Travels to Colorado

Dustin and I arrived safely in Colorado after a short road trip that started in Houston (specifically the Woodlands) for a Dave Matthews show and took us across the gigantic state of Texas through Lubbock and into New Mexico, continuing to Colorado. Dave's show was fantastic! In lieu of an opening act, he played an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds that was incredible. One by one, he invited the band onto the stage making it one of the most intimate and most memorable shows I've ever seen him play. This was my sixth show, which may sound like a lot, but is truly amateur numbers compared to other Dave fans. Chris and Wendy, friends of Dustin's, were kind enough to take us in for the night where we enjoyed playing with their oldest son, Will. Will was quite the character; we were all playing Wii basketball and when Dustin commented on his skill, "he's on fire!", Will would promptly reply, "no he's not." Haha, so literal. 

On our way out of Texas, we stopped at a Prison Museum in Huntsville where we took in the history of the prison system in Texas. There was an impressive exhibit of prisoner art with extensive soap carvings (a chess board), purses made of Camel cigarette boxes, elaborate matchstick ships and a game of "prisonopoly" modeled after Monopoly. There was a photographic exhibit on death row inmates including their last words and quotes from their loved ones or loved ones of the deceased. The power of forgiveness is remarkable; the strength it takes to forgive someone whose taken the life of someone you love is something that I can't wrap my mind around, but it's breath-taking to witness. It was a truly powerful exhibit. The most eerie part of the museum was easily the electric chair on display. It sat in a haunting manner, roped away from those who couldn't help but reach out to touch it, enraptured by it's power and presence, it’s lingering energy of stolen souls. In a glass display next to it, the yellow sponge could be viewed, the very sponge that was soaked and placed on the prisoner's head to act as a conductor. 

The rest of our trip out of Texas was rather uneventful. We traveled through Lubbock and rolled the windows down to feel the West Texas air. It smelled of burnt tires, so we rolled them up and made our way to New Mexico. New Mexico made me sad. Aside from the flat, dry landscape, houses and business were left abandoned; houses with roofs falling off, three wall shacks next to old cars with no wheels, businesses with wood planks in the windows and endless "closed" and "for sale" signs. It didn't feel anything like the Land of Enchantment.

We camped overnight at Ute Lake where we attempted to sleep the evening cuddled up next to each other in a Henessee hammock, a hammock designed specifically for overnight adventures, equipped with a mosquito net and rain tarp. Three hours in, with a wicked desire to stretch my limbs and with Dustin unsure if he’d even been able to sleep in the past hours, we (and by “we” I mean Dustin) set up the tent for the remainder of the night’s sleep. The next morning, we stopped at a small town (whose name I promised myself I’d remember yet can no longer recall) in New Mexico to grab a cup of coffee. The town square looked like an old western movie set and I thought I might be able to walk up to it and push it over to watch it fall flat. The artist that painted the storefronts had also painted men, women and children that stared out at you with wide eyes and flat smiles.

 Like many other businesses, the coffee shop was closed so we meandered into the town store. The business owner was happy to brew us a few cups from his personal coffee machine and told us the town housed a staggering 100 people and just last week had graduated a high school class of FIVE. My high school class was six times the population… mind blown. As I walked through his store, stocked with jello, canned brown beans and boxed pancake mix, I realized what a privilege it was to consider myself a vegetarian. There wasn’t a gas station in town let alone a fresh piece of produce. I couldn’t help but think, “What do people do here? What brings a person to settle in a town like this?” After a little more conversation, Dustin found out the store owner had arrived from California, saw the store for sale and bought the whole lot: bar, general store, coffee shop and motel. He invited us back on our trip home, offered to put us up in his hotel, free of charge… As we walked back to our car, I realized why the artist had painted people along the walls of the buildings: people may stop in this town, but no one stays, and no one comes back.

Two hours later, snow-capped mountains broke over the horizon. Three hours later, we’d arrived in Colorado Springs to get rear-ended at a red light directly in front of a cop. Welcome to Colorado. After our hour and a half delay with the police, we ate a fabulous dinner at Whole Foods and headed out to Pike’s Peak National Forest where we had planned to camp the night.

Our unexpected fender bender had set us back and we were traveling in the pitch black dark of night up steep roads, definitely not ideal.  As it got later and the temperature continued to drop lower, Dustin began to question our whereabouts: “we should have hit a campsite already…”. Taking matters into his own hands sans a map and any sort of signage on the side of the road, he began taking turns up winding dirt roads and I began long deep breathing. After a few seven-point turns on narrow roads, he steered us up the steepest road yet, so steep the car hesitated as it almost rolled backward. As the headlights swept into the night, a beat up car with no wheels came into sight. Dustin drove on and more cars and junk lay piled along the private road and just like that, we were in a real-life horror movie. Dustin started laughing as he began yet another seven-point turn and my long deep breathing had been halted to breath retention.

The fear factor began to lower as we put space between us and Freddy Krueger’s abode, but the level of urgency to find a campsite was still high. Not too long after, we pulled over at a picnic area and set up camp next to a river. Although it wasn’t an overnight-approved area, we pitched the tent and minutes later we were snuggled into our mummy sleeping bags nearly fast asleep.

We woke up to a scene we didn’t get to see the night before: the river rounding the bend among sweet smelling Ponderosa trees scattered across rocky hills. Bliss. We did what any good yogi would do and rolled out our yoga mats on the side of the river and got in a good 90 minute practice. This was the moment for me that everything settled: any stress melted away and the joy of what was to come in the summer before Dustin and I settled into my heart.

The rest of the day took us to our final destination, Estes Park, Colorado. It was a wonderful road trip with my beloved and the beautiful thing is it's only the beginning. Traveling with Dustin only further assures me of what a great team we make and that we were brought together by a higher power for a reason. 

Thank you for reading, we love and miss you all. There's more to come in our adventure, so check back in soon!

Peace&Light,

Two Yogis One Love