Blink!

I blinked, again.

After leaving LA I took the southern route home. The heat and the end of my summer journey weighed on me. I spent the night in Phoenix and stopped in Tuscon the next morn for a bagel and coffee. I poked around on the computer for anything fun in the area and found Catalina State Park. The park site listed some mountain bike trails and off I went :) I rode some of the 50 year trail and it was stunning! Not the same stunning as the tall, snow capped peaks I had been hanging around but stunning in a way that only the desert can be. The scenery was beautiful, the cactus abundant. After the ride I jumped into the camp showers and cleaned up.

Later that afternoon I was driving through New Mexico when I got a call from the G-man. He sounded excellent. His crew had worked on clearing trail that week as well as the construction of some kind of wall. He sounded absolutely giddy! He also was high from earning the coveted EP award that week. An award they give kids who go above and beyond what is expected. Nice!

I drove into Las Cruces and found the High Desert Brewing Company and had a really great American Pale Ale with some freakin' awesome Green Chili Stew.

I think you are given what you need and you may not always recognize that. I was given what I needed that day...a welcome home to the Southwest that made me appreciate everything she has to offer.

Saturday I plowed through the long Texas stretch of I 10, but because we know how to drive here they let you go 80 mph! I had one brief stopover at a grocery store in Balmorhea that makes killer green chili burritos. I stocked up the cooler for us and my friends the Hartzells. I arrived home around 7 pm and was greeted by my family...a really nice greeting!

My thoughts keep wandering back to the journey this summer. What I learned, what I can take away...I am still processing but I can tell you for me it is about seizing the moment. I don't understand the whole "there is always next year, next time..." Life is short and precious and full of right here, right now moments.

Plus, I love to wander. Wandering seems to throw so many of those right here right now moments at me. I can wander in the mountains, I can wander on road trips, the trick is to be able to wander in my daily life. To seize all those moments everyday. I guess that's what I am still figuring out.

later, rob