Not that I wouldn't do it all again if I had the chance, but when I've been out taking photographs around New Mexico, I've been cut by barbed wire, caught in snowstorms, stabbed by cacti, rained on, yelled at and once even fell in cow doo. But I've never been chased by dogs. Until Solano.

• COUNTY:  Harding
• LOCATION:  On NM 39, approx. 10 miles southeast of Roy
• POST OFFICE:  1907-present
• NAME ORIGIN: Named for a local mail carrier
• GNIS Info & Map

      No doubt they'd been waiting for me all along. Biding their time. Sharpening their fangs. This was no rag-tag roup of mutts. This was a well-organized militia bent on instilling fear in my heart and/or having me for lunch. It was like "Cujo" in 3-D. Even though I made it to my car before they actually bit me, they didn't let that stop them. They bit my tires and chewed on my hood ornament in mock imitation of what they'd do to me if I stepped out of the car. There were three of them, but their carefully-orchestrated movements made it appear that their numbers were ten-fold. I tried to smile at them to dissuade them from their objective, but by that time they were forming themselves into a canine catapult, so I figured diplomacy was out and gunned it the first chance I got.

      What this means, of course, is that I don't have a decent write-up for Solano, since I didn't get to spend much time there, and I'm probably not going back. But the pictures I got were cool and I wanted to share them anyway.