Have you ever wanted to just escape the rat race and get out there and live – at least for awhile? This is a blog about 2 people who left perfectly good jobs during an economic crisis in search of adventure and meaning. Are they crazy or are they brilliant? Either way it will be the adventure of a life time!
You can follow Mike and Tana on their adventures and see how this whole thing works out…(subscribe here)
Once again the end of another year is upon us and somehow we are surprised. But reflecting on our last 12 month it becomes clear just how much we’ve done and how much we’ve learned. We have been so fortunate to have this time to explore, not only the wonders of nature, but our own nature. The discoveries we’ve made have allowed us to reassess and redesign our lives “following the path with heart”. Mindfully making these choices to follow this path, admittedly, has not been good for our bottom line, but it has brought us both incredible happiness, contentment and peace which no amount of money can buy.
Since our last post we continued to do many day hikes and even got Mark, Mike’s twin brother, out to Kanab for a couple of days to explore ruins not far from our house. It was fun to share this experience with him and see his amazement at the beauty and mystery of the area.
Being close to family, we discovered, was the one thing we missed about California. On a whim, I did a search for property and found a small 1920’s bungalow just down the street from Mark’s house in Rio Vista. The owner was very close to foreclosure, so the price was very fair to put it mildly. It was with mixed feelings that we headed west on November 1st leaving our little Kanab house for our “winter home” in Rio Vista. It’s a nice solid old house that needs very little work. At 1,000 sf it feels huge compared to our 800 sf Kanab house. Reminiscent of the Long Beach bungalow, it immediately felt like home. The most appealing part of house, though, is its proximity to family. Mark and Tammy, and nieces, Maddie (13) and Tillie (10) are literally around the corner and we enjoy seeing them often. Daughter, Jessica and granddaughter, Taylor (7), are just an hour away and we have been thrilled to spend weekends with them. We look forward to being a part of their lives in the most positive way we can.
The other important reason for wanting to spend time in California is, yes, the “W” word. Work. Of course, we knew we couldn’t continue our life of leisure forever, but we wanted to take the time to explore our interests and talents and “redesign” our concept of what work is. We found that it’s a lot less about making money and more about finding a challenging and meaningful livelihood. To our surprise, our search led us both back to our roots in construction. It’s in our blood, I guess. We started a consulting business, originally named Mike McTeer Consulting, providing design and CAD services for heavy civil construction. Our commute consists of going down the steps to the basement office. We work long hours. Sometimes we work on weekends or until 2:00am. Sometimes we walk the dogs or go to the farmers market in the middle of the day. But everyday we do what we love and love what we do.
We spent much of the year exploring and learning about this amazing natural world we live in. There is something about being in the presence of natural beauty that creates a connection between your soul and the universe. We have seen the fingerprints in the adobe clay of a thousand year old cliff dwelling. We have touched the footprints left by dinosaurs 50 million years ago. We have stared up at the Milky Way till it was almost light. We have watched the power of thunderstorms rolling across the Kaibab Plateau. This connection inevitably will change the way you perceive your world and your place in it. It’s humbling. We highly recommend it.
We also came to appreciate the importance of our health. Through education and awareness we understand that the health of our body, mind and spirit has a direct effect on ALL aspects of our life. We are making our health a priority by eating healthy, exercising and meditation and feel the ripple effect in everything we do. Having a healthy body, clear mind, and open heart is absolutely liberating and worth every bit of effort we put into it.
So what’s in store for 2011? Impossible to predict and ridiculous to even try, but we hope to:
• Split our time between Kanab and Rio Vista, spending as much time with family and friends as possible.
• Hike when the weather is good and windsurf when the wind is blowing.
• Work hard doing what we love to do.
• Be a positive impact on every person we encounter.
• Stay healthy so we can fully enjoy all of these wonderful things.
Wishing everyone good health, happiness and peace throughout the year.
