4/13/08 - Santa Fe, NM

We left winter behind today. We had another beautiful drive from Vail, back to Denver, then through the Rockies again to Taos, New Mexico, which sits just at the foot of the Rockies on the west side. It is a quaint little town; we had some good Mexican food there, turned in early and watched a movie in the van.

This afternoon we drove to Santa Fe and enjoyed walking around "old town," doing some window shopping of the beautiful pottery, artwork and colorful clothing here, and browsing the Indian street vendors' hand-made jewelry. FireCat found an engraved silver guitar pick that he couldn't resist. Although there's still a little snow on the surrounding mountains, the sun was out and it was lovely. Temperatures for tomorrow are projected in the high 70s so that is a big change for us.

We will be trading in the morning and then driving down to Albuquerque for our favorite sushi. I spoke with my cousin Kevin this evening. He lives near Phoenix and we will be able to stop and see him at the end of the week on our way to Sedona. It has been a long time so it will be good to reconnect and catch up.

Sante Fe is the first place we have returned where we have been before on this trip, so we are feeling like we are really heading home now. We both have mixed feelings. We are not sure how it will feel to be there. We have talked today about what we might be doing differently in our daily lives at home that we wouldn't do "on the road."

In many ways the routine is the same. We trade every weekday. We find time for reading, movies, talking. Sometimes we cook and sometimes we eat out. I try to find time to walk, although I miss the beach that's at home. We seek out musical entertainment, and perhaps have had more opportunity to find the kind of music FireCat appreciates. Of course, we drive more too, and we socialize with new acquaintances rather than old friends and family. However, much of what we do is similar to what we do at home--we just do it in different places.

We feel fortunate to be able to take our work with us so that we can experience different parts of the country. We hope to take that to different parts of the world. So far, we have found only a couple places we would consider returning to for partial-year living, but we are not finished looking. ;)

I have spent over two years preparing myself to live lightly on the earth, becoming a citizen of the world with easy mobility. This trip has been an initial foray to test whether the reality of the experience can measure up to the imagination of the dream. It has gone better than expected. Yet also it gives me renewed appreciation for the Central Coast of California and I look forward to going home for awhile.

But I get ahead of myself, for the current adventure is still in full swing....