Maybe You Can Go Home Again

It was hard to leave Glacier, but somehow I managed to get myself and the trailer down to Missoula on the morning of Thursday, July 2nd.  I was pretty happy to be driving past Flathead Lake again.  When I drove past the lake on the way up to Glacier, I was afraid I was going to roll both truck and trailer into the lake because I was having so much trouble keeping my eyes on the road. 

In yet another example of how awesome people can be, my buddy Matt spoke up and mentioned that his parents live outside of Missoula.  Being good people, they were happy to give me a place to crash, as well as a place to leave all my stuff while I flew back to NY - all while they continue about a couple of the busiest lives I've encountered recently.  Craig & Barbara were out of town on the 2nd, but I drove to their house and dropped my stuff, and then I was driven to the airport by a friend of theirs.  All this was arranged by two people I had yet to meet, who knew very little about me except that I was their son's hang gliding buddy.   

Thursday was a full day of travel - I left Columbia Falls, MT around 7:30am MST to drive to Missoula, spent some time hanging around MSO since my initial flight was delayed, miraculously not only made the connection in Chicago but had time to eat dinner, and landed at Newark a little after 11pm EST.  

Outdoor bar at MSO - I've definitely waited out delays in worse places

Spent the night in a hotel in Newark, and spent Friday traveling up to Hang Glide New England in New Braintree, MA.  This was a day full of logistics.  First, I Ubered to the NJ Transit station to hop a train to Penn Station.  Ended up on an Amtrak train, where I narrowly escaped paying an extra $68 instead of the $5 NJT fare.  Fun times.  Then, I took 2 subway lines uptown & across to the east side to Grand Central to get the train up to Bridgeport, CT.  My cousin, Donna, met me at Grand Central to drop off a tent/air mattress/etc so I'd have a place to sleep for the weekend.  My "hang gliding husband" Big Mike met me at the Bridgeport station, and after a quick stop at his house to pick up his stuff and my glider, plus another stop at one of the more well-stocked beer & wine emporiums I've had the pleasure of visiting, we were off to MA.   

We arrived at Hang Glide New England just in time to see a bunch of the usual suspects breaking down their gliders.  Nick Caci offered to let me fly his glider since it was already set up, but by that time I was pretty beat from all the travel, so we just set up camp, ran a couple of errands and inhaled some Mexican food.  The next day was pretty rainy and cold, so we drove to Sturbridge to see a movie (Ted 2 - super crass but very funny) and eat and drink some more. Donna met up with us just in time for the movie and hung out for the rest of the weekend. 

Per Mike, "This is what happens when you give a honey badger some beer"

Sunday was a beautiful day.  We met some new people and caught up with a bunch of old friends.  I was the second one to launch and I got a great flight.  However, I was flying my Falcon, which I hadn't flown in over 3 years, and I was borrowing a vario because mine was dead.  Even though it's theoretically an "easy" glider to fly, the Falcon has no glide to speak of, so I was extremely conscious of the drift I was experiencing as I thermaled up - and what a beautifully thermalling glider it is, I must add.  Basically thermalled itself.  I was also a bit nervous about the landing, but I had a great landing - probably could have stuck it, but I was ready to run, so I took a couple of steps and the glider settled right onto my shoulders.  Before I had unhooked my harness, I was met by Gary, who wanted some pictures for his portfolio, and I had the special treat of seeing Marilyn, whom I almost never get to see even though I run into Rhett every few months.  Overall, it was a great weekend - it was so awesome to see everyone, and I can't thank Mike and Donna enough for carting me around and making it all happen.  

Donna and I drove home to her place in Copiague, Long Island, in a relaxed and happy state, and took it easy on Monday, just catching up on work, so that we'd have our energy for Tuesday.  On the morning of Tuesday, the 7th, Donna and I drove out to Yaphank to pick up my favorite (and coincidentally, only) niece Julieanna and took her to Adventureland.  This is a tiny little amusement park with 2 roller coasters - and I'm using the term "roller coaster" very loosely.  However, Julieanna isn't bothered by the lack of roller coasters because she...won't...go...on...them.  This revelation shook me to the core.  I had to question whether we're really related.  By the end of the day I was pretty impressed, though - in the morning she didn't want to go on any water rides OR into the haunted house, but by the end of the day she was dragging me into the haunted house and asking if we could "get more wet".  I'll give her a pass on the roller coasters...this time.  The highlight (or lowlight?) of this day, however, was yet to come.  We happened upon a live musical performance, where we got to see Lil' Dawg performing live.  We were mesmerized, the same way you're unable to look away from a train wreck.  I feel I would be remiss if I didn't share this experience. This child has his own mascot. 

https://youtu.be/bwX-NhYMUKo

Julieanna is still trying to comprehend how in the world Lil' Dawg managed to land this gig

Wednesday was another work day, but I did manage to grab dinner with my mom on Long Island.  Thursday was a huge day - super busy and filled with so many of my favorite NY things and people.  Donna drove me to the train early in the morning so I could get my hair did by the only person I trust (one of my longest relationships at 17 years so far). Then I skipped over to Manhattan for one of THE best bagels at Ess-a-Bagel (seriously, no other bagel comes close). Got my nails did for the wedding on Saturday, then over to Sala for bacon wrapped dates, sangria & girl talk with my friend Aimee. Walked home in the rain, stopping at a natural foods store for some hard-to-find-outside-of-big-city items like kombucha & ghee, and ended the day relaxing in style at my friend Vanessa's place even though she was out of town.  I was so tired and happy at the end of that day.

