Down to Toothbrush and a Credit Card: USA to Europe without Flying

No Airplanes, Please - 

New Mexico to the South of France

by Train and Ship

We just crossed over the Missouri River. 

On a train. 

We have a small sleeper compartment.
Private bathroom. 

Stan's playing guitar.

Stan's happy - there's a self-serve coffee stand at the end of our coach. 

All meals are included on the 28 hour train trip from Albuquerque to Chicago. 

Salmon, fillet steak, NY cheesecake. 

A small bottle of merlot. 

The attendant brings tea to our compartment between meals. 

Makes up the beds.

Nice.

We weren't necessarily being "carbon conscious" by not flying.
I had retina surgery. Wasn't allowed to fly.

Okay, I thought - fine.
There has to be another way to get to France.
And - there is.

A pretty cool way, too.

Booked an Amtrak train from Albuquerque to Chicago.
Overnight.
Another one from Chicago to New York.
Also overnight. 

Then, the Queen Mary.
New York to Southhampton in England.

It takes a week.

From there, Eurostar train London to Paris.
Under the English Channel.

And on by train to Béziers and "Maggie May".

The entire transit took about 3 weeks.
No jet lag.
Arrived relaxed and rested.

Even got to see a show in London on the way.

But back to the trip:

New Mexico is beautiful from the train.
Mountains. Mesas. Huge skies.

(Did you know - the Santa Fe Railway never went to Santa Fe. 

The terrain was too tough. So it stopped in nearby Lamy.)

Lamy, NM.

Across Kansas.
Missouri.

Crossing a small corner of Iowa.
Into Illinois.

Fields and farms and quiet towns. 

Over the Mississippi River.

Lots of water up here.
Still snow in some places!

Looks like it was a wet and wild winter in the Midwest.

Motorcycles are great. Still, I don't envy him, as I enjoy a glass of wine on the train.

Finally - the train pulls into Chicago.

Clean, cool architecture.

Museums, clubs, shows, parks. 

Friendly folks.

And a killer location right on the lake. 

One of the better world-class cities. 

A bit unsung.

During the previous 5 months, we sold our house in New Mexico. 

And a rental house or two.

Sold the cars.
16 bicycles. 6 motorized bicycles. 
Furniture. Antiques from the 1700's.

Gave away art materials, original art.

Tons of tools.
Carloads of books.

About 40 guitars. 
Dozens of handmade rugs.

Clothes, linens, kitchenware, dishes, baskets, statues, silver, coins, collections, quilts, jewelry.

Yearbooks, photos, slides, projectors, albums, projects, awards, trophies, paintings.

-Untold  treasures.

Even gave the cat to the neighbor.
(Cat is probably happier now)

The goal was to get rid of everything. 

Aiming toward a "toothbrush and a credit card" life.

Lightening the load a bit.

Not just downsizing. Everything. Gone.

After that job, (and it was HARD!) this long slow trip was welcome.

From Chicago, another train.

The Lake Shore Limited. 

Sleeper compartment to New York.

Along the edges of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

Past Buffalo, where my Dad was born in 1910. 

The Queen Mary II is our next step.
For the transatlantic portion of our trip back to France.

Always wanted to take the Queen Mary.

It's not a cruise ship, it's an ocean liner.

Transport, rather than entertainment. 

Between New York and Southhampton, UK.

And: It IS beautiful.
Luxurious.
Spacious.
Elegant.

Our stateroom has loads of space.

Even a fridge.
An electric kettle. 

A private balcony.

A king bed.
A comfortable sitting area. 

With a complimentary bottle of champagne.

Turn down service.
With chocolates.

Evenings are quite formal - most men in tuxedos, most women in sparkly dresses. 

Lots of ballroom dancing.
Live music in the evenings.

Shows. Speakers.

A planetarium.

You can go to the buffet or the pub if you want to stay casual.
Otherwise, evening attire is expected.

The ship's library is the largest afloat - it's impressive. 

Stan is still happy.
He's got his guitar and a view.

And coffee.

(I thought this might be some sort of modern art sculpture. 

Turns out it's a spare propeller blade. Yikes.)

I love just watching the ocean slide by.
No responsibilities.

Being amazed that there is NOTHING around us.
In any direction.
Just water.

(Ok, maybe an iceberg or two up by Labrador.)

And we have so little idea of what is UNDER the water out here.

After 7 nights' crossing, London-! 

We find last minute tickets to a West End show.
Go out for a fancy dinner after.

TGV (the Train of Great Speed) from London to Paris. 

The Eurostar.
Upstairs.
Quiet.

Under the English Channel.
Fast. 

Change stations in Paris. 

Passing over the Seine.

Through the fields and villages of France .

Way down to the south.

To Béziers overnight, before returning to the boat.

