Off the bus and awed

Its a bit late to start writing now, its almost 1am and we have just come off an exhuasitng bus ride to our next destination, Zacatecas. we have not had great internet access because we have been traveling and exlporing a new place everyday.
just wanted to let ya all know we are having a great time, and have many stories. We are back in that traveling reality where one day is like 3 days. We are staying at a hostel owned by trilingual gregarious mexican brothers in a very old european-esque colonial town. We will write more tomorrow the details and thoughts of our trip. It is so nice to hear from our friends and family that posted on this blog. Glad to hear sample is doing well and being an attention grabber! we miss her. Hey, tonight was a very memoriable night because this is the FIRST time ever someone thought I was zarhas sister! ha! i loved it! she was less than thrilled. Her hair cut is very cute but it makes her look considerably older and somehow me younger! yea! she will have to keep the cut, mother enforced.

we have much to share and great photos coming, stay tuned.
stiff from the bus and yoga is sadly sporadic, but life is exciting.
love to all
daz

Off to Mexico....

We arrived at our destination in Brownsville Texas last night, a boarder town of Texas where we are leaving our car with friends of friends. Throughout Texas we have been driving past all the massive oil refineries and as they say "everything is bigger in Texas!" including those damn stinky oil refineries that look the skyline of large cities at night. I actually thought a refinery was the Houston skyline as we neared my aunts house, but it was just the lights it takes to mine the earth for our excessive oil consumption. I was grossed out and we just kept DRIVING. Ha. oh well the contradictions do not escape me. so we decided to bus through Mexico and not drive my old car, too many unknowns with the driving and we can interact more with Mexicans and the culture if we are not trapped in the bubble of our own car. so we will bus to southern Mexico making many stops along the pacific coast.

we stopped in Corpus Cristi Texas yesterday, that was a very abandoned town. The only thing i know about it (more creepy facts for our creepy fact file) is that is where the little hottie blond teacher got acquitted for sleeping with her middle school aged student. The plea was bi-polar disorder and as a friend of mine said "that disease doesn't effect your vagina!" But the town had a nice gulf coast water front walk and boats and a balmy breeze. Yesterday was the warmest day we have had so far sunny and almost hot! we actually used a fan last night when we slept. things are warming up!
If you want post cards from our trip and if your not immediate family (or housemates) send me an address. I am not buying gifts like we did in Venezuela not enough money and too hard to travel with. So email an address if you want a postcard.
much love
dawn

Zarha's Haircut per Emma's request

Articles on Demand, ordered by Emma

Road Trippin' thus far...

Well alas we are back to the world of high speed Internet. We have been in the mountains of West Va and the woods of North Carolina and i guess some places are not accessible to high speed Internet yet. Imagine! We visited our dearest Uncle Bill, at his hermetic retreat center in the rolling hills of West Va. We all shared our dismay and disgust over the workings of the government during luscious meals of Bills own preserved garden vegetables and while walking through snowy crispy clean air in his expansive woods! It has been almost 12 years since we visited Bill at his home in the woods and he seemed as energetic and defiant as ever!

We proceeded from there to North Carolina to visit more radiant family members that live among trees. Zarha got her hair cut while in NC and looks like a different person! she donated her old mane to Locks of Love, and she now as an adorable SHORT easy to maintain hair style. We got to meet the newest Kitty member of the family, Jelly, who it turned out ate my shoes by cover of night. Mischievous Jelly is a fun and playful new addition but not to be trusted with shoes!

we drove from NC to Atlanta Ga where we found a great Indian restaurant, coop and radical feminist bookstore. We hung out in the "Greenwich village" of Atlanta to avoid rush hour and I bought new shoes for my trip. We have found many cool places from suggestions of radical grassroots gems as listed in the Slingshot organizer.

so far we had to get a hotel only one night and that was in Mobile Ala, heading from NC family to family in Houston Texas. Currently we are spending the weekend with my Aunt pat and her partner Luke. This is where Internet has been discovered again!
We are being royally spoiled here with my favorite Aunt who took me in when I was both kicked out and a run away during those turmultous high school years! My aunt proclaimed "I will buy all your meals and we will eat out becuase I dont cook!" We have been eating at 5 star restaurants, one with a 70 thousand gallon aquarium and some fancy Italian restaurant. I think I will gain 5 lbs alone of the 15 lbs I imagine I will gain this trip right here with our generous family that hates to cook! The philosophy here is always get dessert because dinner isn't over until you do! The dessert has been amazing!! I have a feeling we have a few more meals ahead of us before we leave.

