American Gypsies

Phoenix rising

2010-02-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

We limped a little into Phoenix, still having mysterious issues with juniper here and there. She's a high maintenance lady for sure, and Daniel has learned so much about how she works, but after Texas and really everything she's been through he was starting to wonder if it was all worth it. Cue Phoenix, AZ. We had been so used to finding our own way and having people think we were crazy for driving an antique across the country that we were astonished to find the SW full of people crazier than we were!
There were VWs all over Phoenix, and within a week we were directed to Richard and Dawn, who with their twenty some VW's in various places in various stages of repair, thought we were anything but crazy and proceeded to open their home and garage to us for the month of January. Richard and Daniel worked on rebuilding Juniper's engine, an opportunity for Daniel to really get his hands into the heart of her and work out any kinks. They brought us to our first VW gathering in Lake Havasu...and we were born again VW lovers. We spent the month with the family, playing with the kids, tinkering in various engines, learning to felt, and soaking in some SW winter sunshine...
We were renewed and refreshed as we headed out of Arizona, glad again that we had chosen this old and quirky car for our transportation around America. There is something transformative in the very nature of a Volkswagen. They were built to last if you are willing to invest patience and care into their upkeep. They are simple and well made with the intention of being accessible to everyone who cares to try. They are a rare breed in this age of quick fix, disposable, no effort products. They also represent redemption and reinvention, their origin is rooted in one of the greatest and highly publicized evils of Germany (Nazism) and transformed into the hippy, peace and love, grassroots symbol of America. We think that's rather symbolic and we ride with pride. Onward to California and the motherland of beachbums,the hippy movement, and Leah.

heading toward the homeland

2009-12-29T11:11:00.001-08:00

We have left the eastern shore and woods, left Appalachia and the deep South. We move West now, a year and a half from when we headed east. Time doesn't fly; it overlaps, loops, expands and contracts. It feels like yesterday we were on the ferry leaving Seattle, and it feels like a lifetime ago.

We moved west from Marshall, NC into the Great Smoky National Forest. It was winter and cool, and the rolling Appalachian hills covered in grey leafless trees only added to its smokiness. National parks have been a mixed blessing as we move around the country. They are not cities and they are beautiful, which is a bonus, but Ziggy is not welcome and camping is prohibitively expensive...so we tend to enjoy the view and move on.

We headed South through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We stayed a night in each, but kept moving. the Louisiana bayous were fascinating, but we woke with a swarm of mosquitos INSIDE the bus at three in the morning. We left quickly in the dark morning hours windows down and wind blowing, past hurricane demolished towns and rebuilt houses perched precariously on stilts and man made hills (as if that's gonna stop a hurricane that wants to tear you down). We decided that the forces of nature definitely did not want people living there and wondered why people stubbornly refuse to leave. I guess all the oil drilling companies that dot the shoreline must pay well.

We headed into Texas and straight for Austin, where Daniel's little brother lives. Austin is remarkably like Seattle; lots of good music and food, a love for art, and hipsters in tight black jeans and tattoos. Much better taco trucks though. We spent a few days with daniel's little bro, Eric, and his sweetheart of a lady. It was good to see such kind faces in the middle of a strange land.
We headed out from Austin with the intention of pushing through and getting out of Texas ASAP. But as we should have known, when you live life letting the forces around you decide your destination, you rarely end up where you think you are going.

Juniper decided she couldn't go any further a couple hundred miles outside of El Paso. A little border town called Sierra Blanca to be exact. If anyone has ever been to this part of the world, my sympathies.

You may have heard of the drug wars/border problems/crime and poverty that oozes from this region. Its no joke. El Paso and Cuidad Juarez lie on either side of the border, but really they are one huge city split in half by hate, fear, prejudice, greed, and a barbed wire fence. its like a gritty desert version of the Berlin wall. its truely bizarre.

