Independence Day

This year Independence Day has another meaning for me.  Since the end of my marriage earlier this year, I have had a growing sense of independence as I do things more on my own.  It lends itself to a large amount of self-discovery – some of which is a little frightening.  I am also learning to ask for help – harder than it sounds. Similarly, I am having to seek out activities with others, which I hadn’t had to really do while in a long-term, committed relationship.  So, I invited Altan to spend the weekend with me.  We did mellow stuff around town – starting with the Mile High Flea Market!

The Mile High Flea Market is a huge place populated by all kinds of vendors. It has everything from used baby dolls to tires to antiques to turkey legs and mangos to jeans. Here is Altan offering a welcome to the merchandise fiesta.

These photos offer a sample of some items for sale.

Antique dog figurine:

Chinese character statue (also in the antique store):

Random stuff and sad-looking panda in a random stuff stall:

Used tools:

Striking shirts:

Butt-hugging jeans.  This particular methods of jeans display was pretty pervasive and it fascinated me.

Altan made a friend:

Some evidence I was there:

Later, after lunch, we journeyed via bicycle to get some sweet action at Sweet Action Ice Cream. They’ve got vegan options, Stranahan’s Brickle, red velvet ice cream, baklava ice cream, and all kinds of other amazing flavors.  Altan pointed out this bit of street art on the way there and I fell in love with it immediately. 

Here’s the part where I accept help.  My commuter bike has been out of commission for some months as I procrastinated on fixing the flat tire it had. I tried to get it started but had serious problems getting the tire off the rim.  Altan lent a hand and ended up working diligently to finish the project (as you can see below), which was fine with me since I had a hand injury anyway (sliced a finger pretty good while preparing lunch the day before).

The weekend wasn’t totally candy and puppies (what really is in life?) but it was generally fun and relaxing.

Hot Springs with Buena Vista

My legs are resting on the edge of the pool, I’ve got two pool noodles supporting my back and arms, the sunlight is getting stronger as it comes over the San Juans, all I can hear are birds making their morning calls, and I’m just floating.  This was me at Joyful Journey hot springs for two and a half days.

Sometimes that serene moment was punctuated by the conversation of couples.  Being alone on vacation you get to overhear lots of (mostly boring) conversation between couples.  At night, however, the couples conversations can be silly and giggly.  Given that I’m steeped in thoughts about human relationships, these conversations were fascinating – even the boring ones.

I mean, what did/do I talk about as a couple? Outside of the occasional discussion about current political activity or random zombie conversations, couple conversations can be pretty mundane – what we are doing later, when should we take the cat to the vet or take the car in to have the oil changed, we should try this or that restaurant, and on and on.

Anyway, other than eavesdropping while soaking in the hot springs, I mostly read and slept, which was heavenly.  Here’s a typical shot of those days:

After emerging from the hot springs experience, I met Trisha in Buena Vista.  She ran a 25-mile trail run!  I know there are lots of people who do this, but I’m still in awe.

In the afternoon after the run, we made it a goal to visit as many patios in Buena Vista as possible.  The first of these was Mother’s Bistro. This is Trisha on the patio:

The patio was complete with a cat named Simba that circled my chair and let me pet it:

We both had glasses of white wine and shared a piece of caramel apple pie.  It was soooo nice.

When the sun started to set we made our way back to the Topaz Lodge and got to watch the sunset as we walked.

It was a lovely weekend and a good first solo trip for me.  I’ll definitely do it again.

Moab Safari

I didn’t know there was such a thing as the “Easter Jeep Safari” in Moab.  Well, turns out there is and it kicked off last weekend, which coincided with a trip to Moab to celebrate Hillary’s birthday.

Friday: Driving and Drinking (not together)

Hillary’s sister, Shaina, and I traveled about six hours from Denver and Hillary drove down with her dog, Driggs, from Salt Lake City.  We converged in Moab on Friday .  The intent was to camp, but all camp sites within about 45 min of Moab (even disbursed camping) were taken.  There were, however, a few hotel rooms left.  So Friday night we stayed at the Apache Inn and managed to snag the “John Wayne Suite.” It turns out that Mr. Wayne actually stayed in this hotel and frequented this particular room.

Staying in a hotel in town offered the possibility of nightlife! We started with margaritas and dinner at Juan’s.  There was a wait for a table and because it’s Utah and ridiculously strict when it comes to alcohol, it is not permitted to have drinks while waiting.  Whatever. We were seated pretty quickly. 

After dinner we ended up at Woody’s (a bar).  Inside we found a good amount of people our age as well as a pretty good live band and a solitary Jagermeister girl.  She was dressed like a stripper and sprinkling Jagermeister lanyards, hats, blinky lights, and so on.  We had way too good of a time…there was dancing, chatting with local river guides, and receipt of Jagermeister schwag.  All three of us received Jagermeister hats:

The night ended about an hour after the bar closed with the three of us walking around the hotel trying to get Driggs to pee.  That dog never pees, but when he does (especially at two in the morning) Hillary get’s pretty excited:

Saturday: Canoeing and not canoeing

We were supposed to be at the canoeing place (we rented canoes) at 9:30.  At 8:30 I woke up in a state of confusion since I was in a king-sized bed with Shaina and Hillary was on the floor with Driggs.  We scrambled to get ourselves and our stuff together in time to get caffeine before canoeing.

Canoeing was an adventure.  With Shaina and I in a tandem canoe and Hillary with Driggs in a single canoe, we launched the first time around 10:45 am.  We had 11 miles to cover and were being picked up at 3:00 pm.  Below is Hillary (top) and Shaina (bottom) pre-first launch.

Driggs immediately jumped out of the canoe and took off in a sprint towards the road.  Not a good sign.  This was the first time Driggs was in a canoe…Hillary did get him back in the canoe and we set off again around 11:00 am. 

Driggs looks ok in the photo above but he was extremely difficult to control and we made the executive decision to bail on the trip.  We pulled off on a small strip of eroding shore closed in by thickets of tamarisk. We called the canoe rental place to come and get us and they were out to lunch!  We hemmed and hawed for about an hour then we decided that Hillary would pull her canoe up to the road and Shaina and I would continue with the trip to the pick up site.

Here is Hillary making her way through the tamarisk thicket:

Shaina and Hillary pulling the canoe from the water:

We got going at around 1:30 pm and had about 90 min to make it 10 miles. The canoe trip was hurried a bit but really quite lovely.  Here are some views from the canoe:

We lounged around our hotel room at the Sleep Inn after all of this.  We were a bit pooped and even Driggs was relaxed:

I’m a hotel artwork aficionado and here is what I saw at the Sleep Inn:

Saturday night was a full moon.  Here is a shot of that and some additional evidence that I was there:

Sunday: Snake hike and the journey home

Sunday was pretty mellow.  We did a short hike on the way out of town and saw a snake!  Exciting. Below is the snake and a picture two awesome sisters.

That was Moab last weekend.  It turns out there was another “redneck convention” (I’m quoting a Moab local) going on that weekend which kept the number of “jeepers” to a tolerable amount.  So, the Easter Jeep Safari didn’t really negatively impact the trip. 

For me the trip was therapeutic.  Not only did I get out of town and spend time with fun women, but I was reminded by Hillary that life isn’t about the destination but rather the journey.  I know this, but like anything else useful to remember, my impatient nature tends to take over and I get focused on the end game, whatever that is at the moment.  But Hillary is so right, I need to enjoy where I am more often.

You all are fabulous