while in Houston we discovered the ART Car museum, which was also found in the Slingshot organizer. I am inspired to come down here for one of the art car parades and i got a great art car book. My mind is reeling again about ideas for my next art car. There were not as many art cars as i imagined there but i did love the one covered in peaches, a political piece about imPEACHING Bush. And.. "Bush is the Pits." We got the driving tour from Luke our "grouchy" tour guide who told us and showed us really creepy places like where the jealous dentist woman ran over her husband several times and psychiatric hospital where the insane mom lives that killed all her kids in the bathtub. Along with all that creepiness we saw the Enron building! it was all too much creepiness then we found a parking lot full of presidential concrete heads (and the Beatles) larger than cars!

i am hoping to catch a Jacuzzi tub soak because my aunt has one right in her bathroom! we know how i love those!

the ride has been smooth my car is holding up terrific, maybe even better now that we have a ceramic Buddha cat (gift from Andy's sister) adorning our dashboard.

we have been reading about Mayan culture and interesting stories about places we will be going and we are eager to get to southern Mexico!
we will probably be heading into Mexico on Tuesday!

i hope you are all doing well,
tell us stories from your worlds.
much love
d
ps gremmy loves meeting many relatives he hasnt met and loves having his picture taken in strange places. Gremmy reenacted the dead husband in the scene of the reenactment of the dead husband run over in the Hilton parking lot. gremlin has a morbid sense of humor and he is hoping to get a piercing on this trip.

Leaving in the grafitti car....

Here we are again, another blog another country another escape from winter in Rochester NY. This year we are leaving later for a several reasons: 1. there was no particular reason to be in Mexico earlier (Venezuela had the elections happening in November last year) 2. We needed to save enough money 3: Andy didn’t want to be gone as long as 3 months this year, so I decided to make the trip for the worst winter months of all... February and March. Well they are only the "worst" months because by this time the winter just drags on! We leave Jan 21 and return March 21st, it’s a little arbitrary but that is the first day of spring. Andy and Zarha may come back earlier and I may not come back at all! Just kidding.

So really is this only about escaping winter? Certainly not! I imagine a pilgrimage to this amazing neighboring country that I ought to know more about. I want to feel greater solidarity with the people of this country who struggle for dignity and their lives at the borders of "my" country, but I don’t believe in borders so I don’t believe in "my" country. I want to learn Spanish and see beautiful old magical places; I want to absorb spiritual and radical energies from the most inspiring cultures of all. The Mayans and the Zapatistas. I want to meditate at Mayan ruins and unite with people behind barricades fighting for justice! I want adventure. I want to challenge my comfort zones and confront the privileges I take for granted and depend on everyday. Ok, ok, I want sun and warmth and beaches, but I don’t want the tourist traps. I want to break out of work patterns and material accumulation and live appreciating that this is all we got. Right now. I want to give up on "future" and live now, I want to "retire" every year and work and explore until I die. I want to liberate myself from the confines of expectations and I want THAT to make me a "richer" person. Not rich in money but rich in experience and understanding. I want to share stories with others, and seek insight from political radicals and alternative healers. I want to indulge in the celebrations of another culture and talk my baby talk Spanish and accept myself for trying. I want more time with my best friend and lover ('husband' for all the traditionalists reading this) aka: Ando Calrissian. Don’t ask, but it does sound sexy like I have a new 'boyfriend.' I want to get cozy AND argue with the coolest kid I have ever known! Zarha can also protect us if we need it, with her black belt skills. I want to feel grateful and think about how my life can be of service to others. oh and... I want to travel with gremmie for his first trip out of the country. Can gremlins get passports??

So the trip could go something like that. We are leaving Monday driving down to Texas visiting some of our favorite family members along the way! We will get to the border of Texas and Mexico leave my Graffiti car (yes it is still running at 232, 000 thousand miles!) at the border with folks who do border support work. We will be busing into Mexico and have absolutely no itinerary as of yet. Stay tuned.
Any ideas or suggestions...we are open!
Peace and kisses on both cheeks
Dawn