Archive for January, 2010
Posted on January 21, 2010 by angela
We again took to the smaller roads and traversed Arizona to Jerome. It’s an old mining town with Victorian buildings set high on a mountainside. We arrived just before sundown, and had a look around. The town is pitching the ‘ghost town’ angle, and by 5 things were closing down, making the the story seem likely. The Haunted Hamburger was recommended and we had a good time listening to stories about the strange occurrences that happened around town.
The next morning we headed north to Sedona. This place has long been on my list of places to go, and I was really excited to be there. There are canyons and red rock cliffs everywhere, an outdoor paradise. We toured the ‘vortexes’ , where supposedly people have reported feeling inspired by a beneficial source of energy. Jason was skeptical, but I swear it was one of the happiest days in my life.
Next we hiked Devils Bridge. We attempted to do several other hikes, as this one was out of the way, but Bode insisted on Devil’s Bridge. We finally gave in and headed to jeep territory. The dirt road was one of the more exciting trips the van has taken. Once we started we realized it was clearly a 4 wheel drive road (plenty of dune buggies,) but we were having so much fun it didn’t matter. Red Beard handled it like a champ – its all about ground clearance – but there has been something rattling around in the back ever since.
The hike was wonderful, and Bode was a real trooper. We hiked up to the top of a mountain for a killer view. Then, since we didn’t remember the flashlights, we had to race back down before the sun set.
Also, if you ask Bode to take your photo, your should probably specify that you want him to use your camera.
Posted on January 20, 2010 by angela
Seven years ago Travis quit his job as an architect and has been living out of a backpack ever since. Before we left on our journey, Jason re-connected with him while he was in Central America. After spending some time scouting the diving instructor circuit in Honduras, Travis headed back to the U.S. for the holidays. His latest stop was at his parents home in Alpine, AZ and, well, we were invited.
Good thing, too. It was a great stop.
Jason and Travis were buddies in high school and hadn’t seen each other in quite a while. They had lots of stories about getting into trouble together. It was mostly geeky trouble, so I was only a little frightened
Travis’ travel style is a little different than ours – it’s a game to him to see how little he can spend for food and shelter. That means he’s slept in places with sewage on the floors (yeah, but it was only $2/night!) and gotten stomach amoebas eating questionable foods. He was talking about folks who say they want to do what he’s doing, but his response is, “yeah, well you don’t know where I slept last night.” The reality of long-term travel isn’t always the romantic vagabond notion people like to dream about.
Travis also said that for the past 7 years he can remember every single day. We’re finding that too. Every day is new and different and it makes life much more memorable.
Candy and Phil, Travis’ parents, moved here from Texas and found their paradise. They built a very cool log cabin with all the comforts. It’s a long winter at 8200 ft. and each season they go through 5 cords of wood keeping warm with their only heat source, a wood burning stove. Despite the snow, Candy’s daily driver is red VW bug (but they also have a 4WD Jeep to tow the bug up the driveway if needed.)
Candy kept us well-fed with BBQ brisket and homemade tortillas, so we really appreciated the hospitality and the warmth after nights in the cold. Bode loved the visit too, he got to go sledding and Phil taught him a new computer game. He wanted us to let Phil know that he’s almost won every level now.
We hated to leave so soon, but the forecast called for more snow and we were on a mission to escape the cold.
By the way, Travis is selling his much loved Mustang (after 25 years) to finance his next adventure to Alaska. Since we’re keen on him going and sharing more outrageous stories, we thought we’d help him advertise. Let us know if you are interested and we’ll connect you.
Posted on January 19, 2010 by angela
We headed across New Mexico to the Gila National Forest. The Cliff Dwellings and hot springs are 2 hours from the closest town of Silver City. The drive was stellar. There are towers of rock that formed these amazing structures. I’ve never seen anything like them.
