Whirlwind Santa Fe

I'm in Santa Fe .. again, but it's been kind of a Tasmanian devil of an experience.

Let me back up a little bit.

Last night, Sunday the 13th – we had a rest day – it was actually a pretty nice rest day. Kathleen, Jutta, Larry and I went to Ojo Caliente – an amazingly beautiful hot springs spa place up in the mountains. We soaked in mineral springs – HOT BATHS – they even had a mud pool which was super fun. Like I mentioned in my brief little post, I gave myself a treat of an hour long massage.

And that's where the rest day ended.

Afterwards we went to do the laundry ritual. But more than that, while our clothes were enjoying their own version of a hot tub, Kathleen and I did our bi-monthly ritual of “Cleaning Out The Truck.” I'll take a picture at some point, but you have to understand that Kathleen did a road trip in this truck and so was living in it since last fall. It's crowded in there in the best of situations. Add the strain of this walk and you have boxes and bags of additional needful items (the medicines box, the food boxes and bags, the tote full of cups, plates and bowls). Then you have the random shit that Kathleen is generous enough to ferry for us. My spare pair of boots, Larry's stick, a bag of somebody else's clothes and bathroom stuff. There was even a didgeridoo and a guitar in there that didn't belong to her.

So...it gets full, and I can tell when it's time to clean it out because Kathleen will at some point open up the back and just groan.

The next day she opens up the back and climbs in there and usually hits her head on the top of the shell climbing over something and expresses a few choice phrases. An item usually flys out the back at this point, unceremoniously thudding onto the pavement.

The next day she opens up the back and all you hear is this low, strained cry of, “oh, nooooo...it's chaos.”

It's time to clean.

It took us an hour and a half.

And when we were done it had some modicum of order. At least now we know where the flashlight is. For now.

So after laundry and the truck rituals, we decided to go out to dinner with her friend Sarah who was visiting up from Santa Fe. We went to this super yummy restaurant in Espanola called El Paragua. One of the things I know about New Mexico other than its exquisite beauty, is that the food here rocks. We happily ate steak tacos and sopapillas and enjoyed each other's company.

And on the way home, the truck, the White Pearl, the vehicle we so lovingly cleaned, chugged to a stop...and died.

Luckily it started up again and begrudgingly drove the last mile of road to reach our camp site.

In the morning, the whirlwind began.

Called Triple A – we didn't have the exact address of the place we were staying. No one knew it, Kathleen's on the phone with AAA saying things like,
“it's in this big blue building behind the casino on the highway – no I don't know which highway – can someone find out what highway that is!”

They finally got it, and sent us Vic the tow-truck guy. Vic was awesome and kind and I wish I knew the name of his towing company so I could give him a shout out officially.

As sad as it was that the truck died – what cosmic beauty it is that it died half an hour from Santa Fe where she lived for 12 years, has many lovely friends and a mechanic that she trusts.

We got to town, dropped the truck off – her friend Jo came and picked us up and then we did the following things:

1)picked up stove fuel and a new tent
2)Ate wonderful, wonderful Indian Food (they had organic goat meat)
3)Went to Verizon to deal with Kathleen's phone
4)Bought an adapter at Best Buy
5)Went to A.T.T. to deal with my phone
6)Bought Coffee
7)Went to Kinkos to print pictures for one of the Buddhist monks and make copies of mailing sites for the Walkers that was emailed to me
8)Went to a Health Food Store to stock up on stuff
9)Went to Border's to try to find Dennis' book
10) Got to her friend Sarah's house and collapsed

It took 6 hours.



And at this moment, the truck is done – thanks Gabe at Auto Angel! - we are on our way to pick it up and go to her other friend Sarah K's house (and Annie's) to finish our night. Which for me includes a shower, posting this blog and checking my email and getting my head ready to cruise out tomorrow morning and meet up with the walkers as they make their way from Pilar to Taos Pueblo. Can't wait to get to Taos.



Whirlwind Santa Fe.

Blessed, blessed day.

Here she is repacking the White Pearl with all of our errands stuff after getting it out of the shop.



Here's a Happy Kathleen with a happy new truck, Tucker and her lovely friend Sarah M.