Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee, Arizona! I always wanted to go there. Well, I didn't remember that I wanted to go there until I saw it on the map, fairly close to our route. And I have no idea why I wanted to go there. A remembered Sunset article, perhaps? Isn't Bisbee the setting for J.A. Jance's non-Seattle novels? Or is it just the name (Bisbee just sounds happy, doesn't it?)? In any case, we are in Bisbee, and it's definitely worth visiting. As the sign says, they have The Best Year Round Climate on Earth.


It's an old mining town (copper mostly), now full of artists, aging hippies, surprisingly good restaurants, coffee roasters, and antique dealers - all of whom seem to be extraordinarily friendly. Except, as an aside, i will just mention that we have counted 27 Border Patrol vehicles since arriving in Arizona - which doesn't seem particularly friendly. Bisbee also has a yarn/weaving shop, a food coop, and an independent bookstore...so it is definitely on our list of Good Small Towns To Live In.

Truth or Consequences, NM

Warm and dry is better than icy and muddy when you are living in the VanMan with a dog, so we headed south to Truth or Consequences. Mission accomplished: 75 degrees and sunny. We stayed for three nights at Elephant Butte State Park on a huge reservoir created by a dam on the Rio Grande. A really awesome place - acres of beach and sand dunes for Ruby's frolicking pleasure - and very quiet this time of year.


T or C itself doesn't appear to have much going for it, first pass though. Its claim to fame is its many hot springs resorts, most of which were built in the 30's during the Depression. They were very basic, typically motor court motels, maybe with a little bathhouse in the middle, or individual soaking tubs In each room. In the following decades, like hot springs resorts everywhere, they fell into disrepair or closed up entirely. But today, it looks like T or C is coming back into its own, with many of the resorts being renovated and reopened. I use the term "resort" loosely. In almost every case, they are being restored In the same modest style as when they were built, in the same buildings using the original names. The result is a quirky, funky little town. There are a number of artists, galleries, a juice bar-natural food store and two great little bookstores. We found it to be quite charming, in spite of the many trailer parks and the Walmart on the outskirts.


As a result of our heading south off the high plateau, we're going to miss some of the big things on our list: Grand Canyon, Chaco, Canyon de Chelly, and the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona. I'm not disappointed; it's the itinerary for our next trip! From here, we'll head a little further south, then west and finally north.

Not in Los Alamos, New Mexico

We are enjoying this area and are trying to see all the sights of northern New Mexico, but we seem to be going around in circles a bit. Partly because the weather just changed...hail, almost-snow, rain, and really cold mornings..and we can't decide if it's time to leave the high country. Should we go south and check out the hot springs in Truth or Consequences? Or stay and check out Jemez Springs. just over the hill from Santa Fe? So, we keep milling around, but hey, what does it matter (see, I'm getting into this finally!)?

Today we ended up in Los Alamos. Briefly. To use a term of slang that fits perfectly, it weirded me out. The Stepford-like feeling we got from everyone and everything. The toll plaza that was manned yet didn't charge anything. The dozens of buildings and businesses that were obviously related to the many numbered "technical areas" indicated on road signs on all sides of town or to the LANLs "Los Alamos National Laboratories." The Bradbury Science Museum. And the banners on the lampposts sporting the Los Alamos tourism tagline: Where Discoveries Are Made. I don't want to know what they discovered, and even if I did, I don't think they would tell me.

I tried to take more photos of weird things but there was someone following us in a white pickup with an insignia on the side. It's not paranoia if they're really after you. We are so outta there. Back to the nearby mountains, local hot springs and a wonderfully deserted remote campsite.

Greater World Earthship Community, Taos

Earthships!! Have you heard of them? Seen them on TV? An Earthship is a passive solar home made of recycled materials - mostly tires, glass bottles and soda cans. Michael Reynolds and his Earthship Biotecture of Taos want to help you build your own earthship, mortgage-free, and design it to be completely off-grid. Michael says that if you live in an area that gets at least 9 or 10 inches of rain a year, and some sunshine, you don't need to be hooked up to those pesky utility companies or reliant on fossil fuels.


