Divermarv

This year we stayed at the property of some friends of my son Caleb. It was fairly isolated and absolutely beautiful. I took a few pictures, and will share some, but others in my camping group took a lot, I’ll see if they’ll share a few good ones.

The folks who own the property have it set up for ease of use, and graciously shared. I got to stay in one of the RVs they have there. So I slept great. I did take my trailer rig so that I could easily camp and all the other things. I made mac and cheese for dinner.

Wow. This sounds really dry. And while the weather was dry, my writing needn’t be. Let’s get this going properly…

The family was convening, some at different times, so ease of logistics was sharing the location and directions and have at it. One thing to note (dryly) is that there is no cell service in most places around Red Feather Lakes. But have no fear. I had a plan!

I’d heard about a place called the Thirsty Moose, and since I was heading out first (from my campsite up in Wyoming), I told them I’d go to the Thirsty Moose and then head out to the site. On the way Caleb called and said he was stuck in traffic. Ugh.

Caleb shares his location with me in Apple Messages, and the moose is in a cell service area. I kicked things off with a Coors Banquet—two actually. And watched Caleb’s progress. When he was nearing the location, I checked out, went to the Red Feather Lakes Super Market next door and bought a case of ice cold Coors Banquet. Be prepared.

I love driving the packed dirt roads of backcountry Colorado. And this property had some of that. Beautiful scenery. The map address wasn’t accurate, and I drove by the driveway a time or two, but looking for the address number on a gate, and remember to use > and < as I perused the numbers I finally found it. Got settled in and enjoyed the sunset and the evening.

The stars were (dare I?)… out of this world. (I dared.) Venus and a waxing crescent Moon welcomed the dusk, and then the stars popped into view at their discretion. Later in the night they were brilliant. The Milky Way was easily detectable, and magnificent.

I slept great in the RV, and didn’t wake up until the very next morning*.

The next day I swayed out of bed, and made coffee, still working on my camping coffee technique, but they were good.

*technically that’s not true: I did get up a couple of times in the night for… uhh, business reasons.

In the morning, we went to the Red Feather Lakes Trading Post (no URL), where I bought koozies, stickers, and a delicious mocha latte.

On Somersaults and Excitable things

Our family group was dynamic, and that’s great. We routinely broke into different groups for conversations, mini-adventures, shopping, or whatnot. During one of these spontaneous events, the only people at camp were: me, Robin (the boys’ mom), and Ethan (the new husband of the group). Oh and Cora, Robin’s dog. Cora is not a big dog, but there’s a really big dog stuffed into that not a big dog body. And it’s just coiled and ready to spring.

At one point we were chatting and we noticed a couple of big vultures flying low. One of them, the vultures, came low, about thirty feet or so low, and right at the edge of the campsite. I stood up and pointed and went all goo-goo, you know… like an idiot.

Now Cora is a lovely dog, and we kept her on a long tether while in the camp. Tethered, in the camp. Long thin red tether. She is such a sweet girl.

There I was standing. In the camp. Pointing and acting like an idiot. At a vulture (or buzzard as we call them in the south).

Have you ever heard the song Excitable Boy, by Warren Zevon? Well, there should be a song called excitable Cora. Cora saw this big idiot pointing and acting all goo-goo, and she… well, she got excited. And when Cora gets excited she goes from 0 to 60 in nanoseconds. I was staring at the vulture, Cora went after whatever it was I was jabbing my finger at, and the red tether tightened around my ankles.

Cora jerked me completely off my feet! Like swinging sideways off my feet. Like hitting the ground, accelerating (somehow) at about 2.9Gs.

I like onomatopoeias. And here, I definitely whomped onto the ground. Arm and elbow tucked under me. Ribcage compressing like a bellows. They said I made some sort of oomf sound. I don’t know I was too busy being surprised.

Knocked the breath out of me. But the family sprang into action. Ethan saw dirt on some part of my body and thought it was blood. He asked if he could clean me off. An unceremonious “no” was all I could muster. My breath had escaped my body and was trying to find its way back to my house. Odd how talking requires air. Finally after an excruciating minute. (Or thirty seconds, time was chasing my breath somewhere over Kansas.) Ethan asked if he could help me up. My first reaction was, “sure”. Then I moved. My second reaction was “no”. I’m seeing a trend. It kind of hurt.

But soon I was feeling much better*, and we all wrestled in the dirt and I recommenced training for my half-marathon.

*Definitely a total lie. I sat. Like a decrepit toad on a stool.

Well, I finally did start feeling better-ish. Enough to talk, walk, and act mostly human. We were going to go for a wonderful exploration up into the National Forest, Caleb knew some places to check out. I somehow made it up the hill, and tried acting normal. (It’s never worked before.) But finally I had to apologize and walk back down to the camp. It hurt when I breathed, and I did a lot of breathing going up the hill.

Soon Evie and Alyx joined us and we had a roarin’ ol’ time. (I was more meowing though)

More to come.

Peace and Love, as always. And keep on bein’ Rocky Mountain High!
Marv