Happy New Year

Just a short post today to let you know that Jed, Nate, and I met up last night in El Paso and are headed to Marfa and on to Big Bend for the rest of this week. The trip has been amazingly easy for me--the hardest part was getting a hundred yards or so from the Van Galder bus outside Union Station in Chicago, through piles of rutted snow, into the station itself. But from there--duck soup! Red caps helped me onto an elevator, down to the very civilized lounge for sleeping car passengers, and then several hours later, onto a little cart which took me and my luggage right to my sleeping car.

Two days later, a red cap/cart took me, relaxed and happy, into LA's Union Station, where my college friend Claire met me. Claire and I, joined by our friend Deborah, spent two fine days mostly sitting around talking--joined by Jed and Nazgol for dinner on Friday as they were driving back to LA from northern California. And on Saturday, Debbie dropped me off at their apartment on her way home to San Diego. We spent the afternoon doing errands, including getting a smashing pair of red jeans--my Chankah gift from Nazgol--shortened. And we watched the sun set over the Pacific--lovely!

And yesterday at about 5:30 AM, Jed and I left for El Paso. He did most of the driving, an amazing feat, though I did take the wheel for an hour or so through Phoenix--the first driving I've done since early December. Glad to see it's a skill you don't lose! Got here in plenty of time to meet Nate's plane--he'd flown from Morocco to Madrid to Chicago to El Paso, with no problems.

So, off we go on our adventure!

Next Monday I will be traveling all day and have no access to the internet, so my next post will likely be on Tuesday, January 6. Have a great week and a happy new year!