Many times on this road trip we've had people ask us for one reason or another where we live. In fact, a few times we've had to give an address. Talk about weird...Mike and I look at each other as if to say, "what should we say?". The people asking look at us like we just got off the short bus with helmets on or something. C'mon - how hard is it to say your city name or address. So we have to make the decision - do we explain the situation? Do we just give them the Charlotte address, or tell them "Bay Area" or what? It doesn't seem right to say we are "from" Murfreesboro, Tn. because we aren't - yet.

Really, though - we are homeless at the moment. Now please don't take offense to the levity with which I use this term - I know there are people out there who sleep on the streets with no food or shelter while we fight over who gets the fluffier pillow at the Best Western. I'm in no way comparing our situation to true homelessness. I'm just saying that right now we have no place that is ours. We're having a great time - and I'm not complaining about the places that we have stayed. But not having a place to hang your hat for awhile is strange...we may as well change our name to "Club Nomad". We still potentially have a month or more before we get to TN.

I'm trying to remember what it was like to pack up a U-Haul at age 21 and move up to Northern California (away from everything I've ever known - family and friends). I remember being really excited about it....but then came the moment when I had to drop Dad off at the Oakland airport (he drove me up in the U-Haul)....my last tie to life as I knew it walked down the jetway (obviously this was WAY before 9/11). I went back to the parking lot and sat in my '81 Dodge Colt and sobbed my head off. I think I wasn't right for the next few weeks. At least this time around, I have my peeps with me - and we can commiserate together about what we miss.

With all this traveling, I never realized how much I took things for granted....like, how to get around. From the moment we crossed into Albuquerque we've had one "gettin' lost" adventure after another. Man, the freeway exits here are WHACK. They don't make any sense... Also - we never know where to eat. You know there's some little gems around that the tourists don't know about....like Juan's in Berkeley or La Tapatia across from Park-n-Shop. If you don't hear a good recommendation from someone, you'll just be driving around town saying, "that looks kinda good" but before anyone can make a decision you're already two blocks away looking at some other place saying, "we could do that place". Before you know it you're at the edge of town where there's some toe up Taco Bell you end up eating at because it's already 8:57pm.

Anyway - sorry about the insane rambling...truth is - we had a very ordinary day! We slept in, I actually did some work, we had a late lunch and went to "Explora!" here in town (a hands on science discovery musem). We hung out and just relaxed - it felt good!

We have a few more days here in Albuquerque then we're off to El Paso, then Midland, Texas, then a very long breather in Fort Worth w/ Mom and Randy. That's when our status changes from homeless to freeloader (ha ha, just kidding Mom - remember, I'm cooking and grocery shopping!!). It will be nice to actually hang our clothes up in a closet and hide our suitcase for awhile!

A fun little tidbit - today at Explora we saw the largest elevator ever! It was a little lounge with chairs and everything...

For a few pictures from the day, click here and enjoy.

Lastly - you may want to check out the Little Moon blog and see something funny that Abby was doing today.



Mmmwhaa.
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