Super red this time

Friday I mainly ran errands, worked, and caught up on the blog, since I had another full day ahead of me on Saturday.  First, I did another version of the NJ-NYC-LI journey utilizing various trains + Uber, checked in at the Holiday Inn in Plainview and prettied myself up for the wedding of my good friends Natalie & Brian.  (I have to give another shout-out to Big Mike and his wife for clueing me into Rent the Runway - I really didn't have any desire to purchase a new dress, but I also didn't want to wear the same one I've worn to every other function in recent history.  I got an awesome dress for a discount-store price, and shipping both ways was quick & easy.  I'd recommend it.)  Headed over to the wedding, where I caught up with a slew of other people I'd missed for too long.  The wedding was beautiful - Brian's sister officiated, Nat's friend Steven broke down in the middle of singing Unchained Melody, the two moms lit the unity candle to join their families...it was great.  The reception was super fun - there was a good selection of beer and a carefully curated playlist for the DJ.  And so many of those in attendance are like family to me, it was just wonderful to spend time with them again.  

The happy couple

Donna picked me up on Sunday and we actually went to the beach. 

It was quite the pilgrimage to actually get to the beach, but we did it!

I hadn't been to the beach in too long to remember, so it was pretty cool, even though I picked a spot next to some kids who ended up shattering a beer bottle just inches from my leg...once we moved further up the beach, it was quite relaxing.  Monday morning I had to do laundry, but we managed to squeeze in a trip to the dock by the bay, and yes we sat on the dock of the bay...but really there were no ships rolling in.  It was a really nice peaceful place to meditate, though.  And then Donna dropped me off at the train again to start my trip back to Missoula.

I have a special talent for locating "offices" with the perfect combination of beer and wifi

I landed after 11pm MST in Missoula, and Matt's dad was there to pick me up at the airport and bring me home to set me up in my own guest suite in the basement of their beautiful house in a valley in Florence, MT with mountain views from both front and back. I mean, it's all right, if you like that kind of...gorgeous, naturally beautiful kind of place.  And I happen to LOVE that kind of gorgeous, naturally beautiful kind of place.  

As great a time as I had at home and as much as it warmed my heart and soothed my soul to catch up with everyone on the East coast, I notice that I feel more at home in the West.  I was exhausted when I landed in Missoula, but as soon as I stepped outside of the airport, I felt like I could breathe more easily.  The air smelled so good - it's one of those things that you don't realize you're missing until you experience it again.

Devils Tower & Glacier

The morning of Saturday, June 27th, I woke up still pretty sick. My voice was still unrecognizable, but I'd had my first night of actual sleep in almost a week, so I felt strong enough to drive a couple of hours. I figured I could always pull over and rest if I needed to, but Devils Tower (due to an uncorrected clerical error, there is officially no apostrophe in the name) in Wyoming sounded really cool and I thought it was doable, even in my weakened state...and I had to leave the campsite I'd had for the past couple of days no matter what, so I figured I may as well move on.  I'd had enough of South Dakota.

I am so glad that campsite was booked.  The drive went really well, and I was excited to see the Wyoming landscape.  It's so energizing for me to be in such beautiful places.

You can see the Devils Tower from pretty far away - I guess that's why the aliens chose it :)

I decided to stay at the Devils Tower KOA because it was right at the base of the monument, and the other options were all a solid 30 - 40 minutes away.  Since I was sick, I didn't want to deal with a commute.  This turned out to be my favorite campground so far.  I could see the Devils Tower itself directly from my campsite, and since the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed onsite, the campground actually shows the movie every night!

That's the Devil's Tower, in between the trailer & the car

I thought about taking a nap - I felt that the responsible thing to do would be to take a nap.  Or to get some work done, since I'd been slacking all week due to the brain fog & coughing fits.  So, I went up to the gate and bought an annual Interagency Pass, which gets me into any National Park/Monument/etc that charges an entrance fee for the next year.  One of the smartest things I've done so far.  And then I drove up the hill and spent the afternoon walking the 1.3 mile trail that circles the base of Devils Tower.  The place is so cool - it rises, almost vertically, 867 feet from its base (the summit is 1,267 feet above the valley).  Usually, there would be climbers all over it, but no climbing is allowed during the month of June because of the significance of the Tower as a sacred site to many native groups. I found the energy of the place to be very positive and I was in awe of this crazy structure.  It's made up of a bunch of hexagonal columns, formed by cracks caused by the cooling & shrinking of the rock.  

I was somewhat amazed that I made it all the way around the base.  I was pretty tired by the end, but once I passed the halfway point (very thoughtfully marked) I was obviously locked in.  I did take a quick nap, but I was excited to watch the movie in the place where it was filmed, so I headed over.  I made it about halfway through the movie when the coughing got the better of me, so I ended up watching the end of the movie on my phone.  Still a very cool evening, and far better than I would have had if I had stayed where I was instead of pushing forward.

