A BusRoads Buzz Christmas Greeting

The winter holidays are upon us and we’re trying to appreciate every moment. After all, there will never be another year that we spend our very first Christmas at the Happy House in Talent, Oregon. Accordingly, we bought a poinsettia the very first day they were featured at the greenhouse and put out our Christmas bear a tad earlier than was probably tasteful. We took part as our cute little town had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony (complete with carolers, Santa, hot cider and cookies) and a holiday bazaar with knitted, jeweled and handcrafted things (including local wine). We added to the festivities by stringing up lights on the house and putting a bright little tree in the window, but our most important seasonal observance is acknowledging with true gratitude the good fortune that is ours.

In addition to practicing carols on ukulele to sing with the family, we made a quick recording of a Christmas song written by Andi last year on December 27^th. The song is called “An Island Christmas” and you may have already heard us play it for you in person. If not, feel free to checkout our seasonal gift of music by clicking here.

Our kindest thoughts and warmest wishes are with you at the beginning of another winter and a brand new year. May you and yours know great joy and contentment in the days to come. Look for our next BusRoads notes from the sunny south!  ~  Brian and Andi

April 2014

Greetings!

Another season of touring is coming to a close for us and we know that the chance of publishing a new Buzz is slim when we get home in the summer. Therefore, we offer you this update from our final days in Albuquerque. We have played several Native flute concerts in town, strummed ukuleles at two open mics, shivered in icy winds and basked in warm sunshine. All in all, this past month has been a delightful springtime episode in our travels. Thanks for sharing the BusRoads adventure and keep in touch!   ~  Brian and Andi

Wish You Were Here

 

This should actually be called “Wish You Were THERE,” because although we are not there yet, we are headed for one of our Happy Places. We offer you Moab, Utah, where we have never had a bad time. In a pair of weeks we will arrive at a small town with an active ambiance, full of young thrill-seekers, free-thinking locals, sandal-ed tourists and top-notch festivals. Tucked along the Colorado River between amazing red mountainsides, Moab’s main drag caters to buyers seeking anything from Native American jewelry to tee shirts dyed rusty red in the area’s local dirt. Restaurants, microbreweries and coffee shops abound, as do rental shops for mountain bikes and jeeps. Turn off the main street and you will find peaceful sidewalks, thrift stores, small tidy houses, and a terrific library. Each year the town hosts the April Action Auto Show, where countless beautiful classic cars cruise the strip and are showcased in the city park. Our schedule just happens to have us passing through Moab during the car show weekend (again)  – imagine that?!

Life on Road

A tremendous flurry of activity ensues when we have spent a month in the easy comfort of a city and are about to embark on a camping adventure away from the niceties of electricity, running water, gas stations and mega-grocery stores. Such is our current state as we prepare to leave Albuquerque for the wilds of New Mexico. True, we are going to a campground, but there is little surrounding El Morro National Monument other than what you bring yourself. So we find ourselves filling the propane tank, changing the motor oil, stocking up on food stuffs, buying gasoline, giving each other haircuts, filing our taxes and generally taking advantage of main stream amenities. As hard as it is to say goodbye to Kirtland Air Force Base, Trader Joe’s, daily showers and TV, we are excited to be heading for hiking trails, calling ravens, simple entertainments and the kind peace to be found when you are living closer to nature.

Coffee Chat

On military bases, there are likely to be bugle calls broadcast on loudspeakers at certain times during the day. Here at the Air Force base in Albuquerque, reveille is at 0700 and colors is at 1700. In the dark of the evening comes our favorite, because taps at 2200 is always accompanied by the mournful howling of a particular local hound.

Did you Know

The Colorado Plateau, a region of high desert centering around the Four Corners junction of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, covers 130,000 square miles. It encompasses 10 National Parks and 17 National Monuments – the greatest concentration in the US. Moab lies near the middle of this colorful rocky realm of red, yellow, vermilion, white, tangerine, purple, gold, and even green. In an unbelievable display, the stone of the Colorado Plateau has been sculpted by wind and water into a fantastic wonderland of arches, canyons, pillars, domes and natural bridges.

Moab’s April Action Auto Show

Enough about us. How are you doing? 

Post a comment below or reply to our email. See ya!

March 2014

Greetings!

Early spring finds us in one of our most comfortable and familiar RV parks – Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is always tough to say goodbye to Arizona. Staying in Tucson is as lively and exciting as visiting a vacation resort, but when we reach the casual, more laid back style of Albuquerque, it’s like coming home. As hard as it is to leave Tucson, we now remember that the only way to be somewhere else you enjoy is to leave where you are. This (possibly obvious) fact helped inspire the lyrics to one of the songs we wrote, which states, “Each new hello starts with a goodbye...”  ~ Brian and Andi

Wish You Were Here

When your wandering thoughts touch upon Roswell, New Mexico, what is the first thing that comes to mind? UFOs, of course! Imagine our surprise when we found another worthwhile reason to stop at this large but isolated desert prairie city. On this our 9^th or 10^th time passing through town, we discovered the Roswell Museum and Art Center. With a bit of free time on our hands, we decided it would be hard to go wrong visiting a free art museum. To our surprise, we were totally engaged for as long as our feet held up. As the name indicates, it is both a gallery of visual arts and showcase of museum objects. There are paintings with a southwest emphasis by Hurd, Wyeth, O’Keeffe and many others, objects created by Native and Hispanic artisans, 1200 artifacts of the old west, and the entire reconstructed workshop of rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard. Perhaps Roswell should try out a slogan like, “come for the aliens, stay for the art.”

