colorful Colorado

Kinda redundant since that's what "colorado" sorta means anyway

a beautiful flower for mi amiga, Jean

a snake for Greg

peas in a pod because according to the balloon artist,
"i'm such a sweet pea"

my friend, Jean, she's great, she works with inner city kids in Denver and she loves all people.
i realized spending some good quality time with her that i really miss her and driving around with her and just chattin' it up and listening to hip hop.  jean and I have known each other since high school and we were great friends then and have kept in relative touch since.  greg likes her because she did show choir...and because she's awesome of course.

Mile High City

best balloon artist ever in BeauJo's, home of the "mountain pie"

Oo, Aa, the colors of it all!

Home Spicy Home

So, no trip to New Mexico would be complete without a trip to Albuquerque.  The best thing about Albuquerque is that I (Noel) grew up there and so have many boring, funny and sometimes saddening anecdotes all over the city.  Poor Greg has a hard time getting it all straight but that's okay because sometimes I do, too.
We especially love the people so this section, more than many others, will involve the people I treasure and still go back to see.  Also, the food.  Oh, the food.  To die for...actually, when I think of the great feast, I think of this great New Mexican extravaganza in which all my friends are there answering the Lord's question, "Today I set before you green and red chile, choose today which you will have."  And then He laughs jovially, not unlike James Earl Jones and says, "Just kidding, 'tomorrow', if you can really call it that, is a new day with new mercies and more chile."  Maybe there will be other colors of chile also...oh, the possibilities.  If you don't understand and this picture of heaven does nothing for you, well, don't worry, it just means you're not a New Mexican.  But don't worry, in heaven, you can be an honorary member. :)

But, you just wanna see photos, of course:

a southwestern storm for our trek

Southwestern landscape whilst driving; if you squint you'll see the rainbow!

salsa fiesta in Old Town! we tried about 20 kinds of homemade salsa and if we had paid, we could've voted, but we didn't so we just ate "dinner" of salsa and chips provided by the good gente of ABQ

proper decor for showing at the Salsa Fiesta

anatomy of a salsa fiesta bite

going in for the kill

hoping it doesn't kill me

this is Linda, she's the best.  she used to come and do lots of youth group activities with us when we were mere youths. she's prayed for me since I was an annoying teenager and she was giddy when she found out we were going to seminary and said, "I've prayed all along that this day would come!"  She's also amazingly hospitable and had us over for a spontaneous dinner on sunday night at which we laughed and laughed and had a GREAT time.

these are some of the wonderful ladies with whom I was privileged to hang out with both in my growing up years and then in my brief stint of helping out with youth group.  not pictured: magnolia camp, who is also one of this bunch.  i'm so proud of these girls, getting married, goin' to grad school, saving the lost, all in a days work; love you, brett, jessie & marcie.  most of them still go to the new St Mark's...aka Christ the King which is still home in many ways because 99% of the people I love are still there, just a different space.  that's okay, the orange carpet added character but not much else :P

greg tryin' out cowboying for size

This is Noelle and Noel. :)  Noelle was my grandma away from my grandma (who lived in El Paso).  She would come to my swim meets and have us over to play Monopoly.  Everything I know about it I learned from her...we'd spend HOURS playing.  She also taught me all I know about card games...which, as most of you know, is not much.  We spent some good time at her house, drinking her scotch, eating her peach pie and petting her dogs and yacking it up.  So little has changed in many ways, I miss her very much. 

This is Randy and Redd.  They were kind enough to let us stay with them and feed us breakfast and dinner and tell us all sorts of stories about their lives and the lives of the church family.  They used to live 2 blocks away from us and so they babysat us sometimes and we'd go sell them girl scout cookies and the like.  They are some of the most attractive people I know and they haven't changed a bit.  They know they've been really blessed by God and so they just want to give and give and are truly thankful and joys to be around.  I'm glad we could stay with them.  They also have some AWESOME albuquerque views!

The view from the back patio of the "guests quarters" looking down on the valley where the city is

backyard with a view...a beautiful view of the Sandias, complete with cloud cover [longing sigh]

the following are actually stolen from our last trip to ABQ in october of last year.

the mountains are a personality in their own right and I have missed them for a decade

I have also missed the Frontier for a decade. I think this burrito speaks for itself.

of course, we also stopped this time for some more frontier tortillas for the road trip

a view of Central Ave, Route 66.
we used to walk up and down for fun and explore shops and buy thrift clothes and go to the Frontier

a school with a view; this is the Academy where I went to school.
It has another fabulous view of the Sandias

the natatorium where Noel spent SO many hours swimming and playing water polo

oh, Garduño's salsa, how I love thee.