Watching Close Encounters with the actual Devils Tower in the background

So peaceful

The next couple of days were devoted to getting to Glacier National Park.  By this time, I had a plane ticket to NY booked for Thursday July 2nd out of Missoula, so now I had a schedule to keep.  I had a feeling that I'd end up skipping Glacier if I didn't get up there before I went home, and I really didn't want to skip Glacier.  I liked the RV park in Billings, which had mountain views and a nature walk down to the river...the one in Missoula was not so nice since it was right in the city and really felt like an actual trailer park in the city.  But the drive was absolutely gorgeous and I was loving life again.

Flathead Lake

I checked into a campground...didn't love this one, either, once I found out that no showers are allowed after 10pm and the laundry room closed at 8pm.  This meant that I really had to be careful about how late I stayed at the park.  And it wasn't even fully dark by 10pm, so I found these rules to be completely ridiculous.  Another lesson learned.

Glacier was incredible, although I would have much preferred to be hiking instead of driving.  I drove the entire Going to the Sun Road, which is just a slew of breathtaking
scenery.  I was also able to explore a bit of Many Glacier.  The weather on the Eastern side of the park was kind of crappy - overcast with a low cloud base, so that many of the peaks were enshrouded.  Still very beautiful, but harder to get those "wow" pics.

After two days of exploring via car, I had to get myself packed up for the trip back to NY, so I made sure to get out of the park by 8pm (still nowhere near dark) and back to the campground to find and pack everything I would need to go flying, attend a wedding, and just hang out and catch up with all my peeps.

The next morning I drove down past Flathead Lake again, past Missoula to leave my rig in Florence, MT and hop on a flight back to Newark, NJ.

Sick as a Dog

Sunday the 21st was kind of a strange day.  I found out that a friend had passed away in a hang gliding accident.  Bertrand was such a bright spirit, and I struggle to understand why it always seems to be those bright spirits that are taken from our lives so early.  I've known Bertrand and Sami for a few years now, and I seemed to bump into them everywhere I went.  They traveled more than I did, and we had a lot of friends in common.  Bertrand could always be counted on to be upbeat and positive, pour you a glass of wine and cook you one of the best burgers you'd ever had.  He was full of life and love, and I always admired that about him.  He will be sorely missed.

So, that Sunday I had a lot of information to process. I woke up in Chadron, NE in a deserted trailer park - there were plenty of trailers but no people, except for one guy who happened to be next door to me and seemed a bit lonely.  It was pretty windy, and I debated whether I'd leave...my next-door neighbor certainly tried to convince me to stay by listing all the local sights I'd be "missing" if I left.  

My first real-life tumbleweed

But I thought about it, and I really wanted to get to Mt. Rushmore. I was only 2 hours & 15 minutes away, and this was the first major goal I'd set for a trip with very few stated goals.  I thought about what Bertrand would think I should do, and I felt that he would want me to seize the day and get whatever I could out of it.  I also figured that, if the winds really were too high, I could always stop and wait it out...but at least I would have made some progress.  So, I pushed on and I got to drive through some really beautiful country.  I stopped in Custer, SD for lunch and found Bitter Esters Brewhouse, which not only brews its own beer but makes its own sausage.  After some friendly service and good food/beer, I was still in a daze.  I continued on and stumbled upon Wind Cave National Park, which I was literally driving through before I realized it even existed.  It was a beautiful landscape, though, and cool to see bison roaming freely.

 I didn't go into the actual Wind Cave - the only way to go in there was to join a guided tour, and I just wasn't in any shape to be socializing with strangers.  So, I pushed on again towards my base in Wall, SD, near Badlands National Park.  I opted not to drivge past Mt. Rushmore at the time because it was getting late and it would have made my drive significantly longer.  I figured I'd hit it later in the week.  At that point, I just wanted to set up camp and relax. I checked into the campground, checked out Wall Drug (super famous but basically just a really big gift shop), went grocery shopping, drank a couple of beers, caught up with another friend who was processing the news about Bertrand and went to bed. 

The next day, I was still in a bit of a funk and I wasn't feeling great physically - sort of foggy, combined with coughing and congestion.  I really needed to check out the Badlands though - I was in dire need of some outdoor time and physical activity. So I took a drive through the park, which is pretty freaking awesome.  And then I went on a quick hike - just enough to get my fix but I was able to turn around when I started feeling tired.  It's this crazy beautiful landscape that makes you feel like you're walking on the moon.  I rested for a while and then went back that evening for the sunset...and at the end of the day, even though I felt worse physically, I felt somewhat better spiritually.  For me, getting outside really helps me to reset and recharge mentally & emotionally.  It's my version of self-medicating.

