I got the Blues, shall we dance? 6/30-7/4/17

The Waterfront Blues Festival, in its 30th year this year showcases amazing regional blues musicians and a few national blues headliners.  It is always held over the 4th of July weekend and ends with a spectacular fireworks display over the Willamette River.  The organization, management and setting of the festival is unmatched by any festival we've ever attended and it is also a fund raising event for the Oregon Foodbank charitable organization as well.  A win/win all around.

Before our trek to the festival, we had to stock some basic picnic food items and something to sit on. We scored two pop up outdoor chairs at Fred Meyer for $7 bucks each, and schlepped them back to our flat,  We packed up a cooler, our spiffy new chairs and headed out to the Portland Streetcar for the festival.

The 2017 festival was 5 days long. The weather was a little warmer than we had anticipated during the day, but the evenings were spectacular.  It is a beautiful venue. It did not have any significant headliners this year as in years past but we heard some phenomenal musicians and vocalists.  The talent always blows my mind.  There are two main stages that are run like Swiss clocks, the sound is always spot on.  There is a small more intimate stage and a larger back stage with a football field sized dance floor.  The addition of the dance floor was a new element since our last festival.  Little did we know that dance floor would provide us with so much entertainment without ever stepping foot on it.

When we were not at the main stages, we frequently found ourselves at the Front Porch stage with the dance floor.  From the first day we were fascinated by all the dancers.  All shapes, sizes and skill levels were represented.  We watched several men and ladies change into their "dancing shoes" before they took the floor.  They twirled, stepped and boogied their hearts out for all 5 days. Some were smooth and debonair as they led their partners, making all the right moves. Others were unbridled, almost convulsive and yet the ladies said YES to the courageous men who asked them to dance. Most of the couples switched partners after every song, both respectfully saying "Thank you for the dance" at the end of their groove.  It was a lovely microcosm of humankind. I think I see dance lessons in our future.

Beyond the Palm Trees - 6/29/17

We have been enjoying our new home in Florida through the winter and spring, but now it is time to get out of the heat and look beyond the palm trees. 2017's travels include a couple of domestic trips and one six week sojourn through France by boat, by train and by car.

We don't often return to the same places on our travels, but Portland, OR has been a favorite location ever since we lived near it in Seattle.  It's gritty, hipster, pioneering culture provides local color, great art and music and an "eat local" food scene that is booming.

The first leg of our flight from Tampa to Seattle was uneventful.  Upon landing at approximately 10 pm PST (1am EST) and receiving my dormant texts and email, there was a message from Alaska Airlines.  "Sorry, Flight 2751 has been canceled. We're here to help and get you back on your way. Please see an Alaska customer service agent for assistance. This was a very unwelcome message. But air travel is fraught with these kind of challenges.  Alaska Air provided some food vouchers for our inconvenience and booked us on a later flight that same night. A little Ivar's chowder in our bellies, we completed our trek to our new temporary flat at around 1 am.  Good way to catch up on the time zone change I guess.

   

The Enchanted Circle - Taos, NM (Sept 26-30, 2016)

Eleven hours of driving ahead of us to Taos, New Mexico.   Mike had been changing music on our media drive each day and the first song that came on as we departed Austin and began our trek into West Texas was Willie Nelson, America the Beautiful, very appropriate as we crossed the wide open plains of Texas.  Mike drove the first long leg from Austin to Lubbock, TX where we stopped in at a hotel for the night.  It was a nice little respite from the camper where we could do laundry and sleep in a king size bed and have a little bit more room to move around.

On the second leg, Mike drove the rest of way through the rather flat landscape with large ranches of cows and goats, 18-wheelers, tumbleweeds and very large and plentiful bugs that hit the windshield with a rather loud smack at 70 mph. In our 2000 miles of travel so far, Texas has the highest concentration of bugs of any other state.  Our randomly appropriate song of this driving day, was Stevie Ray Vaughn, Texas Flood.  The long drives of the previous two days were well worth it as we entered New Mexico and the dramatic landscape changes.  At one point, Mike turned to me and said, "Are you feeling a little Thelma and Louise about now?"  He is a funny guy.

Mike and our rig handled the trip up into the mountain elevation well.  We pulled into the Taos Valley RV Park after the office had closed, but found our name and campsite number in the "after hours" box.  The park was very near downtown Taos.

View from our campsite

This was another one of our longer stays, and we had several restaurants, motorcycle rides and attractions on our list to see. The weather was forecast to be beautiful, sunny and warm in the day and cool, bordering on cold at night.

Mike, "settled in"

Once we were settled in, we deployed the Can-Am and headed off into town for dinner. As I had been waiting to fulfill my Mexican food craving, we found  Bella's Mexican Grill.  We learned that if you want red and green chiles on your dish, you ask for Christmas.  We also learned that NM chiles are HOT.  Their chile rellenos and blood orange margarita were excellent as advertised.  Large portions left us with lunch leftovers for the next day.

Our first full day in Taos started with a rude awakening at 40 degrees, brrrrrr.  We quickly found the heater in the camper and took the chill off.  We started our day at the Taos Visitor Center and learned that one of our planned attractions, the Taos Pueblo, would be closed to get ready for a pueblo celebration until Thursday.  With spectacular weather planned for the day, we adjusted and took off on the Enchanted Circle on the Can-Am.

We stopped about halfway in Red River. It is a very popular ski resort in the winter season.   I really felt like I was in an old mining town and might see someone panning for gold in the little river running through town.  We ended up at one of the couple open local restaurants for a bite.  We were treated to a delicious green chile cheesebuger.



The rest of the loop took us to the Angel Fire Ski resort. The scenery and landscapes were so beautiful and there was so little traffic, it felt so private. It was a perfectly lovely day.

Roadside wildlife on the Enchanted Circle

Trees just beginning to show their golden tips

We ended our day walking around the shops and art galleries in downtown Taos, then cocktails and listening to some really great live music at the Taos Inn.  So far Taos is living up to its Land of Enchantment tag line.