Life on the Road

Fate looked on us favorably when we had our very first negative adventure of a type that most road warriors are bound to encounter. At Chiricahua National Monument, about an hour south of Willcox, Arizona, our RV had a breakdown and needed a tow. The bad news was that this happened in a remote location with no cell phone signal and 40 miles from the nearest small town. The good occurrences were several: we found helpful campground hosts who had access to a private wifi signal so phone calls could be made by talking into their iPad; Willcox had several auto shops and the only one who answered our iPad call was run by a capable and reputable guy named Joe, who had the water pump we probably needed in stock; a kindly, talented tow truck driver managed to haul Sierra up onto a flatbed right at the campground where we were parked and we were treated to a magnificent magenta sunset as we rode with him to Willcox; Joe allowed us to sleep in the RV overnight while parked in front of service bay #2, where he commenced work on Sierra at 8:00 the next morning; we had a cute, historic
western town to explore by foot during the repair; Sierra was fixed and on the road by 10:30 the very morning after we encountered the problem. All in all, we count this as a good memory and perhaps a case of fortune smiling on the innocent wandering minstrels.

  

 

Did you know?

Legendary singing cowboy Rex Allen was born in Willcox, Arizona in 1920 and began his recording career in 1946, eventually selling more than 3 million copies of his famous “Streets of Laredo.”  Rex Allen also starred in 19 western movies and 39 television episodes of “Frontier Doctor,” as well as narrating more than 100 nature films for Walt Disney.

Coffee Chat

Some people collect commemorative matchbooks from restaurants and bars as souvenirs of the places they have been. We rarely drink or dine out as we travel but there is one type of establishment we cannot resist – music shops. We especially like to patronize the  unique, local mom and pop stores. Often these places offer the musical souvenir equivalent of a matchbook; come to the Happy House in Talent, Oregon and see our growing collection of guitar picks.

Click here 

to view a YouTube video collage of our trip to Tucson’s Sabino Canyon, 

accompanied by Andi's flute music!

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We'd love to hear from you!

February 2014

Greetings!

We blinked and several months flew by since our last communication. Much of that time was consumed by the renovation process on our “new” little house in Southern Oregon. We had a lot of professional remodeling help, undertook some projects ourselves, and are satisfied with the progress achieved before embarking on the this year’s concert tour. California is now a memory, Nevada is behind us, too, and we are in the comfortable terra cognita of Tucson, Arizona. Thanks for tuning in after our lengthy hiatus.  ~  Brian and Andi

Wish You Were Here

Ever since we began our “BusRoads” adventures more than 11 years ago, fellow travelers have been recommending a state park in Nevada called Valley of Fire. It was always our intention to check it out, but we never seemed to be passing through the Silver State at anything less than warp speed. About two weeks ago we found ourselves in Las Vegas. As exciting as it was, after a few days we were ready for an antidote to the noisy, smoky, hyper scene of Sin City. Valley of Fire State Park, an hour to the northeast, was exactly what we needed. In remarkable contrast to much of Nevada’s dull coloration, Valley of Fire’s rollicking stone landscape is vibrant colors of rust, gold and magenta. Nice hikes, a good campground, great scenery and a proliferation of ancient petroglyphs make this a place we will now recommend to others. I hope it doesn’t take them 11 years to get there.

Interested in a more detailed look at Valley of Fire? Click here to watch a nine minute YouTube video of our adventures at the park.

Life on the Road

I suppose this is obvious (Andi speaking here) but if you are going to spend much time traveling, you need to think wisely about your hobbies. Some pastimes, as fun as they might be, simply do not lend themselves to a wandering lifestyle. Examples: harmonica playing – good, tuba collecting – bad, crocheting – good, chainsaw art – bad. This is a case of “do as I say, not as I do”, because I seem to possess some genetic quirk that requires me to pick up rocks. This is not a good plan for life in a cozy RV. By the end of each travel season, I have managed to stash away several Ziploc baggies of mineral specimens (never from protected places, mind you) that decrease both our gas mileage and our living space. Knowing my weakness, Brian still willingly took me to one of the many venues in Tucson celebrating the annual gem and mineral show. There were tents and showcases and rooms full of rocks and fossils, some basic and some defying belief. There was never any doubt that I would not leave empty handed. I wonder if Brian will notice a large cluster of amethyst crystals squirreled away in his little sock drawer…

Did you know?

Tucson’s Guero Canelo restaurants are the place to get your traditional Sonoran hot dog, complete with beans, salsa, mustard and mayo all tucked into a soft, sweet bun. Try the sliced cucumber with cooling avocado sauce, the pink pickled onion strips and the chargrilled green onions from the condiment bar.

Coffee Chat

It is fun to watch animal behavior as we travel and this year we have already observed sea otters from Avila Beach, whales at San Pedro, wild parrots in Malibu and bighorn sheep in Nevada. Nearly as entertaining were the two nights we “dry” camped next to the doggy park at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson while waiting a couple of days to rotate into an RV site with water and electric hookups. We actually recognized a couple of pets from previous years, especially the golden retriever who lives to fetch. Animals of all descriptions are good entertainment when you have the time to stop and watch.

We look forward to your blog comments or email replies. Thanks for following the BusRoads Buzz!