We arrived after 4 so we headed to the privately owned hot springs a coupe miles from the park. Sweet deal. 3 different pools, all with a beautiful red rock cliff background. We decided to camp there, despite the dropping temperatures. The hot springs were about 10 steps from our van, so we could easily have a dip to warm up. We were pretty cold overnight and woke to find ice on the walls of the van. Everything was frozen and we waited as long as we could for the sun to come over the mountains and hit the van before getting out of bed. A quick soak in the hot springs warmed us right up, and we bundled up for our hike to the cave dwellings.
When we reached the Visitor’s Center we found out it had reached 10 degrees the night before. I’ve put a moratorium on camping below 25 now. Bode LOVES visitor’s centers. Everywhere we go he asks if there is one. Anyway, we spent a long time inside the Gila VC watching a film and looking at the artifacts they’ve found in the cliffs….and warming up.
From the photos, we were a bit skeptical. They didn’t look as cool as the photos we’ve seen of Mesa Verde, but we aren’t planning to go that far north. But after the 30 minute hike, which started with snowball fights and ended with us taking off our gloves and jackets in the warm sunshine, we were in awe. The 7 caves served as home to the Mogollon people who lived in this area over 700 years ago…and they let us hike right through them. Pretty awesome.
Posted on January 18, 2010 by jason
We woke up in Marfa to 1° F. The pipes were frozen at Dave’s house and so was everything in the bus. We were planning on heading out this morning and fortunately I also heard back from my old buddy Cam in Alamogordo. He had tomorrow off from work, so we should high-tail it up to New Mexico right away. Perfect timing. We took off on a long drive and finally put Texas behind us.
Cam has been a great friend ever since High School, but we (mostly me) haven’t done a very good job of staying in touch over the years. I haven’t seen him in person in almost 15 years. Since then, he’s lived in Alaska, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and now he just moved to his wife’s hometown of Alamogordo.
If you’ve ever fallen out of touch with someone and then just show up on their doorstep after many years, you might imagine things could be awkward. If it was, it lasted about 2 seconds, and then it was like no time had ever passed. Cam is still the great guy I always remember, and his wife Melissa and son Noah are just as cool.
Incidentally, Cam has had some notoriety recently after creating the Periodic Table of Typefaces. If you’re a graphic designer or generally interested in design, maybe you’ve seen it. I actually saw it a while back and had no idea Cam created it. The history and back-story of different fonts is actually pretty interesting. Heck, there’s even a documentary just on Helvetica.
Cam, Melissa and 10-year old Noah welcomed us to New Mexico with a warm bed in their new home and lots of home cooked meals.
We stopped by the Space Museum’s park to climb around on some rocket sleds, check out a real V-2 and other neat stuff. Bode wanted to know why the names of machines always have numbers in them.
Then we headed out to White Sands National Monument for some sledding. There was an occasional layer of snow on top of the white sand dunes, so you could choose your own personal coefficient of friction based on where you placed your sled. Sand = reasonable speed. Snow = holy crap! Bode declared it the most fun he’s ever had.
Posted on January 15, 2010 by jason
Posted on January 14, 2010 by jason
Marfa was the location for shooting Giant - the James Dean movie from the 50′s. Not too much has changed around here since then. Actually, there are lots of galleries and new local businesses, but they’ve kept all the original facades so it looks like nothing’s changed.
I’m a permanent skeptic of any local phenomena marketed to drum up tourism for anywhere, so I wasn’t biting on the Marfa Lights. Angela and Bode insisted, though. It was 10 degrees, so we didn’t sit out in the middle of nowhere for too long, but of course we didn’t see any. Some people swear by them – even live in fear of them. Anyway, the lights were way better over at Padres.
Our first night in town had us watching the college football “national championship” game at Padres with 100 other disappointed Longhorn fans. It was still lots of fun and we made some new friends in Marfa.
We met the guy that made the fire-pit at the hostel from a few nights ago. He’s actually a well-known local sculptor and his work is all over town. He and his wife live in a converted school bus somewhere out in the desert and are a really interesting pair. They invited us over for a bonfire later in the week, so we’ll have to figure out if we can make it.
