North bound! part I

this ain't no desert mushroom

Our first trip back home since we left in November greeted us with incredibly lush green, grassy, leafy fullness.  We had no idea to what vibrant extent it was flourishing up here, as MN (and WI) was already hot, humid, and getting rain quite regularly since the end of May.  We left mid-90 temps in Sedona, only to arrive in the same exact temps up north!  That was a surprise.  Altho great to be back among all the mushrooms, flowers, and tall, full trees, in contrast from life in the desert.  I was stoked for a couple full months of MN summer; swimming, camping, frisbee golf, hammocking, biking, mushrooms, time with friends and family, Dance Church, lots of dancing (Maaaaan, I miss my live house and techno DJs!)... etc.  I really do enjoy living in Sedona, AZ, but I was really excited to come back up north.

Our next travel plans out of Sedona were for sometime in late June or early July, to again be part of our local Burning Man event in MN.  But as life and luck would have it, the clouds parted amidst our new work situation, allowing us the opportunity to blast off much sooner than anticipated.  Well-over a month sooner.  So we decided to go for it!  With only several days to figure out a plan and get our ducks in a row, we found a spot to store the RV, ate up all the food in our fridge and freezer, found a babysitter for our sourdough mother and house plants, packed up our tent and sleeping bags, then took off the 4th week in May.

Colorado

We decided to leave the RV behind, and resort to couch surfing between friends and fam, so we could more easily drive through some of the Rocky mountains, and make it in a shorter amount of time, since we had a particular day that we wanted to arrive by:  Joel's mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary + niece's graduation party on Saturday, May 21st. 
Last we spoke to anybody about attending, we were not going to be able to come.  So we kept our change in plans to ourselves, that way we could surprise everyone.  It was so fun to do this!!  I have never surprised so many ppl in so short a span of time.  It was an absolute HOOT.  I was so giddy about this before we left, and my excitement only grew every day along the whole drive up.  Seeing the look on family and friends’ faces, and hearing them freak out... HAHA... it was so much fun.  This went on for about a month! 

Everything worked out and fell into place so wonderfully.  Without even planning, or knowing about it, we arrived only moments before our niece was about to drive off to her high school graduation ceremony.  We were able to attend, and she about peed her pants when she saw we were there!  (Details in part II).  The party the following day was lovely.  We surprised my parents a couple days later.  And more friends after that. 

We left on a Monday, giving us 5 days to get home:

Overnight on the edge of Albuquergue, NM

BYE BYE SEDONA at 4pm.  Today’s driving goal is Albuquerque, about 300 mile away.  New Mexico landscape and scenery felt pretty different from AZ.  Hmm!  Neato.  We hit our goal.  In the wee hours of the ‘morn, we pitched our tent at an interesting city-run campground, just outside/ practically in town.  It rained a bit on our drive.  The ground was wet when we set up our tent and the air very humid.  I thought this was the desert?!  The following morning we overheard a park maintenance worker say that it hadn’t rained there in over a year.  Over a year!  And last night, they happened to get a nice little 10-minute downpour.  I thought it was neato that we were there for it.  (TIMING!) 

TUESDAY was our busiest day (so I'm breaking this blog into two parts), doing a variety of things outside of the truck.  First stop was breakfast in some teeny town just outside Santa Fe, then on to Taos.  We hung out there for a couple of hours.  I'd like to go back and spend more time one day.  Maybe go snowboarding!  The mountains were beautiful.  A fun town with tons of history to dive into.  Lots of yummy native culture.  We shopped in the town square a bit as I was on the hunt for a wooden flute.  (I didn’t find it.  my gut tells me it's back in Sedona.)  Amazing gem and fossil shops!  One place had a lizard stuck in some Amber, not for sale, just for looksies.  The shopkeeper took it out of the display case for us to hold and view closer.  Fascinating.  They claim it’s about 5 million years old.  WooWee!  We left Taos to press on into Colorado.  We went over the Rio Grande for the first time ever.   WHOOWEEE!!!WOW.  holy crap.  What a sight that is.  
Not far passed that I swerved to avoid a live snake in the road.  “That looked like a rattle snake!” Joel said.  I kinda thought so too, going off of the colors of their skin that I’ve often seen in pictures.  So, I finally saw my first rattlesnake.  HeHe.  Not far passed THAT we whizzed by the EarthShip homes community.  I was so excited!  Back when Joel and I were first dating, we watched oodles of youtubes about these amazing, unlimitedly creative, self-sustaining homes that were being experimented with in some open area of New Mexico.  And now, here they were, so close I could almost touch them.  There was a sign down one of their roads that says they gave tours and info.  I wanted to stop in so badly.  But Joel kept us on track.  We had to get into CO, and then some, so we had to keep driving.  

We weren’t sure yet where we were gonna spend the night.  Joel referred to some camping app we have, and came across a very intriguing option, at the UFO Watchtower, located in the “mystical San Luis Valley”, outside of Hooper.  This place is RAD.  Out in the middle of practically nothing, (other than one hot springs facility, and a alligator farm!) there's a tiny dome structure housing a gift shop and admission office, with a large metal deck constructed all around the top of it.  We paid $10 for one night of camping.  There were 2 other campers parked at opposite ends of the land, but we never saw any other ppl.  