We were lucky though, Sierra Blanca was sleepy town far enough out of the city that we only had glimpses of what was around us through the constant flow of border patrol trucks (which came equipped with caged camper shells that looked sickeningly like animal control trucks). The people in Sierra Blanca were warm and friendly, and welcomed us like they had Seattle hippies breaking down in their parking lot all the time. We were strangely blessed. We stayed a week, long enough to get some new parts, pull the engine, and put it back. We lived on the side of a freeway, in a parking lot, next to a truck stop. Its amazing what you can make feel like home if you have to.

We left Christmas Eve and headed into New Mexico. We splurged on a hotel room as a christmas present to each other (really for the shower! hot showers are better than gold when you live on the road). We headed west through the mountains in Cibola National forest, stayed a night in the snow, and then headed into Arizona.

Warm temperatures and Saguaro cactus greeted us as we sailed out of the mountains.

Leaving East of the Sun

2009-10-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our last couple of months have been spent with family in New York and New Jersey. The cool summer temperatures dropped lower and lower, the leaves started turning, and the mornings began to feel bitter and sharp. Until that time we worked and explored what we could of the North Fork, Fire Island, Manhattan, and New Jersey... It was really good and important for Daniel and I to spend some extended time with both of our eastern Families. We both have spent so much time away from them, and feel the loss. To be able to take some time and just have some good conversations, share some good food, and see each other for the real, living, beautiful, flawed, loving, family-strangers that we are. That meant a lot to both of us, toward each of our families and across, because it meant that we were really beginning to know each other in a way that distance has made difficult. We leave with a much greater understanding for who we each are, because of a clearer view of who we come from. We leave with love in our hearts, and new tools for our next journey. We leave grateful that these people are in our lives.

But, work was scarce, the grapes on the vines are unripe and wet, and this winter looks like its going to be cold...or so everyone says. We are setting our sights on The SW, searching for the elusive summer... We are not designed for cold and so we must follow the warmth, towards the West at a Southern angle. Weather has been a little unpredictable these days, but we try to stay in the shadow of the Sun (although we seem to just tail it, and it has felt like a year of Spring and Fall).
On our way out of the NE corridor, we stopped in DC. At the Capitol building, amid white marble and gleaming roman pillars, a protest/demonstration was taking place to protest the lack of attention and resources being given to addressing real answers to the problems of climate change. truely Democracy in action. I was proud for a moment of our system... although it was also a statement of how inadequate our efforts can be without a clear message behind them, because even though the demonstration was eye catching and visually interesting, their reason behind it was very unclear and vague. When you are standing in front of the Capital building, with a group of people attentive...you should probably have something to say (at least something that makes sense). It left us feeling both proud and disappointed. I guess Washington DC in general had that feel.

We were so relieved to step out of the concrete swirls, the towering shining walls of windows, the lights on everywhere, people crammed into every little pocket, and art (beautiful as it can be) always seeming to reflect the surreal scream of a silenced person.

We climbed the hills heading West and made our way to the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. We drove almost four hundred miles down the crest of the hills, skimming along the Shenandoah valley and the Appalachian mountain range. A beautiful time of year to do it! Although I believe they call folks like us leafers. But I don't mind being a tourist for this kind of art, it was unlike anything this NW native has really seen before! I don't even think my pictures actually do it justice, it had this otherwordly feel to it that was new and magical.

Now we settle and catch our bearings for a couple weeks, tinker with the bus, scope out any work, and enjoy Western North Carolina, which is definitely on our list of best places in the whole wide world.

The Kingdom

2009-08-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

We chugged into the hills of Vermont early July and headed straight for the capitol. Montpelier is a sweet little town on the Onion river with a thriving art scene, super friendly people, and lots of smiles for our little Juniper.
We are in heaven when the political hub of a state is also one of the most liberal and progressive places there, and in Vermont that means alot. Atop the capital building, there is a statue of Ceres-Goddess of agriculture. This is really our kinda place!!!!