I woke up the next day feeling terrible.  I'd only had bronchitis once before, about a year & a half ago, but the coughing I was doing was giving me flashbacks.  I had to drive into Rapid City, about 45 minutes away, to go to an Urgent Care Center, but not before I spent a good hour on the phone with Aetna to get them to process an exception since there were no in-network providers within 300 miles.  They gave me a bunch of drugs and I figured it'd be another couple of days before I started feeling better.  Like a good little girl, I laid low the next couple of days, streaming Netflix on my phone and watching DVDs when I got tired of looking at the tiny screen. It kind of sucked being alone and being in a strange place, far from most modern conveniences.  The only food around that I could easily just pick up, without having to cook, was Dairy Queen. There were definitely a few tourist trap restaurants in town, but none of the reviews were compelling, and I just wanted some soup.  Dairy Queen doesn't have soup, though, so I ate some iceburg lettuce - I didn't have much of an appetite anyway.  Thursday morning, I still didn't feel any better, but I had an appointment in Rapid City to get my new awning installed and thought it would be cool to set up camp a bit closer to Mt Rushmore & the city for a couple of days, which is all I figured I'd need before I'd feel well enough to move on again.  

I checked into a campground I really liked - this one was in the woods, so it actually felt like I was camping in nature instead of a parking lot (which is what a lot of RV parks feel like).  I had an appointment for a massage that afternoon (my birthday present from Janice) so I figured I'd drop off the trailer and then go get massaged.  But - I had neglected to ask about a pull-through site, so when I pulled up to my designated camp site I was disappointed to see that it was, indeed, a back-in site.  This is not the end of the world, but I really hadn't practiced backing up the trailer very much, and my general strategy thus far had been to just avoid it whenever possible - which, I'd found, was pretty much all of the time.  So this would be my first attempt to actually back into a campsite.  Just to make things even more fun, this campsite was built on a hillside, so as I'm backing in, I've got a hill in front of me, sloping up from left to right.  I've got a big tree directly behind the spot where the trailer needs to go...there's a picnic table to the right of the spot where the trailer needs to go...AND there's a steep dropoff directly to the left of where the trailer needs to go.  And I'm still sick as a dog.

So, do I go back to the office and ask for a pull-though site? Hell no, I can handle this.  I'm the mother-effing Honey Badger.  I start by pulling forward, attempting to get the trailer reasonably straight.  This isn't really possible due to the configuration of the place, so I start backing in...and jumping out of the car to check that what I think I see in the mirrors is really what I see, and I'm not actually about to throw the trailer over the side of a cliff.  Back in the car, back up a bit more in the other direction, jump out and check. Back in the car, back up a bit more in the original direction, jump out and check.  I do this a few times, and I'm just getting back in the car to pull forwards again and straighten it out a bit more, when a couple of the maintenance guys come by and offer to help.  I tell them I'd love some help, and thank you very much.  Within a few more minutes we've got the trailer in pretty much the perfect spot, and one of the guys is reiterating what I've heard from basically everyone who has ever towed a trailer - the smaller ones are harder to back up because they change direction super quickly.  I tell him I'm sick, it's the first time I've ever had to back it up, and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.  

Now all I have to do is disconnect the trailer from the truck, and zip on over to the inn where I'm getting my massage.  I disconnect the chains, pull the lighting cord out of the socket, and start raising the trailer.  This will get the trailer's hitch high enough that I can just pull the car forward and go.  Only the damn thing won't come off the hitch ball.  I keep cranking it up, and it's pulling the truck higher and higher along with it.  I jump on it, I shake it, the fucker won't budge.  I let it back down and try jumping & shaking.  Nothing. I am almost crying at this stage because I am literally sick and tired and I am this close to a relaxing massage, if I can just get the car separated from the trailer so I can drive to the inn.  At some point I notice that the lock on the hitch is raised, but not completely. I raise it fully, start cranking up the trailer again, and hear the satisfying sound of metal on metal that means the hitch ball is separating from the coupler.  Hall-freaking-llujah!   I'm free!  I feel like I just won a million dollars.  

If I'd had the energy (and the place hadn't been like 15 miles away), I would have skipped over to my massage.  But, I had a nice drive through the mountains and arrived at the completely adorable Summer Creek Inn & Spa a half hour early.  Had a lovely cup of chamomile tea outside on the patio while I waited, and then had a relaxing massage even though I was coughing through most of it.  Thanks Janice!

At this point, I had hardly slept that whole week.  I was in a daze, and everything was harder for me than it needed to be because I was just so completely exhausted.  I was getting maybe 40 minutes of uninterrupted sleep at any one time.  I was really hoping that I'd get a decent sleep once I was so relaxed, but because the coughing always got worse when I laid down, I was doomed to repeat the same coughing fits that had kept me up the rest of the week.  By Friday morning, I was so frustrated.  I had been laying low, thinking that would help me recover, but not feeling any better and getting more and more bored by the minute.  Mt. Rushmore had become a joke in my mind - I'd been in the area for 5 days and still hadn't seen the thing.  I wasn't super excited about seeing Mt. Rushmore, but I felt like it was the kind of thing you should probably see at some point in your life, and since I had the time and was in the area, it needed to be on the list.  I drove by Mt. Rushmore and took a couple of pics just so I could cross something off my list and feel like I was doing something.  I didn't feel like it was worth paying $11 to park, so I just did the drive by and moved on.

Yup, there it is...

