Wide Awake in America

As the pictures below will indicate, last weekend was a whirlwind of mountains and camping and hiking and campfires. Facing, for the first time in weeks, an actual Day Off (!), Kelli and I took off to Steamboat Springs last Friday at 6 a.m. We figured we'd need to get up there pretty early to stake out a camp spot on the 4th of July weekend. After sucessfully pitching a tent at The Meadows (a national forest campground) on top of Rabbit Ears pass, we took a lovely hike, bummed around Steamboat and then fufilled a long-time wish of mine. We spent some hours enjoying the natural setting of Strawberry Park hotsprings, which is bascially a few stone pools constructed in a river to catch the hot water that bubbles right out of the ground. Fantastic.

Saturday morning, we roused ourselves from a chilly sleep (in a pool of dew. Did I mention there was still snow on the ground several yards from our site?), at 5:30 a.m. and headed home through northern Colorado so I could get back to work at the bookstore by 10 a.m.! The morning drive was quiet and beautiful, and we even drove through a herd of cattle being driven down Hwy 14 by three real-life cowboys on horses at 6 in the morning! I hope to have pictures of this traffic jam, as soon as I get my film developed. (Oh for a digital camera at such times...).

After working a full shift Saturday, I headed to a friend-from-church's wedding, then to the reception at a posh jazz club, which included dancing until midnight! Talk about filling up a day! Sunday afternoon I headed to the hills again, this time with some church friends, and we found a camp spot up a forest access road in the Big Thompson Canyon. Despite the ferocious windstorm of the late afternoon, the night was perfect. Warm, cloudless and full of laughter. My sister and her husband were able to come join up with the rest of us to make hobo pies and smores. My friend Bob and his wife Judi are the best equipped campers I have ever met, so dinner in the woods was actually nicer than most of the meals I make for myself on a regular basis! Once it was really dark, Bob gave us all an astronomy lesson, which he knows quite a bit about. He works for Ball laboratories, the NASA subcontractor that designed and built the probe that was to collide with a comet that very night!

Monday morning, the fourth, we oozed out of the tent (a tad squished with 4 of us in there), and ate breakfast down by the river. After a quick trip up to Estes for the required infusion of coffee, I joined up with my family for a gorgeous hike to Ouzel Falls in the Wild Basin part of RMNP. (See pics below). Throroughly wiped, I didn't quite manage to stay awake for fireworks back in Loveland that night!

Driving, hiking, swimming around this beautiful state the past few days has been an odd feeling. I'm always faced with an intense bittersweetness when I realize I'm about to go away. Driving around Steamboat, Kel & I put on that great Caedmon's Call album, 40 Acres, which contains a favorite song of mine from the Hungary year. The song is "Faith My Eyes," and is basically about how much the singer wishes he could stay at home, instead of always traveling. It's written from someone far away, watching the hometown weather on TV.

But if I must go
Things I trust will be better off without me
But I don't want to know
Life is better off a mystery

So keep'em coming these lines on the road
And keep me responsible be it a light or heavy load
And keep me guessing with these blessings in disguise
And I'll walk with grace my feet and faith my eyes

Hometown weather is on TV
I imagine the lives of the people living there
And I'm curious if they imagine me
Cause they just wanna leave; I wish that I could stay...

So keep'em coming these lines on the road
And keep me responsible be it a light or heavy load
And keep me guessing with these blessings in disguise
And I'll walk with grace my feet and faith my eyes



So that's my prayer, I guess. That I can walk the next month with grace, and with faith in my eyes, as my eyes.