How the Coronavirus Jump-Started my Sex Life - 28. Chapter 28

After the Departure

We hung around the Bosque for a while just soaking up the peace like too sponges tossed into the ocean. We spoke quietly because there was no need to speak up since no noises were present. It also created the same emotional response as if we were in a big, beautiful church where it would seem sacrilegious to talk above a whisper.

“No one back in Edmonton will believe it when I tell them what we just saw,” Alan whispered. “How did we just happen to show up in the last moments before they departed from their winter home to begin their journey north for the summer?”

“I’ll bet in our whole lives we will never have better timing than this!” I chuckled.

We were still sprawled on the bank of the pond observing the eight geese that had stayed behind. With their friends out of the way, I looked them over carefully. I determined that one of them had a broken wing and another seemed to be missing a lot of feathers. I didn’t know if that was a result of old age or some illness, but it just didn’t seem healthy. As I looked them over, I was again overcome with sadness that they would presumably never see their families and friends again. They seemed more vulnerable without all the others around. There’s safety in numbers, they say. For a moment, I remembered the coyotes we had seen earlier. Might the geese become dinner for the coyotes? As a biologist, I know the ways of nature, but I still didn’t want to think about the deaths of these beautiful creatures, especially by coyote.

Alan turned to me, patted my arm, and said quietly, “Thank you so much for bringing me here, Cal. You have just given me an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

When I turned to look at him, I could see a more serious look on his face than I had ever seen before. “You are very welcome, my friend,” I responded. Then something mean took control of me. “I called ahead to be sure the geese would be ready today,” I joked.

For a moment Alan looked at me questioningly. Then a grin broke out across his face as he started to giggle. “Stop!” His hand gripped my arm tightly as he giggled some more.

After a moment, he said, “If you have that kind of pull with the universe, I want you on my team, for sure!”

I chuckled again. “I am on your team, babe!”

For a moment we stared into each other’s eyes as he continued to grasp my arm.

“Thanks, Cal. We seem to make a pretty good team.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Are you ready to move on?” he enquired.

“Yes, I think so.”

We both sat up and I noticed he was still gripping my arm. I wondered why as it seemed the moment for that had passed.

Leaning forward towards the pond, Alan said in a louder voice, “As representatives of the Canadian geese species, I want to thank you for choosing this moment to follow your instincts and give us such a gift.”

“Hear! Hear!” I said quietly.

Of course, the audience seemed to ignore the speech, but I couldn’t deny Alan’s words had touched me.

Elephant Butte

The drive south to Elephant Butte Lake State Park took us just under an hour. The state park stretches along the west bank of the Rio Grande from the dam at the bottom (southern) end of the lake to the upper (northern) end of the lake and for several miles along the river’s natural area further north. It is the sole substantial water source in a vast region and is 60 to 80 miles downstream from the Bosque. The park has 3 marinas and an additional boat launch near the upper reaches along the river, which reflects its great popularity as a recreational boating site.

Campgrounds are plentiful along the lake and the river but the RVs and pop-ups were plentiful, too. We saw several boats on the water in the late afternoon coolness and several families milling around their campsites with a few starting to prepare evening meals. We were both surprised at how many people seemed to be using the park’s facilities.

“I haven’t seen this many people since the shutdown started,” Alan commented.

“I know,” I said. “I wonder why there are so many here. Is it spring break vacations?”

“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they just decided instead of locking down at home they would go camping.”

“Hmm. That seems like a good idea.” I thought about my own family. “You know, my family should do this, at least for a week. Carrie and Cole would love getting out of the house, I’ll bet.”

“You should share it with them tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

We did see a few available campsites that would accommodate the Durango, but there were no restaurants in the park and we didn’t have much food with us. The town of Elephant Butte was just at the entrance to the park and we found three restaurants there: Bigfoot Restaurant, Casa Taco, and Mean Gene’s Burgers. In spite of the cool name, we decided against Mean Gene’s since we have burgers on the menu for tomorrow’s cookout on the driveway. Mexican always appeals, so we went to Casa Taco for a good ole fashioned taco plate we could consume at a picnic table near the restaurant before we returned to pick our camping location for the night.

