Travel (ii) - New Mexico
"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream
made or paid for in factories."—Ray Bradbury
I love to travel - trekking, movement, wayfaring, exploring - I need to feel like I'm discovering something new...
Planning & preparation. List-making. Day-counting 'til departure! Imagining the new sites & sounds. Early rise for the airport. Cutting through morning sky clouds, on the way. Wishing minutes away, anticipating the arrival. Finally landing. Friendly cab drivers, a wealth of happily-shared local info and tips for visitors. Hotel arrival. Exhausted yet exhilarated. Needing a nap, running on adrenaline. Taking the local city bus through Albuquerque, to the end of the route. Sun setting, a local passed out on the sidewalk (taken down by heat or alcohol, or both; there is need for compassion for humans everywhere)... Another kind of early rise. Still-city morning. A breakfast of white bread and colorless apples; America you use too much salt & sugar. Rental car, driving up the desert highway. Wheels on the road, thoughts in the moment, no chance of thinking 'bout 'home'. Exploring ancient ruins, Pueblo culture, and buying hand-made pottery from the villages. Scratching the surface with words. There is so much...
Back at the hotel, swimming in the pool. Dinner time, no one else doing the breast stroke. Room service, scanning the day's photos. Listening to the Alex Skolnick Trio, Last Day in Paradise. After this day, yes, fine if it was!
Home again, planning the next trip for the last week of August. Oregon Coast. Can't wait! This Fall will be busy. My rehearsal studio is closing. Need to move, set up a new space (sigh)(more later...). Weekly work hours will be reduced then, while taking courses in counselling psychology (more later)... In the meantime, dreaming of travel, of new paths and places, from where all of this will look different...
"Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley." Theodore Roethke