There is of course a whole range of political views in Vermont (as anywhere) but the open and generally accepted philosophies of environmentalism, social justice, personal freedom, support of art, local economies, alternative energy, and conscientious marketing...is unlike anywhere we have ever seen. Seattle looks stodgy, slow and conservative by comparison!! (although Georgia still wins on that one!)

We headed NE to what everyone calls the NE Kingdom on the edge of New Hampshire and Canada. Although, really, the whole of Vermont feels like a Kingdom. Complete with the "US out of Vermont" bumper stickers and local papers dedicated to seceding!

There are an amazing collection of people in this wonderful little corner, all so ready and willing to give us a helping hand and show us the sweet spots. Everyone knows each other here and its like one big extended family...we just keep meeting more cousins! Not to mention the generosity that flows out of everyone here; we have been given work and respected for our trades, given soft beds to sleep in and wonderful meals, offered kayaks for the day, had a stranger buy us a book on hikes just for asking where a good place to go was, been included as volunteers for music festivals so we could experience weekends of music we would never have been able to be a part of on our limited budget, and so much more its overwhelming (in a good way).

We have had some awesome hikes with views that make us miss the Cascades and feel like no matter what, life is worth living. In fact, just driving down the road is a beautiful experience full of breathtaking greens and blues, pastoral meadows spotted with cows and horses, and the prettiest barns we have ever seen!

Vermont is amazing, really and truly, and not just because of the beautiful landscapes but because the people here have made it something rare and precious, they have held on fiercely to what they believe and what they love and it shows in the community and in the land. We've been told we came at the right time, and winters are another story...and from the photos and descriptions of horizontal blizzards and twelve foot drifts of snow, I believe it is something to be reckoned with, but the rugged and difficult months is a part of the power in this land and in its people. Everything and everyone that lives here is a survivor willing to fight tooth and nail for what they believe is true and the life that they love.

When the winter heads to spring and the maples start to flow with syrup, the metaphor is clear: You have survived the harshness of scarcity and the bite of bitter cold, and yet, isn't life sweet? Now there's a lesson worth learning.

Summer in the City

2009-07-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Just before we made our way back to Yankeeland we spent a wonderful two weeks staying just outside Asheville, NC (For anyone looking for great places to end up in the US of A, this area is on the top of our list). We stayed with some really good folk in a little town called Marshall and didn't want to leave...luckily we will see them again in the Fall!
For now, it was time to head up to the land of cities and visit our families before making our way to the great North. We drove for 22 hours with a four hour nap in a grocery store parking lot in Virginia. We skirted DC and Philly, and wrapped around to head east into the thick of urbanity.
We were able to make it to Long Island just in time for Father's day (just don't tell my Dad that, he doesn't believe in it) and spend a few days on the North Fork. We then spent some quality time with Daniel's big beautiful family in NewJersey, and headed to Manhattan for the
fourth of July with Uncle Billy and Uncle Robbie.

Cities are such strange powerful lonely

beautiful overwhelming enticing terrifying creations

We leave now, moving still North. Caught momentarily in an eddy of family, community, and swirling roots, we pushed at the top of the whirlpool and are flying out towards Canada. We will land soon in the Northeast Kingdom.

