Home is where the heart is.

Well then I am not home.  I am in Canada again though. 

Like the Johnny Cash Song, "I've been everywhere man..."  I last updated my adventure from Taos NM but since then I have been back to Santa Fe then started heading east.  I hit Ft. Sumner (Home of the Billy the Kid museum) then Amarillo Texas. Did you know Helium was first extracted from Natural Gas there?  I continued east and hit OKC, but stayed in Shawnee OK.  From there I passed through Arkansas and stayed in Memphis TN for a couple of days.  I love that town.  I saw the sights and made a side trip to Clarksdale MS to see Ground Zero for the Delta Blues.   Including a night at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues club.  "A gin-soaked Bar-Room Queen...tried to take me upstairs for a ride."

After a rainy drive to Tupelo to see the small shotgun shack that Elvis was born in I finished the night in Cumming GA.  My good friend had a full house and it was great to be back east again.  I high-tailed it up to Detroit for a couple of days then finally back to Waterloo.  I am sitting in my brothers house reflecting on my last two months and looking forward to what lies ahead.  More of the same or the same ol' same ol'?  Let's find out....

Last night on Taos

Sorry I have been neglecting this space for the past two weeks.

Here's a short update.  I have been house sitting a wonderful house for the past 2 weeks.  It's near Taos and has a wonderful view, secluded and a Hot tub.  Whoa!  This Hot Tub is something I could get used to. Or is it use to? Be that as it may I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this town.  To call Taos eccentric would be an understatement.  It has so much character that only the people here outshine the environment.  I have gathered a bunch of photo's and will be punishing you with them over the next few weeks.  Also the nightlife is all about music and good food.  The town closes up at 10 PM but so does Santa Fe.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Please donate. Movember.

MoDay 12 on the road to Los Alamos

This month is Movember.  I started my Mo on November 1st.  Check out my profile and please donate.  Men's health is often ignored.  Usually by the owner.

Still in Santa Fe....

I have been here in Santa Fe for about 3 weeks now. My observations of the people I have met are varied. Number 1 is that no one was born here. It seems everyone I have met moved here from another part of America. I have met more than a few ex-Californians. There are a number of ex-Seattleites. Number 2 is the town has a strong Arts community. Canyon Road is home to numerous Galleries and from what I've seen the quality is high end. Then third observation is the town has a quiet, almost subdued, night life. For such an active fine arts community it was surprising the main square district lacked a vibrant music scene. I was talking to an Artist I met this week and she agreed with my assessment. The town I come from in Canada has a strong tech sector but the fine arts community struggles to suppress the talent drain. Waterloo Ontario has over 2000 tech jobs that employers struggle to fill. It seems the creative tech talent gets courted to Toronto, NYC and San Francisco.

What I have been trying to understand is how to plug the tech brain-drain in Waterloo Ontario. My theory is the young talent likes to have a vibrant and active night life. This includes fine arts, Music, restaurants and recreation. While Waterloo provides and active restaurant culture as well as various recreation activities the music scene is not supporting a wide style of venues. The town is very family friendly but the 20-30 year olds are looking for an active entertainment district. My thinking is that Santa Fe would benefit from an infusion of tech. If the local government made it attractive to set up a satellite office for RIM (Research in Motion) or a tech giant like Google then they may begin to see growth in other sectors aside from tourism.

While I am here I'll try and make some connections and see if partnerships can be set up. I think Santa Fe has more to offer than it realizes.

Stepping out of your comfort zone.

Today I am learning how to cook in a Tangine.  It's not a fruit it's a Morocan cooking vessel. Even now the thing is boiling over so I turned down the heat to let it calm down.

Sometimes in life we need to turn down the heat and let things simmer and stew.  The past few weeks have been a mix of running, meditating and self-evaluation.  I left Ontario with 2 potential directions in front of me and now I have three directions.  It seems opportunities pop up when I was not even looking in that direction.  I guess it's like a road sign that says go this way for stability or go this way for a scenic view.  In the end both roads lead to the same place.  It's just that on one road the view is nicer.

I may chose the scenic road. 

The pot is boiling over again...

Monument Valley is a must see.

My ride.

I have been in Santa Fe for two weeks now.  I have been keeping busy.  Too busy to keep up with the daily task of blogging. It's a self-imposed task as I know it should be a habit by now.  I have been hanging out with Arthur.  He owns Renaissance Art.  You can find his website here.   He makes incredible leather journals and other products.  He is passionate about marketing and about Journaling.  So much so that I will make the effort to write my thoughts consistently in a journal.

