A few days ago, I left the Colorado River in Arizona and made my way up to southern Nevada. I found a lovely spot to set up camp on BLM land, about six miles from the Valley of Fire. Remote and peaceful, I plan to spend some time here writing, exploring and taking photographs. I […]
These days there are snow storms in Northern New Mexico with sub-freezing and sub-zero temps. After living most of my life in Southern California, I moved to Taos, New Mexico a dozen years ago. But after a few winters there, I began to leave the area during the colder months. A lot of people do […]
Sometimes in our lives we have “mountaintop experiences”, occasions and events that stand out as triumphs in overcoming life’s difficulties. Often, we don’t recognize these moments when they occur, but time burnishes our memories and we come to realize the full measure of the heights we ascended and the storms we weathered. The following is […]
With winter coming to the high plains of northern New Mexico, I broke camp and headed for southern Arizona. On the road again, it feels like another person has emerged from within me, one charged with vitality and curiosity, joined with every passing moment, celebrating all that I encounter. You meet people you never saw before […]
There’s a learning curve in everything we do. A year ago, when I built the Gypsywagen, I considered different types of materials for the outside surfaces. The choices were between a few grades of plywood, fiberglass products and aluminum sheeting. At the time, I figured I would save on the budget by using a certain […]
Last Fall, when I built the Gypsywagen, I chose BCX grade plywood to “skin” the coach, this instead of MDO grade (marine) plywood which was unavailable in rural Northern New Mexico. This material has since proved problematic with considerable de-lamination of its outer surfaces. The fix involves a labor intensive effort of sanding and puttying […]
Once again, many weeks have passed since the last posting in this blog. It was a long, hot summer in Northern New Mexico and I must confess I fell into a long and restful period of reflection and contemplation. Like the Old Book says, there’s “a time for every purpose under heaven.” The summer heat […]
It’s a mystery really, how we live our lives. So many people, places and events inform us from the moment we’re born… even before we’re born. Naturally there are familial, social and cultural currents, which sweep us along in their streams, painting narratives onto our experience. Our perceptions and the opinions we form are continually […]
There’s history now, in the life of the Gypsywagen. Nearly a year ago I arrived at the windswept mesa in Northern New Mexico where my old friend Mose provided a space for me to construct this coach. That episode is chronicled in many of the earlier posts of this blog. Having completed the initial build […]
Ten weeks have passed since I last reported on the course of the journey with the Gypsywagen. For 70+ days the GW and I have been comfortably ensconced at the hacienda of Don Luis Torres in the beautiful countryside just south of Española, New Mexico. Luis is the brother of my dear friend Robert Torres, […]