We're staying in one! The first photo is inside the front door - there's always a big planting bed next to the south-facing window wall. The second photo was taken from the roof at sunrise. It's cozy and nice inside. It's a studio, so quite small, but as our first stay out of the van in 41 days, it seems extraordinarily spacious. Windows on the south-facing wall let the heat in, and it's partially underground, which provides natural temperature regulation. Thick, dense walls provide thermal mass that naturally regulates the interior temperature during both cold and hot outside temperatures. It works.

I won't try to explain the other systems in this and/or other earthships...the water and sewage...but it is very possible to be entirely self-sustaining. I'm pretty sure, however, that the New Mexico sun will power a lot more laptop time than Seattle's.

Santa Fe

This town has Food and Art in addition to its seemingly never-ending sunshine. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the Friday night Art Walk on Canyon Road. There were at least 100 art galleries within about a mile. And there was a lot of seriously good art, in my humble, business-and-accounting-educated opinion. And Canyon Road is only one of several art districts here. Anyway, it was Serious and I felt out-classed at first when I saw women with tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothing and jewelry draped on their bodies. But it was quite a people-show and there were all types. Plus, as I've mentioned before, no one notices us when we are with Ruby. She was invited into all the galleries, plied with treats, exclaimed over. And she had no intention of buying a thing.

We also were lucky enough to be in town for the Saturday farmer's market, billed as one of the best in the country and I think i have to agree. Lots of farmers. The smell of roasting peppers was intoxicating. We stocked up again and our tiny refrigerator is stuffed.

The restaurant selection is endless, except we hate to leave Ruby behind. Fortunately, there are still tons of outdoor patios available and yesterday we had lunch at a Santa Fe classic called The Shed. Mark had his first Carne Adovada and posole, and I had my first New Mexico style enchiladas made with blue corn tortillas and New Mexico red sauce. Perfect.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe

I had no idea what northern New Mexico would look like. It's absolutely beautiful. Of course, this is likely the most spectacular time of year to see it. All of the campgrounds have been pretty much empty...hard to believe, with the weather still so gorgeous. It's very quiet and peaceful. And Ruby can run around like she owns the place.

There are art galleries everywhere, even on the backroads. Pottery, jewelry, woodcarving and weaving. My favorite by far is the weaving. Husband and I took a weaving class a couple years ago, learning just enough to appreciate the intricacies, the time involved, the looms, the yarns and strings. In my past life, I didn't have time to develop my hobbies...dabbling only a bit in knitting...but I love fiber arts...we'll see where it goes. I also love New Mexico. This sunshine, plus mountains and trees. Wow.

The photos are: 1) and 2) our campground at Chama, 3) and 4) the view from the highway as we drove south toward Santa Fe, 5) our campground at Santa Cruz Lake, 6) the valley near Truchas, on the high road to Taos. Wow, right?

Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico

"New Mexico Bound" is the name of the directory on our laptop where I keep my trip photos. And we are finally here, in the land of Jim Chee!! Okay, I know I should probably be embarrassed to have read most of Tony Hillerman's New Mexico-based novels, when I could have used the time to read something more valuable, but it's better than watching TV, I think, hopefully, right? Anyway, we started our New Mexico journey in Shiprock, and I expected to run into Jim on every corner.  Shiprock, perhaps obviously, is named for a big rock, which impressively juts up 1,700 feet into the air. We actually saw it when we were many miles away several days ago in Mesa Verde...it's very distinctive. Sorry I couldn't get a good photo of it. 

Traveling east from there through Farmington, we settled in for two nights at a very nice campground on the San Juan River, which was evidently a big fly fishing spot, judging by the numerous fishermen standing in the river and several nearby flyshops advertising Orvis and other brands (though I haven't seen any Sage). Huge old cottonwoods make this a very pleasant spot. The weather is now exactly what I expected: cold nights and warm, sunny days. There was some obvious flash flooding here a few days ago, though, and we had a wet crossing on the road to the campground. We sent Ruby through to check the depth. No problem. 