And then I went back to the Urgent Care Center and cried at another doctor that I was so frustrated.  She gave me a Z-Pak and some cough syrup with codeine, and I exhaled.  I went home, watched 3 more DVDs, and I actually slept that night.  I got a couple hours at a time, maybe a total of 5 hours...which felt like a LOT of sleep compared to the none I'd been getting all week.  

I was scheduled to check out the next morning, but thought one more day of true rest would be good for me.  However, I would have had to move to another campsite.  Since that means disconnecting power, water, and sewer, hitching up, unhitching, and reconnecting all of those things anyway, I decided to just move on.  And boy, was I glad I made that decision.  I'll tell you all about it in my next post :)

The Early Days on the Road

The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense.  I apologize for my absence from the blog - at first I was just busy with figuring out life on the road.  Then I got sick, so for the past week I've been laying super low.  But since my second visit to the doctor where I got the cough syrup with codeine, which is now allowing me to get some sleep, I'm feeling ready to begin piecing together how I got here.  It's important to me, not only to update all my adoring fans, but also for me to take time to reflect.  I get so busy just doing that I'm not always conscious of how I'm feeling...which is probably how I got sick in the first place.

I extended my stay in Texas due to the hefty gravitational pull I mentioned in my last post.  I'm super happy with that choice - I made it because of how I felt about the place and the people, and I was rewarded with multiple days filled with fun and connections with new people.  And this is where I experienced the first sign that Texas did not want me to leave.

On Saturday the 20th, I had no plans except to go watch a band play that night.  I asked around about flying, but the weather wasn't great for it, and Tracy's son Dakota had invited me to go tubing with him, his brother/sister/cousin/various significant others.  This sounded like a fun & relaxing way to spend the day, so I tagged along.  I put my phone & clothes in my dry bag, which I'd intended to clip to the handle of my tube.  But when someone suggested I just throw it in the cooler, that seemed much easier.  We couldn't get the cooler closed with the bag sealed, so we left it open...which was fine right up until we had to get the cooler out of the river at the end.  My dry bag became just a regular bag, all too happy to let the river in and let my phone go swimming.  

As Dakota said, luckily I was in a small town and everyone has everyone else's number anyway.  From my perspective, though, this just meant that I couldn't leave that small town.  My phone is my means of contact with the outside world in so many ways - it's my means of navigation, my camera, my phone of course, my Facebook update system - basically, my phone is everything to me while I'm on the road.  So Texas had conspired to create a situation where I was perfectly fine and well taken care of...as long as I stayed in Texas. 

Well, I made it to see the band play with the use of good old fashioned directions WRITTEN ON A PIECE OF PAPER.  I know - crazy right?!  It actually worked!  I had a lovely time being courted by all of Cistern, TX's most eligible bachelors and the bartender told me I should come back any time - she was having a grand old time observing all the activity.  The next day I got to hang out with a new friend and make some more new ones, drinking some good beer & putting together some serious puzzles at the Cistern Schoolhouse. Well, OK I mostly watched the puzzles get put together.

I got the new phone on Monday but by the time I had everything installed and working it was too late to leave (nicely played, Texas) so I had one last night in town.  As hard as it was, I did actually leave Schulenburg on Tuesday, June 16th.  I'm so glad I got to stay there as long as I did, but as fun as it was, I was in a holding pattern and I was starting to really feel a need to make some progress toward my goals.

The first night on the road was pretty uneventful, but I woke up the next morning to a bunch of storms all around me.  Although it wasn't currently raining where I was, I had driven through some rain on the way to Tracy's and it wasn't fun, so I decided to stay put in Sanger, TX for another night and move on in better weather.  I still think this was the right decision, but that night was pretty scary.  Hard to tell how scared I should have been vs. how much I was just plain freaking myself out because I was alone and inexperienced...but I was skeered.  I hadn't really looked at the forecast, but around 11:15pm I did check it and saw that we were looking at 30mph winds, gusting to 50+.  My little trailer was definitely a-rockin'.  I didn't know what I should do - I tried to look at things logically and I figured, at the very least, I would not be able to sleep with the trailer rocking like that, so maybe I should get a hotel room. The closest hotel was about 12 miles away, though, and with 50mph winds I thought I proabably shouldn't be out driving.  So I was back to square one, spending the night in the trailer.  I looked around outside and saw that there were quite a few others spending the night where I was, so I told myself it must be safe.  My next door neighbors had a fine time getting their awning in, but not until it got so loud that it scared the crap out of me - I was so relieved to finally realize it was their awning I was hearing and not just the angry storm!  I passed the next couple of hours coloring in my coloring book (see pic), watching movies, meditating, basically anything I could think of to take my mind off the question of whether my trailer was going to topple over with me in it.  And sometime after 130am I fell alseep, and woke up to what amounted to paradise for me.  And life was good.  

Best coloring book ever!