The REAL story of Roswell, New Mexico

On our way to ABQ, we stopped by Roswell's UFO Museum and Research Center, home of all things alien and UFO-related.  Spurred on by the events of a fateful July evening in 1947, this Museum documents the history of the town and the accounts of those involved either in the discovery of aliens and their aircraft downed in Roswell or the cover up which took place thereafter.  And it's great; you can take photos of anything except the Gift Shop :)  My one critique is that for a legitimate establishment with a very compelling story to tell, they sure had a lot of typos.  For all of you who know me, this is something I cannot abide...especially for museums and centers of fact transmission.  I mean seriously, as though America isn't already full of skeptics, why further that skepticism by clueless editing of walltalkers?  Well, before this turns into a post on typos, we'll move on....

You know you're in Roswell when...

I blew this up because I want to make sure you can see the "TOP SECRET" part...also, I never found anything explaining space light generating from aliens groinal regions so your guess is as good as mine.

Sorry the bottom's so blurry, it reads "Certain artistic license has been taken to show visually what has been reported."  Whoa, I'll say.  I thought Steve Miller was the only space cowboy but boy was I wrong.

This is a very partial list of propaganda on why it's likely that aliens exist and come to Earth.  Please note the Bible verses.  It's funny how few people really take the Text as legitimate and yet, when it comes to proving aliens exist, everyone's a believer.

The stuff that dreams are made of...or at least UFOs and/or weather balloons and/or government cover-ups.   This is a photo of a photo of one of the first military persons on the scene of the 1947 Roswell incident with the man to first discover the crashed UFO and its dead inhabitants.  He kept pieces of the craft which were like aluminum but immediately went back to their original shape once manipulated.  The original pieces conveniently disappeared from military personnel offices shortly thereafter.

This is an explanation of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  Please note that one of the only people they consider "sophisticated" and a legitimate source is a pastor.  Awesome.  I hope I have such claims to fame to look forward to!

Noel pictured with RALF (Realistic Alien Life Form, for long) and the New Mexican flag, with a place like Roswell, how can one not be proud to be a New Mexican????

Greg befriending the poor caged RALF-good luck, little buddy.

One of the many alien wares shops in Roswell.  Actually, we were legitimately perplexed by how many businesses did not capitalize on the whole UFO/alien thing.  I mean, come on!  Nobody's going to go anywhere in this town if you don't claim to have something to do with inter-universe relations. 

This comic pretty much sums up the whole UFO museum for me.  Like, well, they can make up weather balloon stories and crash dummy stories (2 ways in which the government tried to deny the incident and say that it was really them running tests, etc) if they want, but we all know that one way or another, it was actually the aliens.

Carlsbad, part Dos

Our Carlsbad home away from home

Noel with her birth grandmother, Betty, whom she met for the first time

Follow your cave-guide, Noel into the depths of the Caverns of her birth!

the "Natural Entrance".... from within!

Enduring the water-torture, Greg never gave up the names of his contacts

Scale:  floor to ceiling is approx. 280 ft.

A pool!  You can't see it in this photo, but this is "Mirror Lake"- the lighted placard is written so that it can only be read as a reflection in the pool

Carlsbad, NM leg o' the trip

San Antonio, since we were there for a week and a half, holds far too many memories-not to mention photos-that will have to be captured at a later date.

However, we have decided to go ahead and post our current whereabouts and goings ons.  Under the "Timeline" page link at the top, you can keep up with where we are on any given day and where we're headed the next ones.

Here's the Carlsbad sights:

Well... what more do you need?  Oh, I know, a better internet konnection!  thanks KOA for trying, you are a kampsite after all, not a Ho-Jo.  More photos to come, pfeiferpfiles! pfear not...

Now all that's left, pictures on the walls

Actually not even the pictures were left at this point.

The sight of our living room as our items slowly make their way to storage

For many days, even though, I knew that technically speaking, we had no "need" of photos or art on the walls and that it would be easy to pack, I refused to do it.  Greg was gone 4th of July weekend and I was left home to do much packing.  I got a lot done but when it came to the walls, I just couldn't bring myself to strip them just yet, especially not alone.  So I dragged my feet till Sunday when Mink came over and when she asked, "Hey, what should I pack?", I thought, "Aha! I can make someone else do it-it won't effect them."  But to my surprise, she retorted, "No.  That's so sad.  Let's wait."  I, not wanting to appear as taken aback at her sentimentality as I was, just said, "Okay, let's do the refrigerator magnets instead" :)  Please note: I was not surprised by this because she's a cold-hearted stoic...no, no, but rather because I realized I wasn't crazy for refusing to strip my home of our unique giftings to the walls and the furniture.  So, perhaps it was surprise at my OWN sentimentality in the situation.  I also realized that Greg and I are not the only farewellers in this situation and that there are plenty who will endure grief as well.

