Just back and finally rested from an 9-day road trip extravaganza that began Friday, June 30th through Sunday July 8th, 2018 – now.. eager to share our travel tales.
It was to be a road-trip vacation caravan with my daughter-in-law Jessica and Frenchie Charlie traveling in their rented & fully “packed” GMC Yukon XL, followed by Steve, myself and Lizzie in our old red Lexus to New Mexico. Lucas would fly in and join us all on July 3rd.
It soon evolved into a driving adventure of high heat endurance from the Santa Cruz coast of California, breaking our travel for a night in Flagstaff, Arizona, then on and into the middle of New Mexico – ending our drive in Eldorado at Santa Fe – while all the while – the bigger adventure became unearthing fun and joy in the middle of a crunch travel-time schedule and the desert delights that awaited us. (i.e. hi-heat, desert dark, spiders, big bugs, cactus stickers & coyote).
My son and daughter-in-law, Luc & Jess recently purchased real estate in Eldorado. A sweet – “waiting to be loved” – fixer-upper Adobe Bungalow in Eldorado at Santa Fe. Inspired and fueled-up by their awesome visionary plans to create a perfect vacation spot to offer themselves & others as a desired “get-away” from the city busy-ness and packed-in noisy feeling that San Francisco does so well – Step 1 Transformation was this trip’s target. And we (Steve, myself and Lizzie) were invited to get in on the ground floor of hands-on energetic preparation toward their creative vision.
This adventure included: dorm room style sleeping arrangements, attempting to ignore the thoughts of potential propelling insects from the gorgeous wood log beamed ceiling, circling air cooling fans of all sizes and functions to create environmental indoor ease, clearing innocent insect inhabitants just trying to have a life, cleaning abundant storage cabinets, scrubbing quaint tiled bathrooms and mopping beautiful brick floors, sealing-up an open roof-top vent left from a removed old pot-belly stove, and mending cool clay adobe wall holes left from pictures once hanging … basically doing all the things we Humans do to transform an empty house, through loving attention, into an enthusiastically adopted Home. And in the midst of this higher mission, we endeavored to limit the whining while enduring: the hot nights of too few screened windows, the affects of a drier higher elevation, the dark nights of braving roaming coyotes while protecting pups that seemed to wish there was an indoor potty area, and for me – I found myself challenged to shower standing next to a shower window open to the vast desert dark (what can I say? …scenes of an old creepy movie rolled around in my head) – did I mention how black the desert night can be? Still we got through it all – and found ways to poke fun and laugh at ourselves and our perception of our real or imagined struggle. We delighted in sharing the fun of chopping down dead trees with an axe! …. and mending fallen down gates and fences even while the desert winds kicked its dust into our faces … It WAS awesome!!! Seriously, it was like being back on my Dad’s Madera rancho all over again. There was so much to love in the midst of this very physical (100+ degree) dry heat endeavor.
Laughing, encouraging, challenging each other, and loving the pure abiding settling-in and new owner creation time we witnessed, and willingly contributed to, in Eldorado’s inhabited desert of historic adobe-style restricted homes held to the long enduring rich culture and tradition of their land and community. At night, during the nights I was lucky enough to sleep deeply, I was visited in dreams by my folks – both gone on now – who delivered blessings and a sense of joy about us being there. They seemed to be celebrating their grandson, Lucas’, venture into the land of his Grandfather. Very spiritual nights for me. Dad’s heart-land was Arizona but he loved the desert in general and would have been very happy to be on this trip with us all.
A couple of days into the bungalow’s cleaning, some time opened up for us to travel into Santa Fe to check out many of the shops and offerings there. An oxygen & healing bar holding promises of special H2O and spiritual refreshments came with warnings they might numb our mouth or head, or cause us to feel oddly different. Although none of that occurred, it was a unique experience. The air delivery technique was challenging for me to find a comfort spot with the nose tube of special healing air, and with it, I felt instant compassion for anyone who must endure 24/7 of this tube for their breath of life. As we explored Santa Fe, we were energized by the vibrant furniture featured in an enormous rug shop of 1 million enormous indoor European rugs – where they do inventory which never ends. They have importers who bring hundreds of amazing rugs, doors, exotic statues and unique pieces – in from the middle east and India – all fascinating and I wanted to bring everything home. As we strolled in and out of stores, Jessica carefully scouted each spot and captured some fabulous and creative bungalow enhancing items.
In every store that showed potential for creatively inspiring “home” stuff – we introduced ourselves to the sales folks and put our good friendly energy into the shops and the folks that may very well become the go-to spots for Jessica & Lucas. As Jessica and Lucas selected awesome furniture, rugs and accessories for their new investment, Steve and I felt grateful to be a part of the beginning of their Santa Fe adventure and happy for them – because we knew that this dream destination of their making was just a blink of time away from its full amazingness – just as they were envisioned it. All these events were super rich and rewarding- even when they were challenging. And oh! – the community LOVES dogs so our pups were welcome everywhere.
Fireworks for the 4th – were a serious no-no out in Eldorado and it makes sense with the dry hot terrain. One spark and a huge fire could fly. Instead we watched the sunset, cheered a cooler breeze-on and rested after long days of physical land-loving yard work. We did what people did in the old days, we talked. And then once the internet was up and running, we watched movies, played “Sorry” (I won against great odds) and even did some remote telecommuting for work. With each day we held intention to become more easily acclimated to this new environment and just when things began to flow more easily (after the plumber finally showed up!) … it was time to pack-up and head home.
At the end of our stay, on Friday morning, we dropped Jessica off at the airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had a family event to attend in Florida. Lucas and our crew continued our caravan onto Flagstaff, Arizona – for an overnight before Lucas headed onto San Francisco and Steve and I headed to Fresno. Both of us were looking at an 8 to 11-hour drive home. It sounds shorter than it felt, especially to my 65 year young bod. Our road trip home included a variety of weather systems from intense heat and sun, to severe winds, to powerful rain pockets and of course, miles and miles of road and gorgeous desert valleys & mountains.
After a brief drop into Fresno to check-in on some family, Steve and I finally arrived back home in Aptos, California around 2 a.m. Sunday, and were filled with renewed gratitude for the comforting Santa Cruz cool coast air…. And our own good ol’ big comfy bed! Big Gratitude full circle is a wonderful, wonderful thing!! Be Well everyone! XO
Slipping on the Moon 