Of Cold, Furnaces, Rifles and Santa Fe

Well, dear Readers, we awoke around 3:00 this morning to a whining metallic sound emanating from our recently recalcitrant furnace, our breath visible in the chilly air. It seems our malfunctioning furnace finally did itself in, and when we were awakened by its death rattle the outside temperature had plummeted to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the interior temperature of our little home on wheels was about 33 degrees. 

So, with no other apparent options in the middle of the night, we piled our bed with blankets, covered Tina with several more, and put on our hats as we snuggled beneath the covers until daylight. Shivering our way through breakfast and our morning ablutions, we drove to a Santa Fe RV technician's compound on the outskirts of town and told him our tale of woe. As one would expect, he did not have out particular furnace motor in stock, so we packed up our most essential items (clothes, food, laptops, books, dog supplies and toiletries) in a van borrowed from a friend, and made plans to stay with yet another friend for tonight and tomorrow night in hopes that our rig will be repaired by Tuesday. 

Interestingly, the RV tech had a .45 Magnum pistol strapped to his belt, and when Mary showed interest in it, he proceeded to bring out several rifles for her to try on for size, including a replica of a World War II .22-caliber rifle which he offered to her for a fair market price of $300. Budget conscious traveler that she is, Mary intelligently declined the offer, but our friendly RV tech certainly enjoyed showing off his impressive collection of firearms. Perhaps he'll offer us a discount on our repairs since Mary the hippie chick astounded him with her keen eye for a nice rifle. 

Although we are now without our rig for a few days, we feel blessed and grateful that we have the use of a friend's van for the duration of our stay in the Santa Fe area, and a warm place to stay in the scenic countryside just outside of town, complete with cable TV and a gas fireplace. 

Meanwhile, we spent the day hiking and driving through the mountains of Santa Fe with yet another friend (who we interestingly enough had only previously met online), and we thoroughly enjoyed reveling in the pristine beauty of the mountains and forests blanketed in freshly fallen snow under the electric blue New Mexican skies.

Furnaces and cold and snow aside, Santa Fe has been treating us very well, and we find the people here incredibly forthcoming, generous, hospitable and genuinely engaging. There is a palpable richness of life here, and it is quite clear that, if we chose to, we could certainly make a happy life in and around Santa Fe. Between the natural beauty, the people, the plethora of holistic healers, the cultural diversity, and the many amenities of modern life available for the asking, there is much to consider. On the dark side, Santa Fe is a quickly growing city, and it is certainly not immune to the widespread development and sprawl that is basically a fact of life in most every corner of America, and the plethora of automobiles and traffic is considerable. 

In a few days, we'll take our leave of "The City Different", and we will carry in our back pocket the fact that it is a place where we could potentially return, establish ourselves, make many friends, and potentially lead a highly satisfying and rich life. There is much to consider, and still more people and places to discover and enjoy. Needless to say, Santa Fe has enchanted us, and there's no doubt that it is now on our short list of places where our excellent adventure could eventually continue once our peripatetic yearnings morph into a more settled and domesticated life once again.