Travel is More Than A Destination.

Over the holidays I received a book titled Are We There Yet? Travel as a Spiritual Practice. I had not previously thought of travel in that way.  I am not searching for anything and have no expectation and/or desire to be transformed by my travels. Good thing too, or I would be changing all the time. I try to live more or less the same life on the road as I would in one place. However, I do make a conscious effort to be present in the now, which is a zen way to approach life. No past, no future, just experiencing this fleeting moment,

However, after reading this book I see that I am seeking something. From the moment we sold our home we have been looking a new home where we can live our lives in the best way possible. A place where we can have the highest quality of life and where our spirits can be at peace in these troubled times.

I don't want to list all the countries, cities, and communities we have considered, however,  Arizona weather still comes in first.

This week Franklin and I headed down to Tucson to check out a community he had read about. It is connected to the University of Arizona and offers a lot of lectures and stimulating activities. The facilities are terrific. Physically it is probably like any adult community with gyms and art studios, social events, etc but there are so few people here, one can have the place to yourself, like a private resort. the people very Interesting and friendly. But the location is extremely remote. Bordered by a national part on one side, there are only three business or actually three buildings in about a half an hour drive. So the question for us has been could be see ourselves living in a small community (fewer than 300 people) in the middle of nowhere. It has been a journey of reflection and self discovery of what is most important to us at this time in our lives.




My starting point is: what would my life be like if I lived here full time, without a support network to rely on?  We usually aren't tourists on a journey or vacation. We are doing the things we like to do every day: spending time on our computers, walking a lot,  going to the gym, sitting in hot tubs, and dancing. We seek out destinations where we can easily live our lives, more or less as usual, without being bored or having to work to find things to keep us busy.

I really enjoy the multidimensional aspect of travel. There is doing something, say, ordering a pizza. (maybe in another language). Then there is the level of safety paying for the pizza when you pull out money somewhere like Naples or Buenos Aires, cities known for pickpockets and purse snatching. Then there is experiencing the pizza and comparing it to previous pizzas. And experiencing the ambiance, the restaurant, the street and watching the people around you. Just being in the moment keeps me pretty busy. 

Naples, Italy from one of the most famous pizza restaurants. A nice light crust but too much of it. 

And compare it to pizzas we have tried elsewhere

Lucca Italy. Pretty darn good. 

Flammekueche, a cheese and onion flatbread (almost a pizza), a local snack food from Alsace Lorraine, France.

Another thing that becomes multidimensional is the sense of time. The hour remains the same (allowing for the time difference) but is it the first day or last day of your trip? Do you have activities that need to be scheduled into a short timeframe or too much tine to kill between checking out of the hotel and until your flight leaves? Do you need to stay in touch in your job back home on their tine schedule or the stock market on theirs? I firmly believe there is more than one reality and the elastic nature of time really becomes apparent on the road.


Early on one figures out whether you like to plan ahead or prefer the freedom of making plans at the last minute. I- we- travel with a general plan but allow the time and opportunity to be flexible and shift gears at a moment's notice. On our last trip to Argentina last winter we expected to spend three weeks in Buenos Aires but had such a good time that we stayed for three more months. We planned to borrow a friend's condo and instead checked into a hotel for the whole time.

Our next few months are totally open-ended. It has been many years since I-we traveled this way. We are heading back to Argentina at the end of January with a one-way ticket. There is a tentative plan of staying two months, returning to Arizona for a couple of days to switch suitcases (already packed), driving to Seattle then flying to Japan. Only time will tell if any of this plan comes to pass. There are dangers attached to having no plan such as higher airfares, and no seat availability. But I look at travel as an adventure- even if things go wrong. Travel, like all new experiences has the risk of danger. Life is a dangerous proposition.

Knowing that life and travel, in particular, is potentially dangerous, I do try to limit the risk without limiting my experiences. My purse was stolen in France last autumn. I am not sure how or even when it happened as I was en route, burdened with my luggage and backpack at that moment. But I had my passport safely on my body and extra credit and debit cards hidden away as well. So yes, it was a mistake and certainly inconvenient (there went camera number 3 right before my barge trip) but my travels continued and ultimately it was a growth provoking experience. An aphorism I live by is "if you don't gamble, you can't lose, but you can't win either." I could have stayed home.

