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I’m quickly learning that road tripping is an exercise in flexibility and patience – definitely a growth opportunity for me.  I feel like I’ve spent the last two days waiting around which I basically have been.  We had to make a slight detour into Albuquerque to get some service done on the trailer.  Coming from Texas the furnace and hot water heater had never been used and they both had problems when we started using them a few days ago.  Nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night by the smoke alarm!  Nothing major, just a little servicing, but things always take longer than expected.  On the plus side it gave us a chance to have dinner with my Aunt Gretchen who lives in Albuquerque.  And to Joe’s good luck Albuquerque has a great skate park which we were able to park the trailer overnight at so he got a lot of good skateboarding in.

We had a very pleasant stay in Taos, two nights, which gave us a chance to hang out and enjoy the area.  We spent the morning at the Taos Pueblo, a world heritage site, which has been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years – pretty amazing.  Then we strolled around the town and let Zoey spend some time at a fun kids store called Twirl with lots of neat things to climb on and play with.  We finished up the trip with a ride out to see the Rio Grande River Gorge Bridge.  Scary!  I don’t like heights to begin with so walking out on this bridge 650 feet above the Rio Grande and feeling it vibrate as the cars went over it was a little nerve racking for me.  But the experience was worth it.

I have to say I’m ready to be done with the intense New Mexico sun and dryness.  I can’t drink enough water, use enough lotion, chapstick or visine to make a difference.  Plus we all left Austin with a cold last week so that plus bad sleep plus dryness is leaving us all feeling less than 100%  I wear a hat most of the time and slather on the sunscreen and my face is STILL sunburned.  I joked with friends before leaving that they might see me home in 2 or 3 weeks, I have to say that the thought has crossed my mind once or twice.  Not homesick, just missing the creature comforts of home.  Living 24/7 in a 16 ft trailer with spouse and a 3 yr old energizer bunny has its moments.  After coming down from the cool nights in Taos I’m eager to get to more cool weather and spend more time outdoors than in.  Although New Mexico is beautiful in its own way and I loved the mountains, it didn’t compare to Austin.  I’m interested in seeing if I find anyplace in our travels that I could see myself living besides Austin. 

As I type this, on Saturday afternoon, we are headed to Arizona – first stop is the Petrified Forest National Park for a day and then on into Prescott, up in the mountains, where Joe lived for a few years.