The Blue and Smokey hills

2009-05-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

May in the south has been cool and rainy, thoughts of the Northwest and Seattle have been hard to avoid and we both are feeling a bit homesick... We have landed in the foothills of western North Carolina, just outside of the Smokey National Park. They don't mince words down here and the area we find ourselves in is called the blue mountains and the Great Smokeys for obvious reasons. Its gorgeous out here, no doubt about it. The farm land is straight out of a dream, or a movie, or a storyteller's imagination- y'know, something that seems too good to be true. The rolling green hills are lush and fertile and there is an amazing history of Appallachian mountaineers who really knew what homesteading was about, although that is being lost quickly and industrial agriculture and nonsustainable practices seem to be the norm here now. We are staying with a family who run a Timber framing business out of their home and ancestral land. Daniel has been hard at work fulltime learning the ancient trade, and its right up his alley, we're both excited about the possibilities it opens up and inspires. I'm putting together their family garden so they will be eating yummy organic foods all summer! We will be staying around a month, just a couple more weeks left, and then exploring the area a bit before we head north for the summer. The people around here aren't quite as sweet as the ones we met in Georgia, mountaineers are a quiet and reserved bunch, but we've been staying in just one area so hopefully when we explore a bit we'll find more kindred spirits! We look forward to seeing a little of Tennessee and Kentucky if we can manage it as well, and these days bluegrass is about all we listen to. The accents here are different as well, less languid and more bubbly. G's are dropped as a matter of course, "and everythang" is tagged on to most sentences, and when you walk into a room full of people you say "Mayonnaise a lot of folk heah!"

Georgia on my mind...

2009-04-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

We are moving on again, after a not-so-short stay here in middle Georgia. We thought we would be here just a month, but it has been four and still its hard to leave. There were so many projects, people, moments, memories worth staying for and our time here has been blessed and amazing. Salamander Springs was full of life and learning, and really good people, we are so lucky to have chosen that as our stop off point...although these days I believe less and less in luck and more and more in kismet. The quality of things coming together in a way that makes sense even though you never expected it.

It was sad to leave the farm, I had just named all 25 chickens,

planted 17 garden beds full of food, and saw the Farmer's market off to a rolling start.

Daniel had built a frame and roof out of timber from the land, installed a solar panel and well pump, built some kick ass latrines, and cut enough fire wood to warm a village. Our last project was building a butterfly garden at an art school in Macon, a satisfying and heartwarming finish to our time here.
It was starting to feel like home.

It was also starting to feel like Spring, and lovely as that is here, dogwood and cherries blooming away, its time for us to see what else is out there.

We head North again due to what the weather tells us (we hit mid 80's here easy, and its april, I shudder to think of Florida in the summer). North Carolina calls us with its blue and smoky mountains and cooler summers. We have another farm to stay on that sounds exciting and interesting, and before that a week of hiking just to clear our senses.

Georgia has been awesome and full of fun and opportunity. We have met so many beautiful people here, and we WILL be back. If not for the friendly smiles, huge hearts, and languid drawls then definitely for the BBQ, catfish, and fried green tomatoes.

Salamander Springs

2009-01-13T08:59:00.001-08:00

We are in middle Georgia now. What is referred to here as the deep south, with a tone that slightly implies that deep actually means real. Its beautiful here even though its winter, we're going through record cold temperatures right now, which means theres frost on the grass in the morning and the wind picks up at night. For the most part though its like springtime in Seattle, with a couple days of summer thrown in here and there.
We live on a farm called Salamander Springs, 50 acres, probably 20 of them actively used by little homes and garden space. Its a great place, we've fallen in love with it and plan to return. Debbie, the owner and mother hen of the farm, is sweet as can be and reminds me of my Mom all the time. They are pretty much the same age, teach english, are Unitarian, were/are hippies, are always busy, always taking care of everyone around them, scatterbrained and wonderful! There have been lots of WWoofers in and out, and we've made some pretty awesome friends already. There are projects galore and we are busy everyday. The only electricity comes from a solar panel, and the only running water is from generator pumped rain water. We cook over open fire and drink fresh spring water. Its kinda the greatest.