We visited two more large Anasazi sites yesterday: Aztec Ruins (a misnomer, the Aztecs were not here) and Salmon Ruins (another misnomer, surely). Very interesting, but I have officially seen a lot of abandoned Anasazi dwellings now. On the way back to our campsite, we ran across a winery, stopped and had an unexpectedly good tasting experience. More wineries, fewer ruins, please!              

Life in VanMan, Part 2

I need to confess to having some difficulty adjusting to our life on the road. In my prior life, my alarm went off at 4:45 am. I hurried around doing my morning things before catching the ferry to work. I had a giant to-do list every day. There was a steady stream of people in and out of my office all day long. I received dozens of e-mails. My phone rang often. I rushed to the gym, to meetings, to lunches, to socialize with friends. Then I ran to catch the ferry home, usually in time to spend an hour with Husband and Dog before hitting the hay. 

Just like that lame cartoon game in the newspaper, "how many differences can you find between these two pictures?" What a change. We do not move at my pace. We need to stop and play ball with the Dog. We wait for Husband to take his regimen of drugs and supplements six times/day (but by the way, he is feeling better than he has in many years - doing great). We have an afternoon nap. We have no specific goals to accomplish for the day. Some days I want to scream. Other days, I think I am getting the hang of it (for this trip, at least). Mark and Ruby are easy to be with, let me be clear about that. Living in 70 square feet with the two of them is not the issue and, in fact, you learn to be respectful of another person's space, which is a good thing. 

Now that we have met my major objectives for the trip (seeing southern Utah, Durango and Ouray, CO, and we are now in New Mexico), I'm hoping that relaxing gets easier -  thus far it has taken a lot of hard work.  

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

We continued on the San Juan Skyway, which is a 236 mile loop starting and ending, in our case, in Durango. It can be done in a day, but we haven't finished yet and tomorrow will be Day 4. After leaving our remote campsite, known only to us and half the professional photographers in the western U.S., we stopped in Ridgway, another movie-set western town, to restock groceries and post a blog from the local coffee shop. From there, we visited Telluride. I don't ski, so I know less than nothing about the slopes, but between Telluride, Park City, Whistler and Jackson Hole, Telluride, as a town, unquestionably has the most character. We would have spent the night there, but since we had only traveled about 60 miles, we decided to keep going, pausing only long enough for lunch and to take a call from The Hedge Fund.


Have I mentioned the change in weather? We've experienced thunderstorms in three of the last four days and we woke up this morning to 33 degrees and crunchy grass.

Now, about Mesa Verde National Park. Even Ruby did not begrudge waiting in the VanMan while we toured through two amazing cliff dwellings. We decided to spend the night and see some more tomorrow. There are nearly 4,000 archeological sites within the park's boundaries, 600 of them cliff dwellings. One of them, called Cliff Palace, is the largest cliff dwelling in North America with 23 kivas an 150 rooms, likely housing 120 people. These dwellings probably took them 30 years to build, yet they lived in them for only 80 years and then left. It really is curious.

Durango, Colorado

Durango. I could live here. I'm not exactly sure how serious we are, but as we travel, we look for a new town to call our own. Although we love Bainbridge Island, sometimes we think it's too expensive, a bit too snooty and most of all, too gray. Wouldn't it be fun to find the perfect small town? What we think is important:  
An exceptional natural setting, whether mountain, ocean or river. Not too big, not too small. A good food coop or natural food store. At least one bookstore. A farmers market. Some artists. Good dirt and climate for gardening. A good yarn shop. And, of course, lots of sunshine. Durango scores high all around. Plus it's a college town, which is also a plus. It gets a few demerits for too many condos and golf courses and what looks suspiciously like sprawl. And we'll need to check the weather a couple months from now, but it definitely makes the List. 

