A Cathartic Morning

Travel has consistently challenged my sense of stereotypes and my formation of judgments. We arrived in San Luis Obispo, CA, on Sept. 3rd, tired, as usual, from our 7 hour drive. All we really want to do is get into our Airbnb, which we have booked for a month. Now, remember we have only seen this in pictures and have paid ... well just say...a lot...so our expectations are high. We turn into our street and I wince...uh oh! Lawrence Avenue seems to be a bit gritty and I am very apprehensive about our choice of Airbnb. Cars line both sides of the street, houses are small, in need need attention, some under construction, others are covered with overgrown "landscape". (I'm being nice here.) This is when I made a judgment about the street and was instantly disappointed as to the area we chose. To my surprise this is what we found at the top of the hill. Our house...

and a few others.

Then comes my cathartic morning. I usually do a short guided meditation in the mornings before I get out of bed by a man named Cory Muscara from Mindfulness.com. This morning it began with the benefits of getting ouside, taking in nature and your surroundings. Great idea! Michael was still sleeping so at 7 AM I tiptoed out of the house and walked just to the bottom of the road and back, maybe 3/4 of a mile. It took me longer than it should have because I kept stopping to take pictures. I saw things close up that I missed riding in the car and I knew I would have to show them to you. I have been so bored with the same old cookie-cutter houses and neighborhoods of the many suburbs I have lived in and some of the people who have lived in them too, yet the minute I get a view of something messy or different I make a negative judgment about it. But as I walked I was so amazed at the beauty, diversity, funkiness and individuality of these homes and I loved them. Then I had this thought flash through my mind "I would like to meet these people." Whoa! What about the gritty I saw at first? And then I smiled and a cathartic smile it was. Thank you Cory for nudging me this morning to spend time in nature! My judgment was based on a stereotype of these small homes and, therefore, of the people who live in them. It was the creativity of their yards that loosened the strings that bound me. So here is a closer look at what I originally thought looked like crappy little houses and now see as different and inviting.

i

The Palms

In 34 days I will be 70. That’s bizarre. Maybe 60 or even 63. At 63 I retired and went on my way never looking back. I was full of energy, trim and healthy and ready to go…anywhere. Now I start my seventieth decade, slower, rounder, creakier and cheekier. But here I am, with Michael, moving forward still. I’m so lucky, still riding the highways and looking for adventure. Not bad for almost 70.

We breezed through San Diego…too chaotic!

Ran to the hills in Carlsbad, CA, to a calm, clean and quiet Residence Inn. Ahhhhhhh, I  love my Marriotts! 

Now, after driving to the other side of California to Palm Desert, we have settled in to a very nice and comfortable Airbnb for a week with outdoor space right on a golf course. We are not golfers but we can count on calm and quiet from those who do play. Notice what we put importance on. (Hmmm, I used to love cities.)  The only downside here is that it’s 113 degrees in the middle of the day. DESERT is the operative word but it also comes with NO humidity. 😊  Michael and I find this town very interesting. It’s an attractive town with everything you could want, yet laid out nicely. Except for masks, it feels like it’s in its own little world. Here’s a few pictures.

We are staying in a condo here and YES! it is as lovely as it looks.

Today we will head up to Palm Springs where we spent Christmas while on the road in 2014. We like seeing how places have changed in 7 years. More later!

                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back from Palm Springs. We drove up and down the main streets and some of the housing communities. It was over 100 degrees so we didn’t walk much. Here’s my take on Palm Springs. 

Many shops and restaurants have closed down but still lots of construction going on. Mandatory masks in all shops AND proof of vaccine if staying inside a restaurant. It felt like COVID hit it hard and they are trying to recuperate. There were still quite a few people walking around the downtown area and obeying the rules. 

Overall it felt tired. I think I can say I was disappointed but now thinking back on it I am more sad for it. Michael and I remember it as such a vibrant and fun place. It is presently working on revitalizing itself to make it the hotspot it used to be. Like a dried up garden it might come back to life with some long term love and care.

                                                                               

THEN

                                 

NOW

An opinion piece

As Michael and I drive across America I love to search for animals in the woods, in the fields, in the mountains, like horses, goats, cows etc. So imagine my amazement when we were driving along the highway in… yes…Texas... and I noticed a farm of animals of a different type. They were gazelles! 20 or so huddled by the fence that practically butted up against the highway. Hmmmm strange. What were they doing here in Texas? Hello google? This is what found. 

In Texas there are gaming farms where people pay a lot of money for 5* accommodations and the “chance” to hunt these gazelles. The farms are open all year as hunting these animals (and many other types, over 100 of them) is allowed anytime of year. 

From what I understand anyone can book a 5* bed and breakfast on one of these farms to the tune of $250. to $500. a night plus a trophy fee anywhere from 5K to 20K. Once you are settled and cozy 2 or 3 of these gazelles are set free to roam around the hundreds of acres at the farm. Then you get a chance to run around those hundreds of acres to shoot one. Lucky you. You can even hire a guide to help you find them. Now to top this off there are maybe 50 cameras set up throughout the property so the people back at the ranch can give you hints. LOL OMG fun fun fun. phfff!

