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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Flashback To Bell and Little Horse... A Slot Canyon Sermon


I am far removed from the narrows of Little Wild Horse Canyon, seated in a tasteful and comfy leather cushioned oak chair in Springdale, Utah's fine new library. Three large panels of floor to ceiling windows cannot contain great vertical walls of Zion, jutting skyward like improbable stone sculptures... seemingly piercing Heaven's lower realm. Oh various and sundry Utah, how thou doth inspire "religion" in the bones of unbelievers. Utah lumps the throat of this sentimental old sap. I grapple for words, but come up dumb. I sort through hundreds of two dimensional photos, and come up blind. So please forgive when I fall short of living up to the reality, diversity and glory of my favorite place to explore... again, and again, and again. Pardon the  photo "crutches" that assist my bleeding heart recollections and lack of vocabulary that does injustice. 

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

It's Official, I'm A Geezer



We interrupt the BCB Timeline for this special real time report (insert breaking news music here).

While sitting around at our little pie-fest in Goldie's Kitchen/Bar/Grille,  we were invited to join The Reluctant CowBoy and "Just Do It" Ms Heidi to hike up the Narrows in Zion. Nothing like Cherry Pie and beer. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we were... uh... hesitant... to take them up on it and left it at, "if were not there at 11 AM, go without us." Here's why.

Monday, October 29, 2012

CowBoy Brian and Ms Heidi Come Knocking On Goldie's Front Door



CowBoy Brian and Ms Heidi graced Goldie's expandable dinette last night. Only problem was I forgot that it expands, so we had a nice visit squeezed together like sardines. Good thing I took a shower. They brought chips, salsa and cookies, while we provided  fresh baked petite pies from Capital Reef's Gifford House Bakery... peach and cherry. I already consumed the apple while it was still warm out of the oven yesterday. Ms Heidi is on a roll with being an active, outdoor RV'er. You won't believe what she has the old CowBoy doing today. I gotta see this, so we'll be joining them :))

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Eerie Feelings In Horse Shoe Canyon


Such are the delays and gaps when blogging in T'mon (The Middle Of Nowhere). Here, finally, is part two of the prior post, and photos of the pictographs we sand-slogged to in Horseshoe Canyon. They date as far back as 700 AD... a pretty durable paint formula I'd say. 

I had an uneasy feeling, hiking past twisted, black-trunked cottonwood trees that line Horse Shoe Canyon. They looked spooky, frozen in contortionist pose. Cadmium yellow leaves glowed and flickered in the breeze like a thousand miniature suns; an uncomplimentary contrast, yellow leaves and pink sandstone. But who am I to judge the outfits Mother Nature throws on. Let's just say, it's not something I would wear... except on Halloween.

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Eye Of The Beholder



After wandering for four days in Utah's wireless wilderness... a veritable internet vacuum... subjected to buffeting winds of Old Man Winter, as he tarred, feathered and run Ms Autumn clean out of "town," suffering through a 50% off sale on comfortable temps that slashed mercury down to the low 20's and drained my four el-cheapo Walmart Marine-turned-Security Guard batteries to 11.89 volts... we are now safe and warm in Hanksville, Utah, a graveyard of automobile and mobile home wreckage, and Hick-town poster child straight out of the 1950's. That Verizon saw fit to cover this salvage yard is a mystery. 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

A "Homesick" Travel Virgin Finds His RV Mantra, and It Might Not Include The Whole Damn World

Sand and Clouds converge on Henry Mountains

Regarding Gumo's comment a few days ago, that he's "homesick for places he's never been," it's been expressed before in many ways. But that one... that one... I own. It's my nutshell mantra, and like any worthy adage, It's soul and wit lies in it's brevity. I want it tattooed on my chest, recited at my eulogy, engraved on my tombstone.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Living In The Wild, Wild West... A Canyon Rim Dream Hike


Grab your jacket and come join Bobbie on an amazing canyon rim hike! If you are acrophobic, take a Valium now...

Monday, October 22, 2012

Goldie Falls In Love With T Rex, and Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice


And who could blame her, just look at the body on that masculine hunk... and the size of his, uh, gas tank. Got to be on steroids.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

25 Or 6 To 4... Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?


I glanced down at my cheap Casio watch as Bobbie and I approached the Green River Overlook. It read 3:18. Under an over-zealous sun, we had pedaled away from camp for over three hours; this might be a good place to think about turning around.

