New Mexico Tales and Linky Rambles

Hello friends,

Linky here. It's been a while since the last blog post but internet's been spotty and Vwan Foodwink has been sick. I'm writing this from the General Store in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Vwan was finally released from the shop in Santa Fe yesterday after many repairs. While she was in the shop, we stayed in a hostel called the Abominable Snow Mansion in the beautiful little town of Arroyo Seco. There was a nasty stomach flu going around the hostel and we warned that we might projectile vomit all over our rooms but, luckily, we avoided doing that. While in NM, we:

• played at an Albuquerque Laundromat, the Santa Fe Brewery, Taos Inn, Eske’s Pub, and the Santa Fe Plaza (busking with our sweet and talented new friend Lee and our new fan Banjo Johnny).
  
• ate some great free food, including lots of green chile everything (even green chile beer)
• met our new friend Greg, who made us delicious breakfast (and filmed us half-awake helping prepare it), let us sleep and shower at his groovy house, and hung out with us in ABQ, Taos, and Arroyo Seco.
• visited the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe and saw the miraculous wooden, spiral staircase built with no nails by a mysterious carpenter. Well...I thought it was miraculous and slept on a pew next to it for about an hour to soak up its miracle vibes but I think Alexa and Anders were a little bored. :)
• got into giggle fits at approximately the rate of one every four days (I started keeping track)
  

Also....
Our first morning in Arroyo Seco, I was told that I could walk to a waterfall in 20 minutes if I just followed the main road out of town until it turned into a dirt road and then a path. So, I trekked out for a solo adventure and, two hours later, made it to the waterfall! ☺ I’ve found it to be a trend in NM for people to underestimate distances. But the hike was beautiful. The mountain air smelled so good and there were ferns and wild roses on the walk and songbirds chirping unusual patterns and big, blue, snow-glazed mountains on the horizon. Once I made it out of the town and into the mountain, I found the waterfall running over the top of a cliff and into a little stream.

We met some sweet people back at the Snow Mansion, including Rachel, Sarita, Nicolas and Earl Jay. Alexa and I rode with them one night to play an open mic at Taos Inn. Nicolas is Argentinian and Sarita and Earl Jay (siblings) are half-Argentinian. Rachel is from California but is also fluent in Spanish. I got to exercise some of my muy limited and rusty Spanglish with them. Earl Jay and Rachel both played little sets and have beautiful voices. Alexa and I played a few songs and were happy to have amplification and a good crowd (we'd played there unplugged a little the night before and had trouble projecting over people and the fountain in the middle of the room).

We also ran into Justin and Alex (the “gypsy boys” we'd met at KFF). They played a great little set with their band Shine. After the open mic, they invited us to go to some hot springs. Anders was already on his way to pick us up, so he and Alexa went back to the hostel to relax but I felt rested for the first time in days so I caught a ride with my new amigos. Rachel said she'd been out there before but got some directions written on a napkin just in case.

Well, it turned out to be a verrry confusing place to find, especially in the dark. I rode in the back of Rachel’s truck, "Artemis" with Earl Jay and Nicolas and we got lost on dirt roads for at least an hour. They were just about to give up when they tried one more route and found it! Artemis's battery and check engine light were on by the time we got there, so we parked on one side of the bridge we needed to cross in case we needed a jump to get out.

I'd asked Justin how the hike to the springs was and he'd said there was no hike at all...just a 5 min. walk. Well....in true NM style, it turned out to be a pretty long hike along a really rocky and treacherous cliff on the side of a mountain and it was COLD! I was worried, as usual, about my precarious knees and feet making it down the mountain but all of that fear was quickly erased when I saw that Earl Jay was totally gung ho for making it to the springs (he’s blind).

He told me that he can see some shapes in the daylight but is completely blind at night. With the help of his cane, my shoulder, and very slow and specific directions in Spanish from his friends, Earl Jay made it around boulders, between rocky cliff passes, and through muddy stretches of river water to the springs. He told me he’d never attempted a hike that difficult in the dark. It was really inspiring to witness the amount of trust, courage, and teamwork it took to make it. It became a sort of psychedelic feeling experience for all of us by the end. Walking that intentionally and slowly in a group put us into a hyper aware state. The hot springs were amazing and well worth the work getting there. We were joined by the gypsy boys and soaked in the water, singing songs, watching shooting stars, and listening to the Rio Grande rush beside us for hours.

The trip back, in our sleepy states, proved to be even more confusing than before. It began with us hiking back about a mile in the wrong direction and looking wayyy down a cliff’s edge to see the bridge we were trying to get to. We backtracked and made it to Artemis and she started without needing a jump but we then drove around dusty back roads, passing our one landmark (Herb’s Corner Store) at least half a dozen times. It started to feel like an episode of The Twilight Zone. No matter which turn we took or how far we drove, we always seemed to end up at Herb’s. We finally made it back to the hostel around 5am and headed back to teepees and rooms to sleep.

I got to drive Vwan for the first time yesterday for about 3 hours and did pretty well (only one stall). Getting her into first gear is a bit challenging and I need more practice. We traded drivers near the state border and Alexa drove us into beeeautiful Colorado! We were amazed at how instantly green everything was. We saw elk and tons of wildflowers and amazing mountains (apparently the lower Rockies) and a buffalo! I've never seen a buffalo in person but I had a really powerful dream several years ago about one charging me and stopping inches from my face. If I had to pick a power animal (a theme that's come up several times this summer) besides a mermaid, I think mine would be the buffalo.

Vwan was running smoothly after all of her repairs UNTIL Mesa Verde. We actually almost made it to the top of the mountain (one mile short) when she died…completely. It was problematic because it was dark, we were on the side of a huge cliff, and she stopped in a rockslide area where drivers are warned not to park. With the help of a kind archaelogist and a park ranger, we eventually all made it to a campground and Vwan was towed away to another shop.

After that ordeal, we set up tents, drank some whiskey and bundled up for a cold night’s sleep. Today, we found out that Vwan will be in the shop over the weekend, so we’re getting another rental car and heading to Salt Lake City to pick up Anders’s brother on Sunday. The national park we’re in has tons of ancient Pueblo Indian cave dwellings many miles deeper into the mountain. I’m hoping we’ll make it to see them before we hit the road again.

The tour so far has been an adventure and reminder of the great kindness and generosity of strangers. We’ve been setting up more shows in California and Oregon and look forward to meeting up with our friends out there (assuming Vwan makes it that far). Thanks to the kindness of Brian Qtn, Alexa and I will also be able to go to Oregon Country Fair for three days. ☺ Internet is spotty on the road but we’ll keep you posted on the health of vwan and collective mental health of the Speck crew (last night was a little trying).

Tonight, we're better prepared for the chilly temperatures and are looking forward to cooking a hot meal, drinking some whiskey and seriously bundling up with many layers of clothes and blankets. We're also taking extra precautions to tuck all our yummy stuff away in bear boxes because they do roam out here. In fact, Alexa and Anders took a hike while I was blogging and heard a loud growling from a large sounding animal and decided to turn around. They later learned that they had most likely encountered a mountain lion.

We've got lots more pics coming soon of hikes, gigs, and Vwan's slow death march...

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