When a couple of our hiking friends asked if we wanted to do a day hike down a canyon just off the North Rim to photograph a Rock Art panel dating back 2,000 years – well, of course, we jumped at it! Barry Glazier, a local photographer, jumped in as well. Barry is known to go to extremes to get a good shot. It’s a good thing because our hiking buddies, Sky and Don, are pretty extreme hikers. After the 3 hour, 4WD ride to the trailhead, we started our hike straight down a canyon trail. The vistas were incredible. Rounding the first canyon wall we caught our first glimpse of the “mezzanine” level and just a hint of the canyon below, our destination. Continuing down, we passed through amazing layers of earth’s history of sand storms, volcanoes, oceans and raging waters. After descending 1700 ft we reached the floor of the canyon surrounded by walls of strange red rock formations. It felt like something out of Alice in Wonderland. As we approached a large overhang, even from a distance, the huge figures on the rock wall were visible. It was ominous as they watched us approaching. Climbing up to the ledge we were able to get a closer look at the surprising detail. As we studied the wall the images continued to slowly emerge from the red rock.
So what does it all mean? An archeologist once responded to that question saying it would be ridiculous to even try to interpret the meaning. The world view of these ancient people was nothing like our own. We couldn’t possibly understand. Still, we were mesmerized by the mysterious figures and our minds wondered off into stories of interpretation. We rested in the company of our ghostly hosts longer than expected till reluctantly we started back up the trail. Having so much to contemplate made the 1700 ft climb a little easier. Maybe it was just an excuse to rest, but we made many stops to admire the view or a rock or a fossil or a spider. Everything just seemed so amazing and new. As usual, we came away with more than just photos, we came away with a deeper appreciation of this tiny blip in time called life. It is good!
View photos here.
The Subway is one of the most beautiful and famous hikes in Zion National Park. You can find photos and descriptions in many guides and websites. We knew we had to see for ourselves, but we were hesitant to try any hike that involves ropes and swimming. Because it’s such a popular hike, only a limited number of permits are issued each day. We applied for a permit for 6 people well in advance with the idea that it would give us enough time to convince some experienced hikers to join us. That proved to be not so difficult. The first 2 people that we mentioned it to jumped on it. Lucky for us, we happened to have asked the right people!
We had Susan, co-owner of Willow Canyon Outfitter, who has done the hike many times. She describes it as “a hike that serves up plenty of everything–slickrock, sand, mud, wet rock, slime, pools to wade or swim, pines and meadows, cactus and sagebrush, heat, cold, sun, shade, snakes, moving water, dinosaur footprints, downclimbs, and a thigh-burning ascent. Yippeee!”. Also, Susan’s partner, Allen, a Grand Canyon River guide, brought his experience that dates back to the 70′s when he first did this hike. Victor, owner of the best place to eat in town, joined us, as well. Not only did he provide excellent guidance through the canyon, he also provided the comic relief. I’m not sure how long he’s been hiking, but his hiking apparel appears to date back to the 70′s. The combination hand knitted Peruvian beanie cap and New Jersey style knee high socks provoked many thoughts regarding fashion. We also asked hiking buddy, Justin, another Subway virgin, to join us, because he is always up for something new. So we had a 1 to 1 Rookie/Pro ratio. Odds of survival were good.
We hiked from the top all the way through the Subway (the ONLY way to do it according to our experts), which is 10+ miles. It was everything Susan had described and more. There is also a great waterslide which is a blast if executed properly, disaster if not. And, best of all, the Subway Spa, a waterfall that massages your tired neck and back, and a nice warm rock to nap on before heading out of the canyon.
We finished off the day with a great dinner in Springdale at Oscar’s (home of the world’s best sweet potato fries) contemplating next year’s hike.
Thank you Susan and Victor for “showing us the ropes”. It was the perfect day for us. Life is good!
Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon is noted in many of the guides and websites as being one of the premiere hike in Southern Utah if not the country. It has been on our list since we first came to Kanab in July of last year. It also occurred to us that this hike would be a fitting way to celebrate our 1st Anniversary. So we got our permit secured for a 5 day hike starting at the Wire Pass trailhead, through Buckskin Gulch, then all the way down the Paria River canyon ending at Lee’s Ferry where it meets the Colorado River. This would be our longest and most challenging hike so far. And, according to reports, the most spectacular. Turns out to be truth in all accounts.
Challenge number 1 was to get our pack weights down, so we could carry enough food and water to last, and of course some not so light camera gear. Buckskin Gulch was everything we had heard and more. Even, as great as the images turned out, they failed to capture the depth of our experience. Paria Canyon was spectacular with it’s huge massive walls that seemed more impressive as we hiked around each bend. The trail was not too difficult, aside from a few deep stagnant pools and scrambling over a couple of boulder jams. We spent 8 to 10 hours hiking each day and were completely exhausted by the time we stopped to set up camp.