Saturday, October 20, 2012



I was nervous, itching to hit a winding two lane backroad that would land us somewhere in the silence of a red rocked desert near Moab, Utah. But Bobbie had a Ouray County Art's Association meeting she wanted to squeeze in before leaving. So we didn't point Goldie's Bar and Grill westward till high noon. My Corral was not "Ok" (insert disgruntled face here). It's probably just as well, though, because when loading up a brand new (used) RV, there always seems to be enough minuscule odds and ends to keep one grounded. I was antsy in my pants, edgy in my hedge, and nervous in my tummy. But why?

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Blending Home and Road: Metaphors Wanderlusted Men Can Understand


Photos like the one above drew (drove) me west. That such places actually existed and awaited the un-timid heart had me cutting a hole in my Springfield, Missouri "fence." I barely escaped with my life and dreams intact... before the rut got too deep, paycheck too big, paycheck too small, friends too dear, family too big, courage to small.  So I loaded up a '66 GMC pickup truck, hitched a 24 foot house on wheels to it and put Springfield in my rearview mirror like it was Sodom and Gomorrah... never looking back lest I turn to a "pillar of road-salt."

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

It's Not The Cold and Snow... It's The Lack Of Freaking Daylight!!!


Tis the eve of the eve of Departure Day, and I feel like I'm in a Fifth Dimension. If "the moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars," and we can find a few more ratholes in which to put "stuff," then Goldilocks, Mama Bear and Papa Bear will leave on time.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

City Slicker Turned Cow-Child... Innocence Lost


Once upon a time around 1958, in the high desert grasslands between Bisbee and Sierra Vista, I was a budding cowboy on a sprawling ranch.  It was the definition of "the middle of nowhere." It seems God told my vagabond Dad and Mom to move to "the middle of nowhere" without first consulting me. But you know, kids are like Honda's... resilient. You just drag them along behind like an RV Toad and hope they'll still be there when you stop and look around. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

A Dry As Toast Posty


As I write this, Lovely Ouray sleeps, a cover of darkness pulled over her head... wild and crazy REM dreams bouncing off Box Canyon walls. What in the hell am I doing... up with the bread bakers? I should be REMing out with Marylyn, or Cher, or, God forbid a nightmare on Oak street, Madeleine Albright. Maybe I'm sleepless in Ouray because of a Lazy Daze list that seems to grow by two items for every one I cross off. The countdown is on and we are down to days, hours and minutes. 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Going, Going... Gone


Tho Ms Autumn is not fully gone, she's certainly packing her bag today. A storm blew into The Crevice overnight... bringing industrial grey clouds, leaf stripping winds, and now, rain. Looking out the Imax, you'd think we lived in the molehill Ozarks... most of our gorgeous mountains are obliterated by a pallid funeral cloth of dismal clouds.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

We'll Take You There


I feel like a little kid on a new tricycle... coasting down the driveway, feet off a blur of pedals, eyes big as silver dollars.

Monday, October 8, 2012

A Lazy Daze RV Remodel Update... Goldie's Done, For Now, Anyway


That's my new leather chair sitting in the 99 percent completed remodel of our new used Lazy Daze Motorhome. Let's play a little game of "The Price Is Right." How much would you bid on that leather chair that swivels and reclines and comes with a matching footstool? Don't go over, now, or you lose! Would you bid $2000? $1000? $500?

Saturday, October 6, 2012

On The Horns Of A Dilemma




"Do not be too timid and squeamish. ... All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." Emerson.

About this time last year we took a chance on "romance" and embarked on a new downsized RV lifestyle. The question going in flashed like Las Vegas marquees, "Is it sustainable?" Well, what is a life lived without risk, anyway? There is no romance worth a pittance without adventure and risk.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Soft Pedal


Bobbie, Marathon Man Leonard and I went on a little fall bike ride to Ridgway. We took the former narrow-gauge railroad route, now a single lane county road for a good ways. It's a soft pedal, as bike rides go, wandering downstream, around Black Lake and under pockets of aspen... glowing from the watershed of a snowcapped White House Mountain.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Perspective 101, A Prerequisite For The Golden Years


Bobbie and I decided on a stroll from home, up Camp Bird Road. It's one of our favorite "walks." You wouldn't believe how different it appears... now from just two weeks ago.  Corrals of aspen trees pop from spruce forests, glowing like five hundred watt candles.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Parting Shot "Postcards" From Cedar's Edge and Grand Mesa


There is an olden town within the town of Cedaredge, one that wasn't there when we last passed through. A new old town. Residents and council went to great expense and effort to reconstruct a typical vintage western village, complete with saloon, bank, mercantile, school, cabins, boarded sidewalks... you name it. Sand Creek ia not a facade; the interiors are period works of art and antiques. It made me want to shoot a western movie, but there was no one around for "extras."