Hopi Yer Well!

“This is something.”

“Isn’t it something else?”

[Joe drives 40 West toward the sunset. Our aim is Flagstaff.]

Hiiiii! It’s been a while! We’re eager at this time to share with you recent moments from our life. We don’t want to keep contained what moves us with such enormity, because the magic of our moments is growing, and we've felt the magnitude of our lows, too, so all the more reason to pull you in closer. Can we share this with you? We want to take every chance we’ve got to imprint this time in our minds – to let our neurons’ firing be of positive influence! And we want to give this to you, too.

Right now, Joe has uttered with the utmost sincerity, “wow, the colors,” for the 23rd time – and, honestly? If I’m telling you the truth? It seems almost unreal the immensity of the beauty, this lucky opportunity to know such an array of colors. The sweeping sky before us reveals tones heretofore unknown. I’m breathing it in, cause Gosh, I know this grand life to which I bear witness – I know it, because I am in it and I am of it! And here’s the kicker – here’s an absolute truth: as I gaze at the sunset glowing In Rainbows over the red stone and desert sand, I now know it to be true: life is one big TRIP – we’re all just tripping our way through. Life is a natural psychedelic made of the colors aqua, lime green, persimmon and blue – the colors of the Navajo, Zuni, and the Hopi - all the indigenous. And endogenous…

Life mirroring life, the inside reflected on the outside, the external a match for the internal, and again, the micro and the macro. Nesting dolls. Perfectly sized objects inside perfectly shaped holes. The innies and the outies. The cosmic and the cellular. The big raps on turtles’ backs aaallll the way down.

We’re just tripping on through! And currently our trip takes us to parts known in a van that we call home. It’s our Sprinter Starship and we’re driving on Route 40, heading West.

We want to tell you about New Mexico – suuuch a beautiful state! – for reasons geographical, artistic, cultural and culinary (we clearly never had authentic Mexican until last week). Albuquerque, or ABQ for short, is so colorful, and Santa Fe gave us the historic feels – we felt as if we were stepping outside time, enacting a scene from the early 90s TV drama “Quantum Leap” starring Scott Bakula – yup! That is us! We have Quantum Leapt to the year 1822 and we’re standing here in Santa Fe Plaza as the new trade route to Missouri is given dedication in a ceremony of men and boots. We can just feel the history now, in this month and year, rising out of the glowing sandstone. It’s quite the come up.

And right now we’re leaving that state and headed for the other – the ‘Zona! – for a second time this month. We’ll spend this week in Sedona, for the second time this life. We’ve left our plans for Denver and Salt Lake City by the wayside because, weather. We’ve not yet prepared our Sprinter Starship for freezing temperatures – our exposed tanks and pipes might not make it through, and why risk such damage to our home? We’ve had our hands full anyway, calling auto-body shops for little (and big) dings and dents our home on wheels has sustained (insurance claim), and we’ve also got a dead coach battery to replace, too (warranty-covered). Maintenance and travel: tripping is not for the weary! Don’t expect to emerge unscathed or untouched. When you’re tripping, whether inwardly journeying and/or along the outer roads, care must be taken to look after the well-being of your vehicle.

(Mid-November 2018)

Littlefreelibrary.org in Santa Fe, NM

Colorful streets of Albuquerque

One entire work day was spent here. They have bleacher seating and delicious lavender chai lattes.

Colorful ABQ homes.

ABQ Artwork

Free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and of the press; the right to assemble and to petition the government. The right of all citizens to vote regardless of race, color, or gender.

Zendo coffee shop.

Hip place with large, enclosed outdoor patio. “Cool” vibes - a place to be seen. Just stand at the counter until someone notices you, and then stand there a little while longer until your coffee is ready. Listen to patrons sitting at stools leisurely chatting with each other and the coffee-tenders.

Saint Francis Cathedral

This Catholic church in the center of Santa Fe is gorgeous. The stained glass windows are enchanting - the mood, peaceful and serene. It was built in the 19th-century on the site of a former church that was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

The arches and rose window of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Ashleigh as Kali the Hindu goddess, aglow in the stained glass windows of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

Joseph Francis with St. Francis of Assisi.

