And so the story begins again, after four months gone.
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| Me and "it's me Al" Before we left Florida in early July, we rendezvoused one more time with my first college roommate, Alison, aka "it's me, Al!" That was her nickname as college freshmen in 1977, and mine was...... "Wally." Don't ask. |
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| This is the last palm tree this car will ever see |
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| What happens in Nawlins, stays in Nawlins.... |
We bought a 4-wheel drive car (in Florida--- hard to find actually) and then ventured for five days back across the southern US--via New Orleans, to Dallas for a visit with relatives and old friends.
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| Big D.... |
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| More great old college buds @ the Burgins |
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| Wyly laughter |
And into the dusty plains of west Texas to visit Leslie's brother, Roger, fiancé Vicki, and son Dylan Wyly in Lubbock.
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| Housesitting jobs suck....wink* |
Then it was on to the mountains of northern New Mexico, where we have a housesitting (and cat-sitting) job for some friends. It was a beautiful summer at 8,000ft.
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| Jack and Lily---double love & double hairy clothes |
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| New Mexico sunsets forever in my heart |
Over the four months, we worked a variety of odd jobs. One memorable one was working security for a crowd of 7,000+ fans at an Alabama Shakes concert in our local park (7,000 people is larger than our town population).
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| Fried Wyly girls---with niece Stacy :) |
We also volunteered for another three-day music festival, and then we ventured to Santa Fe to help our niece and husband work their fried food wagon at the annual Renaissance Festival. Have you ever tried a Pickle Dog? You should. It's their personal savory invention and simply amazing.
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| Rusty and red leaves |
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| "If I ain't happy here, I ain't happy nowhere..." |
We were also hired to clean up and winterize several fall gardens. And what a beautiful fall it was. We love the changing of the seasons and had missed this the last two years while down in Florida.
While in Taos, Tim produced three more videos. All can be found on youtube.com—just search for TimReevesVideos or try this link: https://www.youtube.com/user/TimReevesVideo
He currently has a total of 54 self-produced videos on his channel. He wrote a song called "Taos Blue" and made this video (song is sung by our friends Ray and Cari of Strangebyrds):
Leslie pulled the beads and jewelry supplies out of storage and fired back up her Etsy shop—free shipping for the holidays!!!
This right-brain creativity is just what we needed to balance out the left-brain survival programming that a 35ft sailboat takes. Balance is always good.
I also took some of your encouraging comments to heart, and started writing a story. Forever Blue is actually more like episodes, like an hour-long TV series. I drew my ideas and inspiration from the many colorful, alternative-minded characters that populate Taos, NM—an unforgettable and quirky town. I’ve thought about this written portrayal for years. When I arrived back in town in July, I unleashed my satirical view of what Taos is like (in my mind anyway). Quirky it is. That’s why we all love Taos so much. I’ve got two episodes written and mostly edited, with more coming. I might let them go public… and then again, I might not.
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