We drove north from Durango on what is called the San Juan Skyway. Wow. The fall colors made the drive all the more spectacular, but it would be a big wow at any time of year. We checked out two old western towns enroute, Silverton and Ouray (first photo), which were both very cute and incredibly situated in the mountains, but also a little too touristy and too mountainous to make the List. The road and the drive need to be added to your bucket list, though, no question.

Mark was tired of campgrounds close to major thoroughfares, so he took a chance on a road that said only "National Park Access" and after a seven-mile drive down a gravel road, we found paradise. A beautiful (and free) campground complete with a meadow and a creek, a trailhead and only a couple of other campers spread over many acres. As if we needed further evidence of the spectacular beauty of this spot, a surprising number of photographers came and went (how did they know - maybe it's in a book somewhere?) working to shoot the green meadow, yellow leaves, white bark, soaring mountains and the new snow on the rocky peaks. Again, my camera doesn't do it justice, but I'll remember.

Update: VanMan was evidently in the way of a perfect shot of Mt. Sneffels, so one of the photographers asked us to move In exchange for a 16x24 inch print of the result. Oh boy!
 

Life in the VanMan

It's not always easy. We can't "go full-time", as they say in RV-parlance, in a rig this small, but I think two months is doable...we're halfway there already. Yesterday was a little iffy, I admit. Not sure if someone forgot to take their happy pills but it got a little scary for whatever reason. And you can't just walk away when you're driving down the highway in the middle of nowhere. Wisdom dictates non-escalation (keep your mouth SHUT). All grumpiness seems to have vanished today, though. We are taking it easy and staying a second night in our remote mountain campground. Hiking, reading, knitting, studying energy independence. No e-mailing or surfing because there is certainly no Internet connection up here but I drafted a blog and uploaded photos to the laptop. 

We've eaten a couple of restaurant meals, but mostly we like our own cooking best. VanMan has a two-burner propane cooktop on which we have made many fine meals. We also have an outdoor "oven" called a Cobb that burns charcoal briquets in a clever design, allowing slow and even cooking, good for several hours using less than a dozen briquets. In it, we have roasted chicken, grilled steak, cooked cornbread, baked butternut squash and even made "flapjacks" which are really a healthy trail-mix type bar cookie that is our standard mid-morning and hiking snack. There is no suffering whatsoever in the meal department here in the VanMan.  

For sure, we are looking forward to searching out some good southwestern-style food when we get to New Mexico.  We do love to visit coffee shops to sample the local brews, read the bulletin boards, eavesdrop a little and occasionally converse with locals. By the way, check my Favorite Links section for some good travel information on food and beverage.

The rest of southeast Utah

Wow, I only thought I grew up in the boondocks. Not even close. From Moab, we went south to Blanding, Goosenecks, Mexican Hat, Bluff, the Hovenweep National Monument, and then I was ready to move on to Colorado. 
The good:  No more problems with campgrounds being full, no more conflicts with tour buses, an abundance of amazing vistas, interesting Indian ruins and petroglyphs practically everywhere. 
The incredible:  Coming off the Cedar Mesa on the Moki Dugway dropping into the San Juan River valley and Mexican Hat. Maybe the most dramatic stretch of road I've ever seen.  
The most fortuitous:  In the excellent archeological museum in Blanding, we were just in time to join a program led by author and interviewer Eileen Hallet Stone about how to document your family history by doing oral interviews. Totally fascinating, but too late...if I had learned these things while my parents were living, I might have been able to drag (cajole?) a bit more information out of them. There are some good stories there that I fear have been lost.
The part that made me ready for Colorado:  So hot. You've heard about the Anasazi, and the mystery of why they left? It's a mystery to me why it's a mystery...this is a bleak, brutal desert. We pulled into Durango in the middle of a dramatic thunder and lightening storm. A welcome change, frankly. The sun is incredibly intense in Utah and I've gotten accustomed to Seattle's MUCH more filtered sunlight. We'll snuggle in tonight and wait till tomorrow to explore. I'm a little travel weary, so I'm hoping I can convince Husband we need to stay here at least a couple of days.

The Great Red Hunter-of-Anasazi Ruins