COLORADO

We didn’t take the van on this trip, but I still wanted it blogged. Its more for me than you anyways. We didn’t take the van because we wanted to take the kayaks and I haven’t quite figured out how to attach those to the van yet. And there were a limited amount of travel days and driving in the van can eat up a lot of time. So we compromised sleeping in the back of the VW for 90 miles an hour through Nebraska. (Nebraska do you EVER end.)

It occurred to me on this trip that I don’t quite take vacations anymore. Mostly because I am always working, even while on the road, the toilet, at dinner with my mom, etc. But I don’t feel like I am on a vacation because traveling has become such a big part of my routine. This year I will spend almost as many nights sleeping away from my bed as I will in it. And I am totally okay with that. 

It was also impressive how quickly we prepared and packed for the trip. It was one of the only open weekends I had for the summer so I was conscious about not booking anything during the week because I would HAVE to go somewhere. We were tossing around the idea of driving up to the UP or maybe down into the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, but ultimately, and thanks again to random Instagram inspiration we settled on Colorado a few days prior. The camping stuff stays organized in a large tupperware in the basement, so throwing that in the car along with a suitcase of clothing and some snacks and we were ready to go within an hour. 

While in Colorado we did some camping and hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, kayaked Lake Dillon, and then had our first (my last) white water kayaking experience on the Arkansas River. Don’t worry, I was wearing a helmet and was only pinned under one rock where I performed a very amateur self rescue to be washed against a few dozen boulders before I could stick an oar out to be pulled to shore. It only took a couple of minutes of catching my breath and assessing the cuts and bruises to laugh. Really hard. Somehow it was still fun. Thankfully Vlad never flipped because I would have never been able to save him. 

I am happy to be home and back to work, but I know this past week will have to hold me over until after wedding season when the exploring starts all over again for the winter. As always feeling super blessed to live this life and looking forward to the next adventure.