After dinner, we circled through some of the camping areas until we found a nice spot under a tree and a little above the lake where we had a good view of the water. By the time we picked our spot, twilight was upon us. Alan backed the Durango onto the short asphalt drive at the campsite so we could see the lake from the back of the vehicle. With the back seats folded down, we had ample cargo space for two full-grown collegians to lie down comfortably. To make maximum room for the stuff we would be picking up in Las Cruces, we had not brought a bunch of sleeping gear. We spread out the one sleeping bag on the floor underneath us and had a second sleeping bag opened out to put over us should we get cool. So, our camp was set up in about 3 minutes.

We decided to take a walk along the shoreline since it was still too early to try to sleep. The lake seemed amazingly tranquil as we picked our way along, sometimes almost at the waterline and sometimes 10 to 30 feet above the water.

After a while, we came upon a flat section of rock about 20 feet above the waterline. It was the topside of a cliff and we found we could dangle our feet over the water while sitting safely on the rock. We sat quietly for a while again soaking in the peace as twilight darkened into night. We watched the stars come out one by one.

“Wow!” Alan exclaimed softly. “The night sky here is incredible, isn’t it?”

Without any significant light pollution from the park area or the town of Elephant Butte or anywhere else in the region, you could see further into space than from most places. I could see so many stars I knew they were certainly uncountable. “It is incredible, Alan. I’ve always loved getting into these remote areas of New Mexico to see the sky. It seems so close and so incredibly far away at the same time, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. That’s a good way to describe it, Cal. Near and far simultaneously.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes, just drawing in the enormity of the universe, which naturally made me think of how small and insignificant I am, we are.

Alan looked at me, patting my thigh gently. “I feel so, uhm, renewed by today, baby.”

Turning to face him, I answered, “So do I. After the stress of the lockdown and getting kicked out of the dorm and having to find an apartment and looking for a job, I’m feeling really relaxed right now.”

He nodded. “This is such a great way to end a great day.”

We smiled at each other. “Yes, it is.”

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I wasn’t aware I was stressed until I began to feel so unstressed watching the geese this afternoon.”

We sat a while longer but began to feel cold as the night air thickened. I was glad I’d thought to bring a flashlight because we certainly needed it to pick our way back along the shoreline until we reached the Durango. Before going to bed, we detoured by the campground’s restroom. By the time we crawled into the back of the SUV, both of us were a bit chilled.

We left our sneakers at our feet by the rear hatch and crawled onto the sleeping bag still dressed in our tee-shirts and shorts. Immediately we cuddled up in order to warm ourselves. Of course, cuddling with Alan gave me an instant woody. We rolled around a bit and rubbed each other through our thin clothes. It took him only a couple of minutes to sprout a big woody of his own. Before long, he had rolled onto his back and I had knelt above him. I pulled his shorts down to his knees, then slipped my hands into his briefs to cup his erection and scratch his balls. Without a word, he raised his butt up so I could pull his briefs out of the way, too. His gorgeous dick rose from his bush, standing very tall, and oozing a bit of precum as I took hold of it. Holding it in place, I dropped my face onto the now-familiar column of hot flesh.

Sucking Alan off was a memorable way to finish this lovely day and I was blessed as usual with a bounteous explosion of excitement and intimate flavor as he ejaculated into my mouth. With my tongue, I bathed his spent dick until it had subsided into its flaccid state, then pulled his underwear and shorts back into place. We turned on our sides, he pulled my back against his chest, and we drifted off to a very peaceful sleep.

Through the night, we slept fitfully as both of us were a bit cold at times. For me I was toasty warm wherever Alan was against me but a little cool in other areas like my feet or ears. But we got some sleep and when we awoke we were peaceful still. We felt we didn’t have quite enough privacy in the morning light for our normal morning BJ so we both had to do without it.

