I’m in the home stretch after a fabulous week long ride to San Antonio on the Harley. Last night I left you in Roswell, New Mexico. Tonight I’m in Alamosa, Colorado, a scant 3 hours from home.I had lunch in Santa Fe and was in pretty good shape to make it on home today but the wind was brutal so I called it good in Alamosa. I wasn’t planning on being home until tomorrow anyway and there’s no point in being miserable just because I can. Been there done that already. I’m all for comfort these days.

While I didn’t find my idyllic field of bluebonnets to paint I discovered some great old buildings between here and there.

I took lots of good pictures of these old relics and will work up some pen and ink drawings and maybe a watercolor or two when I get back to the studio. I didn’t get any painting done largely due to the weather. I was saving the time it would take to paint, for the bluebonnets but when it became clear yesterday that I had struck out, I decided to move on. Unfortunately I developed a glitch on the bike and needed to get to a Harley dealer. Turns out they were closed on Monday so I rode on to Roswell to be at the dealer first thing this morning. I had disconnected the battery last night so the display on the console wouldn’t drain the battery and when I reconnected everything this morning, what do you know. The frozen display screen rebooted and all was well. Thanks for small wonders.

Ever since I left San Antonio, the weather has been a factor. Well, actually ever since I left Montrose it has, but Sunday afternoon there was rain predicted north of San Antonio when I left. That’s where I was headed. By the time I got to Marble Falls for the night I had already just missed several showers. Wet roads were the evidence.

The next morning I managed to dodge the showers all the way to Roswell. Again today, luck was with me. Although there was no escaping the wind, I again managed to avoid getting wet. I had even stopped at Tres Piedras to change into my leather riding pants because it was chilling down and the showers were all around me.

I arrived in Alamosa dry and decided not to press my luck any farther. My timing up to this point has been impeccable. The dramatic skies sure provided some spectacular scenes however. It was quite impressive and invigorating what with the cool blustery winds associated with them. A great day.

The paints I have brought are my watercolors. I chose them primarily because they are quicker to paint with and there is considerably less clean-up involved and they provide for a smaller kit than my oil paints. The biggest problem with watercolor is,they are not water proof. That’s to say when the humidity is high, as it is in Central Texas and when the skies are heavy with moisture, watercolors take forever to dry and to make watercolor effective, the way I paint with them, a certain amount of drying is critical. Ahh, the trials and tribulations of plein air painting. Such is life. Sometimes when you go hunting you don’t always get a shot off but any day hunting is a great day. So it is with the hunt for a painting to paint. Sometimes it is just the hunt that makes it all worthwhile. Tomorrow is always another day. We’ll see what it brings.