Sleeping in the living room for our last night in our 1st apartment

Several times during our last few months, I began doing several things: a) taking pictures of as many friends/acquaintances/strangers as possible, b) refusing to do anything which seemed mundane and wasn't in some way a "good-bye" to Chicagoland or friends or dairy queen or the pool or the zumba dance studio and c) subduing my emotions about leaving--something akin to not counting eggs before they're hatched or awakening grief before it's necessary.  Plus, it's hard to truly miss people until we're really gone and for now, it still seemed all a far off adventure.  All of these struck me as silly and yet, in some way, were, in fact, my grief.  That, and my incessantly bothersome heartburn :P

I've had this song (from which this post's title was derived) going through my mind since we hit the road.  At first, I thought, "Boy, that's kinda morbid, better not tell anyone about it."  But, here it is, echoing in the recesses of my gut, so I share it with you.  It's by a 90s christian band with whom I was obsessed and still fondly bust out their albums from time to time, a few of you, though I suspect not many, will remember Plankeye.

Goodbye, goodbye

Walk away it's time to say goodbye

Goodbye, goodbye

Walk away it's hard to say goodbye

Now all that's left , pictures on the walls

Memories and stories that are told

The more often told the bigger they get

Create a legacy lest we forget

Goodbye, goodbye

Walk away it's time to say goodbye

No longer can i hold onto this defeated change in heart, i swear

It's time to sing "fare thee well" to life as we know it

My voice it will be, you know i will be, yes it will be still

Something woke me up in the midst of dream and fantasy

Halfway there but He always fills my cup

And He lifts me up oh how He lifts me up

Goodbye, goodbye

Walk away it's time to say goodbye

I never took the time to stop and realize that death takes many forms

Even while alive

 

I was really hoping that this CD was in the car and that we could've used it for that moment when we dropped our apt. 113 and pool key off in the office drop slot and hopped in the car to drive away for always.  (Actually, that's not entirely true-we left our bike so we're gonna have to head back, but that doesn't really make the story as good, right?)  But, I probably would have cried anyway so maybe it's better.  As it is, I just fell asleep and Greg listened to a Chicago station until it was static as we drove down I-55.

 

But, don't worry, all of the memories and stories from you all will be told, probably through giggles and tears, and they'll get longer and longer and less believable.  And your pictures will be on our walls.  And we will glory in the fact that God has asked us to "come and die" to our lives in Chicagoland.  But, we will rise from the ash as He bears us up.  And we look forward to hearing of all your Life's deaths and resurrections even as we are far away.  But, it's great to me that we were so committed and so loved and so stuck in, that leaving is worthy of being called a "death".  So, thanks be to God and to all of you as well :)  Thanks for reading what is sure to be a rather melodramatic tale.  Blessings, friends.

The First of Many

Our impromptu decision was to leave at 1230am on Friday. Much like meeting paper deadlines during undergrad, it seemed to make more sense to stay up all night and get the job done instead of waking up early on the due date to get everything done. But we're older than we used to be and all-nighters should not be considered an option in our near future at Seminary. To make up for any lost time, we opted to drive straight through to San Antonio from Chicago and skip the aforementioned "kamping" in Janis, MO.  Whatever time we thought we gained by leaving when we did, was lost with the number of stops for resting. There's a moral to this story, but Greg isn't willing to admit it yet.

Lest the first 1,200 miles and 23hrs of our trans-continental road trip sound like all doom and/or gloom, let the reader understand that we had a great time crammed together with a month's worth of clothes, food, and other roadtrip accoutrement (pronounced with an outrageous French accent, por favor)

2 near-death experiences in Oklahoma, make us somewhat hesitant to drive thru again... though since we were on a major interstate, we certainly do not hold the Sooner State or her residents responsible. Since Greg is writing this particular post, I can add that I look forward to a balance of scoresheet in the Red River Rivalry to happen Sooner rather than “Long”er in history.

2 big encouragements from this trip: an increase of Sonic and Chic-Fil-A billboards and the reminder that not even smelly close quarters that unfortunately included our cactus stabbing me as I drove, uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, too many unproductive/unscheduled stops, and a finicky ignition switch... none of these things prevailed against the power of our marriage as long as we had 16 decent CDs to sing along with together, sufficient caffeine, and the overflow of love and forgiveness from the Lord our Strength, who once again has proven faithful to prepare our way and sustain us through the journey... Blessed be His Name!