On The Road

The past few weeks have included a bit of one of My Favorite Things: travel. Not a lot, just enough to satisfy my wanderlust until June.

Colin has been doing work for the Santa Fe Institute (yes, it’s actually in Santa Fe) and often he has to actually BE on site. SFI seems intriguing. Nestled in a lovely former home in the hills right down the arroyo from my ex-sis-in-law, Magi, I hear the place is literally teeming with Nobel Prize winners. And what a view!

So, a few weeks ago he was supposed to go down again; it was a 5 day excursion (2 days for driving, 3 to be there) as he and co-workers had realized it was much, much cheaper to rent cars than pay for plane tickets. So, there was tagalong room. We were to leave on Wednesday, return Sunday night. I couldn’t simply abandon my daycare grandmummy duties, so I helped September work out the details for the boys, arranged with her and our swell (and neighborly!) neighbors that our border collie and panther kitty would be let in and out, called my art friend Pat who lives in SF and made detailed plans. We would meet up early Thursday for coffee, go visit one of her “secret” sources, a woman who has the “best stuff ev-er”, but you DO need to make an appointment, then head over to Thirteen Moons Gallery on Canyon Road, where Pat’s currently exhibiting. I would have Friday on my own to go visit all my old haunts, then Friday through Sunday in Albuquerque hanging out with Colin’s sister Meghan and our fabulous artist (oil painter extraordinaire) brother-in-law, John, in their crazily 60’s/New Mexico style house.

I spent most of Tuesday doing all the things one does before any trip, short or long --- canceling the milk delivery, buying aspirin, watering the plants, gathering up gifts to bring. Oh, did I mention packing? Well, no, I never seem to get to that until exactly one hour before we are scheduled to depart. But EVERYTHING else was good to go.

Ever heard my great, great, great, great, great (and I’m not saying that just because I think he was SOOOO great) Uncle Robbie Burns’ saying, “the best laid plans. . .”?

Suddenly, late Tuesday afternoon, the phone rings. RRRRIIINNNGGG.
Colin: The SFI peeps “aren’t ready”. (‘Scuz me? They obviously didn’t know I was ready. I wasn’t just ready, in my mind, I was outta here (except for the packing).) He continues: So maybe we can leave on Friday, go to Albuquerque first, if they (SFI) can be ready for us to come on Monday?

Oh. I call up Pat immediately: Does Monday work for you?
Pat: No! I’m leaving Sunday to housesit for the week in Santa Barbara.
Me (very very sadly): I know you’ll have a swell time in sunny California,
I’ll mail you your present, and I guess I’ll see you next time.

I quickly recovered my equanimity. After all, it wasn’t like I’d actually PACKED.

We got headed south early Friday afternoon. Colin had never read On the Road. So I read it to him, while he drove. Reading makes the 8 hours to Albuquerque go very quickly. (We did have a few radio news and cd interludes.)

Now despite the title of this edition, I’m not going to give you an excerpt from On The Road. What I am going to give you is a page from the magazine 5280 Denver’s Mile-High Magazine, March 2007. Click on the page and you should be able to read it easily:We made it safely to Albuquerque, with enough time to hang out in Meghan and John's kitchen for a few hours, drinking red wine and eating chocolate before bed. Very, very beat of us.