The past two weeks have been a mix of fellowship, introspection, traveling and fun.  The past 3 days I rode the motorcycle out to Monument valley. It's a place of incredible desolation and beauty.  I first visited the area in 2008 and vowed to return with more time.  Believe me three days is not enough time.  The weather was too cold to enjoy riding in near freezing temps all day and camp at night.  I never would have gotten warmed up.  So the next trip here will be with more time and warmer temps.  Apparently you can camp within 500 meters of the main attraction in Monument Valley.  I was told it's "primitive Camping"  I can deal with that.  Imagine waking up and looking at this outside your tent door.

As the temps and wind were too hard to bear I opted for a warm room at a local motel.  It was the perfect fit for the rough, cold, windy, dusty ride into Kayente AZ.   The next morning I rode over to the Navajo Cliff dwellers monument.  It was spectacular to see the hamlet of buildings built into the cliff walls. They even had a virtual Geocache at the site that I could log.  I got a little wind and sunburn in spite of my sunscreen application. If you look at the link below you will find my album which contains more photo's.

Playing with Wilie E. Coyote

More later.

Experience trumps reflection.

This entry will be out of sequence to the chronological timeline.  I have been too busy to actually write my catch up blogs.  I must state, experience trumps reflection.

Right now the New Mexican sky is opening up with rain.  It rarely rains here and New Mexico seems to be in perpetual drought.  It was very dry when we went through the river beds, which were better described as river gulches.  I could not believe how dry everything seemed to be. The house I am staying in amplifies the rain, unlike my Southwestern Ontario home.  The roof and ceiling seem to be in direct physical contact and the sound of the rain on the roof must be louder because of the lack of the, necessary, northern insulation.

I need to update all the things that have happened over the past week, not for others benefit, but rather for mine.  I need to remember all that happened this past few weeks.  It has been a wondrous and spiritual journey thus far.  I will keep you all posted.  But some things I will keep to myself.

Photo Log links for you.

14,110 feet.  Me and Bbike

I am dropping some photos taken along the road on MobileMe.  Click here to see the photo's.  gg's Road Trip 2.0 photo's

Interstate behind me...

Webcam Cache near Woodland Park

Today was my first full day in Colorado.  I had time to ride out to attempt a few things.  I intended to meet some friends in Woodland Park. I wanted to grab the Woodland Park Webcam ,which I did.  I also wanted to grab the oldest cache (Tarryall) in Colorado.  I accomplished that cache and the scenery was amazing.  I tried to get in touch with my friends but I could not get an answer back.  That was too bad.  I hate being so close and missing my friends.  I did try to ascend Pikes Peak but the road was closed at 3 and I arrived too late.

The evening was spent shooting the breeze with my friend.  It is always good to catch up on 25 years of life and often a surprise at the unexpected turns along the road.  We both never expected what has happened along the way.  In some ways I think I need to remind myself that the future is not predictable nor can it be molded to what we envision as perfect.  It's like a needlepoint.  The finished product is prettier than the little threads that make up the image.  The big Eastern Interstates are behind me.  From here on I will travel the more interesting and twisty roads.  They are always more fun than zipping through on a concrete slab.

Riding off into the Sunset. Ouch that hurts.

Into the sunset I see Pikes Peak

When last I reported I was heading west into the sunset.  Blinding sunset as it was right on the horizon in my eyes.  As I crossed from Kansas into Colorado a huge mountain appeared on the horizon.  I later discovered that was likely Pikes Peak.  It is probably the first mountain of the Rockie formation that was renamed after the explorer Zebulon Pike Jr..  He never ascended to the summit and declared it would never be climbed. Ha!  I rode up on my Harley and the record ascent is a little over 9 minutes in a race car.

My faithful Garmin GPS guided me to my friends house. Dan has travelled a similar path that I am on.  With the perfect family life now just a vapor; I approach my friends house squinting at the numbers until he came out to give my a big western America hug and greeting.  I have not seen Dan since about 1987.  We have both changed, but I like to think I have not changed as much as everyone else.  I enter the atypical American living room of a house built 100 years ago.  Now I am greeted by numerous children and one spouse.  Names are flashed into my brain filing cabinet only to slip out. The next few days I will be asking everyone to remind me of their name.  I think I still only remember only half of the 7 names handed out.  I do remember the two doggies names though. Not sure why.

