Travel Bug Events
Events are at 5 pm unless specified otherwise
| Subject | Date | Category | Presenter | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Update on Mexican Border | Sat Nov 01 | Lecture | Morgan Smith | For the past fifteen years, Morgan Smith has been traveling to the Mexican border at least once a month to document conditions there and assist several humanitarian programs, including migrant shelters. The goal is to give visibility to the many heroic people who run these programs, including those from Santa Fe. Since their marriage in 2018, His wife, Sherry has been an active participant in these trips. This show is intended to give viewers a sense of what border life is like, who the key people are, and what issues are important. Much has changed since the election of Donald Trump. |
| Travel Bug Book Discussion | Tue Nov 04 | Book Group | Aimee Gwynne Franklyn | Tuesday 5:30-7:00pm Joseph Lee 's Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for the Indigenous Identity In Nothing More of This Land, award-winning journalist Joseph Lee delivers a powerful and deeply personal exploration of Indigenous identity in the modern world. Drawing from his roots as a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha 's Vineyard, Lee expands his lens to Indigenous communities across the globe — from Alaska to California to the United Nations — capturing their struggles, resilience, and transformation. Through intimate storytelling and sharp reporting, Lee challenges outdated narratives and reveals the vibrant, diverse realities of Indigenous life today. This compelling debut is both a tribute to heritage and a call to reimagine a future beyond colonial legacy. |
| Financial Fridays! 5:00-6:30pm | Fri Nov 07 | SPECIAL | Emily Estes | Join us and Emily Estes (Financial Advisor, Edward Jones) the first Friday of every month for an informal, but informative way to enjoy your evening! From 5:15-5:45pm Emily will cover various financial topics to help you live a life worth living. Stay after the talk until 6:30pm for the Q&A, casual discussion, and a beer! Remember Happy Hour is 5-6pm! Everyone welcome! |
| Medicinal Plants of Northern New Mexico | Sat Nov 08 | Slide Show | Jessie Emerson | Nature to the Rescue Jessie Emerson, RN, herbalist has travelled the mountains, foothills, and uplands of northern new Mexico for many years. She will take us on a field trip where we will learn to identify plants and learn how to use them in emergency situations. This presentation is intended to educate those interested in natural medicine and learning about the plants where they live or visit. Our focus is the plants traditionally used by historic and contemporary Northern New Mexicans. Her newest book Nature to the Rescue will be available at the talk. |
| Spanish in Merida, Mexico | Sat Nov 15 | SPECIAL | Greg | We are presenting a one week Spanish conversation class with our Spanish teacher, Clara Evans, at our hacienda near Merida, Mexico. Dates are tentative If you are interested in joining please email us for more information: travelbug@mapsofnewmexico.com |
| Petra Rephotographed | Sat Nov 15 | Slide Show | Kaelin Groom | Join Dr. Kaelin Groom for a visual exploration of the magical ruined city of Petra, Jordan through the lens of repeat photography — a method that recreates historic photographs from the same vantage point to show change over time. This event blends landscape storytelling, archival research, and cultural geography to celebrate Petra 's resilience, people, and the site 's layered history. Audiences will walk away with new insights on heritage, memory, and the power of repeat imagery. |
| Gen X/ Millennial Book Club | Wed Nov 19 | Book Group | Jeff Grossman | The Millennial Gen-X Book Club is a once-a-month fiction book club for anyone in those generations. We skew towards the queer, the tender, and the strange. If you are interested in joining us, drop by on the night of, or direct your interest to Jeff through themillennialgenxbookclub@gmail.com November Book Selection Watership Down Richard Adams |