Which brings me to serendipity (things that happen by chance in a happy or beneficial way). When my purse disappeared my only money was $10 American dollars and my barge trip was starting in half an hour. Somehow I could not get cash from an ATM with my back up debit card (note to self: check that cards are activated before starting a journey). I used the $10 bill to take a taxi to the meeting place (a hotel) figuring I could get a cash advance there, and a minor miracle occurred. The first people I met were from Scottsdale, my old hometown. We had not met previously but the man immediately offered to lend me money and any potential crisis was averted. BTW that is his teeshirt in the photo above.

Christmas Tamales

Those of you who do not live in the Southwest, or other areas with a large Latino population, may not know that Christmas is tamale season. For many Latinos the holiday season is synonymous with tamales. Families gather together to make them together. Their value comes not from their ingredients but from the fact that they are hard to make, and handmade. They are gifts of love and if you have any Latino family, friends or employees, like a gardener or cleaning person, you are likely to receive a gift of tamales.

At first glance making a tamale might seem simple enough, a dough stuffed with filling, wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf and steamed. But they are actually hard to make and labor-intensive which is why it is often made in groups.

On Sundays we dance in a church that has a Latino service going at the same time. Yesterday there was a rumor that there were tamales available for sale, but by the time the milonga finished, the cooks had gone home. It was only then that I realized that I miss them and want a homemade one desperately. I am really really hoping my cleaning gal brings some as she used to do when we lived here. She is coming tomorrow morning, so I am hopeful.

Sometimes people sell them outside supermarkets during this week but I am not staying in a town with many Latinos so I don't even know where to look. And time is running short before Christmas. I don't know- are homemade ones even available after then?

 I'll tell you a tamale story. I like to go to garage sales. A few years ago I went to a garage sale in Scottsdale. There was a Latino man going around to the shoppers and whispering something in their ear. The women I saw seemed to ignore him so when he got around to me I only half-listened to what he had to say. But after a few moments I realized his wife was in the car selling warm tamales. I bought a dozen, went home, and ate one. It was the best one of my life. So I hopped back in the car and drove around the neighborhood looking in vain for his car. No luck.

I come from a culture that also equates food with love. Franklin too. So I get it. Anyway, I am sending this blog out a day or two before Christmas. If you know where I can get some, please get in touch soon.

Part Two- What's It Like Living As a Nomad ?

Last blog I started talking about what it is like living a a nomad. Actually, there is more to say about this lifestyle. I want to talk about my relationship to Stuff. Because having Stuff and/or the lack of Stuff occupies a great deal of my time and attention. Certainly, a lot of time more than it did when I had a house and a lot more Stuff. This is ironic because we started this lifestyle because we prefer experiences to possessions. 

If one has a home, as most people do, you buy something when you need it or want it, then you put it away with similar items.  It is not so easy for me. First I need to consider whether I can do without it. If not, then I have to decide whether I will use it and somehow delete it out from my life, or keep it. And if I keep it, what am I going to do with it after use- can I pack it or do I store it when I move on? Chances are I have no like items to put it with. So every item needs it own space and most important, I need to be able to find it again. 

At the moment we are staying in a big condo with lots of storage, including two walk-in closets. One is for clothes, one for ... well, it is probably meant to be a  pantry but for me, it is a sorting place for things that require further thought and/or action. A pantry full of things that have accumulated in our suitcases and/or storage space which require further attention to organize, incorporate or delete. 

I know everyone misplaces things but from day one here I have been misplacing lots of things because there is no natural place for them to go and/or no natural place for me to look. Yes, you are also looking for Lost Stuff. But not every day.

Then there are items we occasionally need but  we don't want to buy. We needed to change a lightbulb last week. How many nomads does it take to change a lightbulb? Well, this my life and not a lightbulb joke so let's just say it took one person several days to figure out how to reach a twelve-foot ceiling without a ladder.

Preparing meals is different too. Recently I got carried away grocery shopping and now have a full freezer- which sounds normal, but for me, it is a source of concern. I have less than one month left to use up more than 12 protein items, which means 12 or more meals that need to be planned out weeks in advance. And still have time for all the restaurants I want to visit. In addition, I can’t make dishes that use a lot of ingredients. Some rentals come supplied with kitchen staples like flour, sugar, oil, mustard, etc. Sometimes the kitchens are bare. This is one of those. Two pots, two pans, a roasting pan. No baking pans- that's it. I do travel with my own knives, spices and tea but all other kitchen staples need to be purchased now and rationed out to last until we leave. Yes, these things are cheap but I stayed in 7 different homes in different cities and even different countries just this year and that is a lot of waste if I just toss out unused food. Mostly I give it away. Sometimes I can carry it on to the next home but in this case, I don’t expect to be renting a house again for at least 4 months. And somehow it feels a little silly carrying things like mayonnaise from one country to another. I don't store any food items in our storage space.  

