After Southern CA we spent the first night in Quartzite, the
gem selling city that grows to a population of 1,000,000 in the peak winter
months of January and February, but when we visited it was a ghost town. Empty
trailer parks everywhere. From there we drove to Jerome. If you have followed
our blogs you will remember that last time we had a
GYPSY WAGON VORTEX experience. Well, we had another vortex experience on this visit, a kaleidoscope vortex. Nancy, with the gypsy wagon B & B, JUST HAPPENED to get back from her
summer vacation the day before we got there, and she JUST HAPPENED to mention
that the yearly Jerome Kaleidoscope Convention was happening the next day, and we found that our
hosts when were in Brasstown, North Carolina last April to teach at the JC Campbell Folk School, Scott Cole and Sheryl Koch, JUST
HAPPENED to be there!! So we had a fantastic visit in Jerome once again.
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| store that host the kaleidoscope convention |
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| some of the scopes |
We had often thought about driving to Chaco Canyon on
earlier trips, but always ruled it out because of the 23-mile drive on a dirt
road. But reason was thrown to the wind this trip and we experienced the costs
of pulling a wooden wagon over dry dusty rutted washboard roads on a wooden
trailer. Things fell off shelves, screws rattled themselves out, it was rough.
But everything could be repaired and now, for the most part, no one else can
tell how much things shook and what broke. But the drive was worth it.
Chaco Canyon is a magical place.
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| campsite in Chaco Canyon at sunset |
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| Chaco Canyon |
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Chaco Canyon Pueblo building
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When we stopped at Ojo Caliente, we realized that the tiny home revolution is in full swing. Its not just the retired older full time RVers who are traveling the road, there are lots of younger people, living a dream, traveling to summer music festivals and hot springs, national parks and the latest, hippest cities. They are often on FUNEMPLOYMENT, having run from something, maybe a stressful job or big mortgage, and so they built a tiny home or bought an adventure van, and are just free-wheeling on the road.
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| campsite in the cottonwoods |
In collaboration with fellow
member Susan Mackin Dolan, we organized a three-day pre-conference workshop
with 12 other members at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Ghost Ranch was a
perfect place for autumn workshops with its beautiful orange and yellow rocks,
and the cottonwoods flaming gold. We made paper, then linoleum cuts inspired by
the wood cuts of the Santa Fe artist Gustave Baumann, and then combined all
the prints together into a miniature book.
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a ghost
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Cottonwood
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| reduction cut: cottonwood leaf |
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| The collaborators at Ghost Ranch |
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| finished books, a miniature paper mould |
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