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Peace in the Great Southwest

by Hilton Kean Jones on August 18, 2011

in favorite articles, Florida


There are places you miss more than you realize until you visit them again. The Southwest is one of those places.

Recently I visited a friend of 43 years. He’s only recently moved to Gallup. I’d never been there before, but I hope to go again.


The title of this post pretty much says it all in regard to the Southwest. It is so peaceful.


Don’t get me wrong. I love Florida. I park on the roof of the Tampa International Airport so I can walk out into our huge sky with towering clouds at night, overlooking vast stretches of water. But, when at ground level in Florida, there’s a claustrophobic shortness to the horizon; things are too close.


In the Southwest, they stretch for miles as if one were standing on a tall building. That space brings peace.


And the vegetation! It’s interplanetary. It’s not lush as it is here, but it is exotic in the extreme.

My friend asked me what I wanted to do. I said, “Nothing!” And nothing is what we did. We simply sat and talked and relaxed on this porch below for several days. What a treat.


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Most images link to larger images.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

katharine August 19, 2011 at 6:32 am

Thanks, Hilton, beautiful as usual from you…!!

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Elaine Livingston August 19, 2011 at 10:57 pm

Stunning photos Hilton. Brings back memories. I visited White Sand Monument and we drove for miles…..and came upon this Pistachio Ranch in the middle of nowhere (Alamogordo, New Mexico). They sold every kind of flavor of pistachio. We bought a few bags of them. I lost my camera trying to walk down the dunes in White Sands. We also went to Las Cruces and Ruidoso, New Mexico. We went to Inn of the Mountain Gods resort and casino. It makes me meloncholy to not have the photos from that trip. I looked on the internet for months for any film discovered from the trip. Nope, so I ordered a bag of pistachios from that ranch by phone (back then). They have a website. http://www.pistachiotreeranch.com/ thanks for posting such beautiful photos. The colors are very calming.

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Hilton Kean Jones August 20, 2011 at 3:55 am

Thanks, Elaine. I’m sorry about your camera! I would be heartbroken. I’ll check out the pistachio site–I’m fond of them (although the shells slow me down…maybe that’s a good thing?).

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