As we made our way deeper into the canyons, we found these common themes that seemed to evolved during the course of our hike:
1. An awareness of how much life there is surrounding us. Even in this baron landscape, there was “aliveness” everywhere we looked. Tadpoles, tiny frogs and fish, lizards, snakes, birds, rodents, insects and surprising plant life, all part of a perfectly balanced ecosystem. The highlight was getting to see a baby bobcat jumping through the puddles, then later watching the mother bobcat sauntering down the river before she was aware of our presence.
2. An appreciation of the time and energy it takes for canyons and landscapes like these to be formed. Millions, probably billions, of years. Water with enough force to move a entire mountain of rock. We were humbled at our own insignificance in the big picture, and at the same time felt priviledged to visit such a beautiful place in this tiny blink of time we call “life”.
3. An understanding that we ain’t getting any younger. Our knees and backs are not 20 years old any more and let us know loud and clear. This point only further supports our intention to stay as fit and healthy as possible, so we can enjoy these adventures as long as physically possible.
In fact, we decided we will do this Paria Hike every year for our anniversary until we can’t get our walkers through the mud and over the boulders. At which point, we can be sit in our rockers on our porch looking at these photos and saying “I’m not sure who these young folks are, but they sure look happy”!!
We had seen the flyers in town for a field trip to the South Fork Pictographs and knew we’d have to check it out. This was part of a great program called Family Discovery Caravan 2010 put on by Kanab’s BLM field office to educate the public about significant historical sites in southern Utah. The trip to this 1600 year old ancient Puebloan (aka. Anasazi) pictograph panel would involve a short hike and would take about four hours. We packed our hats, sunscreen, water, peanut butter sandwiches and camera and headed to the rendezvous location approximately 10 miles NE of Kanab. We were surprised at the number of people who were there and happy to see some familiar faces from previous field trips. The road to the trail head requires high clearance 4WD, so we all piled into as few 4WD vehicles as possible and headed down the sandy road. We ended up passengers in Sheldon and Amy’s 1982 Toyota Landcruiser. The ride to the trail head was quite an adventure itself, traveling through very deep sand and slickrock on what felt like a rabbit trail at times. Sheldon knew the road well and maneuvered us safely through the obstacles chatting with his arm out the window much of the time.
The short but steep trail led us down into a cool shady canyon, which made it no mystery why the Indians would hang out there. The large alcove wall was covered in amazing images who’s meaning is mostly unknown. Matt, BLM Archaeologist, explained that many years ago, in an effort to prevent vandalism at the the site, a tall (and ugly) chain link fence had been installed. This approach failed as many people climbed over, dug under or cut through the fence to get a closer look. With the belief that most people will behave with respect if given the opportunity, the fence was recently removed and simple rope and boardwalk was installed allowing the public to get much closer to the panel without causing any damage to the site. An awesome solution in our opinion. Matt and Misty were, as usual, a wealth of information. We came away from this field trip feeling a deep connection to this area having a better understanding and appreciation of the history of those who lived here before us. Our hope is that sites like these will be preserved enough for our grandchildren’s grandchildren to enjoy.
It seems only fitting that we spend the longest day of the year doing what we love most – hiking! We received an email from another member of the Vermillion Cliffs Hiking club (a local hiking club here in Kanab) announcing a summer solstice hike in Bryce Canyon. Perfect. We responded and arranged to meet at Willow Canyon Outdoor where we would car pool to the trail head an hour and a half north. We had never met Justin, but hiking with a total stranger didn’t concern us much. Our adventures over the past year have taught us we will always have fun if we keep our minds and hearts open. If nothing else, we all obviously have a love of the outdoors in common. By the time we arrived at the Riggs Spring trail head we already felt like old friends.
Riggs Springs is not a long hike, only 8.5 miles according to the trail guide. It can be done as a day hike, but we wanted to do a leisurely over-nighter with time to take some photos and do some birdwatching, which we discovered is Justin’s passion. This was our first backpacking trip of the year and we are admittedly a bit out of shape. Closer examination of the trail guide revealed that this short 8.5 mile hike also included 2,248 feet down and an even more disturbing 2,248 feet back up – Yikes! Lucky for us, there were many birds encountered on the trail. Justin shared his extensive knowledge of each species, while we tried to catch our breath. It turned out to be a great trip. Got a few good photos, learned a lot about birds and made a new friend. Life is good!
