Reason For A Roadtrip

One of the big things Laura & I are trying to plan to for 2010 is a road trip, and we're not talking a measly jaunt to the beach or a days ride into the woods. We wanna pack up the car and leave, for two maybe three weeks. On first thought we would try and make it out to Santa Fe. Our friend Curtis lives there and we've been promising to come out for years now. He swears we'd love it there and I know he'd show us a good time.

But we wouldn't just go straight there and back. There'd be a great deal of zigging and a moderate amount of zagging along the way to complicate things, but really isn't that the reason for road trips.

One of the places on the potential list is Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa. An entire town designed to make life stress free, this place harnesses ancient Indian spirituality in all areas of life; the restaurants, schools, homes and businesses are all aimed at increasing your inner peace. Each of the 1,200 residents must practice Vedic Natural Law, an ancient Indian science focusing on transcendental meditation - a mental clearing and physical peace practiced for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day. Other laws enforced in this spiritual haven insist that all food served must be organic and all buildings must be constructed facing east. Our house faces east. We could spend a couple days here.

The Grand Canyon, I have never been, and just seven short hours from Santa Fe, well it's just too close not to go. If we make it that far, what's another 500 miles. Plus I think we get to ride a little Route 66 in there somewhere. And once we get to it, what's to keep us from going down in it. I'll ride a donkey into the rocky abyss. Sore ass be damned.

You gotta have some short highway pop-offs and that's why Alliance, Nebraska is on my list. Alliance is the home to Carhenge, and since I've already seen Stonehenge and was quite impressed, I can only imagine Carhenge doing the same for Laura, for the time being. Plus Alliance is just a short distance from Mount Rushmore, another national attraction with which I've never had the pleasure.

Taos, New Mexico is just a hair north of Santa Fe, and would be a nice place to stop for an afternoon to check out the Earthships. That's right. Earthships. This place is a town made almost entirely of recycled materials, mostly of bottles, cans, tires and dirt. This eco-conscious community is the largest self-sustaining town in the entire world. It began as only 10 earthships but has now grown to over 80 residencies spanning over 637 acres. A self-sufficient abode that makes its own solar electricity, harvests its own rainwater, heats and cools itself without any fuel, and contains and treats sewage on site. Plus they look so nifty.

There's some planning to do, but we gotta see how things pan out over the next couple months. It's all up in the air. The air's all up in it.