Chicago reminds me how amazing friends are – and how amazing work-life can be – but, also reminds me that I still have me work to do. Pretty good, all in all.
Speaking of pretty…
OK, speaking of friends, one of mine met me in Chicago and we drove the bulk of the way across the US together. People talk about these great travel journeys and immediately we think of amazing foreign destinations. But, for my friends in the US, there are some un-matchable places right here at home.
Don’t think you have to buy a bunch of expensive plan tickets or learn another language to take your own journey. All you really need is a car and some free time. And how’s that for a metaphor? You can take your journey right from home.
We can argue politics and people, but there’s no denying… this country is beautiful!
Let’s blow through some of it, huh?
Find Peace In The Chaos
At Devil’s Gulch, South Dakota, Billy “the kid”, one of our nation’s “heros(?)” and his brother were being chased by the posse for robbing a bank. While his brother took the low road crossing a river, Billy tried taking the high road. Before he knew it, he was far above the river bank. The cliffs were getting bigger ahead of him… and the posse was getting closer behind him. In a ridiculous act of desperation, he aimed his horse towards the gulch… and jumped it.
The shot above was taken in the ravine below Billy’s famous jump.
I decided to record a yoga class, so I could share it with previous students. Before leaving PA, I had bought a wireless mic and a newer cell phone that could record the high-def video. See, this “hair-brained” scheme was to launch video-recorded yoga classes and post them throughout the trip… hoping to build a name a yoga teacher, so that I could teach as I continued to travel.
Somehow, after a nerve-racking 30minute chackra flow, we discovered the mic wasn’t totally plugged in. Well… so much for recording a video each day of the road trip. In fact, I actually kept trying a couple more times and it was just a disaster of technology.
But, we did get some beautiful photos on the grounds at Devil’s Gulch.
Discover Your Own Way
The Badlands in South Dakota are truly bad. It’s hot, hard to traverse, and seems to go one forever.
Kind sounds like building a business, really. It’s tough work, but just like the Badlands – beautiful! You may have seen the Facebook post showing me at the top of the steepest pass in the “park” wearing flip-flops, carrying a single bottle of water.
Was it hard? Yeah! But, it was way more fun than lacing up old, hot sneakers to make the trek to the top. “You’re the guy we always make fun of, you know? Just completely unprepared,” Neida remarked.
Fine. But, I made it to the top. And rocked a headstand when I got there. Take that, Saddle Pass!
Some folks do it “the right” way. I did it “my” way. We both make it to the top.
Would you rather have fun doing it… or just going through the motions everyone else does? We both know the answer to that.
Gotta Love Your Home
Did I mention you have to have fun along the way? If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?
We’ve all had to climb mountains and we’ve all rested in valleys. It doesn’t matter what place you are at now. Just, enjoy it.
…And Be Unique
There is only one you! Be that you. Most of us are just a bunch of junk thrown together anyway.
Lemme Take A Selfie
I love this shot. Don’t know why, really, but I think it looks great. You know that thing you think is great, but you’re afraid everyone else will laugh at it?
They won’t. It IS great.
We all do great stuff. It’s in us. Just release it.
Embrace The Unexpected
Neida, bless her soul, found a walking brewery tour of Billings MT. Something to break up all the hiking and national parks we were doing. Unfortunately, the town of Billings shut down entirely for the 4th of July. Well, not entirely. We did find a drink at a casino with kareoko.
The following day was Sunday and none of the breweries were open. This was a total bum deal. Here we are in Billings and the whole point to the stop simply wasn’t going to happen.
BUT, we found Pictograph Caves only a few miles away and it would up being one of the absolute highlights of the trip. The interior of the caves are painted with tribal art. What’s really great, though, is that over the years, the tribes that would visit the caves would use different “paints” to make the drawings. After time, there were drawings on top of drawings. Depending on the weather / moisture when the caves are being viewed will depend on what drawings will are viewable. That’s why tribes kept coming back. It was different every time. The more they added each time, the more variations became intertwined.
Pretty cool metaphor, really. Do some work. When you’re stuck, walk away. Come back for a different look and do some more work. Repeat as desired.
Craters Of The Moon
Long ago in our planet’s history, the debris of multiple volcano eruptions covered a vast area of Idaho. What’s now a national monument – Craters of the Moon, was once lush green Earth. After the volcanic activity, though, it became a waste-land of volcanic rock and caves caused by underground lava flows.
It was that way for a very long time.
But, as you can see in the image above, trees have grown and green foliage is coming back to the area.
Despite that we’ve deemed this protected land, eventually, the world will find it’s way back to the lush green place it began. On a long enough time-line, all will flourish.
You just have to keep going.
