Albuquerque with friends

So, it has been a long journey to finally be able to say that next week we will be back in Atlanta. But it turns out that the journey is continuing. Rosemary has plans to be in Atlanta and Asheville in September, she has 4 music festivals covering October, November she will be in Canada and Washington and possibly northern california again. I am planning on spending 3 weeks or so in Cape Hatteras in September and traveling with Rose in October. I ahve not yet filled November yet but the last two weeks in December she and I will be back in Guatemala celebrating solstice and my birthday on the 21st, Christmas, New Years, and much more.

So as you can see, the journey continues. We miss our friends and family alot in Atlanta as well as other cities across the US. But we both have many plans in the future that will possibly take us to living in Central America as well as other countries and islands around the world. We are not sure how quickly everything will take place, but it is in the works.

The next week or so we are going to be traveling back across the United States hoping to arrive back in Atlanta next Thursday September 3rd. I will be heading to Cape Hatteras sometime soon after with Marley. We have found a spot for around $420 for the month on the sound side. My plan is to immerse myself into kiteboarding for 3 to 4 weeks. Hopefully the wind will be blowing southeast, atleast I think that is the direction we want. This trip has shown me things I have always wanted to see. On my next journey out west, I want to do Oregon, Washington, Vancouver BC, Montana, and some more of Canada. Who the helll knows where we are going to go in the next 12 months.

Thanks for reading this long. I am not the best writer and don't proof read. Oh well, this is my journal, have the best day ever.....I'm tryin to do so myself.

White Sands National Monument

After leaving Gilla Cliff Dwellings, we headed east to White Sands National Monument and then to Albuquerque, in one day. I am getting pretty good at driving an 8 hour day. The sand dunes reminded me of the gulf coast of Florida. It was a nice cloudy day.

Albuquerque is home to Maya, Andres and Yaku, friends of Rosemary previously. So we are staying here for 4 or 5 days, just visiting. Their house is located near the University of New Mexico, very vibrant and full of youn college students. I love campus life in the Fall. I miss college more than I knew I did. So we are here and are enjoying our time with friends. There are all kinds of great cnversations taking place with Andres and Maya. They are just great people, family.

Gilla Cliff Dwellings and Hot Springs

After a long drive, we found ourselves at a campground just north of Silver City in Pinos Altos. We were basically camping in an apple orchard. Marley ate probably 40 apples over the 48 hours that we resided there. The price was $20 a night and we had internet as well.

So we visited the illa Cliff Dwellings which are almost 750 years old and older. They we amazing. You could just about feel the vibes from the lives that had lived there. The soot on the ceiling was 1,o00 years old. The wooden beams were original. So we sat in the cave alone and just meditated and smelled the smells, it was so unique of an experience. We even encountered some ancient grafitti or pictoglyphs painted with powered hemotite.

After this, we went to some hot springs that were nearby. They were about 106 degrees or so, maybe I am wrong. It was a beautifulsunny Monday and we spent the afternoon at the hot springs. I might add that we ate a few chocolates, which added to the experience. On our way home we encountered road runners, deer, hawks, owls, pheasant, and a rabbit.

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon

After leaving Lake Tahoe, we headed straight towards Las Vegas crossing through Dath Valley at night. This was one of the most diverse drives I have ever experienced. We started up in the mountains and drove through central California into and then east to Nevada driving through Death Valley. In Death Valley we stopped when our brakes began to overheat (red-hot smoking). So the machinery and equipment told us to stop right there on the side of the road. We saw more stars in the sky that night along with satellites, shooting stars and every so often a car would zoom by. It was hot and 3 hours later we drive for an hour and stopped again, sleeping until 6:30 am or so. Just enough time to arrive in Las vegas by 10:45ish. So we stayed at the Circus Circus KOA in a black color parking lot off the strip. Rose and I wanted to see "Love" the Cirque De Soliel show based on The Beatles music. What a show!!!!! It was by far made my trip to Vegas worth it. Otherwise, the strip was as I expected and full of energy, and sounds and just about everything you could ask for in a party. We left Vegas and only gambled $9 total, won nothing and saw a great show.