Outerbanks, NC

2009-01-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

We left the Jersey Shores from the very southern tip and made our way south through what is called the Delmarva peninsula (a long thin stretch that is a little bit of Delaware, a little bit of Maryland, and a touch of Virginia....political boundaries are so weird...). We crossed the Chesapeake bay bridge-tunnel, an interwoven up and down blend of underwater tunnels and overwater bridges that spans the 20 mile stretch of Chesapeake Bay meets Atlantic Ocean. We landed on the tip of Viriginia and cut through Virginia Beach as fast as we could, a scary, slightly nauseating mix of private beach houses, cheesy tourist traps, and military bases. Not really our scene...
Then we reached North Carolina... When you are on the coast of NC, the outerbanks starts pretty much at the Northern state line and follows the coastline down. It is a series of islands linked by bridges and ferries that is known as the graveyard of the Atlantic because of its treacherous sand banks and everchanging shoreline. At the northern point you can just drive across a short bridge to get on the islands, at the southern point its an hour and a half ferry to reach the mainland, and at that point you are almost to SC.
We love these island and spent 4 or 5 days playing on the sand dunes (ahh,Oregon we miss you!), hiking through beach grass, learning the maritime history of lighthouses and sunken ships, and talking to the kind and friendly locals (Thanks to Buffy for letting us use your house for warmth and showers, it was like our prayers had been answered!). We came at the right time of year, it was quiet and beautiful (although cold and gray). From what we heard summers are a mad house of beach parties and kite surfing.
We left the Outerbanks a little regretfully, it had been so peaceful and beautiful, and the first little town we entered in South Carolina, we stopped for coffee at a little country store. A older man stood on the porch welcoming passerbys in, and he squinted a little at our gypsy bus and salty wind blown faces.
"Y'all just come off the ferry?" he asked.
We nodded and Daniel introduced himself.
The man's face softened, "ahh, Daniel, now thats a good biblical name," he said "come on in and get warm".

Migration season

2008-12-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yaaay! We are finally heading back out on our adventures and explorations. We are transforming ourselves into snow birds and heading south for the winter!

We took a little hiatus from our blogging monologue when we strapped down and worked our butts off to save for further travels as well as buying and installing our brand new engine (not to mention the new paint job, juniper berry blue). We figure we have spent enough time being stationary though, and now that our country's political train is back on track, we feel better about this land we are exploring... We are just pulling the last minute details together now and visiting the last of the family in Jersey, before we head south toward warmer weather. The first snow just fell last night, and thats as good a sign as any that its time for us to go. We will miss eveyone and their warm hospitality, especially strolling on the Jersey shore and puddle jumping in the big apple!

Long Island took a good chunk of time but we got some details squared away that will save us in the future, no doubt. Juniper is settling into her new engine and we can't wait to move back in. Next stop, Georgia! We will be driving down along the eastern seaboard to Savannah. We want to take our time and explore the coast, especially the outerbanks in North Carolina, but we should be in in Georgia within a week. Then we head inland toward Atlanta, Macon to be more precise... We have arrangements to stay on a farm there, Salamander Springs Farm, to be exact...and we cant wait! 50 acres of work in progress toward sustainable living sounds just right! We'll see what we have in store for us when we get there, but we can't wait to get our hands dirty...:-) we will stay there through the holiday season, and then head into Florida as the year begins anew. We have made contact with a farm outside of Miami that we are excited to visit as well, but more on that later...

For now, we are ready to set out again, its been wonderful to spend time with all our eastern families, but the road is calling us with its tantilizing tune and we have even greater adventures ahead of us. We will do our best to keep posting as we move around, so stay in touch, be well, and we miss you all!!!

Little Napa

2008-09-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

The North Fork of Long Island boasts 40-something wineries on its 40 mile stretch, besides pumpkin farms and some veggie stands, vineyards rule the land here. So our lives are immersed in wine and grapes and salty sea air. Recently we had the opportunity to work a rush grape harvest, rush because a salty nor'easter was coming our way and when a storm hits here you gotta prepare for it! We had to get the grapes in before it hit because mold had taken hold and the grapes were headed downhill. My Dad was not pleased, he was waiting for their flavor to be of spiced apple, not Granny smith (or whatever). It was a grueling four twelve hour days, with 20-something workers handpicking and cleaning the chardonnay grapes. We were the only english speakers, and stood out a bit, but we are hard workers and love the outdoors so we got along fine. (I think word got around that i was the winemaker's daughter, so they weren't sure what to make of us... I hate that...) But, work is work and we'll take it- after all we have a new engine to pay for! The best part was Ziggy got to come with us, he had a blast exploring the acres of grapevines and eating sour grapes (boy did he stink). Everyone was highly amused by him, and we were proud of our good dog.