| Old Santa Fe Association Book Club | Fri Nov 21 | Book Group | Edward Archuleta | Trade Roots by J. Cosmo Lewis 4-5:30pm Everyone welcome Jeffrey Lewis came to New Mexico in the late 1960s as a teacher at Santa Fe High School. Later, at the direction of several Hopi elders he began a fifty-five year adventure retracing Pre-Columbian traderoutes between the American Southwest and the jungles of Central America on a quest to bring sacred macaw feathers to the kivas of the pueblo people. The journey led him to revive long-forgotten trade routes, and create new ones, to Indonesia, the Mediterranean, islands in the South Pacific, and many other locations worldwide in search of reliable sources for materials needed by Pueblo artisans. He tells his story with a cast of characters including Hopi and Zuni elders, native jewelers, hippies, misanthropic pot smugglers, river runners and decades-old friends and cohorts. |
| Italian Dolomites | Sat Nov 22 | Slide Show | Ken Collins | "The Dolomites are a portion of the European Alps located in far northern Italy, close to the Austrian border. In fact, until the end of World War I, much of the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but was ceded to Italy as a "reward " for coming in on the side of the Allies. Much of the region is stilll more Germanic than Italian, with German the first language and customs and cuisine remaining predominantly Austrian. Sprinkled with beautiful small towns, its claim to fame is the stunning alpine scenery and the abundance of hiking trails and "rifugios " - luxurious trailside restaurants offering lodgings for those walking long distances. Along with the knock-out setting, there is a wealth of brilliantly-colored wildflowers in spring and summer. A short distance from the Dolomites is the Italian lake district, and of the numerous famous lakes, Lake Garda is remarkable for its jewel-like placement surrounded by steep cliffs and mountain sides spilling down to the water. While small cities along the lake shore are popular with holiday makers, the area also offers some dramatic walks. This program will highlight some of the beauty of this area, based on a trip my husband and I made there in June 2024, before the peak and crowded July - August period. " - Ken Collins |
| Botswana in the Green Season | Sat Nov 29 | Slide Show | Evalyn Bemis | We have enjoyed traveling in several countries in Africa over the past 15 years, from Namibia to Kenya, but have always been there outside of the rainy seasons to allow for maximum viewing of wildlife and ease of getting around. For this trip we deliberately wanted to go during the "summer ", or rainy time in Botswana, in order to see the animals healthy, with lots to eat and many with new life at their sides. In most peoples ' minds, the Kalahari is a ferocious and unforgiving desert. In February, it was awash in green, with large playas of collected rainwater and abundant herds of oryx, impala, and zebras. In turn, that meant resident lion prides looking fat and happy. To the northwest, the famous Okavango Delta was not flooded but still well-watered. We witnessed packs of wild dogs hunting, lions and leopards on the prowl, and birds of every size, shape and color, including big flocks in a heron rookery. |
| Travel Bug Book Discussion | Tue Dec 02 | Book Group | Aimee Gwynne Franklyn | Telephone by PErcival Everett Zach Wells is a perpetually dissatisfied geologist-slash-paleobiologist. Expert in a very narrow area—the geological history of a cave forty-four meters above the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon—he is a laconic man who plays chess with his daughter, trades puns with his wife while she does yoga, and dodges committee work at the college where he teaches. After a field trip to the desert yields nothing more than a colleague with a tenure problem and a student with an unwelcome crush on him, Wells returns home to find his world crumbling. His daughter has lost her edge at chess, she has developed mysterious eye problems, and her memory has lost its grasp. Powerless in the face of his daughter 's slow deterioration, he finds a cryptic note asking for help tucked into the pocket of a jacket he 's ordered off eBay. Desperate for someone to save, he sets off to New Mexico in secret on a quixotic rescue mission. A deeply affecting story about the lengths to which loss and grief will drive us, Telephone is the Percival Everett novel that will shake you to the core, as it asks questions about the power of narrative to save. |
| Financial Fridays! 5:00-6:30pm | Fri Dec 05 | SPECIAL | Emily Estes | Join us and Emily Estes (Financial Advisor, Edward Jones) the first Friday of every month for an informal, but informative way to enjoy your evening! From 5:15-5:45pm Emily will cover various financial topics to help you live a life worth living. Stay after the talk until 6:30pm for the Q&A, casual discussion, and a beer! Remember Happy Hour is 5-6pm! Everyone welcome! |