Plastic bags have become really important to me. Every size has their use and I don’t want to throw any away in case I need one that size to pack shoes, toiletries or any of a dozen other uses. Reusing bags may happen in your house too in the normal course of events. But I have no normal course of events. Snack-size plastic bags have become my best friend. For spices, medicines, jewelry, etc. plastic bags are my go-to storage space. You may not even know snack size bags exist but I definitely do. 

The one plastic bag I have never paid any attention to is the TSA request for a quart size bags of toiletries. I use specific-use kits for toiletries with lots of pockets and have never ever put drugs or toiletries in a clear baggies for some stranger to inspect. I have never been good at following the rules.  (I hope none of you work for the TSA).

I guess if I am taking about Stuff I should mention some of the Stuff I carry around. We’ve been on the road almost two years and as I said before I am not on vacation, this is my real life. I have learned what items I need to use frequently and make a place feel like home and I don't want to run out to buy when I need it. I know from reading posts from other travelers that this is a very individual thing and your list would be vastly different than mine but these are some things I carry around:

duct tape 

a night light. Internationally I use electric votive candles

detergent batteries of various sizes 

pens

a measuring tape 

corkscrew

mini foot massager which comes in handy after dancing. 

superglue

permanent marker 

mini swiss army knife (I could possibly eliminate this but know the minute I do, I will need it)

scissors I use this every day. Before we started traveling I never thought about them at all. 

mini flashlight. I rarely need it but when you need a flashlight, you need one. 

earplugs

eye masks

rubber bands

scotch tape
hand wash detergent
a sewing kit

stitch witchery for hemming pants. I am out of this right now and it is annoying to have to keep buying the same little items over and over again. And where exactly do you buy this? The supermarkets and drug stores don't have it. Walmart maybe? 

I keep all these things together in a small hanging bag 9x11. It is surprising how small all this stuff can get. Of course I take small sizes and small amounts. The tape, for example, is wrapped around pens. 

I also take a iPad and iPhone, a camera and charger, headphones, and a very compact kit with items I may want on an airplane like an inflatable head pillow, sleeping pills, moisturizer, earplugs, eye mask, etc. I am considering adding something I saw online, a footrest, but lately, we have been flying in a high class of service so I haven't needed it. I may need one, however, returning from Argentina this spring so I may order it now. 

I shall end with a piece of trivia. People living in warm places know that your blood gets thin and you get cold easier than other people. Well, apparently this is reversible. We have not been anywhere particularly cold but do wear sweaters and light jackets for 6 months in the Pacific Northwest. And now in Arizona daily people tell me it is cold but I have yet to put on a jacket. I'm not cold at all. 

So What’s It Like Living As A Nomad?

Frequently someone asks, "what life is like living as a nomad?"

We have met very few other full-time nomads, people without a home base like us.  So I can’t speak for other nomads. But lots of people have multiple homes, and in a sense, we do as well. We spent months in the Pacific Northwest each spring and fall, then months on Vancouver Island during the summer, and some winter months in Scottsdale. During this time we rent other people’s homes and everything we take with us needs to fit in our car. We try to rent the same homes, if we liked them. We have a storage unit in Scottsdale, Arizona with our clothes, art, and a little furniture. We also keep some cold weather clothes at our niece's home near Seattle.

I follow a blog from another couple of senior nomads and they seem to be on an endless vacation. Generally speaking, I would say that our life is not like that,  We do go on occasional ‘vacations’ where we do touristy things, (like my recent trip to France), or our annual road trips around Vancouver Island, but most of the time we try to maintain a regular routine and do the same things every day wherever we are.

We try to get a lot of exercise. We go to the gym a lot and try to walk every day. We visit communities with a strong tango community and dance tango as often as possible. We also try to stay in places with a hot tub and take a dip almost every day.  Franklin spends time each morning studying the stock market every weekday no matter where we are, which pays for our travels.  I like to continue my studies of Ikebana (Japanese floral design), travel with vases and floral scissors and study in both Arizona and Portland.

We probably eat out more than most people. But lots of senior cooks retire after fifty or so years of cooking. I am not even sure I would cook much more often if I lived in one place year-round. But it is hard to keep restocking and emptying a kitchen with each rental. In the car, I have a small cooler and a nice basket which I use to store kitchen staples. A friend made a lovely small spice box for me and I bring a teapot, my own knives, and a good selection of teas. Other than that we rent nice houses that sometimes have well-supplied kitchens. Our current rental is terrific with a pool, hot tub, and gym, but not so well stocked with cookware or staples.

