Home sweet Denver

Apparently I'm on vacation from my vacation, because I've been absolutely inconsistent with taking photos of my lovely time in Denver catching up with so many friends. In particular, I really failed at getting shots of my time with former co-workers who are now, simply, friends. Here are a few pictures I did take, in case anyone reading knows any of these great people and would be happy to see them smiling (and, in this first case, with a baby who was still in utero when I left Denver in the springtime!).

I also got to spend an entire weekend up in Avon with eight of my Denver girlfriends, which was a wonderfully relaxing way to catch up with people. There were several art projects going on, lots of good food cooked and shared, and even lessons given in poi and belly dancing. So fun!

If you'll permit me a bit of nostalgia...

It's been…

...nearly 8 months.

...30,000 miles.

...all 13 Canadian provinces and territories.

...28 U.S. states.

…a year of visiting dozens of friends I hadn't seen for 1, 3, 5, or even 10 years.

…countless new experiences, friends, and places enjoyed.

My car--otherwise known as "my home" for most of this year--sold within 24 hours of me posting it on Craigslist in Denver. I got a little melancholy watching its new owner drive it away. In all those miles, absolutely NOTHING went wrong with it except for that one flat tire in Labrador and some windshield dings. Seems crazy to sell it. But I guess its final gift to me is the funding, through its sale, of the next leg of the adventure. (Stay tuned in early 2014. Though I'll try to do at least a few posts as I spend the next six weeks enjoying the holiday season with friends and family in Colorado, Florida, and Wisconsin.) And all good things must come to an end. So farewell, trusty CR-V. You've been a reliable and appreciated travel buddy.

And though the trip may be over, the car moved on to its next life, and me moving on to the next chapter, my cheesy nostalgic memories of the journey are mine to keep. It's been a grand one.

In fact, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again in another year or two. There is much more to see in every place I went, plus so many places I had to drive on past, some friends I missed, entire sections of the continent untouched by green marker. Will have to do something about that. Next time.

Last leg

It truly blows my mind, but after I left Austin, I had just one last week to close the loop on my 7.5 month North American road trip extravaganza. Heading north out of Texas, it was finally getting too chilly out for me to comfortably sleep in my car wherever I found myself when darkness fell. That made the trip feel almost over more than anything else, really.

After Austin, I visited my friends, the R family, in Oklahoma City. When I was in Madagascar and S and B were teaching at the American school in Antananarivo, their son N was barely a toddler, and their daughter A was only just in utero when they returned to the States at about the same time I left Mada. Look at them now!!

We had a great (though too short, of course) catch-up for an overnight, and then I made the day-long trek from OKC to colorful Santa Fe, NM.

I'm lucky enough to have gotten to visit Santa Fe several times in the past, so with the weather and calendar ticking in my ear, I didn't linger more there more than one night before hopping up to Ojo Caliente hot springs--a place I'd long heard of but never previously made it to.

SO worth the trip, especially for the mud pool, which I haven't ever gotten to experience anywhere else. You're supposed to soak down in the pool, get out and slather mud from a poolside clay pot all over yourself with a big paddle, and then sit and bake in the sun till the mud dries before hopping back in the mud pool to wash off the crusty layer. I tried real hard to follow the routine but it was too chilly for me to succeed in sitting in a lawn chair until I was fully dry. I may have cheated.

And then, I kind of cemented my apparent obsession with hot springs (how did this happen? I LOVE them!) and headed north to Valley View Hot Springs (operated by the Orient Land Trust) in Villa Grove, CO. I crossed back into what now feels like my second home state under the cover of darkness (which is falling so early these days! Gone is my summer of 11 p.m. sunsets in northern Canada), got a bunk bed at the springs lodge, and woke in the morning to this view out of the window of the lovely San Luis Valley.

This place was on my Colorado hit list for pretty much the entire 6 years I was living in Denver, and I never made it out there any weekend, so it felt like a moral imperative to work it into my itinerary. Valley View has a bunch of pools spread out over the property, and when I walked to the most distant trio, just a quarter-mile from the lodgings, I was completely by myself for the 2+ hours I floated, daydreaming, in the perfectly warm water. I had quite a roster of road tripping adventures to think back on and appreciate in the crisp, quiet autumn morning…which quickly became afternoon.

