Taking The Long Way Home

Laramie, Wyoming is not my favorite place. I have a little soft spot for it because my son Danny went to school there, at Wyotech, and now is a happy Volvo Tech in Seattle. Thank you, dear Laramie, for that. We stopped for one noisy night in the KOA by the highway, which inspired us to get up early and hit the road once again. We decided on what looked on the map to be the scenic route. It was scenic alright, but in a strange, moon-prairie sort of way. Wyoming is not like any place I've been before. It's the wild west. It's cattle country and farm country. It's huge and wild and wind blown and very, very beautiful... I like to stop at least two nights in each place, preferably longer. Driving every day is hard on our bodies, and on my sanity. And a drive day is only that. Drive, set up, eat, sleep, get up and drive again. I like to have some time to explore a place, meet the locals, sample the cafes and pubs, and even set up the studio and get some work done. We can...

We're getting ready to leave Taos tomorrow. Picked up Daisy, the cat, from Deborah and Thomas's last night, along with a plant they'd been tending, and a pile of mail. What great friends to take care of our stuff like that. Next stop, Kathleen and Kat's, for a wonderful dinner in their outdoor kitchen. They're having major remodeling work done on their house, and have been cooking on the back porch all summer. It's really quite charming, and of course, it's always good to see them. We had Daisy in the truck all evening, and did a quick strategy planning on the way home, to see how we might work him into our little dog world without too much stress for any of us. We worried and plotted needlessly. Good old Daisy-boy (yes, he's a boy) moved right in like he owned the place, which he probably does. We set him up with his litter box in our tiny bathtub, and his bed on the top bunk, above the dogs. But being Himself, he nudged Lucy aside and made himself quit...

The Rio picnic was rained on , but not rained out . We had a grande time, and were happy we'd remembered to pack Gortex and umbrellas along with great food and wine. Katy and Jaap, before the rain hit. Katy in her Paris raincoat, and Rick in Gortex. Karena and I were the height of fashion... Jaap and Rick are both great hoopers! And of course we danced in the New Mexico rain! Today we have a few things to do in town, and then... you guessed it - a little dinner party with friends! I am getting kind of tired.

Ho Hum... another fabulous party with fabulous friends and fabulous food and drink... how much of this can a girl take? Just kidding! We had yet another blast last night, thanks to Karena's birthday hospitality, and the willing spontaneity of this fine group of friends. It was a spur of the moment gathering, pulled together gracefully with almost no planning at all. Even the semi-plan to spend the evening outside by the fire had to be flexible, since the recent dry spell has been broken, and the New Mexico Rain has returned... Click the link above and listen to the song. It always makes me cry, and lately, makes me feel like I might be missing something, might have made a mistake... This visit to Taos has been so... idyllic . I feel like something of a failure for failing to love the place enough to let it keep me. But even though we've not been on vacation away from Taos all these weeks, this trip back here is a vacation. And vacations are seductive. They make us think we w...

Is there any better reason to drive half way across the country and back than to go to terrific parties with favorite people? I think not. The first leg of our trip was to Monterey, for the big family birthday bash. And now we're back in Taos for the sole (soul) reason of helping Deborah and Thomas celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. We're having the best time. It was well worth the drive! (Visit Facebook for a whole bunch of pictures of people you probably don't know.) After two days of whooping it up with D&T, we're going to breakfast with our buddy Eleanore Macnish this morning, and then to Karena's this evening to celebrate her birthday. We'll get some rest when we leave Taos in a few days, on our way to Seattle for a super special wedding. More on that later. For now, the road goes on forever and the party never ends !

We're back in Taos. Only for a few days, but they're already tightly packed with friends and parties and business to take care of. It's kind of weird being back here. It seems like we just left, although it's been almost two months since we first set out. Time's a funny thing that way. Seems like forever, seems like yesterday. Maybe it's both. It was a long drive from Flagstaff to here. That stretch of desert that blurs Arizona and New Mexico has become very familiar over the years. It looks good right now, all soft sage and red rock, dotted with deep green pinon and cottonwood. Must have been a good wet monsoon season. I spent a lot of time knitting, and a lot of time watching for hobos on freight trains. The only time I've ever seen a "hobo" was in Mexico. I guess it's not as easy to hop a train here as it used to be. Or maybe everyone has cars now. I don't know, but I always watch for that lone silhouette in the distance. We arrived her...

Make a plan, and plan to change it... We're getting good at that. We left Solvang two days early... bad internet, expensive park, indifferent-to-surly service... Long story, which I will spare you. However, I have started to post reviews of some of the parks we stay in at RV Park Reviews.com . It's been a pretty useful site for us. My screen name there is "kimmiles", if you want to see what I thought of the Flying Flags RV Park in Buellton, CA... Next, one night in Needles, CA, which could have been hell , but was actually ever so nice, thanks to a riverside campsite at Fender's River Road Resort ... ...and a mini tropical vacation at the Naked Pirate ! A little more desert driving today, and we've looped back to Flagstaff, AZ. I will get some beads posted while we're here! And then we'll be on our way to Taos for a few days, some favorite friends, and a great party... or two, or three...