We do travel internationally for a few months each year. During those times we try to keep to the same schedule (no Ikebana though). In Argentina, last year and this next year, we do the same things I mentioned above. In fact, that is one of the things we like about Buenos Aires. It is easy for us to maintain our usual activities.

You may be surprised to hear that internationally we usually stay in hotels rather than rentals.  Often a rental abroad has some unpleasant surprise and little or no recourse if it is not acceptable.  Sometimes something needs a repair or is missing. There was loud construction noise every day for two weeks in Cascais, Portugal. On that long trip to Buenos Aires last year, we stayed for months in a new hotel. We had three rooms, maid service, a gym, a hot tub, and a delicious breakfast. We were very comfortable there for the same cost as a nice apartment. When we rent a house or condo in North America we try to see it in advance, which often means a year in advance.

I guess I should talk about packing and unpacking. We spend an awful lot of time doing that. I write lists after every trip of what I took and whether I used it or not. I have been doing this for decades. So before I go anywhere I reread my list from my last trip and try to repack the same items, if I still own them.

Luggage. We have a lot of luggage, probably more than most people, in a variety of sizes, and like everyone else, take different ones on different trips. We started with big ones, 29-inch dufflebags when we thought we might move to Portugal. But we found the size unwieldy and they didn't work well for us, although I know that is what some other people use on their long trips. We are efficient packers and don't really need that much stuff, however, we do need to carry tango clothes and tango shoes which take up a lot of space. For our winter/springs trip to South America last year we each used a 24-inch suitcase and a smaller backpack.

Our car trunk doesn't accommodate two large suitcases so we use lots of smaller soft-sided bags for most things, plus a small rolling suitcase to take into hotels. We try not to carry any luggage in the car cabin. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn't. When we have a car we each have a laptop computer, an iPad, an iPhone, and one small speaker for music. The laptops don't travel with us overseas. This is my real life, not a vacation, so I take a lot of miscellaneous stuff that might surprise you and I may write about that in a future post.

Shopping? Mostly we don't. That said, what we don't do is go to stores or malls and avoid looking for new stuff. However, sometimes stuff happens.
I wish I could say that we follow a strict one-item-in, one-item-out policy, but we don't. I have bought no new household items other than a small teapot in the past two years, but occasional clothes happen.
Shoes? I travel with one pair of athletic shoes, one pair of sporty sandals, one pair of flats plus several pairs of tango shoes and replace as necessary.  Unlike most women, I don't like shoes (probably because I lived on or near beaches or the desert for most of my life) But after 700 days in the same three pairs of shoes I am really tired of them. They are great for travel but now that I am in one place for a few months I recently broke down and got a pair of loafers.

Moving in. If you’ve ever moved you know what a drag is it to move in and find a place for everything. Then you have to remember where you put it, Well, we are doing that all the time. Right now it is particularly challenging because we are in a big condo with lots of closets and have taken a lot of our old clothes out of storage. So we have more stuff than usual to put away. And find again.

Socializing. I attend a lot of Meetups. If you are not familiar with Meetups.com it is an internet site that connects you with communities of people with similar interests. I have met people through meetups in four different countries. They are particularly active in Arizona.

I rely on Facebook and email to keep in touch with people in various communities. I am not a big user of Whatsapp, (an app that allows for free international phone calls that is very popular overseas), because we use T Mobile and they have very liberal international phone plans with free calls everywhere we go. I mostly use Whatsapp in Argentina because that is what locals do to keep in touch.

So what is life like living as a nomad? I guess you could say it is whatever you make it. Same as anyone else's life.

A Day in Paris

I spent my last day in France strolling around Paris.

Normally I would not do a separate post for a single day but I really covered a lot of Paris in that one day. I walked more than ten miles, visited the Picasso Museum, people watched in Le Marais, dodged political demonstrations and post demonstration clean up, walked around the construction site formerly known as Notre Dame, tried to visit the Louvre (but by the time my place in line gave me entry, it was about to close), sat in a few cafes, ate an amazing Lebanese ice cream, and all in all had a rather terrific day.

I didn't have an agenda, other than avoiding the  protests that were scheduled all over the city for that day. After watching protests and demonstrations outside my window in Buenos Aires almost daily just a few months back, I really wasn't interested in having my day disrupted by that again so soon. 

There is a French word, flaner. It means to wander aimlessly, taking in the scenery. And that was my plan.  I had a GPS but didn't use it much as I didn't really care where I was headed. So I started my stroll in Le Marais, the former Jewish Quarter, now a very trendy and fashionable district, where the Picasso Museum is located.