Finally, fully saturated, soaked, and scrubbed clean, I climbed back into my car for the penultimate time and watched the sun begin to set behind the Rockies…

…on my way to Avon for the weekend. There, I unpacked my beloved CRV home/car, detail cleaned it in preparation for our impending goodbye, and then with just the couple of bags I'll need for the next month or so, I made the finally leg of the drive down to Denver, arriving where I started out from way back on April 1. Not quite able to believe it was over.

Austin, y'all

From Big Bend, it was off to Austin...

...home of my fantastic friend HP and her equally fantastic husband, KP. Icing on the cake: SR had arranged to come to Austin for work for the week, so we just had a big 'ole party. (This picture taken at Barton Creek/the Greenbelt.)

I also got to reconnect with sweet college friend E, who is working on her PhD and doing amazing community organizing work in her East Austin neighborhood.

She took me down the block to a food truck pod for a delicious Peruvian lunch.

HP had a work conference in San Antonio for part of the week, so I tagged along with her and, while she was in conference sessions, got to check out the Alamo…

…and the RiverWalk.

HP, KP, SR, and I also had some great walks together, including an afternoon stroll (with silliness) around the Ladybird Lake hike & bike trail.

Also, Enchanted Rock State Park. Wow.

Through it all, we ate and ate and ate really great food. A sausage place on Rainey Street called Bangers, TacoDeli, Asia Café, and--even better than all the others--KP's creative culinary creations, including creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese/apple/pear/basil sandwiches. What a treat. And what friends!

Big Bend

This is gonna be a long one! I headed south from White Sands, pausing to call 911 for a kid from the nearby military base whose car had started on fire while he was going down the highway. (By the time the volunteer firefighters arrived 30 minutes later, there was really nothing left--incredible--but no one hurt, thank goodness.)

And then soon after continuing on my way, I crossed into the great state of…

I checked out El Paso a bit and then headed farther south through lovely West Texas landscape…

…to the Big Bend area. The reason this post is so long is because I LOVED the Big Bend region. Oh my gosh. I already liked Austin, but this part of the state really catapulted Texas higher on my list of faves among the 50. My first stop was the impossibly adorable, remote, artsy town of Marfa. I loved its historical buildings...

…great coffee and juice shops, and the Saturday morning market where I got a homemade burrito.

From Marfa I continued south to Terlingua. This town originally developed as a mercury mining town, then became a ghost town, and has been revived as a tourist trap of sorts--though a pretty great tourist trap.

It was nearly bustling (shocking, given its remote location; check out a map when you have a chance) when I was there, which finally made sense when someone clued me in that they were having a big Dia de los Muertos celebration there that evening. I was tempted to stick around, but decided that being a lone traveler under very dark skies with a bunch of highly inebriated strangers might not be the wisest traveling choice. Besides, Big Bend National Park was calling. So on I drove through the gorgeous landscape.

Once in the park, I went for a hike into Santa Elena canyon…

…appreciated the oh-so-western rock formations vying for attention everywhere I looked…

…hiked through a canyon of volcanic tuff…

…appreciated the sunset on my way up to the Chisos plateau…

…and marveled at what must be one of the best sunset views offered by any national park campground in this country.

My second day in the park, it was raining (an all day rain in the Chihuahuan desert? what are the chances?), but I went ahead with my plans and took a damp but worth-it walk up in the Chisos area, appreciating all the perfect agave specimens.

Then headed southeast toward the Rio Grande Village area.

There is an amazing, semi-developed hot spring right along the edge of the Rio Grande here. What a setting! How could I not take a dip, despite the rain and ensuing caking, clay mud!?!? That's Mexico on the far bank, and while I was there, other visitors were wading across to take a walk on the foreign side.

Don't know that I've ever really seen the Rio Grande before. It's not as grand as you might assume, as so much of its flow is diverted for agriculture and city water supplies farther north. But it is still lovely. Again, that's the States on the right side of the picture and Mexico on the left.

The impressive Boquillas Canyon, with canoe trippers preparing to float on in:

After a decade-long closure, a pretty fun feature of Big Bend National Park has been revived: a class B border crossing from the park to the Mexican-side town of Boquillas del Carmen. Again…how could I NOT check it out?!?!

With a fellow traveler I met at the hot springs, I climbed into the row boat that takes people across the river to the Mexican side…

…walked for a bit in a country that somehow manages to be way more colorful than our own, at pretty much every turn…

…had real, Mexican-made burritos for lunch…

…and then appreciated the scenery walking the 3/4-mile back to the row-boat crossing...

…and returned to America. Wish I could take lunchtime field trips to other nations all the time!