There is probably more to come in terms of grape picking and our new juniper inards are being ordered as I write (shiney and new) so things are moving along...October creeps up on us and tonight the first presidential debate will be shown. Strange times and the future awaits.

Life on the eastern shores

2008-09-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

We have settled in somewhat to our new (temporary) home here on the North Fork of Long Island. We had a (way too short) stop off in New Jersey, for some much needed time with The Aguilars. Iggy and Grumpy are the best grandparents ever! We will have to head back soon, but for now we are finding our space here in Greenport. Its a beautiful little Harbor town on the tip of the North Fork. Our favorite spot is a short jaunt away on the LI sound. 67 steps is a lovely little beach that remains unusually uncrowded and maintains a wild rugged feel in the midst of homes 200 years old and human activity everywhere. Ziggy can't get enough and it takes quite a bit of coaxing to get him back on the leash to go home.
Its a nice break from working in the garden, building fences, pouring wine in the tasting room, and repairing papa Eric's slowly crumbling victorian home. In the evenings, we cook together and drink wine. Then we settle in for an evening of political commentary on TV. This is a crazy time as our country falls apart and people battle for the popularity contests that rage on the boobtube. We are scared to see what happens as this election winds up. Watching Palin happily distract voters with bullshit just like her predecessor Bush is disgusting, watching McCain flop around like a fish out of water desperate to dive into the pool of power called the Republican administration is frightening. Please may Obama win and may we begin to heal this injured country. Until then we will spend as much time at the ocean shores loving the beauty that the world still creates, and thankful that we have each other in love.
Dreaming of the day we set out on the road again, when the country has decided on sanity or suicide.

The Heartland

2008-09-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hello All! We are past the mountains of the West, the desert, plains, Mississippi river, and endless miles of corn and soy fields. Seriously, five states worth of mono-cropping the hell out of the earth. New wind mill farms popping up all over Nebraska and southern South Dakota, though, really interesting to see and a breath of fresh air (no pun intended).
The Mississippi river was just like Mark Twain describes it, even the northern Iowa part, and we loved it (minus the mosquitoes and the flash rain storm) and can't wait to see the southern side. Onto the heartland (Indiana) where The Adang family fed and sheltered us for a week and Leah's sweet mama flew out to celebrate her birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!) Daniel says: I have never felt so welcome and comfortable with someone else's family. Grandma's house was opened to us fully, including the refrigerator. She is an amazing Lady and the best family narrator I've ever met. (THANKS GRANDMA!) It was great to see everyone and we headed out with full hearts and bellies towards Ohio.
So with the 100 degree days and the nine thousand foot passes behind us, we roll through the first hundred miles of flat lands of Ohio. We pull off for gas and squeakety-squeak-clunkety-clunk-clunk goes the engine and then it sounds like Thor is bashing around in there with his hammer. Knowing that something horrible has just occurred, we kept our cool and assessed the situation. The diagnoses is grim. It turned out to be a thrown rod bearing, broken rod, and most likely a trashed case (laymens terms: we need a new engine). Not a good feeling as we are a state and a half from our destination. Went in the gas station and talked to the owner, who told us about a guy who works on VW beetles just a mile away. So we called him and he towed us to his shop, for free, and he called everyone he knew in Ohio that was associated at all with VWs (Thanks Bill!). An all day ordeal of trying to find an engine that was close enough for us to replace ours, ended with a call in to U-Haul for a truck and trailer to haul the damn thing to Jersey (Juniper carried us to Ohio, so we figured we could carry her to NY). Not exactly how we planned on making our entrance, but no worries, we got here and life is still grand... Juniper needs some work now, but we have all the time in the world and the east coast at our finger tips!