St. Kateri

The first Indian of North America to be promoted a Saint (1656-1680).

What's so miraculous about the stairway you ask?

Loretto Chapel staircase

It has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. A man with a donkey and a toolbox built the staircase and then disappeared. The Sisters of the Chapel believe it could have been St. Joseph himself who built the staircase in answer to their prayers.

A reposado tequila tasting at Sazón in Santa Fe.

Sazón

The cuisine and cocktails were quite classy at Sazón. They even let us cook our own salmon on a very hot rock delivered on a plate. ;)

Sazón

Six delicious, authentic Mexican moles with mini tortillas.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, SHOOT!

Canyon Road

Sculptures seen on Canyon Road in Santa Fe - a road that is home to more than 100 fine art galleries.

Why the long face?

MEOW WOLF!

Our Sprinter Starship's first snow.

Traveling West toward Arizona on a snowy Route 40.

Walking to Creekside coffee shop our first morning in Sedona.

Cereal Eating Policy

It’s like milk to cereal
butter to bread
salsa a tortilla chips
or ice to a drink

if there’s milk left, it’s like:
add cereal

olive oil or butter left?
more bread please

salsa? mas chips por favor

ice in glass? another round
and around and around
it’s turtles all the way down

That's not true

It’s my freakin’ birthday weekend and we’re about to have me some fun!
Actually, no, that’s not true - we have nothing planned.

Actually, no, that’s not true - we will have FUN! Fun will be had wherever we find ourselves, plans or no plans, cause that’s just how you roll in #vanlife.

Take for instance the fact that we just finished having breakfast, here in our van, in our PJs still and with a view of Nuggets Casino (we’re camped in their lot). The meditative drone of trains, trucks, and automobiles on highway 80 has become just that - a sound among a number of sounds woven seamlessly into the tapestry of our van-lot home of the past 12 hours. And this is where we begin.

It’s Friday, October 5th, and I’m Ashleigh Moore.

(Hugh Downs voice) And I’m Joe Saponare.

(Together) And this, is Namago on the Road. Day 140.

Joe is standing at the foot of the bed, arms raised, grabbing at bags and clothing from his cubby hole closet above our pantry. Only 47 minutes ago, I declared that we must agree on leaving this place (the Nuggets lot) and beginning our day (destination still yet unknown) no later than 11am. It is 10:59am.

In this minute I am sitting on our king size bed, in my pajamas, with a pillow and laptop balanced on my thighs. It’s Friday, October 5th, my birthday is two days away, and this is the third Friday I’ve had off since my new work schedule began: 4 days a week, 8 hours each day. I’m still not used to it. (This is good! A pattern has not yet set.) There must be a way to maximize what feels like the most optimal work/life balance I’ve had in my 34 years and 363 days of life, and this might be it (pajamas, parking lot, traffic sounds) – no, really! This might be it. It’s hard to tell, we’ve turned things so upside down and around – it can be hard to tell what counts as absolutely making the most of it when you realize that the “it” was there all along. Perhaps obscured by the doldrums, but “it” was there – “it” is the thing you choose, the thing you create and decide – the thing to which you give your time. “It” is whatever you make it! “It” is the ever-present moment, ripe with opportunity and choice.

“It’’ is the fact that here I sit, still, at 11:22am, and there Joe stands, at 11:22, bare-chested and coffee in hand, and we’ve chosen this. We’re here, and 12 hours from now we’ll still be here. Well, no, not at Nuggets concrete lot again (I can think of a few better boondocking spots), but we’ll be here, in this present minute, with this rising inhale and with sounds of the external (the trucks, the horns, the birds, the skies, the people loudly chatting as they carry their “to-gos” back to their Toyotta Corollas and Hondas that sit parked beside our beloved home) – these sounds, seamlessly weaving their patterns into our ear canals, entraining us to the constant HUM of our shared space, making us so comfortable that

seven

minutes

later

and we have finished the coffee, Joe has moved on to a tech project, and here I sit, ready for whatever – ready to throw down the lid and turn down the sounds of these patterns and turn up the volume on something new – the chance to repattern the comforts we love and to go, once again, on the road, knowing that “it” is always with us, it’s just a matter of how we choose.

11:31 am