| Buy a home for $1 in ITALY | Sat Dec 06 | Slide Show | Melanie Lamb Faithful | Have you ever dreamed of living in a medieval Italian town? In wine country? At a price much less than you can imagine? We live this dream as Italian half-timers. And the "buy a house for a dollar plan " will be explained. There are so many options for people who are craving la dolce vita. |
| Giving a Voice to the Unhoused | Sat Dec 13 | SPECIAL | Jean Palmer | 5:00-6:30pm Join us for a panel discussion with people sharing stories of their lives unhoused and housed in Santa Fe. Learn more about the issue of being homeless and what you can do to help. After a presentation by a panel of people with the lived experience of being homeless, audience members shared their biggest take aways. Some of the comments: “These were just a few of the many “stories” of people who are unhoused. The authenticity of each story touched my heart.” “Great! Thank you. Awesome presentation! Thank you! Lived experience is so important – it humanizes the issue”. “The presentations reinforced the humanity of people who are or were unhoused. So powerful to hear their stories”. “Homeless populations are not monolithic. Every story is different and we need to stay open and empathetic. |
| Sailing & Painting the Pacific Ocean for 9 Years | Sat Dec 20 | Slide Show | Roxy Podlogar | Roxy and her husband, Carl Podlogar, sold all their possessions and began living aboard their ocean-going catamaran, Sky Pond, in February 2016. They embarked on a circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean from Vietnam, sailing in the "wrong direction " against the prevailing currents and wind to northern British Columbia, then south to Mexico, and finally returning to Australia in December 2024. This story highlights Roxy 's journey as she pursued her dream of becoming a watercolor artist while also striving to acquire a high level of seamanship quickly. It includes photos of their sailing adventure, paintings created in iconic locations, and short stories corresponding to their sailing route and the specific anchorages where she painted her landscapes. |
| On the Road With On the Road | Sat Dec 27 | Slide Show | Carl Moore | Robert Frank 's The Americans redefined photography in 1959 and inspired Carl Moore to hit the road with Jack Kerouac 's On the Road. Like Frank, Moore sought to reveal America to Americans—capturing the landscapes, faces, and fleeting moments that echo Kerouac 's metaphorical vision. From Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to a cross-country drive with his son from Santa Fe to New England, Moore, with his Nikon in hand, retraces Sal Paradise 's footsteps. The result is a vivid, contemporary counterpart to Kerouac 's masterpiece—where the photographs themselves feel restless, alive, and haunted by the same hunger for the open road. As Jim Sampas, executor of the Kerouac literary estate, notes in his Foreword, "It isn 't often that something comes in that excites me as much as this project. " These images remind us of the beauty and variety of human experience, the thrill of movement, and the quiet grace of stillness. Paired with passages from On the Road, they invite us to see Kerouac 's America anew—and to feel again the irresistible pull of the road. |
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The Road: An American Love Story
with Sarah May and Andrew Singer
Saturday October 25, 2025 at 5pm
Life has a lot of speed bumps, and many of us have hit a proverbial detour or two, leading us to the tarmac and the 'for spacious skies' of the American West. From remote public lands to overcrowded national parks, from solo self-reflection to a culture consumed with selfies—the road still calls us, teaches us, and ultimately changes us. Join van-lifers and authors Andrew Singer and Sarah May for a journey across the American West, and a dynamic discussion of the road's place in love, healing, and exploration. Married and full-time nomads, Andrew is the author of the travel memoir Now Is the Time: A Van Life Road Trip, and Sarah is the author of She Journeys: A Memoir of Heartbreak and Homecoming. Both books are available to purchase at Travel Bug, and available at the event. Tour Andrew and Sarah's self-built campervan from 4:00-4:45pm. Presentation at 5:00pm, followed by Q and A
Language Classes
Wine and Beer!
We offer Spanish and Italian and French conversational language classes in the store.
Language class schedule