We headed over the Hoover Dam and to the Grand Canyon next. It was so nice to finally come face-to-face with this great thing created by nature. We sat on the ledge off the hiking trail. We decided to go ahead and go to Sedona. Not much other than pure beauty at the south rim of the grand canyon.

Sedona was this evergreen pine forest merged with red rock canyons with vortex energy points. Very developed to fit into the landscape. The feelings in Sedona were very peaceful.

Lake Tahoe

It has been a while since I have written or posted. Since the Redwoods area we drove through the Shasta Trinity National Forest to Redding, down to Sacramento and then to Lake Tahoe for one night. What a beautiful lake!!! The drive around the lake was absolutely beautiful. We stopped along the way around Kings Beach and decided to take a dip in it. It was crystal clear water and quite cold. We had a blast with the dogs. Some other things worth mentioning were the visual of glacial ice, the mini evergreen that were a different shade of green that we had not seen before. Here are some of the pictures.

San Francisco and Redwoods

We arrived to our destination in Pacifica and went and checked out the beach with the dogs. The waves were HUGE and dangerous. It really gave me an appreciation for the ocean once again, without being in it. Afterwards we headed back to the trailer and then off to Haight-Ashbury to check out the hippie mecca. Rose had some shopping to do and I ended up buying some items as well. San Francisco seems to be a very cool town full of diversity and open-mindedness.....not in just the gay way it is promoted as or as I have heard so many times before, but just the vibe it gives off, at least that is what I took from it. I liked how at the corner of Haight-Ashbury it is always 4:20, the time to smoke ganja.

While seeing San Francisco is great, it is still just another city and we wanted to get out of the city. So we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and took some great pictures and then headed north on Highway 101. We decided against highway 1 above San Fran because it is SO slow and would have taken days to get anywhere. We made the right decision as the 101 is where "the avenue of giants" is located. We ended our day at a state park surrounded by giant redwoods. It was just what I had been wishing for after a long day of driving. I could actually feel myself relax the more we drove into the forest.

After a nice quiet evening among "giants" that are as old as 2,400 years old, we headed north on 101 towards Arcata. Arcata is a town I connected with, at least for the hour or two we were there. A very nice town square with very friendly people. The people were hippie/granola/dreadlock/relaxed.....does this make sense? It just seemed like a town I would like to spend more time in. We continued to head north through the Redwood National and State Park alng the coast and ended at Klamath California, just south of Crescent City. We wanted to settle in to a spot for a few days in order to relax a little more and not always be on-the-go. Tomorrow we plan on doing some hiking in the Redwood forrest, possibly some beach time, and whatever else comes our way. Supposedly there is a bear that has been visiting our campground during the evening time. We'll definitely keep everyone posted. I will post pictures when the internet connection allows.

Rio Vista and the wind

After traveling up the coast, we headed inland to Rio Vista on the Sacramento River delta. I was told by some guys in Coronado to set up a kiteboarding lesson with Sandy at www.kitopia.biz. We settled in at Duck Island RV Park. This RV park was by far the nicest I had stayed in durign the whole trip. It was so peaceful and beautiful and quiet and affordable. It was an adult only park also. So we were staying on the river across from Rio Vista for a few days until my kitebarding lesson. It turned out to be the most peacful yet chaotic place I have ever been too. The wind must have been blowing at about 35 mph or more constantly. It make sense though, over the hill were 100's of windmills.....It also makes sense as to why kiteboarding would be popular in the area.

I took my lesson and learned alot more and was able to get up and riding in both directions as well as riding up-wind for a little bit. By the end of day two both Rose and I were ready to head to San Francisco/Pacifica. Here are some pics of our time at Duck Island RV/Rio Vista area.

Big Sur Day 2