Causing A Ruckus

Last night the doorbell rang around 8pm, as we were all unwinding from the hectic birthday party for Dad's youngest son.  The mass of 8 year old boys had worn us all out with the shear amount of energy they all had.  Conner answered the door as I jumped in the shower.  When I came out of the house, my hair all wet and clutching my PJ's, I saw a bunch of police cars and Conner in the middle.  Not a sight one wants to see outside of their house at night.

Apparently one of the neighbors had complained about our trailer parked by the curb.  One cop came to check it out and had no clue what to do.  So he called a second cop.  Who had no idea what to do.  So they called another...until 4 police cars were out front.  And each one was either on their laptops searching for city ordinances prohibiting our trailer from staying right where it was, or one the phone with a superior trying to figure out the same thing.  And they came up with nothing.  They said to not worry about it for the time being. 

My step-mother Anita, was all upset and has decided that we're going to have a "Griswald Christmas" at the trailer; fully decked out with twinkle lights, fake snow, tinsel, an inflatable Grinch, and a small Christmas tree on top.  Tackiness is to rule this holiday season.

Alfred University And Their Library

While we're up here in NY visiting Kat and Dan I'm using Alfred University's awesome library to edit all my photos and dump it all online.  I'll try to start from Denver and show our trip across the Midwest, through Canada, to New York in order but you know, we'll see how it goes : )

View Recent Travels in a larger map

Momentarily broken down in the Home Depot parking lot outside Denver

Eco-classic car guy Ronnie that stopped by while broken down.  He had the best glasses ever.

We're Not Dead...

Haha, I keep talking to people who exclaim, "Where are you?!  I'm so glad you're not dead!  I was a little worried there for a minute..."  So yeah, just for the record, we're not dead.  Right now we're in the Village of Alfred, NY where Dan has moved in order to drop off the rest of his belongings.  It's a super small but cute town that has two colleges with a median age of 20.4.   Alfred is notable for it's art program but as most students keep telling us, that's about the only thing going for it.  There's talk of 17 below temperatures in the winter and for goodness sake, everyone's practically a baby here! 

But Kat's friends whom we've met are all awesome, and energetic, and giddy and frankly, it's refreshing.  It makes me want to go back to school hard-core.  It also makes me think of when the last time I felt really excited and giddy...it was months ago in Colorado when Conner's mom let me borrow her 1941 sewing machine for the trip.  Haha, I mean, come on, it's freaking awesome and totally made my month.  I've totally put it to use in making myself a new 1950's wardrobe so I can match the car.  That was the last time.

Aww, world's smallest violin--I think my little Rachel light, the one that's supposed to burn so bright, has dimmed a bit under the super ambitious project that we've undertaken.  Because we're stuck in the middle of our "Oh shit, how the hell our we going to pull this off?!" moment...well, we can't see the forest since we're stuck under a stump at the moment...or something to that effect.  But again, on account of stubbornness and blind faith, we're going to finish this thing.  Otherwise I might look back on this with a mixture of fondness, failure, and regret.  And I feel like there's nothing worse in life than feeling like you've failed.  Hence, finishing is essential.  So if anyone has any thoughts or words of encouragement, then please send them along because Conner and I could use them at the moment.

Goodbye Dan...

Conner and I have been MIA for a while now; we’ve been wallowing in a bit of a Funk Fest.  Dan flew out from Chicago on August 10th to see about a girl; he moved in with his girlfriend in upstate New York and to get a job.  He had some medical problems, including hospital visits, and no insurance.  Being responsible he left the project to begin the long process of paying for his health care out-of-pocket. 
Truth be told, things have not been working out as we planned…or as we failed to plan.  I followed advice that life on the road never works out as expected and to leave room to be flexible.  I didn’t exactly find a musician in each place that committed to working with us, I only had a lot of possible leads.  There was also the problem of finding a place to stay for a month at a time that we thought would work itself out.  But it didn’t, especially not in larger cities like Chicago.   

After Dan left, Conner mourned the loss of his musical right-hand-man.  He hasn’t really played out since Omaha.  However, he did purchase Music Theory For Dummies and has been pouring over treble and bass clefs.

Conner and I were both silently stressed out over how rapidly our money was evaporating.  We traveled through half the mid-west missing all these amazing sites because we were trying to stretch our small savings across the US and into next March.  It was a futile exercise.   While we were in Indianapolis I bought a USA travel guide and after much moping, we decided that we would spend what little money we had left actually enjoying ourselves, and make a beeline for North Carolina.  My parents live in Chapel Hill and we can stay in their driveway, get jobs through the holidays, and plan our next leg better.  Chapel Hill is also the home of the Mountain Goats, Ben Folds Five, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers; it’s a music-centered town and will hopefully be good in getting Conner back on the musical bandwagon. 

