Archive for August, 2013

Long road ahead of us… WY/MT/CO/UT/AZ/NM/TX…

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

Sometimes the stretch of the Journal stagnates allowing us to “take it all in”. This time around it is not going to quite work that way… It is an “intermission” I feel due to personal matters which needs to be taken care off.

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“Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.”
~ EZEKIEL HOPKINS ~

double Yellow in AZ

I knew this day would come.  Of course I did not know it on day one, or two or three! Hindsight… I am fairly hard on myself and see this part as a mistake of mine, trying to accept it more as a lesson learned. Another one. They don’t cease, do they? A long road ahead of us to Salt Lake City and on to “The Oasis” to pick up Old Faithful. A Sponsorship gone sour, the fault is of no one, no need for details as I also look at the silver lining. “Crusty” has been sold. In 3 hours, which does not surprise me. I have already received mail with irate context toward “URAL” or why “I” was not buying it. Makes me wish and will be if a “next time” ever surfaces, to keep all of this away from the Public eyes. URAL had nothing to do with this, they have always stood behind their product, and for the second question… I do not have the funds! For that matter, being on the road with two hacks today does not make much sense and the logistics are too complicated. So be it as we are compensated for the fuel and I look forward to get Old Faithful back on the road. There has always been a certain guilty feeling toward her sitting and idling silently locked up in the Big Bend Flats Desert heat, even if so on blocks and fuel stabilizer. Can’t be good but she will be fine as soon as rolling the first few miles.

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There is not a tight schedule, only the fact that we are “going” on a bit of a different pace. For a while. The roses are not going to prolong their smells quite as distinctively. We will then on shoot back up to the Moab area including “Valley of the Gods”, “Muley Point” and “Recaptured Pocket”, the later our secret hide out! The weather by then should be perfect. In the meantime it is a couple days in Lander visiting our good and close Friends and their 4 weeks old “Brady”. How cool is that? I get to hold a Baby again, a miracle of Life as my emotions surface portrayed by my own Child 36 years ago! Time has no bearing, it is just a number. There is no forgetting, all remains as they were filled with the senses only amplified from the memories.

Brady

Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY-8 xxx

Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY xxx

I like and love to see my Good Friends do well. I remember their hard times, the struggles as everyone else goes through unless being born with a silver spoon. And even then… It is such a joy to witness their Family expand so nicely as their parenting is of the greatest. It is a “feel good” to be present while their newly opened store is becoming healthier by the month. A women and children clothing consignment store. “Kashmir”. Beautifully laid out, stop by next time you are in Lander, you will be pleasantly surprised, I was.

Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY-6 xxx

Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY-2 xxx Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY-3 xxx

Kashmir Consignement, Lander, WY-5 xxx

And on we started dropping South toward Colorado Springs. Roads we had taken before through “Sweetwater Station”, the modern Ghost Town of “Jeffrey City”, “Muddy Gap”, arriving again on a Freeway. 80 to Laramie and getting off the main stream taking 287 south as I was awaiting for route 14 into the “Roosevelt National Forest” meandering along the “Cache La Poudre” river, 14 actually being called “Cache La Poudre National Scenic Byway”.

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We already needed a day of rest, one of those “nothing” days as I call them. A regroup of the Spirit and the Mind, a shy look ahead trying not to think about the too many miles in too short of a time awaiting for us. One leg at the time, one step at the time. Now is the present or was it the present being the Now? Once again no choice but taking up space in a Campground along the river. Pleasantly surprised. Everyone is quiet, we do not have the drunk and the dogs barking and the kids screaming next to us. What luck. We are instead listening from only 15 feet away to the gentle sound of the river flowing and bouncing off it’s rocky obstacles. This where the Mountains last year caught on fire and today all blackened it’s pine trees with black trunks and rusted color leaves are awaiting healthier years to come.

Hwy 287 xxx

Another leg starts now. South as far as we can go. Being patient. Not much else to say. One day at the time trying to not let these miles ahead get to me. It is as the momentum is a bit broken in deep comparison with the past days in Bighorn Canyon. As they say “one has to do what they need to do”. On the other hand it is a bit exciting to know we will actually be at “The Oasis” in a few days as never experienced before in the month of August. I keep checking the weather and it is all under 90 degrees which surprises me expecting those 120 degree days. Should not be too bad while I do an oil change, drop in a new battery, fuel filter, take “Old Faithful” off the blocks, check the tires and on we will head back north. That’s the plan anyhow. “Plan”… and odd word for us.

Hwy 287-2 xxx 

Till next time,
                     Stay well.
                                     Ara and Spirit
 

Hwy 287-3 xxx