Schlepp in Northern New Mexico

Earlier this month Schlepp attended the InterLab 2007 Conference in Los Alamos, NM. On the way up he stopped at the obscure Mormon Battalion Memorial near Budaghers. (You have to look real hard at the bottom of the monument to see Schlepp.)

Then on the way back, he stopped at Camel Rock. Most people stop at the casino on the north side of the road, but there's a small parking area for the stone formation on the south side of the interchange. The rock is now fenced off, but when I first arrived in NM you could climb right onto the camel's hump. Worries about erosion and the loss of the camel have resulted in a closed off site.

Where's Terrance?

Can you spot him?

This photo from two weeks ago shows him foraging in the oregano, where he is almost invisible. Now the weather has turned cold and he's dug himself a couple inches into the leaf litter underneath the Vinca. If I poke around a little, I can just see the top of his shell.

Even though the low this morning is forecast to be 40, this weekend its supposed to be back near 80. We'll see if that warms Terrance enough to get him moving again. This time of year in Albuquerque there are only 11 hours and 11 minutes between sunrise and sunset. With a sun elevation of only 45 degrees and the porch shading the Vinca bed until 1:00, he won't be getting much direct heat.

Meanwhile, Schlepp and the gang continue to work on Chapter Three of his book. Its almost time for NaNoWriMo, but since we started this last summer, we can't take credit for the 8000 words written so far.