We also found out that Dave and a few other folks we know from Houston were backing up a Neil Diamond tribute show. Paul Minor opened. Not bad timing.
Mr. Diamond was actually Jackie Pepper (who’s actually someone else) and he had a fairly entertaining bit. The show was more about his version of a Neil Diamond persona rather than an actual tribute show. The band was stellar, but Jackie didn’t spend too much time learning the lyrics. He made it through maybe 50% of the words and howled and grumbled his way through the rest with things that actually did sound Diamondesque. Kudos for maintaining the illusion for the entire show.
I learned how to laugh and I learned how to cry.
We also stumbled upon EarthPig. He goes by his real name these days (Adam), but we always knew him as EarthPig and had no idea he was here in Marfa. He’s an inventive musician who used to gig around Austin with his own unique lap-guitar style. He moved here several years ago and opened the mobile Food Shark with his wife. He even converted a school bus that serves as a heated dining room. If your food truck gets featured in Bon Apetit and Food and Wine, you’re doing something right. Once again I’m reminded there is no formula for success. Just do what you like and do it well.
We’ve only been here a day, but I have a feeling that if we stick around through the week we’ll almost be locals. And, Bode will be a shuffleboard prodigy.
There are a few things you notice about Marfa after a while. The hipster guys are still sporting ironic mustaches. There are no police – they were voted out. Everyone just seems to be doing whatever they feel like and things are just fine. Young hipster girls and hardened cowboys date – it’s weird. Maybe they just want an honest mustache.
Two random favorite Neil Diamond songs (you can’t have just one):
Angela: Sweet Caroline / Forever in Blue Jeans
Jason: I Am I Said / Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon
Posted on January 13, 2010 by jason
We woke to sub-freezing temperatures and snow in the desert. Not exactly what we had in mind when we imagined driving through West Texas to avoid winter weather.
If you’ve driven a ’71 bus, you know the heat isn’t all that great and the defroster is sub-optimal. By the time we made it to Alpine, the windshield was iced up and we were looking through tiny port holes just above the defroster vents.
After a quick coffee break to warm up, we finished the final 30 mile drive to Marfa. Funny how all the towns out here are on average 25 or so miles apart – a good day’s trek by covered wagon.
As soon as we get to Marfa – not even 10 seconds later – the first person we see crossing the street is Dave.
Angela and I have both known Dave for around 20 years, and we each knew him before we even met each other. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but we can both say we knew Dave before he wore shades permanently.
Anyway, Dave’s a pretty well-known guy these days. He currently owns and operates Padres in Marfa – the only nightclub in town (and it’s a good one). He’s got a local radio show, he’s on the City Council (he won by 2 votes,) the Rotary Club, etc. He’s been in a 100 bands (last SXSW he played 7 gigs for 7 different bands in one day) and toured all over, opened and managed several successful nightclubs in Houston that are still going strong, was the MC for the Houston Roller Derby, has been a Buddy Holly impersonator, machinist, hot-dog slinger, you name it. To boot, he’s tall, dark, and handsome and has a velvety smooth crooner voice that literally makes women swoon. And, he’s a really nice guy.
Anyway, Dave moved out here to slow down and get away from a pretty hectic lifestyle in Houston… one of the Urban Refugees that Marfa seems to attract. The problem is that like many folks out here, he now has twenty different things going on and hasn’t slowed down at all. Such is life.
Dave invited us to stay at his place. An actual house, since he was kicked out of El Cosmico – a local hipster Airstream trailer park. He says his Airstream wasn’t nice enough. Anyway, he warned us that his place was pretty grim and coming from him, that’s really something. To call it a bachelor pad would be an insult to bachelors. We’re not picky, but to put it bluntly, it’s a craphole. Actually, that would be an insult to crapholes. Dave calls it a crackhouse, so we’ll go with that. He’s moving next month. However, it does have two things – heat and Dave – and that’s plenty for us.
I actually know two David Beebe’s. The other one is a professor in Wisconsin.
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