For blog 7/24/06

Sunday 7/23, Nancy: Day One of the big escape! Is this really happening? It’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to camp the whole summer; now we’ll see if it is in reality as relaxing and wonderful as it seemed when I came up with the idea….

Leaving Cookie was almost impossible, but she’s in love with Braldt so she should be fine. Still, there are cat-shaped holes in our hearts, and we’re half tempted to turn around and get her. Yes, that would be dumb and we won’t do it, but boy do we miss her.
Today we drove from Santa Fe up to the Colorado Rockies, and here we are at a campground near Crested Butte. New territory for both of us, recommended by our friend Margaret. Tomorrow we’ll probably actually see Crested Butte; tonight we’re camping near there. Great to be in the high mountains; the air is clean, it’s cool, the blue jays are dropping things on us from the tall pines above the picnic table, we splashed in the river, and we’ll worry about bears tonight. We saw a group of Dahl sheep today; the babies were adorable…. When we got too close the whole herd took their turbo powered magic carpet ride straight up the mountainside. That made my day, as any wildlife sighting always does.
Quite a lightening and hail storm getting here today, over the high pass. The hail whitened everything like snow. Slow driving, 1-2” of ice on the highway and steep grades -- scary, then quickly gone. Someone had a bad accident in it after we passed through; we saw 9 emergency vehicles on our way out.
Our first dinner was time-consuming to prepare, exhaustively planned, and took luxury to new heights: hot dogs and zucchini on the campfire. Can’t take the gourmet out of our lifestyle, no siree. Cell phones work here, so the picture is of Jack talking to his mom while cooking this masterpiece. We’re enjoying the champagne I’ve had for months, waiting for this night.

Apparently we’ve done it. So much planning, so many details, so many reasons why not to, yet with just enough guts and stupidity, and the amazing help of Braldt and Margaret keeping an eye on the house and loving our kitty, we’re off. This will be the longest trip either of us has ever taken. It might be months. We think we’ll go north through Wyoming, Montana, Banff, Lake Louise, across Canada to Vancouver, then down the coast ending up in the Bay Area or LA seeing our loved ones… but anything could happen. Alaska will have to wait until next summer; we got started to late to make it worth the cost and the pain of driving there.

First camping night. I still love the freedom, Jack and the camper; I wonder how I’ll feel in a few weeks…