Another Amazing Earthfest event in our town of Kanab today, was a tour of several straw bale houses in various stages of construction. Everyone drove about 16 miles east of Kanab and followed a dirt road to where Jim Henley and Caralee Woods are currently constructing these houses. Straw bale construction is naturally beautiful, and is in line with environmental issues. It has a very high insulating value and is made with straw bales and thick earthen plaster made from on-site clay. The tour was a great display of owner builder craftsmanship at it’s best, and using natural on site materials is just plain cool.
Having barely recovered from yesterday’s Amazing Earthfest activities, we were back at it first thing this morning. Today we found ourselves at the Kane County office of Tourism in Kanab with over 50 others who were excited to tour the Jackson Flat Archaeological Excavation. Not only is this a rare opportunity to see such a large 800 year old puebloan site with many areas in various degrees of excavation, but it was also one of the LAST opportunities to see it. Construction of a dam has already begun which will put much of this site underwater. Heidi Roberts with HRA Archeology gave a one hour tour of the archeological site while earthmoving equipment worked on the dam site in the background. Archeologists worked intently, digging, sifting and brushing looking for clues to this mysterious and ancient people. It seemed quite ironic that while the footprint of this ancient and thriving civilization is being excavated, we are trying to bury our footprint for the last 100 years just down the road at the landfill. Makes you think, doesn’t it? It is with great respect to descendants of the ancient ones that we had this rare opportunity to visit what used to be their home.
As the “Amazing Earthfest” continues, we are trying to fit in as many of the 43 activities as possible. Today was one event we did not want to miss. We drove into town where we met up with over 20 others at the Kanab BLM field office. From there we all caravanned out to the trailhead, which ironically was only about 300 yards from where we started…our house! BLM ranger, Misti Haines, warned us that the hike would be strenuous as she pointed out the route to the top of the cliff. We also had BLM Archeologist, Matt Zweifel, who was an incredible source of information and seemed genuinely happy to get out to the site and share his knowledge of this ancient culture. As we headed up the trail we all had opportunities to chat and get to know each other a bit. We soon found that several of the others were actually our neighbors, others we discovered had similar interests or back grounds. We had the overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by incredibly friendly and like-minded people. Near the top of the cliff the trail became quite steep and difficult, but there was always some one there to give a boost, lend a hand or offer encouragement. Once on top the hike to the alcove was not difficult and we were able to enjoy breathtaking views from Vermillion cliffs across the valley to the Kaibab plateau. We arrived at the alcove and to our surprise the rock art was not on the walls of the alcove, but rather on the sloped floor. It was an incredible panel of amazing and unique images, unlike anything we had ever seen. While it was tempting to interpret the meaning, Matt pointed out more importantly that we simply appreciate and respect sites like these for future generations to enjoy. As we rested in the cool shade of the alcove looking across the valley, it was no mystery at all why the ancients ones had chosen this spot. The hike down was a bit faster, but still quite difficult. By the time we reached the bottom we felt like we were among old friends. Funny how it takes an event like the Amazing Earthfest to meet your neighbors and see what’s in the back yard!
The Sunset Photography Workshop is just one of over forty events being held locally in and around Kanab this week as part of the “Amazing Earthfest“, a community celebration of National and State Parks. National Forests, Monuments, and Public Lands of the Colorado Plateau. Two professional level photographers, Chuck Combs and Barry Glazier teamed up to provide a free, plein air workshop in how to best capture natural images in both landscape and close-up photography. We all met at the Kane County Office of Tourism and then car pooled north on highway 89 to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.
The sunset was not the greatest as we had low clouds, but the camaraderie of the hosts, Chuck and Barry along with the participants made for a very enjoyable evening. Having a group of people who are passionate about photography in this small town is a pleasant surprise, and I hope to meet up with these fellow Kanabians out in the wilderness with my camera again.
One of the first things we did when we got to town was stop at the Kanab BLM Visitor Center to see what was on the calendar of events. We signed up for the Family Discovery Caravan event called Desert Bloom where we would learn about the Southern Utah Desert flowers. Neither of us knows much about flowers, let alone the ones specific to this area, but we have always enjoyed these BLM field trips more than we expected. This was certainly no exception. We followed our trip leader, Will James and botanist, Dustin Rooks to several locations east of Kanab. It was an exceptionally gorgeous day and there were flowers everywhere we turned. Dustin is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about every plant we encountered. The long scientific names of each species rolled off his tongue like poetry. Efforts to jot down the impossible names of each beautiful bloom failed, which is why you will not find any captions on the photos. We did get plenty of great photos, though, thanks to some excellent tips from professional photographer, Barry Glazier, who was also among the group.