Mountain Time

2008-08-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

We have been slowly making our way across the mountainous west, crossing time zones and continental divides in search of the next best view. Let me tell you, you can see pretty far from 10,000 feet! Juniper is not a fan of the climbs though (our poor little mule), so when we reached Jackson hole, we gave her a rest and took to the hills on foot. The Tetons are right there, Towering over everything with their dramatic cliffs and cloud scraping peaks, but we headed just east of them into the Gros Ventre Wilderness for some communing with the Elks, Coyotes, Wildflowers, and scattered summer Glaciers. It was quite a hike out to Torquoise lake (round trip somewhere around 20-30 miles, reaching around 9,000 feet a few times), tucked into the the hills like the little jewel it was named for, but much needed after days of sitting on our butts. Ziggy ran circles around us the entire time as we summitted passes, and 4 days later is still barely walking (poor stiff doggy).
We headed into Yellowstone next...Buffalo, Bears, and Moose, oh my! no kidding, theres an amazing amount of wildlife there. Around each bend in the road is a new scene, a different ecosystem, unreal formations of land, water, and creature. It is a crazy beautiful Park, but a Park nonetheless, with so many tourists, and everything costing too much (although comparable to Seattle!). We stayed one night and headed out into middle of Wyoming. Daniel had childhood memories of a place called Thermopolis (Hot spring county, so you see the draw). We pulled into a little town in the middle of the desert famous for its unusual volume of hot springs bursting from the ground. We headed straight for the funky little RV park he remembered from when he was thirteen (all the springs are pretty much privatized there, now, although back in the day it was Shoshone territory), The Fountain of Youth! A wonderfully kitchy Americana site owned by a nondenominational missionary minister named Ron (whose younger days were spent as a musician in Seattle, its a small world after all). The spring was discovered by oil prospectors, who were disappointed to strike hot water instead of black gold, and now fills two swimmimg pools with the 1,300,000 gallons of mineral rich piping hot water per day while Johnny Cash and the Steve Miller band plays on an old radio. Its a funky little place, known only to a lucky few, with no shame in its tackyness (the spring sprays out of a strange volcano shaped rock at one end of the the swimming pools, and RVs fill the ajoining campsite) . We loved it. Good people, quarter showers, and sulfur water....mmmmm.

We are headed into plains country now, hot and dry, Lakota holy land. Juniper keeps on truckin' and we have left the craggy mountains of the west behind. We now enter the heartland of America.

"Its a Dogs Life"

2008-08-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt about it, The life we have chosen is straight out of Ziggy's dreams. I wonder sometimes if he has been sneaking up to us in the middle of the night and whispering sweet nothings about the freedom of the road and the joys of discovery, just to get us to quit our jobs and take to the road for one long road trip with him at our side. I wouldn't put it past him.

He has this blank Buddha look that seems to say everything and nothing all at once.

So now, to his great relief and satisfaction we are finally doing it. We have the house that is on wheels, we are always together, we are either driving, playing in nature, talking to people, or exploring where our food comes from in all its many forms. Ziggy couldn't be happier. As for us, we think our dog is secretly pretty smart.

We share very important goals in taking this adventure, which generally come down to experiential learning(local culture, land, foods, the insights and ingenuity of people and nature everywhere) and self reliance. We have plans and dreams and goals as we go along but mainly we are here to have an open mind and keep on opening it. We are here to try a different way of organizing our priorities, to shed what we can't carry, and let this vast country be our backyard (and living room, entertainment center, guest room, and ummm kinda you name it)... while taking care of ourselves body and soul without the luxuries and confines of a rooted community. In many ways we are still learning from Zig: learning to be cautious and aware at all times while still remaining warm and compassionate; learning to find fun and adventure in all that we do; learning to stay close together and appreciate what we have and don't have; learning to trust our basic instincts.

Its not so bad, really, having the dreams of an animal. Its simpler and logical, yet infinite and ever changing.

It feels natural.