stranding motorists was a gorgeous day and Irene and I decided to take the boys for a walk along the Rio Grande just down the street from their home.
The hiking trail extended for miles in each direction and we crossed what appeared to be two levies to get to the actual river. As wide as the river is, the levies make me think that the name Grande is not an overstatement during the Spring run-off.
The boys were so engrossed in conversation during the walk that I don’t think they even noticed that the Moms were there. Once at the river, the boys tested the swiftness of the current by launching sticks and marsh grass. Interesting rocks along the shoreline got lobbed into the water to see which one made the biggest splash and a vertebrae from some unfortunate animal got picked up and saved as a souvenir.
Closer to home, the trail skirted the edges of horse farms and the horses would stop what they were doing to watch the trio pass by. We also saw Sandhill Cranes feeding in a farmers field and wondered if any of them had come from Fairbanks where we had seen Cranes at the beginning of their migration back in August. We also stopped and watched as others flew overhead making their distinctive “knocking on hollow wood” sound”.
Just like on a long summer day in childhood, our short walk quickly turned into a two hour hike without any of us measuring the passing of time. We should all have more “Huck Finn” days.
“We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next.”
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck and Jim, Chapter 12.