Will and Dustin’s enthusiasm for Southern Utah’s botany was inspiring and quite contagious. Upon arriving back at our house we were excited to be able to identify several flowers and shrubs right here on our property. We are looking forward to learning more and using the natural native species to landscape all around our house.
After the many many hours we put in to restoring this 1917 California Craftsman Bungalow, it was with mixed emotions that we watched the real estate sign go up in the front yard. This had been home for 15 years, but it wasn’t until we started the restoration a few months ago that we truly recognized what a beautiful and unique house it was.
We had selected Stephie at Cal Bungalow as our real estate agent. This turned out to be one of our best decisions ever. The open house, which she held the first weekend, was a huge success. In 4 hours 70 potential buyers had seen our house. Two of them made offers in just a few days. We found ourselves, unexpectedly, with the dilemma of having to choose between 2 outstanding offers. Who would have thought?
In the meantime, we had loaded the last of our belongings into a Uhaul truck and left our home in Long Beach presumably for the last time. We are officially residents of Kanab, Utah now, where our biggest concern is which hike we will do next. It seems amazing to us that just over a year ago, we came to Kanab for a short hiking trip. Who would have thought?? Yes, Life is Good!
We are back in Kanab for just one week, taking a break from the house remodel in Long Beach. We were determined to get in at least one hike and the Wave was our first choice. “The Wave” is located just a half hour south from our house in the Coyote Buttes area of the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness on the Utah/Arizona border. Because this is a very popular hike only a limited number of permits are issued per day. If you plan ahead, you can get a permit online several months in advance. If you’re like us, you wing it and go to the Paria contact station field office and hope you are one of the lucky 10 (out of 40 – 80) people whose names are drawn in a lottery for the next day’s permit. Here’s more info. So Monday morning March 15th, the first day that the field office was open for the season, we found ourselves packed into the room with about forty other individuals from around the globe all hoping for the same thing. But it was our lucky day. We left the office with a green permit in our hands and huge smiles on our faces as we headed back Kanab.
We were very excited heading out the next morning for our first Adventure of 2010. The rangers had warned everyone that high clearance four wheel drive would be needed to get to the trailhead. The road was in pretty bad shape, but we didn’t need 4 wheel drive till we reached the first creek crossing. That’s where we noticed a couple standing outside their two wheel drive car inspecting the mud and water and looking very disappointed. We recognized them from one of the many applicants at the contact station the day before. That’s when we looked at each other and remembered how our Adventures always seem to take a slightly different journey than we had originally planned. We didn’t hesitate asking them if they needed a ride. To say they were happy would be an understatement. James and Tuyet were so grateful and wanted to share something very special with us reserved for special occasions only. As he excitedly emptied the contents of the back of his car searching for his treasure, we wondered what it could be. To our surprise he emerged with a case of coconuts. That’s right, a case of fresh, juicy, coconuts in the husk, recently imported from Thailand! Tuyet then produced a cutting board, a small samurai hatchet and a couple of forks. If you have never had fresh coconut, you don’t know what you are missing and according to James, there are many health benefits, as well. We enjoyed our celebratory coconut, but we were a little surprised when we realized they were about to pack four of these bad boys in their backpack for their journey to the Wave. Are they (coco) nuts?
The short 2 mile hike to get to the Wave was not too difficult and the landscape getting there was amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed James and Tuyet’s company, sharing stories and stopping for coconut breaks. When we reached the Wave we found the area to be fairly small, but spectacular, especially for photography. As we wandered around the formations the view constantly changed almost as if in motion. We found ourselves in awe of this beautiful and peculiar phenomenon. There were so many things to photograph that we lost track of time. James insisted on one more coconut before heading back, much later than we expected. We took hundreds of photos and captured some great shots, but it’s one of those places you really need to experience first hand.
