Two months ago we were in Colorado dropping off all of our worldly goods at Will's parents' house to begin our new phase of life. Unfortunately, Dylan was plagued with the a 7 day stomach bug and we spent the entire time trying to keep her little body hydrated - so this round we did lots of playing. We.....
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Things we have learned thus far in our 5 days on the road…
1. How startling it can be while driving, when your 4 year old is watching Dora with headphones and yells “backpack” at the top of her lungs. 2. We MUST return to Santa Fe New Mexico as it is a gorgeous town that we weren’t able to explore enough. 3. An Earthship on our property is a MUST. The Earthship Biotecture community outside Taos New Mexico was incredible to explore and learn in depth all the concepts. We had a lovely conversation with Sean at the welcome center about the future of making it a reality once we land in Nova Scotia. 4. Black bears are very curious and very stealthy when they sneak up on you at 7 a.m. while you are getting in the van. He was literally within reaching distance as I got into the van in the morning before I even realized he was there. 5. Ordering breakfast burritos in New Mexico “Christmas Style” is a thing. The green chili at Tecolote Cafe in Santa Fe was to die for (of course Carolyn and Dylan thought it was a little too zippy). 6. Spiritual (hippie) communities do still exist and feel absolutely refreshing. We spent our first night in the lovely high desert/foothill town of Crestone, Colorado (populations 150) in a campground along the river. The town smells of pine reason and patchouli and the people were friendly and calming. We woke the next morning to a black bear walking within reach of our van as we were leaving our site. After exploring a few of the many dozens of temples/shrines in the area we felt as though we would love to do a retreat here in the future. 7. The US must have many, many “world records”. In our first 3 days we have already stopped at the worlds biggest rocking chair in Colorado, the world’s highest suspension bridge (Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado that held the record from 1920-2001 and is now considered the highest suspension in the US), and the world’s largest pistachio in Alamorosa, New Mexico. We also stopped at the oldest church in Colorado located in Conejos. A few thoughts on all of these… roadside attraction signs really do work as that is how we were attracted to all of them… how closely are these records truly monitored – I hate to play the skeptic, but that’s a lot of record breaking things in just 3 short days… and we need to be find the balance of where to stop and what to push through or our time on the road will take significantly longer then we had planned. 8. Bandelier National Monument is definitely worth seeing. We would suggest spending the night in the campground and getting an early start to avoid the crowds that begin arriving on the 9 a.m. shuttle. Having the park basically to ourselves allowed us to explore each dwelling and truly allow ourselves to picture how life must have been for the Ancestral Pueblo people 1000’s of years earlier. 9. Bring guide books - bring guide books. For us, we wish we had more in-depth guide books on plants, insects and birds for these southern regions. The landscape is ever changing, and it has sparked our curiosity about the plants and birds that we are passing at 70 miles an hour. The cactus along I-10 through NM and AZ are INCREDIBLE. 10. Try not to hold too strongly to your expectations while on your journey. Plans change constantly, a lot more then we had anticipated, and areas we thought we would enjoy deeply just didn’t hold our soul. Although a lovely small town, Taos did not call us to return the same way Santa Fe did. |
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April 2019
AuthorCarolyn and Will Bollwerk share their adventures with their 5 year-old daughter, Dylan. |