Squirrel Nut Zippers photo via MTV

We recently received a grant for $650 from the Puffin Foundation, a non-profit group in NJ that funds the arts.  While not a huge amount of money, it’s still amazing and it was the first grant I ever wrote.  I took a class on grant writing ages ago and learned that grants are not just free money; they are more like a contract and you best be following through on what you proposed, otherwise you have to give the money back.  The grant coupled with my general stubbornness-well, we just gotta finish this project now.  And I have ultimate faith that we can pull this off; the deadline hasn’t arrived yet, there’s still time.

 Photo via Concept Trends

One last post about Taos.
A friend suggested I look out for "Intentional Communities" (after Waco communes sought a new name) as we travel for free places to camp in exchange for a music concert by the boys.  I scoped out the Taos area and the only one was the Earthship Community.  I emailed and called and called and finally got someone on the phone to arrange a small corner of land to park our trailer for a couple nights, check out the community, and play a little music.  A recap of my conversation with the Earthship representative after I made my proposal of music for a place to park:
"Um yeah, we don't really do that but you can stay in one of the Earthships for $230 a night"
"Oh well, we haven't much money to spend on housing while we make our documentary.  Is it possible to just camp for a night on a small square of land?"
"Uh yeah, well...yeah, we don't really do that either but there's a camp ground down the road for about $20 a night."
By that time I was like, "Woman!  You're entirely missing the point here!"  But I let it go.

 Photo via Treehugger

     So while we were staying with the boys' parents rented Garbage Warrior, a documentary about the Earthship Community and Micheal Reynolds, the visionary architect behind it all.  It was a really good film and the people behind the community looked awesome-my kind of people.  Plus, all the aid work they do for countries hit by natural disasters is amazing!  They're doing a bunch of work in Haiti right now.
     While in Taos, I dragged everyone up there to scope it out and at least go to the visitor center...haha, no such luck.  They charge $5 to just walk through the model home and are kind of uptight in general.  The sane people that we hung out with in Taos (aka: the potters) were all of the opinion that the Earthship people are "chappy-asses".  So it's a total shame because I really love what they're doing but geez, I wonder why they're so uptight.

Taos Vortex

I've decided that Taos has to be on par with the Bermuda Triangle as a inescapable vortex.  We took off down the road and passed by the Earthship Community (something I'll write about shortly), when all of a sudden the gas peddle stopped working.  Trying to be a proper filmmaker I whipped out the video camera in time for Conner to flip his shit.  He shook the steering wheel and yelled, "Fuuuucckkk!"  I got it on film.  In the back, Dan and Kat fussed at me that "now probably isn't a good time to do that".  We pulled off the road and started making plans for Dan and Kat to hitchhike back into Taos to try and find a fuel pump--the thing Conner said was busted and without which we wouldn't make it back to Colorado.  He also was pissed off because he figured we would be stuck on the side of the road, 15 miles outside of Taos, for another week while the correct fuel pump for Breathless came in--it's a small town without much car part variety.  To top it off, it's New Mexico and we didn't have cell phone service.  Once they climbed into some unnamed car we wouldn't know what happened to them unless they came back.  Du-duh-duhnn...

We're going over how much food we have, how little water we have, and how long Conner and I should wait before we start to worry.  I go across the road to take a photo of this amazing light, which I couldn't seem capture on film, and I hear behind me--"Huh, huh, uh guys...nevermind.  I guess I'll check under the hood next time before I freak out.  It's cool...just the air filter fell off because these New Mexico roads are so shitty...I'll just screw it back on and we should be fine." 

We wipe our foreheads and think, sweet, calamity averted.  And yeah, the roads in New Mexico are notoriously shitty.  They're all so full of potholes or badly done patch jobs that it shakes Breathless something aweful--when they're paved.  A lot of the time it's just gravel.  In fact when we tried to find the cool free hot springs, we made it 2 miles down the road (and 20 min later), holding on to the doors for fear that she would rattle apart, before we all decided to bail and turn our backs on the hotsprings.

So we get back on the road, relieved, and singing along to Weezer.

We're in the middle of nowhere, winding our way up the mountain pass right by Tres Piedras, and we run out of gas.  The gas gauge doesn't really work at all-it shows full until the tank is empty and then it only shows half-full.  It's dusk and Dan volunteers to hitchhike into the nearest town; Chama about 1/2 hour away.  Conner starts cooking dinner over the propane stove, and I'm trying to be photo-artsy, when we hear this god-aweful sound.  Kat and I are so freaked out that we freak Conner out who tells us to get in the car-not something you want to hear when you're scared.  We're city girls and we aren't super saavy about the mountain sounds; it all just sounds scary to us.  We ate our rice and beans, played a bit of poker, and counted a total of 5 cars passing by the overlook that we had coasted into after running out of gas. 

Man, it seemed like it took forever for Dan to come back.  He caught a ride with some Texans to the gas station and a ride back with a man named Gus.  He was fine but Kat and I had made ourselves nauseous worrying that he would get eaten by bears...reports of attacks seem to be in the Colorado papers all the time...or something worse.  Since our luck had been so crappy all day long we decided to camp out at the overlook and try to make it back to Colorado again the next morning. 