Then - finally, after a trip that took us 3 weeks:

It's time to open the champagne.

On the aft deck of Maggie May.

JOURNAL ARTIST - published! Winter in New Mexico

Back in New Mexico, in winter.

I published another book.

This one is a capsule version of all the thousands of colorful journal pages I've made.
However - I forgot how much WORK it is to finish up a book! 

Holy cow.

I loved making this one.
Even if it took FOREVER.

Hundreds of illustrated journal pages.

(I LOVE doing journal pages. They just make me feel good-!)

Watercolors, photos.
Ideas, quotes.

A few tips.

It's filled with color and creative experiments.

Essentially, it's a personal record of a way of capturing some of the wonderful details of life.

Journal Artist. 

My watercolors all originated in my books, too. 

I have over ten thousand illustrated journal pages scanned. So far. 

But - you can read the rest of the story in the book itself. 

It's on amazon.com.

JOURNAL ARTIST - Trisha Ray.

I got the final proof the day before leaving to return to France. 

Yikes! Talk about last minute.

 (When I have a paintbrush in my hands, anything goes. There are now colorful things all over the garden.)

So - Stan and I spent the winter months in sunny New Mexico.

It wasn't really planned.

But: It was surprisingly dry and warm.
Hard to argue with that.

All the migrating birds escaping from the cold of the north spent the winter in our neighborhood.

-Couldn't really blame them.

Hundreds of sandhill cranes, geese, ducks - all sorts of birds.

Erik and Kilian - an unexpected pleasure - were also in New Mexico this winter.

Stan was productive, too.
He recorded several (!) new CDs.

They're ALL available on his website - for free downloading:

www.stanhirsch.com

Stan's CDs and DVDs - the entire collection

Me - I worked on this book.
It took a LOT of work.

And another one about my family history.

I spent pretty much every day happily tucked away in a sunny Studio.

But as usual, it wasn't all work. 

Anywhere in life - there's ALWAYS time for - just a little celebration.

Right?

And now, we're outta New Mexico.
Bound for the boat in France.

But more about that soon.

Culture Shock: On Arrival in New Mexico

Back in spacious New Mexico. 

5 months backpacking through Southeast Asia. 

But the worst case of culture shock hit me on returning home.  

Everything looked strange! 

So empty! 

Where were the street vendors? 

The small shops? 

The tuk-tuks? 

No trolling taxis? 

The noise?

The roads seemed so spacious. 

The countryside uncomfortably wide. 

Everything so brown and dusty. 

It was very unsettling. 

Even though I should be used to this feeling by now, it still hits me. 

New map! About a month each: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia. 

Food tasted weird. 
Coffee. Even wine! 

Even New Mexico's famous green chile!

(Ok, green chile tasted good after a couple of days.) 

During the last week or two of this trip, I was ready to come home. 

Five months of traveling and making plans as we went.
It was harder than I'd anticipated. 

Incredibly cool, definitely. 

But traveling full time can be hard work.
Things certainly go wrong on a regular basis.  

Vietnamese fishing nets in the Mekong Delta.

After a few days of weirdness back in New Mexico, it began to feel good. 

It was spring! 

Green - well, kind of green. 

It's still a desert. 

And cool. Especially compared to southeast Asia.

Perfect timing. 

The garden was just beginning to bloom and grow. 
As the weeks passed, the rhythms and routines of New Mexico became normal again. 

It's good to be here.

"12 Things on a Tuesday" - Garden Life at Guadalupe Trail

I told someone - we're "letting our souls catch up with us" after this trip. 

Digesting the experiences. 

Appreciating all the abundance here. 

Toads, roadrunners, dragonflies. 

The dry sunny weather. 

Green chile enchiladas. 

And - so much SPACE. 
And - quiet.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Sunset after a day fishing. And they'll row the boats home with their feet.  

I've been drawing a lot. 

Monks and markets. 

Boats and Buddhas. 

Temples and tuk-tuks. 

There are a million things to draw, now that there's so much time. 

Each drawing brings back memories. 

(And it's so easy to forget - how hot it was in Asia at times!)

Market women in Cambodia, selling fish. Fishermen on the U Bein teak bridge in Myanmar.

You can see all the recent paintings here:  

And if you click on a picture individually - there's a little explanation.  

Diving at Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Manta rays below water, Komodo dragons above.

Where to next? 
Not sure. 

For the moment, there are morning glories to train. 

Snails to chase. 

Walks to take and wine to drink. 

Bicycles to the local Growers' Market. 

And there's a toad who has to be rescued every morning from the pool and relocated to a safer pond. 

Time to chill.

I only have about 3500 more photos that I'd really LOVE to draw.

Stories about Indonesia. 

Komodo dragons. 

Living on a deserted island. 

Sailing through the Mekong Delta. 

All in good time. 

Thanks for following on the journey with us!