Paradise, relatively speaking

On Thursday 6/18 I high-tailed it out of Texas, and things were going great - for a few miles.  I ended up taking a long lunch in Ardmore, OK while I waited for the roads to reopen.  That's right, not road. Roads.  Plural.  Including the INTERSTATE.  Apparently, Oklahoma was in cahoots with Texas and some boulders had fallen into the middle of the interstate, forcing it closed.  Local news story.  I'd thought, hey, no big deal, I'll take the US Route.  A little slower but just generally more interesting anyway...but that US Route was closed due to recent flooding in the area.  I literally could not get away from Texas.  My TX friends reiterated that I was welcome to turn around and come back, but I persevered and in a couple hours I was back on the road.  I was rewarded with this beautiful sunset:

#‎nofilter‬ somewhere in Oklahoma

That Friday I drove from OK to KS.  Pretty boring drive, until I stopped for lunch at a rest stop.  As I was walking back to the car from the restrooms I noticed one of the trailer's hub caps was missing...on closer inspection, so was the wheel bearing cap.  Now, when I say lunch, I mean my lunch...which is a little later than normal people eat lunch because I don't like to wake up as early as normal people.  So by the time I noticed this little issue, it was 330pm on a Friday, and I was about 20 miles North of Salina, KS...not exactly a metropolis but the last "city-ish" place I was going to see for the rest of that day.  So after hurriedly texting a pic to my buddy Jim to confirm exactly how much of an emergency this was, I decided to turn around and plead with a local mechanic to help me out.  Dan Peery of Peery's Auto ended up staying past closing on a Friday to fix me up and get me on the road.  He replaced the bearing on that wheel and eyeballed the rest of them.  In the meantime I got to meet some of the local cast of characters.  All very nice guys who were astounded to see me traveling alone, and even more shocked to learn that I don't "pack a piece".  This wound up being an interesting stop and I was just happy I didn't have to hang around town until Monday morning.  So, back on my way I ended up in Wellington, KS for the night.  

Something doesn't look quite right here...

But it's all going to be fine.

Neither Wellington, KS, nor Grand Island, NE were particularly memorable stops for me, but on Saturday 6/20 I got to drive through the Pine Ridge region of Nebraska, and I learned that Nebraska...is gorgeous!  The plains were pretty boring - just miles of the same flat land, but the Pine Ridge region had hills and cliffs and lakes, and I was forced to leave the interstate and drive northward on US routes towards Mt Rushmore, so I got to pull over and take pictures whenever I wanted.  It was awesome.

It was also on Saturday that I passed a sign for Carhenge in Alliance, NE.  I wasn't sure exactly what that was, but it wasn't too far off the main road so I figured I owed it to myself to stop...especially since I hadn't stopped for the World's Largest Porch Swing or any other such attractions.  It was pretty cool.  Apparently this guy conceived the idea and his family helped build it for a family reunion.  At first the town was against it, but once they realized it drew in a bunch of tourists with money to spend, they came around.  It's a free attraction and worth the stop if you're passing through.

...and yet another sign from Texas

After checking out Carhenge, I drove another hour & a half north to spend the night in Chadron, NE.  The following morning I would drive up into South Dakota to my base camp near the Badlands.

To be continued...

Don't Mess with Texas

Hard to see here, but that's a complete rainbow surrounding the house and my trailer.

 

Texas hospitality has proven to have a strong gravitational force - at least for me.  I had planned to leave this past Wednesday, but here I am sitting here at Ina's Kitchen in Schulenburg, Texas, eating chicken fried chicken (I couldn't resist any longer) and finally updating my blog.  Tracy's entire family has basically adopted me by now, and I have to say they are a force to be reckoned with - in the best way possible.  

Cool light fixture at Ina's

I arrived at Tracy & Chris's brand new house on the night of Tuesday, the 2nd, thoroughly exhausted and not wanting to drive again for a very long time.  Tracy was exhausted from moving (this was only her 3rd night sleeping in the new place). So, of course we got up bright and early Wednesday morning to drive 2.5 hours and go hang gliding!  Thankfully, Tracy was happy to do all the driving so that she could introduce me to boat towing, a method of launching hang gliders I had never tried before.  I have it on good authority that Tracy is really good at boat towing, and I know she absolutely loves it.  It combines hanging out on a boat on Lake Conroe with good friends and flying - what more could you want?

Tracy, ready for takeoff

Our day of boat towing was made possible by Gregg Ludwig, who owns the boat and runs the operation in his time off from being a big deal pilot at United.  Gregg knew I was coming into town and he made sure to have Mark Moore on hand to give me a check out tandem. Both Gregg and Mark were truly awesome - patient and laid back, and super helpful, just wanting me to succeed and have a good time.  I can't thank them enough because I LOVED boat towing!  

It was such a nice day to be out on the water, making new friends and sharing something new with an old friend.  After my tandem, Mark pronounced me "solid" so Tracy and I got to work setting up her Falcon.  We waited for Mike Hoffman to finish a few solo tows and then Gregg got the Falcon set up at the back of the boat.  I let Tracy go first so I could have one more demo, but then I was ready to get some air myself.  My first solo tow was a little nerve-wracking at first, but once I released from the boat it was really smooth sailing.  The air was pretty smooth, although there was an occasional thermal, but I found it pretty easy to stay behind the boat.  Once the boat stopped and I felt the line go slack, I pulled the release on the tow rope and had a good look around.  I was pretty damn high - I didn't have a vario so I have no idea how high I was, but it took a while to come down.  In the meantime, Gregg retracted the tow line with the help of a little parachute, and also put up a flag to show me the wind direction for my landing.  Meanwhile, Mike Hoffman shot a couple of videos.

