The Magic of a Bluesky Mountain

For the last 15 years, I've been planning a trip.

By "planning," I mean "dreaming about," because if I'd really been planning it, I'm sure I would have gone by now. Over the years, however, other vacations have leapfrogged this particular trip, such as three trips to Vegas in the past seven years.

I'd like to say I'm finished with Vegas for a while, but a few friends were there last weekend, and a latenight voicemail bragging about how much fun they were having at the Hard Rock caused me to feel the familiar tug, luring me back. Hopefully I've snipped those strings.

I'd also like to spend a long weekend in Key West, watching the sun dip into the Gulf of Mexico at day's end and perhaps finding writing inspiration from a gust of Hemingway in the air.

I digress.
Back to my trip, yes?

Someday, I'm going to hang in Taos, New Mexico, for a few days, or a week, or...I don't know how long.

Years ago in college, I was assigned writing guru Natalie Goldberg's book, Writing Down The Bones, in a creative writing class, and I was hooked. On writing...on Goldberg...all of the above. She lives and teaches in Taos, and in several of her books, she describes the bluest blues of the Taos sky, and the magic of Taos Mountain.

Taos Mountain (via)

Taos is a popular retreat for artists, writers and creative types, and it sounds like such a laid-back, barefoot kinda place. So someday...I'm going to pack my car with shorts, shirts, sandals (or not), several notebooks and a dozen pens, my laptop, my camera and a good supply of batteries and memory cards...and I'm going to take off.

Drive down through St.Louis and Oklahoma City and northern Texas, stopping when and where the urge strikes...and when I arrive in Taos, find a tiny adobe house with a view of the mountain, and stay until I'm feeling restored (which may take months). Then drive home through Denver, bringing a trunkful of that creative energy from Taos back to the Midwest.

Someday.

Where are some of your dream destinations...near or far?

"Life is not orderly. No matter how we try

to make life so, right in the middle of it we die,

lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce."

—Natalie Goldberg