Up There…Where the Air is Rarefied

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Suzanne

Rare is the moment that I don’t have a song lyric playing through my head. Any word, phrase, or scene can set me off, as my brain contains a database of songs for all occasions. Most times, I can keep it in my head, but then there are those times when I just lose control, and lyrics come tumbling off my tongue like a case of tourettes syndrome. Often times it’s subconscious, and I only realize it has happened when someone turns around and gives me the stink-eye. Continue reading →

JEEPERS!

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Suzanne

Once again I find myself overwhelmed at the kindness in my comment box. Thank you all for your words of comfort extended to my family during these difficult days back on the farm.

I often take stock of the incredible places in which I find myself, and the bonus of like-minded community that I am so fortunate to have found as a result of this blog. Never could I have imagined the network of friends that would come as a result, particularly for a self-proclaimed “loner” like me. Continue reading →

Spirit in the Sky

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Suzanne

Still chasing wildflowers, Mark gets word that Spirit Basin is near peak. A master at logistics, he figures out a way to drop off Pet Rex along the Million Dollar Highway. We will then shuttle eight of us up to Spirit Basin for a one way hike, while still leaving Bobbie a way to bug out early, since it’s a work day. Continue reading →

The Lost Horizon

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Suzanne

So now that I am fully acclimatized (said with a wink and a grin!) it is time to do the one hike that has been on my mind since discussions began last winter about a summer visit to Colorado. For three summers now, I have watched posts on the Box Canyon Blog about a place called “Ice Lake,” only accessible by foot. Year after year, I watch as Mark and Bobbie guide friends and family up to this most magical of places Continue reading →

Climb High, Sleep Low

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Suzanne

I have had altitude sickness twice in my life – once on my attempt to summit Kilimanjaro, and again in Nam Tso Lake in Tibet. I liken it to sea sickness, in that I would do just about anything to make it stop. As best I can describe, it feels like your brain is suddenly two sizes larger than your skull, and my gray matter might begin protruding from the eyeballs at any given moment. Each move must be made in slo-mo, otherwise everything pounds and pulsates with every step. Call me paranoid, but it is not an experience I wish to repeat. So when Box Canyon Mark says Continue reading →

Must There Be Pain?

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Suzanne

The scenery around Lovely Ouray is the type of stuff from which those hokey corporate motivational posters are made. You know, the ones that they hang in the break room that show some fit mountain climber scaling a mountain that no corporate job would permit enough time off to drive by, let alone climb? The kind of propaganda posters that try to reinforce that “Without pain, there is no gain?” I have always preferred to think Continue reading →

Outskirting Ouray

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Suzanne

I have been following the Box Canyon Blog since before I even had an RV. I figure I have read through about a hundred posts touting and tempting life in a box canyon affectionately referred to as “Lovely Ouray, the Switzerland of America.” So I knew before I got here it would be a special place. Give me a box canyon, and I am happy. Give me one filled with hikes, a brewery, a hot springs, and a chocolate shop selling “Scrap Cookies” made from left over chocolates? Well, about the only thing you could add to top that would be to throw a couple of good friends into the mix! Life’s own version of the Scrap Cookie. 😉 Continue reading →

Up on A Tightrope

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Suzanne

The great Karl Wallenda, tight rope walker extraordinaire of The Flying Wallendas once said “Walking the wire is living, everything else is waiting.” I feel that same way about being on the road. It is living. Everything else is waiting…

My family senses this stirring in me. My Mom has thankfully always been one to “push her chicks out of the nest.” So finally, after 75 days of being parked down on the farm, she says “I don’t want you waiting around here for Dad and me to croak. It’s time for you to get back to living your life. We’ll be okay here.” I saw a crack in the window, and I flew through it. Continue reading →

An Imperfect Ending to a Perfect Day

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Suzanne

I don’t typically go “back in time” on the blog, but my time at Jojoba Hills was cut short before I had the chance to write about my stay there. Jojoba Hills is an “over 55” Escapees community near Temecula, CA, about 90 miles outside of San Diego. Continue reading →

Flight of the Honey Bee

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Suzanne

For several years, my parents have had a hive of bees living in between the walls of their storage shed, painted to look like a red barn, therefore appropriately referred to as “The Red Shed.” No one knows how they got there, but Mom remembers seeing a swarm arrive one day, so thick it darkened the sky. Shortly thereafter, they started noticing increasing numbers of bees inside and around the shed. Continue reading →

Take To The Highway

There's a song that they sing when they take to the highway…