I was a little nervous about the landing for a couple of reasons - 1) I usually land standing up, on my feet...on the water we land on pontoons attached to the basetube & keel, similar to wheel landings on the ground - and 2) with no vario and so much water stretching out beneath me it felt a bit difficult to judge my altitude.  I figured out I could use the size of my shadow as a guide, and the bigger it got, the closer I was to the water and to landing.  Thankfully, I had a really good landing, sliding in on the pontoons, and boy does the water feel refreshing on a hot day in Texas.  We had time for one more flight, so I went up again - this time I was so relaxed I didn't immediately realize that the boat had stopped and it was time to release.  By the time I released, the line had enough slack in it to allow the parachute on the tow rope to wrap itself around the left pontoon, which put me into a hard left turn.  I had no option but to continue in that turn and keep my airspeed up so that the parachute would eventually fly off the pontoon...which it did, thankfully.  That part was a bit scary, I have to admit, but I'll be super alert from now on and Gregg is modifying the setup to make that less likely to happen in the future.  Overall, it was an awesome day and it felt incredibly good to be up in the air after so much time in the car. 

As if that wasn't an exciting enough start to my time in Texas, Tracy and I enjoyed one rest day, complete with a family dinner where I made my now-almost-famous bacon/onion/garlic burgers, before getting in the car for yet another road trip.  This time we were going to San Antonio to meet up with my friend Vanessa for Friday night, followed closely by Saturday night in Austin. It was a whirlwind weekend and it was so much fun.  Food is very important to me and my friends, so we got a dinner recommendation for Friday night at Zinc in San Antonio.  The food was pretty good, although the service was a bit slow, and since we were out on the patio we ended up feeling like we were at a nightclub when the DJ started playing next door.  After a brief walk on the Riverwalk, we retired like the old ladies we are and watched a movie in the hotel room, during which all 3 of us passed out into food comas.

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of 11 to check out at noon and drive to Austin for the main event - at least it was for me.  Three years ago I stopped in Austin for one night and I ate brunch at South Congress Cafe, where I tasted the heaven that is...Carrot Cake French Toast.

I'll just let that sink in for a moment.  This is french toast made out of carrot cake, accompanied by a cream cheese pecan syrup.  Seriously. And O. M. G. it was possibly even better than I remembered.  Each of us wound up getting another order on our way out of town to take home to loved ones (or just gobble up on our own).  Actually, all of the food and drinks at South Congress were delicious - I also had some short rib hash and one of the best bloody marys I've had. The rest of the day was mostly recovery from brunch, but we did manage to squeeze in a trip to the piercing shop for a new nose piercing for Tracy & a new ornament for Vanessa's existing nose piercing.  (My nose remains intact.)  Saturday night was a fun mix of bars down on Rainey street - amazing people watching down there.  We saw more handlebar mustaches than I'd ever seen before - is this really the hot new trend?? - and even a mullet.  How these people manage to keep a straight face when they see themselves in the mirror is beyond me.  At any rate, we made a bunch of new (albeit young) friends and drank some good beer.  We even found a beer hall that had kombucha on tap!  

The next morning, Vanessa really was up at the crack of dawn to go wait on line for Franklin BBQ - I have to say, it was some of the best BBQ I've ever had but I'm really really really glad that Vanessa was the one who waited on line and not me.  By the time we left, around 1pm, there was still a line all the way around the corner.  And we're told that, if you want to order ahead, you'll need to do it 2 months in advance...and even that method sells out in 5 minutes.  This is some serious BBQ, people.

Sheesh...I'm tired again just thinking about that weekend.  We made a quick stop at the "Greetings from Austin" postcard mural, dropped V at the airport and made our way back to Schulenburg for some R&R.  This past week started out in a much more healthy manner - decent sleep, cooking breakfast every morning before working a bit, and making sure to squeeze in some yoga or a walk with weights around the neighborhood...until Wednesday night, when we went to Sengelmann's to hear some live music.  I wasn't expecting much, but the band was really good, and Tracy's family knows these guys so we got to hang out with some very interesting (and attractive) musicians into the wee hours.  This meant that Thursday was a lost day for me, but it was absolutely worth the recovery time.  

Today is mostly dedicated to prepping for getting back on the road - new wiper blades and new wider towing mirrors for the truck, stocking up on supplies, etc...but tomorrow there's more fun on the menu with some river tubing, beer pong, and some live music at a true TX country bar.  I'm excited :)

I'll get back on the road Sunday or Monday and make the long trip to Mt Rushmore over several days. Stay tuned...

Today is the First Day of My Life

It's really not, but it sure does feel that way.  Today is the first day of towing my trailer all by myself.  

I can't even really believe it's happening - it felt like it was taking me forEVER to get everything ready to leave.  It took so long to find a car that could tow the trailer, and then I had to wait to register it, and I was away for a week right before I wanted to leave...so the past week has been a whirlwind of preparations and learning.  I couldn't have done it in such a short amount of time without a LOT of help, and I can't thank Jim Prahl enough.  From hooking me up with the right mechanic to replace the wheel bearings on the trailer, to building the front rack for my hang glider in no time flat, to giving me a place to sleep while said mechanic had my trailer overnight (my trailer's parts are apparently very rare and difficult to track down), and doing all of this willingly and while he was in the midst of his own preparations for leaving...it blows my mind what a generous person he is.  