This Craftsman bungalow was built in 1917 and has been a “home” to Mike for over 10 years. It is located in Long Beach in the Bluff Heights Historical District and is only 3 blocks from the beach. We returned here from our Baja trip last winter and it became obvious to us that no matter how cool the house was, neither of us wanted to live in Long Beach. We were not sure if we were going to rent it out or place it on the market, but one thing was sure…it needed some work. We have been working on this old house for the last couple of months.
The house is 93 years old and remains in it’s mostly original condition. It is charming, yes, but even the most basic repair or upgrade seems to turn into a major project! It has been one challenge after another, but we are finding out, once again, how well we work together. It’s a lot of work and strangely we are both enjoying the labor intensive process. The easiest thing to do would have been to just paint over the cracked and peeling paint, but taking the time to chip and scrape and sand through all eight (yes eight!) layers of old paint became somewhat therapeutic, and the results are amazing. It was like stripping away the old ugly layers of our lives. Placing a fresh new layer of paint on these surfaces feels like a fresh new start. Seeing this old house and our lives transforming simultaneously has been quite rewarding.
We are about 80% done with the remodel and have decided to take a short break. We think a visit to our little house in Kanab is just what we need to get us motivated to finish this project when we get back.
We have so many great shots we had to create 2 separate slide shows….
You just never know what you’ll find at the end of long dusty dirt road in Baja…
At the South East “point” in La Ventana Bay (Las Arenas), lies a lighthouse that is currently being demolished. A new light house was built in 2009 and the old lighthouse is slowly being removed. We had a chance to climb to the top of the old lighthouse before it was completely removed. The lighthouses are Located 70 km (44 mi) southeast of La Paz overlooking the Cerralvo Channel.
2009 started out like many other years. Waking up in paradise with a hangover that kept us from enjoying the beauty and peace we had come here for. The many miles between this remote area of Baja and the stressful career and hectic lifestyle of Long Beach served as an escape for a week or so. But the heaviness of reality soon sets in knowing it’s time to start heading back to start another year. Another year of long hours and stress doing something that is no longer rewarding or satisfying. Another year of going through the motions day after day, numbing the pain with alcohol or other unhealthy distractions just to get by. A body can only live this way for so long before it starts to rebel indicating something’s got to give. Only a week into 2009 it became undeniably clear it was time to start making some changes. And that’s exactly what we did.
In the last 12 months we have changed almost every aspect of our life. We both left our very stable, but stressful jobs. We left the chaotic world of Southern California, bought a tiny house in a tiny town in Southern Utah. Our diet has become almost exclusively vegetarian. We started drinking more water and less alcohol. We exercise almost every day simply by doing the things we love to do, hiking, biking, walking, swimming, etc. We even changed our marital status in July when we got hitched. You would think, since neither of works, we would have lots of spare time, but in fact we are busier than ever. We spend time reading and exploring new interests or learning new skills. We spend time visiting with family and friends that we’ve missed over the years. There has not been a moment of boredom or dullness during the entire year.
Most of these changes have occurred naturally and effortlessly as a result of practicing mindfulness. To truly be aware and mindful of your actions and thoughts has brought amazing positive changes to every part of our life. We are filled with an incredible appreciation and understanding of life that we were never able to find through a successful career or a therapist or a drink or a mall. It feels good to be able to find happiness in life’s simplest pleasures.
Statistically, we are 2 unemployed individuals without a clear direction heading into 2010. In reality, we are the happiest and healthiest we have ever been in our lives. We look forward to whatever 2010 has in store for us with the enthusiasm of a child holding an unopened gift.
Wishing you all happiness and good health in the new year to come.
It’s pretty damn fun to sail with my brother Mark. We have similar skills, pretty much the same board speed, and a mutual competitive nature. It all makes for some great windsurfing. Couple all this with the sun and the warm water on the Sea of Cortez and it just does not get any better. We have both been sailing now for over 27 years. I wish I had a camera with me to capture the expression on his face as I look back at him, or to capture the green mountains to the west. The highlight was watching him attempt to sail with no hands while screaming on a broad reach back to the beach and being catapulted with his harness lines into an abrupt face plant. Good stuff. Thanks for the good time Mark.