 I am not a fan of Picasso's art and certainly not of his personal life, but I am glad to have had this opportunity to visit this museum and gained a greater appreciation of his work. Here are some photos of Picasso's work that caught my eye.

A photo of a Picasso exhibition in the 1960s

A photo of Picasso's studio

An early Picasso work

On this Saturday in Paris the weather was great and the streets were packed with people. I don't exactly know where I was, (I don't know Paris well) but Le Marais seemed to be right in the center of a lot of street action. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

A mural in front of a Saturday flea market. 

I walked for a while, found a scenic cafe, sat for a while, and repeated.

Le Marais also provided great opportunities for people watching. 

I had an exceptional ice cream at a Lebanese ice cream shop

At Bachir they roll the organic ice cream in crushed pistachios and top it with whipped cream. Oh la la.  

My stroll took me past the Louvre. However, even in late afternoon the line for tickets was still very long. So instead of a visit to Mona Lisa, I kept walking through their courtyard, to the Tuileries instead.

The Tuileries is a large charming park next to the Louvre with statues and fountains, a pond, and much more. Oh yes, it also offers a nice view of the Eiffel Tower.

then I reversed my direction and walked along the Seine

toward Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is a sad sight indeed these days. Because of all the lead in the melted stained glass windows, the entire area is fenced off because of risks of lead poisoning. However, it looks like they are hard at work to repair the fire damage.

The entire area was fenced off.

Lots of scaffolding around much of the towers. 

Right across the street is a Holocaust memorial called Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation. It is stark, particularly in comparison with it's next door neighbor, and goes unnoticed by most visitors eager to take a selfie in front of Notre Dame.

Drancy internment camp, where 200,000 Jews were sent before being relocated to concentration camps, is a quiet, almost forgotten footnote of French history. This memorial does not mention the word 'Jew',  preferring to call them 'martyrs', and identifying these victims as French citizens. Wikipedia notes that this "distorts the historical record by suggesting that victims died willingly for a national cause rather than as victims of state persecution."

A plaque from the memorial with the names of many of these camps. 

The day was drawing to a close so I enjoyed sunset on the Seine in a nearby cafe, then crossed back to the right bank and had a lovely dinner. This included a layered Napoleon of sliced lamb and diced vegetables. I didn't take a photo because I find food in a brown sauce all looks the same.. But it was inovative, delicious, and very French. Then I headed to the airport.

It was a very pleasant day with lots of walking. All in all a great way to end my really enjoyable solo trip to France.

Biking and Barging in Burgundy

I'm not certain how this biking and barge trip came about. In an idle moment, I may have googled 'tours in France without a single supplement'. Anyway, I found this trip in Burgundy, a small barge, about 16 people, into and out of Dijon, which is a really nice town about 2 hours south of Paris. Franklin and I were there about 10  years ago. I bet you think this is where they grow mustard seeds and traditionally you are right, but these days 80% come from Canada. That's your surprise fact of the day.

I like bicyling but have never tried long distances so I rented an electric bike for our two long days of biking (more than 20 miles each day). Over the summer I practiced on an ebike a few times to get comfortable and familiar with how they work. E-bikes are wonderful, I recommend that you try one.  I plan to get one or possibly convert my regular bike next time I live somewhere long term. 

This trip included barging on small canals and one larger river, the Saône, some biking, visiting some wineries and small villages, and a day in Dijon, a charming and attractive city that has a surprisingly good museum.

Although I am usually an independent traveler this tour was really wonderful and I can't recommend it highly enough. The tour company is called Gadventures. Although they are a large tour operator, this is their only barging trip. Too bad, I would do it again. 

Barging is the traditional method of moving cargo from one part of Europe to another. Here is an old photo of a barging family. Often the woman walked along the canal and did the actual pulling the barge along while the man steered. That's right. She pulled this boat via a strap around her body. Here the man is wearing the strap. 

Our barge, the Danielle. No cargo,  but a hot tub, and bicycles.

As the barge moved along the canal, we had choices to stay on the barge or walk or bicycle along a path alongside the canal.

Sometimes there were just inches between the barge and a bridge

There were vineyards everywhere. 

The photo above and below is a private home/castle with moat/B&B that we toured. I think it only had one guest room so  one could rent a more or less your own small castle. 

Happy hour on the barge

 Dijon is a very nice small city about two hours southeast of Paris. It has interesting architecture, a good indoor market, and lots of cultural attractions including a good free museum.

 

Not so different today.