So, after brekky with Jim this morning (he had a bunch of bacon he had to cook before he left, and I'm generous enough to help him eat it) and finishing up the padding on my hang glider racks, I got the trailer ready to leave all by myself.  I even backed up the truck to the hitch & hooked it up all by myself.  And then I towed the mofo right out of Quest Air - all by myself.  I know it's not brain surgery or anything, but it's pretty exciting for me. 

The phrase at the top of this page is "courage is not the absence of fear".  Anyone who thinks I'm not the least bit scared to be heading out on my own, towing a trailer, which I've never done before, with no real itinerary and no final destination...is insane.  I'm terrified!  There are so many things that possibly can and probably will go wrong at some point.  And it's not easy being on the road all the time, let alone doing it by myself.  It's constant researching and it means never just being able to roll out of bed in the morning and grab your favorite breakfast - because you have no idea where to find it.  But it's also extremely exciting, and for various reasons I really really want to do it...one of which is that you never know what each day will bring (see the double-edge sword?). So I don't let the fear stop me.  

So today around noon, even though I was so scared I could have easily let that fear paralyze me (and I could very easily have hung around Quest forever), I pulled on my big girl pants and I drove right out of there.  And I'm proud of that.  It energizes me to do new things, and even though I'm so exhausted right now I can barely see straight, I'm sitting here smiling when I think of what I've accomplished today.  I'm living the kind of life I want to live, even though it's not as easy and even though it scares me sometimes.  And I can't wait for tomorrow.

Doing It "Your Way"

Sometimes I think I have the most adorable grandma ever.  My birthday is on Friday, and today I received the following email from my Grandma (spelling/punctuation all hers):

yOU KNOW I PREFER PAPER OVER COMPUTER, BUT SINCE I HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO GET TO A CARD STRE IN MONTHS, I AM FORCED TO DO IT "YOUR WAY".

I DO WISH YOU A PERFECT DAY (AND A PERFECT LIFE IN A PERFECT WORLD )...a BEAUTIFUL SUNSET, A GREAT RIDE (HOW I ENVY THAT!), GOOD COMPANY AND A SOFT PILLOW. l LOVE YOU MY "CHELLE, AND PRAY FOR YOU EVERY DAY   THAT YOU WILL FIND YOUR HEART'S DESIRE. ITIS EASY TO REMEMBER AS I SEE A LITTLEDUTCH WOODEN SHOE AND A CUP FROM THE OLD N'ORLEANS AND A ST THERESE MEDAL FROM SPAIN.

NOT AS GOOD AS SEEING YOUR SMILING FACE, BUT LOVELY REMINDERS OF YOU. 

BE HAPPY, MY LOVE.

GRANDMA 

 As I told her when I called her to thank her, it's not easy - what I'm doing.  It's really hard, and it can be isolating, so it's really nice to know that people are thinking of me.  It makes me feel connected and that makes me happy.  I don't have a place to put actual physical cards anyway - so the email version, or "my way", gives me what I need without forcing me to find a place for more stuff.  Personally, I think that email was better than any card - I doubt she would have found one that said it any better than she did.  And it proves my hypothesis that I need very few things in order to be happy. 

All this comes as I'm in the middle of getting myself (and my things) ready to leave Quest and to start on the meat of my trip - pulling my trailer behind my new-to-me pickup truck.  That's right, folks, I now drive a pickup truck.  If anyone had told me a few years ago that I would be driving a pickup truck and living in a trailer I would have laughed my ass off.  I resisted buying the pickup, but with all the energy I put into finding an SUV, I had to finally accept the fact that it just wasn't working out.  It seems the universe is on board with me driving a pickup truck, but not so much with the SUV.

Similarly, I just yesterday had to let go of the idea that I would leave Quest in time to get to Tracy's house (an hour from Austin, TX) for my birthday.  I had thought that it would be really cool to celebrate my birthday in Austin, but I had so many things to do before I could leave Quest, and I spent last week as a driver on the Flytec Race & Rally hang gliding competition.  The Race & Rally is a really cool competition, but it's very exhausting because it moves every day, so you're in a different motel every night and you never know where you're going to be the next day.  Not very conducive to getting shit done. 

So I got back to Quest Saturday night, and although I sprung into action on Sunday to cross things off my list, the Memorial Day holiday threw a wrench into my plans - no registering the truck & trailer, no getting the trailer's wheel bearings and tires replaced, etc. And the rack I was going to have installed on the cab portion of the truck turned out to not fit properly, so now I'm waiting till Friday to get a beefier one installed.  

Thankfully, I still have several friends around who'd love to celebrate with me, so in reality I may just end up having a better time here than I would in Austin.  Because everything happens for a reason, and when you let go of preconcieved notions and just go with the flow, everything really starts to come together.  Now all I need to do is remember that and make it a habit.  Should be a piece of cake, right?