That was not one of our most graceful days.
Sidenote: The cool free hot springs can be found heading north on 522.  Right before you hit the Rio Grande Gorge, hang a right on the dirt road...there's no sign, just the last dirt road on the right before the gorge.  Drive down the road till you see a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road on the right.  Park and walk down the embankment to the springs.  It's a bit of a hike down but there's a path.

Just A Little Embarrassing

The other night, after a nice Colorado dinner of meat and potatoes, it came up that Mamma Melody Finn had been reading this blog and all the things I’ve written about good Finn genes going to waste and wanting to get married.  I’m fully aware that I’ve written all these things online for the whole world to read and they’re all absolutely true.  I just never know who’s reading this, or even if people are reading it, and when people mention it face-to-face it’s a little embarrassing.  Especially when it’s the mother of the boys I’m writing about…Just a little embarrassing.

Stupid Avis

Oh man, the journey back to Arboles, CO was miserable.  It was like a small comedy of errors.  First with the missed flight and to end with my first experience with renting a car.  The cheapest flight we could find arrived in Albuquerque, which according to Google Maps was 4.5 hours away.  I felt really bad making the boys drive 9 hours just to come fetch me so I rented a car.  I had gone on Priceline and reserved the cheapest car for a total of $35 which seemed preposterous to everyone else in the house because usually their way more expensive.  Anyway, long story short, I hate renting cars.

I got hoodwinked!  I showed the agent my reservation and then he upgraded me without my knowledge, convinced me to prepay for gas, and then made highly disapproving faces when I declined all insurance.  When I returned the car in Durango the other agent pointed out the upgrade.  All of the Avis customer service people suck.  Both people I talked to simply said I should have known it was a bigger car before I left the lot.  Ugh!  Yeah, I should of but never having rented a car before I didn't know what to keep an eye out for.  And word to this wise--avoid the pre-paid gas tank.  Even if you only use a 1/2 tank they still charge you for it.  Not worth it.  Stupid Avis....avoid Avis I say!

Here ends my diatribe.

Making It Back

Today's the day!  The day I actually catch a plane back to Colorado. 

Mom came in asking me to check the status my flight yesterday.  I looked it up and with nasty Crest Whitestrips all in my mouth and asked her, "Wait. What does that say?  Can you read that date?" 
"It says 6/15-June 15th'
"Yeah, and what date is it today?!"
Which is the exact moment that I knew I had royally messed up and that the amount of teasing I would be soon getting from my family would probably be worse than plopping down more money for a new ticket.

I called Priceline.  I called United Air.  I called Priceline again, all the while trying to sound as pitiful as humanly possible.  But no, no such luck with the pity department because I had "Named My Own Price" for a ticket, it was non-negotiable if I fucked something up.  My parents are moving to New Mexico next Tuesday and we talked about me hitching a ride in their U-Haul caravan...this is driving across the country with a Dalmatian, a parrot, and two adults who "passionately discuss" (ie. argue) about everything under the sun.  I was all for it since it would probably be the cheapest option, I love my parents, and I figured I might as well get used to being in a car.  But my step-father was super sweet and got me a new one-way ticket back to Colorado...going home always turns me back into the spacey teenager I once was.

Thanks Mom and Ely for taking care of me...
Gordon Osmundson Photograph

Today I'm An Idiot

I'm an idiot and I missed my flight back to Colorado.  I thought I was flying back today, Thursday, but nope, my flight was Tuesday and I just didn't realize it.  I called Priceline, where I had booked my name-your-own price ticket, and they wouldn't budge from their no-refund policy and United Air wouldn't help fix my blunder either.  So today I'm an idiot.

Saying farewell

This is the most to-do I've ever done before moving.  It started at our going-away shindig in mid-April and culminated last night at the Long Branch, one of my favorite non-fussy bars in Austin--and also where I happened to first meet Conner and Dan.  I think Conner summed up how we both feel the best: "I feel like I been et by wild dogs and then pooped off of a cliff." 

The boys want to leave tonight and drive up to Colorado.  We all have our own cars to drive which leaves no opportunity for trading off sleeping/driving stints.  They're experienced in the art of night driving but I'm not.  The best method I know of making sure to stay awake is to load up on Atomic Fireball candy and listen to Spice Girls.  Laugh if you must, but they're peppy enough and I know the words enough to get energized by belting out "Wannabe" or maybe "Spice Up Your Life".

The last time I left for an extended vacation we all got the makings for White Russians and tried to watch The Big Lebowski.  I confess that I've never actually seen the film's ending.  I've tried multiple times but can never make it all the way through...mainly because of getting into the movie a little too well (ie. White Russian drinking games) and typically fall asleep about half way through.  The next day when my flight left I was aching something fierce, and traveling severely hung-over sucks.  When my flight out of Austin was delayed and thus making me miss my connecting flight to London and then Spain, I kind of lost it in a very ungraceful, tear stained way in the teriminal.  It was plain embarrassing.  I'd like to think that had I not been feeling so wretched, I'd have kept it all together a bit better but who knows. 

I sincerely hope none of that happens when we embark tonight with Scary and Posh Spice in tow.