Entering Colorado

UFO Watchtower / camping!

We chatted it up for at least a half hour with the kind woman in the gift shop- about consciousness, God, Love, well-being, healing, and reality in general.  What a this kindred soul this was!  She said we were free to climb up to the observation deck after dark, after she’s gone home, but at our own risk.  And if we were to see any activity or have some kind of experience with our space brothers, would we please record it in the notebook that hangs outside? She claims to have had a variety of different experiences herself in this place.  Some of them touched her deeply.  I got to tell her my 2 stories, one happened in Peru, and the other out at my mom and dad's house in Bethel, MN.  Before we headed out the door, she also mentioned that numerous psychics and the like have visited this place, claiming to see/be aware of two very large- TALL- extraterrestrial-type beings on both sides of the structure that appear to guard and bless the space.

Now, I am often wanting to sleep outside without a tent around me.  But not very often do I feel it is a safe and comfortable environment to do so (critters being my main concern.  Or a clean, smooth spot to lay on my inflated pad).  Until today!  When she said we can go up top that night, I thought “WHOA!!  PERFECT.  I'm gonna sleep up there tonight!”  It’s high off the ground.  Nothing is gonna bug us up there, unless we’re sucked up by a spaceship, but that may not even be bothersome, so much as amazing.  I made up my mind I was gonna take my sleeping bag and mat up there and spend the whole night.  I was excited out of my gourd about the idea.

As if this wasn’t great news enough, we still had plenty of time left in the day to scoot down the road only a minute to Sand Dunes Swimming Pool & RV Park  (only a few more short miles from Great Sand Dunes Park Reserve).  We grabbed our suits and went to eat lunch and dip in the water.  This place was so fun!  Ya know what, actually, every single hot springs I’ve ever visited has been a blast.  And all so different;  creatively laid out, clean, soothingly comfortable; each with their own unique flair.  All so rejuvenating.  We paid a little extra on top of regular admission to hang out in the “adult area”- a walk down a lit corridor of old storage containers that lead into a GIANT room that used to be a greenhouse, converted into a luxurious chill space, with various temperature pools sprawling all over, and even a little baby pineapple plant thriving away!  One of their pools is called The Coffin.   HAHA.  We managed to get our entire bodies into it.  And after about 10 seconds, I said “I think we’re about to turn into a soup.  This can’t be good. ”  And Joel agreed.  We had to get out!  I think it was only half a degree before boiling point, is my guess.  (it said and I don’t recall.)

We hung out in the pools and chatted with some great ppl.  One older couple lived on the other side of the mountain range, a couple hours and then some, away.  They come here at least once a year with their RV.  They told us to for sure hit up the sand dunes national park tomorrow.  And suggested the most scenic route we could drive through on this end of the Rockies.  The bartender gal was fantastic- she has this wonderful story of marrying her sweetheart, having kids, living near a big city in CO and realizing she was caught up in the rat race… wanting her family to be closer, spend more time together, maybe even grow their own food, and spend more of her energy on things that really mattered to her.  So they left their jobs, downsized their possessions, moved to some homesteading land, changed their lifestyle quite a bit, and they’ve never been so fulfilled.  She bartends in this awesome place once in a while and just loves it.  Her energy and genuine smile were as beautiful as her story!  She enjoyed hearing our story, too.  There were others we met.  A few drinks had.  Lots of mineral-y water soaked up.  We left feeling ready to go home, set up our tent, and FINALLY have a friggin’ camp fire!!!  This was the first time in MONTHS that we were in a place with a fire pit, and no current fire ban in the area.  There was even a pile of wood left in our spot!  So we put it to good use. 

It was quite windy and had been all day, but we thought it would die down a bit.  It hadn’t appeared to.  It also got cold- much colder than I expected it to.  Would I really wanna hack laying outside in this all night long??  Joel and I meandered over to the watchtower deck to scope out the situation.  We climbed to the top and took in the clear, grand view of the vast sky.  The wind whipped here and there.  I was cold.  I was no longer feeling like putting my sleeping bag up here.  Maybe if I wake up in a few more hours it will be more calm, and I’ll leave the tent then.  WELL, I did wake up in the night.  I unzipped the tent and stepped outside.  I just stood there in my solitude for a few minutes, breathing deeply, looking at the moon, just gorgeous, orange, low to the horizon, with a feeling of calm stillness even though the wind occasionally whipped my hair across my face.  The temperature has dropped even more, as well.  I crawled back into the tent to sleep more, feeling so content under the light of the moon, casting a soft glow into our space.  

~ SO content.  So happy. ~

mornin'!

The next morning Joel stirred the coals and made us breakfast over the fire.  Then we had a loooong, but awesome drive ahead of us the rest of the day.  for that and the rest of our trek, see part II (i'm still workin' on it!)