Wind And Waves

This summer, I keep finding myself in Leadville. When I first got back from Mexico, I really wanted to live in Leadville and hibernate next to a wood burning stove over the winter, with the fresh bread baking wafting through the cabin…..  I’m still finding that urge…. and now, I know how to knit!  I just need to figure out how to earn money…..

This weekend, I found myself in Leadville because my Dad and I decided to drive up Friday night to Minturn, camp and then go to the Vail Rummage sale in the morning.  Sleeping under the stars was spectacular.  I didn’t want to close my eyes.  When we woke up, the dew had drenched our sleeping bags (we were tentless) somehow I forgot about the dew.

At the Vail Rummage Sale, I got myself a wacky (stripes!) Snowboarding Jacket (hoping to hit the slopes at least a couple times this season)

My first night out, I took off down and dirt road to see what I could see and……found an awesome camping spot! Not to mention the fun riding 😉

One of my best packing jobs yet. I just have to brag.  I’d really like to get some luggage carriers to hang off the sides.

Rode over quite a few passes.  This one is Cottonwood pass.  Beautiful!!  I was loving every minute of this.

Landed in Creste Butte, at the art festival.  Awesome!  My mission….was to find Stevie white kit kat bars.  I coudn’t find them anywhere. But……I found out that Elisabeth was there with her clothes, that I LOVE! In fact, she was having a “trunk show”  I got to try a shirt on and of course I fell in love with it…..and a lady who was nearby saw me checking it out in the mirror told me how awesome it looked on me. It did!  I know the design of this shirt is incredible.  But, I’m on a tight budget so I couldn’t get it 🙁

And I fell in love with this art, from a Hawaiian artist (whose name I can’t remember!)

and finally after what felt like a week of adventures, I arrived in Paonia to meet Bethany!  I parked my moto on main street and she came bursting out of the coffee shop and gave me a huge hug.  What an awesome welcoming feeling that was!!  It was great to see her.  We had so much to catch up on! So we headed to the town church…that had been turned into a brewery.  After a cold delicious beer served in a mason glass and a seat right by the swamp cooler, we were in heaven. and then…….our hero, Craig Childs walks up.  He has just gotten back from Alaska and is a little disoriented.  We enthusiastically start talking to him.  Eventually, we let him go but not after he and his wife have given us directions to there land by the river, near town where we are welcome to camp!  yes! we hadn’t figured where we were sleeping that night….we gave each other high five and commented how somehow when we travel together everything seems to go unbelievably amazing!

Here is the view out the tent window. Yesss!!! I love, love, love, listening to the sound of water in the night.

Life on the road, occupies a magical place.  The world cracks open, I’m infused with beauty every step of the way, whether its what I’m looking at, the conversation I’m having with the new person I’ve met or the feeling of oneness with my motorcycle as I carve through the mountains,the ribbon of road, fast disappearing as I fly over it.  The cooler air washes over me, and the smell of pine and leaves, revitalizing me.  It is heaven on earth, I tell you.  Absolutely heaven.

My first sunset on the road: I took this as a big welcome, from the gods.

And so much happened in between that I need to report but this is what I woke up to this morning:  coffee at a place that friend introduced me to (Thanks Brew!) that makes a good shot of espresso and has a happy making atmoshpere)

and a fellow I met who is going from Mexico to Canada on his motorcycle, via the Contentinal Divide Trail.  AWESOME!!  and even cooler…..he made his luggage and his seat and he was super mellow about the huge adventure he was on.  More on him……Today has been an excellent day!

Leonid Afremov, a Russian artist who lives in Mexico!

“I am interested in the ways we attempt to communicate the truth of our human being. I am eternally frustrated by the limits of language as well as fascinated by the freedom from the mind-jail language can sometimes provide.  Language has the power to evoke the being of human beings and rescue them from their own minds.  Skill in the use of this kind of language develops through the practice of telling the truth.  The clearer I am willing to be about myself, the more clearly I can see others and the more clearly I can speak to them.”

From the book I am currently reading; Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton

I found this on the “ON BEING” website, one of my favorite podcasts.  Watching this brought tears to my eyes!  Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is one of my favorites (with singers!)  Also, Spain is the country I would most like to visit these days, besides visiting my brother in Colombia.

From the ON BEING Blog:

“The production is lovely and highly produced, but it’s the fascination and pure joy of the passersby that makes the moment quite magical. No?”

Yes!!! and I feel that the picture below (taken from the video) captures that perfectly………….!!!

“If you try to view yourself through the lenses that others offer you, all you will see are distortions; your own light and beauty will become blurred, awkward, and ugly. Your sense of inner beauty has to remain a very private thing.” ― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

and now it is FIXED, thanks to Joel!!!!! I’m sooo happy about this.  I need to head to the hills to escape the heat.  Corrosion causing electrical issues.  Nothing Patience, intelligence and sand paper can’t take care of!  I owe him some Cookies 🙂  Feel so lucky to know him.

at Ruben’s. He puts on an awesome, “happy hour” (thanks Ruben!).

Believe it or not….this was a good conversation, despite feeling the forks being put in my hair ever few seconds!

I had the opportunity to hang out with my best bud from High School and her friends and family up in Twin Lakes, at her Parent’s house.  She lives in Maryland but was in Colorado for a visit.  Her parents took us on a hike up the mountain to a hidden silver mine, with a cabin out front, that they had spend months trying to find.  Awesome!!!  Max and I decided to cool off in icy cold, mountain river after our long bush whack of hike.