View from School

My first night in Colorado was very comfortable.  The next day I was spending time with Dan and we went out to have lunch with his Son and Daughter. This tradition is admirable and will likely pay great dividends later as the children have had time to connect with their loving dad.  I need to file this activity in my "to-do" list for when I get home.

The day was filled with discussions about extended families, God's love and plan for our life.  Dan was truly a help to me at this time.

Field of Dreams

I left Dubuque on my westward journey.  My intention was to drop by the "Field of Dreams" movie set in Dyersville for a quick look.  I had no idea that it would be an hour stop.  I met 4 Californians here in Iowa for  a football game that made a side trip to the Field.  They were taking all kinds of pictures and I helped by taking the four shot of the group under the sign.  They offered to take my picture too. 

It was amazing to see all of us "old folks" returning to our youth and getting all giddy about the old sandlot games of baseball.  It's exactly what this movie captured and to keep the field alive all these years is quite a feat.  I am happy I visited and would love to come back to see a game here.

I continued west along the interstate and made it to Kansas City Kansas later in the evening.  The next day in Kansas City had more fellowship and trying to catch up on some work.

I Am Homeless

I am officially Homeless.  It's not that I don't own a home it's just that I can't live there and it will be sold.  So the questions came up "Where do I live now?" I had a limited number of choices which would work for me but would not be conducive to having the boys stay over.  It would break my heart to be so close to the boys but not able to see them.  I am not sure they would understand why we couldn't be together and having that discussion would have been difficult for me to explain.  I have been on the road before and the boys are use to it and seem to be able to deal with those events.

Loaded up and ready to leave Detroit.

Rick at work.

I loaded up the van and trailer and headed out for Road Trip Therapy.  I plan to meet and fellowship with wise friends along the way.  I started out by driving to Detroit to stay over night with my Friend, Rick.  He has been a great help along this journey and continues to be a blessing. Thursday I left to head to Dubuque Iowa.  The small Bible college I attended 25 years ago was having it's 70th Reunion.  The timing was perfect and it made for a great time renewing old friends.



I spent the weekend at the school looking at the building that brought back great memories of the best 2 years of my life.  Studying God's word is a great way to build a foundation by which I measure every other event.






After the Weekend I will head to Kansas City, KS.  Via the Field of Dreams.

Field of Dreams.

Well I made it through the weekend and had very little time for reading or writing. I will be heading out west after lunch and stopping a couple of times along the way.

One of the stops will be to the Field of Dreams movie location. It was filmed in Dyersville IA about 25 minutes west of Dubuque, Iowa. I am looking forward to making the trek further west.

He's my good friend.

He's a wise counselor.

I am in America

I left home today with my van full of "junk" and my trailer holding my motorcyle.  The drive was gloomy and rainy which was apropos of my mood. Leaving home is always mixed with emotions.  Looking forward to the road ahead but sad to leave the house.

I'm at my friends in Detroit for the evening.

Sad Day Sundays

I had a couple of days with the boys this weekend. While I love spending time with them the saddest part is saying goodbye. This happens every Sunday night after they leave. I’m overwhelm by the realization that I won’t see them for another fortnight. This weekend is different though. I may not see them for a bit longer. I tried to make this weekend a bit more special. We went for a warm hike along the river near St. Jacobs. Found a couple of geocaches and just tried to bond. I gave them a couple of leather jackets from my youth that they will grow in to. They loved trying them on and wore them home.

The last weekend they were here we did something extremely dangerous, but a male rite of passage. Driving the car the last block to the driveway. While sitting in my lap I controlled the accelerator and brake and they controlled the steering wheel. This was a memorable highlight of their weekend and they ask every time we approach home now “can I drive the last corner?”. While this seems dangerous in our bubble-wrap-helmut-wearing-over-protective society I had my hand on the gear selector at all times to be ready to throw it in neutral at the first sign of trouble. Remember, in 4 years they will be behind the wheel without my oversight.

Take off in one week.

Planning on nearing DBQ one week from now.

Google Latitude

If you would like to follow my travels you can add me to Google Latitude. It should be fun to see where in the world I am. Either that or just plain creepy.

Getting ready

Part of getting ready is prepping the Blog site. This may be where you'll find me and my Blurg.