Here it is December 2023, and I find myself reflecting on the passing of another year. If you are reading this, you have 1) received a postcard from Marji (and the Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ), and 2) found yourself trolling through the travel log of a middle aged couple in the midst of either a mid life crisis or actually diving off the deep end into a full-on mental health crisis. I would love to help you make your decision as to which it is, but I’m afraid I’m a little too close to the whole sordid tale to be much help.
For those of you who have not been keeping up, you have to back up a couple of years. Marji and Joe buy a little camper; Marji and Joe sell their house and almost everything they own; Marji and Joe buy a slightly bigger camper; Marji and Joe become enamored with RV life; Marji and Joe quit their jobs; Joe gets a remote job; Marji and Joe drive to Tucson, AZ for the winter. And now I find myself warming my toes by the glow of an LED simulated electric fireplace two weeks before Christmas. We went for a mountain bike ride this evening, came home to yet another night of Marji’s wonderful Mexican cooking, and now I find myself engaged in an activity that I am for the first time in a few years, actually enjoying: writing our end-of-year, holiday tome.
Marji has mostly retired from selling homes. This is mostly due to the fact that I have kidnapped her and dragged her away from New England to enjoy winter in the Sonoran desert. A place so hostile to humans, that literally every plant and animal here wants to either maim or kill you. For some reason we both feel incredibly drawn here. We have been told that if you get up early enough a couple days a year in the winter, you can actually witness a whole 1/10th of an inch of snow. I’m looking forward to trying to snap little Santa hats on rattlesnakes for the holiday photo. Wish me luck.
I have returned to making guitar effects, however this time I am doing it from the confines of a trailer in a little RV park in the middle of the desert. However, don’t worry, we’re not making the sequel to “Nomad”. That’s down the road a couple miles on a small patch of BLM land.
I should point out now, that we have not actually gone off our rockers. It has taken almost 2 years of research and planning to finally get to a place where we are free to roam about the country. We will be returning to NH and Maine for the summers for the foreseeable future. Both our families and my employer would like an appearance occasionally.
We have recently rekindled our love of mountain biking, and have found a wonderful community of like-minded geriatric lunatics who find solace in strapping a beer cooler on their heads and pedaling their bikes like they stole them through the desert dodging cacti and rattlesnakes. I have only snagged one Cholla (pronounced Choy-Ya for you gringos like me. Now you can avoid the uncomfortable mispronunciation moment in front of all the locals, unlike me) on my arm while riding. I screamed like a grown man with a cactus stuck to his arm.
“What about your animals?”, you ask. Why, we brought them with us. Leonard is king of all the camper, and Elby struts around the campground (excuse me, RV Park) like he owns the place. Everyone has taken to traveling just fine.
I can’t tell you what the next chapter looks like for us. I do know one thing though. It will be an adventure full of the love that we have for each other. It has been almost 38 years, and there is no one else I would rather have a nervous breakdown with other than Marji. We may stay here in Tucson until it is time to start making our way back north, or we may leave tomorrow to some other wonderfully warm mountain bike destination. Only the days that follow will provide the answer. As always, Marji and I hope your year has been full of all of the love and warmth that ours has, and that the year to follow will be one that you cherish.
Be well. Love,
Joe and Marji