Julie Stauffer

Hi all,

Finally finished the 80 some-odd digests I was behind on since our trip.
Got to meet Sharon of the Swamp. She is a very neat lady with a wonderful
porch (I'm tempted to run away from home and move in to that fantastic
porch). Got to play "slammer-jammer" with Roy which involves throwing metal
buckets off his very high tree house and enjoying the rattle and cacophony
they make on the way down.

After a 21 hour car ride and a week with my loving but tremendously
controlling mil, Sharon's place was a delight of relaxation and good fun.
My kids haven't stopped talking about it......They say to count us in for
May, Sharon.

Julie

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/4/02 9:21:26 PM, jnjstau@... writes:

<< Got to meet Sharon of the Swamp. She is a very neat lady with a wonderful
porch (I'm tempted to run away from home and move in to that fantastic
porch). Got to play "slammer-jammer" with Roy which involves throwing metal
buckets off his very high tree house and enjoying the rattle and cacophony
they make on the way down.
>>

This sounds wonderful. Those big screened-in porches are one fascination of
southern houses. They just don't do that in New Mexico. Neat porches here
are ramadas--just a shady jutting out of the roof, and some don't even have
rain-proof roofs. Screenwire just hardly made it here. We got barbed
wire... <g>

Today I get to meet (and pick up from the airport and host...)

[drumroll, please]


Joyce Fetteroll !!!

She and her daughter will be here this afternoon, and for four whole days
(not counting the travel days which are small parts of days on my end and
LONG (three flights) on theirs.

It's interesting being so scattered out. Someday maybe there will be so many
more unschoolers it won't be worth this interstate visitation. And we'll
tell stories like "In the old days we'd drive five states away..." or "Fly
2000 miles" to meet a family we had met online because we really wanted to
see how other unschoolers interacted.

But New Mexico's pretty cool to see even if someone has all other resources
right at home. It's hard to describe WHY it's worth coming here, but I've
never heard anyone say "Yeah, I went there, but it was nothing special or
different." (Maybe they just don't say it to me! <g>)

Sandra

joanna514

>
> But New Mexico's pretty cool to see even if someone has all other
resources
> right at home. It's hard to describe WHY it's worth coming here,
but I've
> never heard anyone say "Yeah, I went there, but it was nothing
special or
> different." (Maybe they just don't say it to me! <g>)
>
> Sandra

It's definately cool. NM
My Aunt fell in love with the place, and bought a condo in Santa Fe
about 10 yrs ago.
She's back and forth from Baltimore all the time. My parents go with
her a couple of times a year now. Indian market, and a hot air
balloon fest every year.
I've been there once.
When dh and I camped across country before marraige and family, we
had the lucky misfortune of breaking down in Taos. It was the week
before xmas and we were staying at the Sungod Lodge(one of the few
times we got a hotel). We were stuck there 4 days(over the weekend
waiting for our car to be fixed) and were running out of money. We
asked the lady at the lodge if there was anything we could do to earn
our keep, and she started finding odd jobs for us. We decorated a 40
ft. tree out front with lights.
My dh mentioned to her, he could do plumbing, and they just happened
to need and had the supplies for changing out all the bathroom
fixtures in every room.
In the end, it didn't cost us a dime to stay there and she made us
dinner a couple of nights(she lived in an apt. behind the front
office.)
It was a magical time for us. That whole trip was magical, but Taos
will always have a special place in our hearts. We are going to take
the kids there someday.
We ended up living in Boulder, CO that winter. That's another pretty
cool place.
Joanna(all the way back here in Maryland, by the ocean, and
definately feeling like I'm home)

zenmomma *

>>We ended up living in Boulder, CO that winter. That's another pretty cool
>>place.>>

We lived in Boulder for 10 years and loved it. It's changed a lot though,
even in the time we were living there. It's still pretty cool, but corporate
America is slowly sneaking in. (Actually, it's being welcomed with open
arms.) And the city is up to almost 100,000 people! I stil miss it, though.

~Mary


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In a message dated 1/5/02 9:15:46 AM, Wilkinson6@... writes:

<< We
asked the lady at the lodge if there was anything we could do to earn
our keep, and she started finding odd jobs for us. >>

That's a really cool story.
I grew up in Espanola, and Taos always seemed kinda spooky to me. <g>

[email protected]

Joanna,
Where is Maryland are you? I am in Germantown.
Elissa, who will soon be singing
Yippee - Kai - Yay! in New Mexico!

>
>It's definately cool. NM
>My Aunt fell in love with the place, and bought a condo in Santa Fe
>about 10 yrs ago.
>She's back and forth from Baltimore all the time. <snip>
>Joanna(all the way back here in Maryland, by the ocean, and
>definately feeling like I'm home)

Cindy

SandraDodd@... wrote:
>
> But New Mexico's pretty cool to see even if someone has all other resources
> right at home. It's hard to describe WHY it's worth coming here, but I've
> never heard anyone say "Yeah, I went there, but it was nothing special or
> different." (Maybe they just don't say it to me! <g>)
>

I've really enjoyed my visits to New Mexico and I definitely want to see
more! On our last visit we went to Santa Fe before Megan was born. I
had to take it easy since I live at sea level. The more interesting
pueblos were too high in elevation to visit (I was late second trimester).
But there's a lot just in Santa Fe!

I've been thinking of a trip that direction this year. We'll see what
happens - right now I have a cranky husband who is working to meet a major
deadline and he doesn't like to discuss what to do after he's done! If
we could visit during some SCA event, that would be cool. I like to
see how things are done in other kingdoms!

--

Cindy Ferguson
crma@...

meghan anderson

<<<<It's interesting being so scattered out. Someday
maybe there will be so many more unschoolers it won't
be worth this interstate visitation. And we'll tell
stories like "In the old days we'd drive five states
away..." or "Fly 2000 miles" to meet a family we had
met online because we really wanted to see how other
unschoolers interacted.

But New Mexico's pretty cool to see even if someone
has all other resources right at home. It's hard to
describe WHY it's worth coming here, but I've never
heard anyone say "Yeah, I went there, but it was
nothing special or different." (Maybe they just don't
say it to me! <g>)

Sandra>>>>

We drove from Indiana back to California in April last
year. We went through NM and I loved it. Two of the
places that we went through, that I seriously
considered as a place to live (we were still looking
at that point), was northern NM and northern AZ. I so
wish I had known about all of you then. We could have
gotten some great visits in. Oh well, we'll just have
to do another road trip sometime (maybe this spring,
on our way to and from Florida?)!

Meghan

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joanna514

Hi
I'm near Ocean City.
Joanna--- In AlwaysLearning@y..., <ElissaJC@c...> wrote:
> Joanna,
> Where is Maryland are you? I am in Germantown.
> Elissa, who will soon be singing
> Yippee - Kai - Yay! in New Mexico!
>
> >
> >It's definately cool. NM
> >My Aunt fell in love with the place, and bought a condo in Santa
Fe
> >about 10 yrs ago.
> >She's back and forth from Baltimore all the time. <snip>
> >Joanna(all the way back here in Maryland, by the ocean, and
> >definately feeling like I'm home)