I understand culling the herd, I understand hunting an elk so that your family can eat throughout the winter like the family I have recently read about in Haines, Alaska. But I don’t understand the thrill of a kill for a trophy and I especially don’t understand these farms that turn killing beautiful animals into a game. Here are two 'trophy' pictures.

There are 500,000 of these gazelles in the wild and at other farms around the world so one might say “oh then, no big deal” but one is still killing a living creature for fun!

There are only 500 of these Dama gazelles left so now you might be killing them into extinction. 

Still fun?

Remember, this is an opinion piece.

We have ravaging wars, a pandemic all over our world, racial injustice, suppression of women, decisive hatred, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and sicknesses we can't cure, all tearing us apart. AND we have people who think it's okay, or even lots of fun, to hunt down peaceful animals at a game farm just for the trophy. What have these animals ever done to not deserve our respect?

Did you know there are 2 trillion galaxies in the universe (at last count😉). We live in one of them and over billions of years we have evolved into who we are today. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good here and we can talk about that part later. Right now, in this world, here's my thought. 

What about the other galaxies, 2 trillion of them

There must be at least one other world

In one of those galaxies 

Where they have succeeded

Where we haven't

LET’S TALK ABOUT…

…Florida and Texas and what they have in common… I want to take a big pair of scissors and cut them off the USA map. (too harsh?)

Florida is pretty self evident…COVID, descantis, red tide.

Texas well ….

I will start with some good stuff. No humidity, yay!! Wind Turbines, lots and lots of them around Fort Stockton.

We saw one of these being transported but was stopped at a light. Very Wow amazing up close.

and the Texas waffle 

The skies, low, huge clouds kept my artistic attention. How do I get that white and gray to merge, what colors should I mix to get the different tones of gray and that peachy pink every once in awhile showing up. Beautiful!

That’s it!

Now the not so nice...

Sorry Becky for this one…

I was really looking forward to seeing San Antonio and Michael was too, even though he’d been there many years ago. It’s interesting to see places you’ve been to and how they’ve changed over the years. So many people told me it was really nice. So we settled into the Marriot Spring Hill Suites then headed to the Riverwalk because of the really nice reviews we read about it. If there was a river it was all dried up. We went on a Wednesday and everything was closed and the streets are filed with homeless. We drove around for a couple of days checking out different neighborhoodss but didn’t see anything we liked.  Also, “ tent cities” under the highways were disconcerting. Unfortunately, the  only word Michael and I could come up with to describe San Antonio was “gritty” and “disappointing”.

Our drive across the state was boring and long ( 3 days of driving with 2 nights of 😴 and listened to a book on CD). No masks anywhere except on us. We ate most of our meals in car or hotels. As Jeffrey said  “we have always been,  and will continue to be overly cautious”.  Very true.

We arrived in Las Cruces, New Mexico and saw lots of masks and friendly people. Our Airbnb was small but very clean. We ate Mexican food in Mesilla, NM where we shopped at the quaint plaza with shops which had mask mandates. We love that! 

AND if any of you are getting tired of my talk about masks you might as well stop reading these posts as that is a very important part of our trip…crossing the country, being safe and staying healthy.

More about New Mexico on our way back as Santa Fe is part of that route. 

Adios from me and Miguel!

PS I love NM, my feet feel good on the ground there.😉

Highways, Towns and Adventures and PREP!

Just before heading out.

Michael and I are at the last day of prep for our road trip. To where you ask? Who knows. What we do know is that we’re not ready to head to our beloved Europe. That trip will have to wait a until the world settles down a bit more, possibly sometime next year.🤞

But far be it from us to sit around the house any longer! So we are off to cross America again as we did 7 years ago. We’ll return to favorite places, check out new ones and meander through towns and side roads along the way, We’ll l drive long hours, talk, listen to music and books until we need sleep. Then we’ll do it over again the next day until we hit New Mexico. Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces ~ here we come!

That thing called ‘the variant’ is rearing its ugly head so no stops are set in stone. What we are good with is flexibility.

For now, we are setting up home prep such as readying the house for any upcoming hurricanes.😱 We hired a house manager ( we love his enthusiasm and he lives local, Yay!) All bills on auto pay, ✔️ Patio furniture is in, studio is closed up and miniature art supplies are packed and yes Michael has his computer which is stuffed with genealogy 😃. Chargers are full, ✔️vaccine card ✔️…oh and ice packs and a heating pad ✔️(Hey we are no longer spring chickens.). We’ve booked the first week, making sure all accommodations have good cancellation policies because that’s just the way we role…?Hey what’s down that road?

We’re exploring the USA map, plotting different areas and working things into our calendar. Calender? The last trip we took lasted over a year. This time we have no set timeline but pretty sure it it won’t be more than 3 months and remember, we are only a FaceTime away. Wish us luck, safety and happy trails! 

                                                  READY!                          

                                                Love to all! ❤️