"We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way."  ~ Author Unknown ~

What else can I say. Avoid the reality of it all? to be not blunt? hide this Gift of Life that has been after all these years served seemingly to us on a silver platter? Can this Life itself play those games of an unrealistic avenue and be fooling us? I don’t think so. I read entries from years past, when the tunnel was so dark no light was even perceived. And today?

After a few days in the Chiricahua Mountains we made it to Tucson before we take off again, this time for Death Valley. Back into a real kitchen these days, diversity of food as I do not experience in any other time, all so nice, tasteful, and yet none compares to the togetherness Robin and I have developed over these past months. The years have accrued for each of us as we finally feel our dues have been paid and deserve this relationship so often words cannot express, only wanting for the many other “couples” around the multitude of paths to be also as such.

We left Columbus, N.M., a few days ago and continued on our southern ride passing Animas, Portal, and settling in the Chiricahua Mountains at the “Stewart Campground”, a semi primitive space on a creek which unfortunately for right now barely had much water running. The water of the campground itself was turned off which did not matter much to us as I now carry 5 gallons of it at all time. We were in a canyon and forgot how cold the mornings would be till the sun would start shining while slowly coming over those rocks Nature had painted with greens, oranges, rusts, browns and all in between. The photos really do not do justice to the reality of what laid ahead and up from us.

The Southwestern Research Center, a division of the New York Natural History Museum is only a few miles up the road and we stopped curious of my old stomping grounds. I had spend a few months up there cooking after Lance had passed away as already wanting to get away from it all. I was then only on two wheels. The same Director was still present as I remember at the time having to beg her to get the job being over qualified. Things did not work very well for me then. It was much of a worse time of my Life, I could not get along with anyone, all was too raw to deal with it all and the other cook being a schizophrenic drunk did not help the matters at all, but yet we all parted on good terms.

We did the ride up and down the mountain to the Chiricahua National Monument. Nice dirt road, not a hard one going in, a bit tougher coming back as I wondered again why am I beating myself up with this hernia that yet has to heal. I did not stop too often for photos as… I thought my video camera was on. It was not. Another lesson learned. Always double check those blinking lights. I think that is why they are called “idiot” lights. I thought I would exit through the same road the next day, but we did not as instead I took the paved road toward Douglas and on northwest through some rights and left avoiding the freeway.

The National Monument of course is worth the visit. We rode the 8 miles scenic road to the top, avoided the obligatory tourist parked in the middle of the road in a blind curve, door left open and wife (or significant other) with her binoculars watching some bird she probably had not seen before as I felt a duty of mine to have a conversation with the driver, one I will not repeat here… There are actually not many spaces to pull over and the ones in existence are a bit tight. Yet, no excuse for such behavior.

The heat came upon us as getting closer to Tucson. The plan was some frontage road and onto the urban city streets but the high temperatures on the present black top and amongst buildings, the stop and go, all was too much for us. I had not choice but to jump on the freeway for about 7 miles and made it “home” safely. The days here are mellow, they have become indescribable, they are as such because of times past which do not compare to the present. These days are a different chapter, they have been what we have all deserved for a bit. Movie Theatre, a Gallery called “Bohemia”, cooking and more cooking. Readiness today for Death Valley which calls for some bad weather hoping it will not be a repeat of our last adventure through the snowy and icy passes. We are thinking positive…  

"I have had a great deal of interest in my photography over the years, for which I am grateful. Their sales are of much importance funding this Journal. Yes, please feel free to purchase one or two… or a few. I have been adding some photos lately, there will be more as I sift through about 100,000 of them. My “Zen Gallery” is an easy one to navigate on. Take a look. For merchandise also “Smugmug” stands for quality. For contributions to defer the always rising Internet costs please use the toolbar above.”

Ara & Spirit

Be Safe and well
Peace, Love, Courage

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 20th, 2011 at 10:53 pm and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.