In Bozeman, Montana with my hopes for going to Glacier National Park thwarted by being unable to find lodging, I decided to see what else I could do. I checked the internet and found a great deal on a hotel in Cody, Wyoming, which would give me the opportunity to see more of Yellowstone even if it was backtracking a bit. Continue reading
Category Archives: Friends
Teton Daydream (Part Two), another motorcycle
After my upper crust experience at the Amangani Resort, I went to the not-to-be-missed Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in downtown Jackson. The bar stools are actual western saddles with stirrups, and knobby, bulbous, pine logs fill the room with warmth and charm. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I swung a leg over a saddle and ordered a beer like Dale Rogers might have done with Roy at her side. There was an amazing band playing country music (Nathan Dean and the Damn Band) and I soon moved closer to inspect the dancing action. Continue reading
Teton Daydream (Part One)
In starting to write this post I heave a deep sigh. Describing joy and reliving the experience as I write makes me feel inadequate. And I want to do it justice, evoke the right flavors, touch the right nerve, because it was another pinnacle experience of the trip. Seeing the Grand Teton National Park and experiencing the little town of Jackson, Wyoming and meeting Forest were all breathtaking. So hold on, here we go, I’ll do my best to take you along.
I rolled into Jackson in the late afternoon and checked out the charming, old, western downtown. John Wayne would fit right in if he could avoid the tourist shops. There were stuffed wildlife animals in picture windows, a cute movie theater, a very interesting town square with huge arches made out of antlers at its four corners, coffee shops and cowboy bars. Works for me! Continue reading
Meet Betsy in Cheyenne
Me with Betsy
I have written again and again about the kindness of strangers. I was driving through Wyoming and my good friend Jenni wrote me to say her mother lives in Cheyenne and would be happy to help me in any way. I love Jenni, so to get the chance to meet her mother was definitely a priority. I contacted her mom, Betsy, a very savvy, text-friendly, talented, productive, classically trained pianist, music director and wonderful woman. I was going to be coming through in the morning and she said it was the last weekend of Frontier Days, Cheyenne’s yearly tribute to the American West, and she would be attending the town parade with some other family members and to please join them. Bonus!! Not only was I getting to meet Jenni’s mom, but her sister, brother and their families! Continue reading
See everything as far as you can see
Being a John Denver fan, and having sung along to Rocky Mountain High since high school, when I drove into Colorado I was anxious to see Rocky Mountain National Park and hike the beautiful terrain. I parked the car in Estes Park to catch the shuttle and was surprised to find the atmosphere a bit like a seaside carnival town with miniature golf, giant slides, bumper cars, and tourist garb in tiny storefront windows. It reminded me of my drive through Pigeon Forge (see my post “Flying Takes Wings and Guts”), definitely not what I was expecting in my visions of Rocky Mountain High. But once into the park I saw just what I had hoped. Continue reading
Hippies, Hipsters and Heroes
Me with Tina Packer
I found Boulder, CO a mixture of hippies and hipsters, upscale and athletic, with bicyclers everywhere. It’s a university town too so there is the element of youth, higher education, late night bars and modern thought. A great place! I’ve always wanted to visit, so when I heard that Tina Packer, director, writer, actor, founder of Shakespeare and Company and a champion of female power was directing Richard III and performing her extraordinary Women of Will series at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I made a beeline to get there. Continue reading
Leaping upstream with tree frogs, crickets, Gordy and musical friends
As the rabbit said in Alice in Wonderland, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” Not to say that I am rushing, but the meandering has turned into steadily plugging away or as a friend wrote me this week, “At this point you must feel like a mighty salmon struggling up a 10,000 mile river trying to reach her spawning grounds in Seattle.” This feels so appropriate at the moment that I laugh at the analogy and hope that I won’t have to die after I spawn! Continue reading
Two gems in two and a half days
“All we do is go out and drink in Milwaukee,” said my sweet friend Caitlin as she showed me her town. And appropriately she took me to four bars the evening I arrived. When in Rome…
Caitlin is another acting buddy. She just finished her undergrad in acting at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and is heading to NYC in August for grad school. I am so proud of her and was more than excited to spend time with her and enjoy the hospitality of her parents’ home. Continue reading
Bird on my belfry
You can not stay on the summit forever;
You have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this:
What is above knows what is below,
But what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one no longer sees, but one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can still know. -Rene Daumal
Parliament Hill, Ottawa, ON
This poem was on one of my favorite facebook pages, Biodesign Out For a Walk, and boy, did it hit home. I have been feeling this distance from the mountain tops, the climbs of the early part of my trip. This week was spent mostly in large cities in Canada, walking my feet off in rising temperatures, with my jaw dropping at the sight of 14th and 15th century architecture rather than million year old mountainsides. Don’t get me wrong, it has been phenomenal, but this poem speaks where my heart could only wonder. As I have descended into busy populated zones I am recalling more of the memory of what I have seen. Continue reading
Me and Otis watchin’ the ships roll in
Well, I needed rest and I got it. After an extremely warm, enthusiastic welcome from an old friend, Marjie, I was like a hibernating bear for a few days. She extended her hospitality and told me I could stay as long as I wanted, coming and going as I pleased. I didn’t know it, but I really needed to hear that as I had been feeling a forward momentum push and was rung out. She lives in Dover, New Hampshire, right near Portsmouth on the Atlantic Ocean. I sought my solace in ocean views of lighthouses, little islands and sea smells. I took three nights and crashed. Marjie had to work all the days, so I was able to sleep in and recharge my batteries. What a gift this was to a weary traveler. Continue reading
meanderest 