Travel

My grandfather built a house in the desert over a hundred years ago. Years later it became part of Phoenix but the area in front of the house was desert that no one could build. I grew up wandering in that desert. I love all the various landscapes of Arizona. I wanted to travel as long as I learned about other places. My family went camping so often, there were vibrant and beautiful scenes of nature. My mother would drive us to the California beaches in the summertime. The first time I saw the ocean I ran right into it, clothes and all. My mother let me do it because fearlessness was one of her treasured values.

My grandmother and I talked about going to Europe. We even saved money in a big water bottle for a future trip. She was born in Belgium. We never quite got the money and she died before I was making enough to take us. I’d been to Mexico as a teenager with girlfriends and Canada on a long road trip up the coast and down further east. I had no one to go to Europe with so I went myself. I backpacked the whole “grand tour.” I stayed in hostels. Sometimes I traveled with other women. I saw the best and the worst in humankind; mostly people were kind and helpful. But not everyone. I saw art I’d only seen in books – images that I only imagined. I was astounded at the beauty in the city's architecture and public art. I loved traveling alone. I did what I wanted when I wanted. With a Eurail train pass it seemed like anything was possible. To go to sleep in Italy and wake up in Austria.

After that trip I concentrated on work. Going only to three of Hawaii’s islands. When I met Bruce, he loved to travel too, we started planning a trip back to Europe first for our 6 week “honeymoon.” We’ve been back to Europe many times visiting countries from Portugal to Prague to above the Arctic Circle and of course Paris. I had a show in Budapest, and we had a residency in the south of France. I had a show in the Bahamas. We were both accepted into a residency in India. We stayed for 4 months. It was nothing like either of us had ever experienced. It felt like Blade Runner meets National Geographic. The intensity bombarded your senses: noise, color, smell, people and animals. The very old and the very new. Monkeys and cows everywhere. I had a monkey jump over my head at a temple in Rajasthan and a “holy” cow parked outside the gallery in New Delhi where I had a solo exhibition, which sold out so we took the money and travelled all around. The temples are unbelievable. We stayed in palaces for fifty dollars a night! I also traveled with another woman while Bruce worked on his novel. She is blond and I am tall and we drew a crowd wherever we went. Travel changes you. Makes you aware of other cultures. Good and bad.

Now that I’ve recovered, we plan to take a trip every year and a half. I chose In 2023 we went to London and Paris to see friends. Then to Norway and we got to see the northern lights, fjords and glaciers. This past February we went to Belize and canoed into dark, ancient caves and trekked deep into the jungle where we heard the crazed Howler monkeys far scarier than the ones we heard in Costa Rica. Next, we are planning a trip to Japan. Bruce loves big cities and talking to everyone. We both want to go to Africa someday. I love both nature and cities and different cultures.