Quist World Tour

I’m sitting for my last evening in the volunteer room/church room at Zuni school, and with the windows open we hear lots of dogs barking, fireworks, and a turkey gobbling. I can see lightning in the distance, but I don’t think we’ll get the rain here. Earlier we heard drumming because the ceremonial dancing continued today. We did a lot of driving again today to see Canyon de Chelly National Monument. It’s a fair distance from Zuni, but it’s quite beautiful. Like the Grand Canyon, only smaller, and free. Most visitors take the 2 rim roads and stop at the overlooks. That’s how we did it. We didn’t hit every overlook, but we saw a number of them. There are two other options. One is a 2.5 mile hike to see a specific portion of the canyon. You are in direct sunlight the entire hike, and today it hit about 92 degrees, so that plan was vetoed by a couple of our passengers. The only other way to go into the canyon, other than the one hiking trail, is to be part of a tour that is off...

A few minutes ago, I said “it’s eerie how quiet you are.” That broke the spell, the silence that had overcome the entire party for the last three hours. Three hours!! I thought maybe they’d finally run out of things to say, but that is not the case. They are off and running again. One thing that has really impressed me today is the open nature of the people we’ve encountered. First thing this morning, the Zuni school custodian, Sam, noticed us sitting down to breakfast in the gathering space, so he took his cup of coffee and sat with us. Sam has worked for the school for around 45 years, and he was also a student at the school when he was young, so he is as familiar with it as anyone. The building we are in is only three years old, and it doubles as the church worship space (in fact, my air mattress is in the sanctuary). They are in the process of adding on a gym, playground, and a chapel, which explains the loud sounds of concrete work first thing in the morning! Sam told m...

Are we there yet? Incredibly, that is not a question I have heard on this trip. Except from me of course—the driver is always read to get there. I think, for the most part, my passengers are pretty happy to kick back, read, talk, or listen to music. Especially since we dropped Allison in Colorado and got rid of one of the suitcases. The sleeping bags have taken up residence in the front passenger seat—they are bigger than Allison. Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts and then think someone is sleeping there, but it’s just a pile of sleeping bags! Today was another driving day. We left Taos in the morning, late as usual, and drove to Santa Fe. I was a little sad to leave Taos, partly because there was more to do and partly because the place we rented was great for hanging out. We stopped in Santa Fe for only an hour and a half, just to look around, a way to break up the day. Santa Fe has a beautiful main plaza, and the shops are amazing. The prices are also amazing, in a different...

Randall LaGro is an artist, part of the large art community in Taos and the rest of New Mexico. He has found success in the art world for his paintings and monotypes. He is also a man of deep faith who works hard to remain open to God’s leading in his life. He is a family friend of one of our passengers, and he generously invited us to visit his incredible studio today. His studio was once the studio of artist Joseph Sharp, who was one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists in the early 1900s. Sharp built the studio in 1915, and it is on the National Historic Register. It’s an incredible space all by itself, but Randy’s art makes it even more fascinating.   Randy had watercolor supplies laid out for the girls, and they set to work creating some art. Meanwhile I watched them and did my best to carry on an intelligent conversation about art when I know so precious little about it! He was gracious about answering my questions and giving suggestions and inspirati...

Three strikes and you’re out, right? Well, sort of. Last night we decided on going to church at San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church. This unusual and striking adobe church was built by Franciscans in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is still an active parish, and the whole community works together every June to re-mud the exterior. Georgia O’Keeffe famously painted the church. The website listed services at 9 and 11:30; I’ll let you guess which one four 16-year-olds chose. So we arrived there around 11:10, and we walked into the back of the full church where a service was still in progress. My co-travelers’ greatest fears were confirmed—the service was going to be 2 ½ hours long. We debated and decided we’d sit in the back row of the 11:30 service, stay for a while, and leave when it seemed a good time. Meanwhile, the ladies of the church had set up a spread of cookies, cinnamon rolls, deviled eggs, etc., and they were delighted to have these young ladies take a plateful. ...

Today we got a taste of real Taos. Taos the town became a thing long after Taos the Pueblo, about a mile away. The pueblo, which Brian and I got a tour of 5 or 6 years ago, is often open to the public. It’s a great introduction to what life in a Native American pueblo was like, a great cultural experience. It’s part of a reservation where almost 5,000 people reside. The pueblo is closed this weekend, due to the fact that this weekend is the annual Taos Pueblo Pow Wow. The Pow Wow is held near the pueblo, but not on the grounds. A pow wow is a gathering of different groups in common friendship. This one is in its 30 th year, which is a long time for such events to run continuously. We were able to see the Grand Entry, a long procession of people of all ages in traditional ceremonial dress, performing their ceremonial dances to the sound of the drum circle. The dancers come into a sort of arena encircled by a shelter of logs tied together and covered with branches. Two family f...

One of the best things about driving rather than flying across the country is watching the land change. In Michigan, we drove through forest and farmland, and we knew that not so very far away was the Lake Michigan shoreline that we know and love. When you get past Chicago, eventually the land opens up to the farmland (corn and wind, as far as I can tell) of Iowa and Nebraska. Northeast Colorado brings you through what is usually dry ranchland, but this year the heavy rains have turned Colorado green as far as the eye can see. It’s startling if you are expecting yellow grasses to cover the hills. As we got closer to Estes Park this week, we noticed first a lot of cows roaming the land, and then between Sterling and Greeley we saw more of what might be the factory farms—enormous numbers of cows in small fenced-in areas. Those farms you can smell before you see them. Today we drove from Estes Park to Arroyo Seco, a small town near Taos NM. Along the way we passed the Rocky Mountai...

It’s already the end of the third day of the Girls Road Trip, and we are still alive and kicking. Time to report! I am visiting Colorado briefly, to deliver Allison to my sister-in-law for a couple of weeks, and then I’m taking Natalie and three of her close friends to New Mexico. Tuesday morning we departed only half an hour past schedule, with a car packed out to the gills. I will own that it was because of me that we left late, and even so I forgot the sunscreen, the plastic silverware and my phone charger. I will further own that the extra baggage was not due to teenage-girl overpacking; I had the great idea of planning out the meals for two weeks, and then packing all the food supplies for those meals. Seemed like a good idea, until the time came to put it all in the car. Somehow I got almost everything in. Problem was, we still had to pick up the third friend! She was at a cottage on Lake Michigan near Indiana, so we were meeting her and her parents at a highway exit...