Passport to Retirement

Highway to hell, stairway to heaven, leaving on a jet plane, where the streets have no name, everybody’s looking for something. The passport to retirement reveals a journey forward, to new dreams, and a journey backward, to reclaim those pushed aside.         Passport

Home Territory

  I am not exactly homeless. I just moved around during my working years and made a home for a while wherever I landed. Now, I travel fulltime in my RV. I started in the Midwest and then spent most of my adult years in the West: Colorado, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Idaho. When asked, Where…

Travel Tales: Hillsboro, New Mexico

  After our stay at Percha Dam State Park, my friends Betty and Sharon headed north, back to Colorado. I headed west, towards the mountainous Gila National Forest and Silver City on Hwy 152. The road wound back and forth, over the Black Mountains. However, the eastern slope of the National Forest was parched and…

Elixir Daydreams

e·lix·ir əˈliksər/ noun noun: elixir; plural noun: elixirs a magical or medicinal potion. “an elixir guaranteed to induce love” a preparation that was supposedly able to change metals into gold, sought by alchemists. a preparation supposedly able to prolong life indefinitely. noun: elixir of life; plural noun: elixirs of life a medicinal solution of a…

Desert Wind Storm

Did you read Dune, by Frank Herbert? I cannot tell you much about the plot details, but I still remember the vivid desert scenes and the global windstorms that hampered the heroes. I also remember that they rode on giant sand worms who could navigate through the blowing sand. Dune is the most famous science…

Not Purple

Quick! What colors do artists use to depict the beauty of the desert Southwest? Terra cotta, pinks, and purples are among the most common, as seen below. Here are a few Southwest quilts with purple as the dominant color. Yet, the landscape is not purple. Perhaps, on a rare occasion, the sunset reflects purple tones,…

Summer 2017 Plans

I finally tracked down my busy son and daughter-in-law and shared my summer news. Now I can tell everyone–I will be a camp host for the National Forest Service, right outside of Yellowstone National Park in Gallatin National Forest. This gig is a bit different from most camp host jobs. My main task is to…

Aunt Bee and Me

I have not fallen into a vat of tequila or impaled myself on a barrel cactus. I have been wandering this past week, a bit further north in New Mexico to meet up with friends who came down from Colorado. Before I write about that, I have something hilarious to report. I was back at…

Sunday Reflection: Immigration News

Positive Developments  A coalition of movie theaters have organized screenings, to be shown in May, featuring films from countries named in President Trump’s travel ban. The series, “The Seventh Art Stand,” announced this week, will take place in community centers, museums and theaters. More than 30 venues in states such as Hawaii, Washington, New York, Texas…

Throw Your Representatives into a Creek!

I will get to the part about throwing politicians into a creek, but first this: Every terrain excites me: desert, mountain, seashore, prairie, riparian. Naturally occurring terrain, not endless farmland. However, not everyone agrees with me about the inherent beauty in all natural settings. I know people who think of the desert as “wasteland”, or…