Even dressed lightly, we warmed up immediately when we got outside the vehicle into the full desert sunshine. The air temperature was only 42 degrees according to the weather app on my phone, but the sun heated our bodies quickly. We ate power bars and bananas for breakfast and drank a bottle of water. Then we hauled our fresh clothes and our toiletries to the showers, which were surprisingly clean for a campground. The snack and the shower refreshed us so we were ready to continue our journey. I couldn’t help but notice that my dark-haired French-Canadian beauty was dressed in clean khaki shorts that were a little shorter and tighter than one usually sees on the street. Above them, he had picked a vee-necked tee with two-inch maroon and orange stripes. The shirt definitely forced you to scope out his solid chest. I wanted very badly to lick his nipples which were just visible through the knit fabric of the tee. I had no doubt Carrie would get very excited to meet this hunky beauty. I felt a little dowdy in my cut-off jeans and olive-green tee.

There is a side road that leads directly from Elephant Butte to the small city called Truth or Consequences, NM, which has about 6500 residents and a plan to become some kind of spaceport. Alan laughed at the name of the place, so I shared its origin story with him. In the 1950’s, the producers of the TV game show called Truth or Consequences offered $50,000 to any town that would change its name to match the show. The town of Hot Springs, New Mexico accepted the offer and became Truth or Consequences. Every resident of the state knows this quirky story and calls the town T or C. You rarely hear the full name mentioned when people are referring to the town.

“Honestly, Cal, I think this state is the weirdest place on earth sometimes.” He shook his head. “I mean that in the best possible way,” he laughed.

“I think most of us would prefer a description like ‘quirky’ instead of ‘weird’ but I have to agree with the sentiment. It’s one of my favorite things about living here. There are just odd little quirks everywhere, from the geographical features to the flora and fauna and even the place names, food, and some of the habits of the residents.”

We found a Circle K where we could get a fill-up and some excellent coffees to go. While Alan handled fueling the car, I obtained our coffees and added a couple of pastries for our second breakfast. By the time we rolled out of T or C on I-25 southbound our cell phones read 8:35. We had almost 3 hours to make the hour and a quarter drive to my hometown.

We passed Caballo Lake and then I had Alan exit at Hatch, NM, which is widely known as the “Chile Capital of the World.” We drove through the quiet village where chiles, mostly jalapeños and habañeros, I think, are processed by the millions. I told Alan about the big Chile Festival held around Labor Day every year during the time when the freshly harvested chiles are roasted before being made into salsa and other products. Even on this early morning in March, you could get a faint odor of chiles just in the air.

“Look at all these strings of chile peppers hanging from these porches,” my Canadian friend said.

“They are very popular in these parts,” I said. “They’re called ristras and lots of people have them hanging on their houses. It’s a sort of mark of New Mexico. My parents have two on the back patio.”

He chuckled. “Another New Mexico weird-ity.”

I laughed. “What a cool word! Very clever!”

One store had a display of products out front. We stopped and bought 2 bags of chiles and a couple of jars of salsa before heading out of town on a two-lane state highway 185 bound for Las Cruces. This is an old road that parallels the interstate (built in the 60’s and 70’s) and winds through the valley of the Rio Grande. Little farmhouses 200 to 300 years old, horse corrals with rotting wooden fences, and small vegetable gardens sit barely off the road. We saw a few skinny old nags in one corral who made me sad because, clearly, they are not getting adequate nutrition.

After a little while, we came to a national historic site at Ft. Selden, a batch of adobe ruins dating from the 1865 U.S. Army outpost built at the end of the Civil War. We pulled off the road and poked around for about half an hour in the ruins.

“Here we go again,” Alan chuckled. “We just round the curve and there is a historic site no one’s ever heard of with 150-year-old ruins and no one around.”

After half an hour of poking about, I said, “I think we need to get going or we might be late to my house.”

We finished the drive down the back road and wandered across the north side of Las Cruces, crossed over I-25 and found our neighborhood in the newer part of Las Cruces built with a superb view of the Organ Mountains which are about 15 miles east of the city.