One of our goals, while Breaking Away, was to find a way to work while using the conveniences of the technology that is available right now. We live in an incredible period of time where this is possible. Having a mobile office, connected to the internet, we can now work anywhere in the world, sometimes even in the most remote locations. Our small E2 trailer is currently parked in a small fishing village in El Sergento Baja on property owned by my brother Mark and his wife Tammy. The “office” is parked just a few hundred yards from the beach, on a hill that looks out over Bahia De La Ventana, and Isla De Cerralvo. It is surrounded by Elephant trees, cactus of all varieties and an amazing selection of native plants. Everything is green due to the wet summer season (it rained a record of four times last year). There are birds, lizards and butterflies everywhere around us, including a hummingbird hovering just outside the screen window next to my “desk” as I type this. The sounds of birds and the smells of the vegetation are everywhere. The view is stunning as I look out towards the island. I have a large cup of fresh dark roasted coffee and I’m wearing surf shorts and sandals in December. It’s about 75 degrees outside right now at 8:00 in the morning. Tana is outside reading and making notes and the dogs are lying on a blanket sunning themselves.
The property is undeveloped, although there is a water pilla located at the top of the hill, and a small bathroom and shower currently under construction. We have a 300 foot extension cord running from Tom and Louise’s casa, the closest neighbors to the east and manage to pick up one or two bars of their wireless internet service making our connection to the entire planet possible.
It’s funny how much we work in this laid back vacation environment and how much we enjoy it. Being outside and relaxed both motivates us and inspires us to work. I think it may be the fact that we are not being required to report to a corporation or be at the “office” at a specific time or day, or having to be there when we don’t feel like working. Sometimes we work incredible hours when we feel like it, and sometimes we just feel like going for a hike.
It just does not make sense to us anymore to commute two hours in each direction, to sit down at a computer and work all day, when you can do the same thing and accomplish more with an internet connection while located someplace as remote and beautiful as this.
One of the main reasons we decided to take OurBreakaway was so we could enjoy some of the physical activities that we may not be able to (or want to) do when we are “retirement age”. Mike has been an avid windsurfer since the early ’80s, but it is a sport that I had never been exposed to. Watching Mike plane across the water with blinding speed inspired me to add it to my list of things to do. I am a speed freak and love a good adrenaline rush. The only challenge for me, aside from being slightly uncoordinated, is my totally irrational fear of the water.
So here I find myself in Baja with perfectly clear warm water, just the right amount of wind, access to a great beginner board and an experienced and patient teacher, Mike. I couldn’t think of any other excuses why I shouldn’t at least try.
After some basic instruction from Mike, I stepped up on the board, did some fancy footwork and arm flailing until I was finally able to get my balance. Then I pulled the uphaul struggling to get the sail out of the water continuing my fancy footwork the entire time. With the sail luffing in the light wind, I stood exhausted in a semi-stable stance on the board and suddenly became very self conscious of how silly I must look. Maybe I’m already to old to be trying this stuff. I’m a grandmother for god sake! Then I thought about Taylor, my 6 year old granddaughter, and what she would say…”Come on Nana, don’t be a scaredy-pants”. That was all I needed to let go of my fears and self consciousness. I let the breeze fill the sail and wobbled drunkenly in every direction moving across the water at snails pace feeling the freedom and excitement of my childhood. Admittedly, I was pretty sore the next morning, but now I truly believe it’s never too late to try something new if you’re not a scaredy-pants.
The idea of waking up early enough to watch the sun rise, taking the time to breathe, notice, and become aware before starting the day is something that we have found we never made time to do when we were in the midst of our corporate life. This is something that we are trying to incorporate in our daily routine. We are not always consistent, but there is no doubt to the advantages it gives you when you take the time to do it. Practicing this concept while in the Baja and paddling the kayaks up the Sea of Cortez coastline adds a new light to this morning meditation.
O.K., we have to admit that we really don’t obey many traditional methods of mindfulness meditation, but having a cup of coffee and listening to a podcast on the iPod cruising across the water with each other and Whitney at the helm of Tana’s Kayak is a pretty good way to get your mind tuned up for the day that lies ahead.
There is something about exercising your body and mind outdoors that is different than sitting on a mat in a quiet room. Getting into a cadence with the pedals, steering the kayaks, examining the beautiful coastline and the mountains beyond and listening to a Dharma Punx podcast all while sipping a good cup of fresh dark coffee is a combination that we could get used to.
Thursday morning at 4:30 am our alarm went off, something we hadn’t heard in over 5 months. This sound used to mean another long day at work, but not this time. We jumped out of bed as if it were a starting gun knowing this was the beginning of our next big adventure.
We loaded the dogs in the truck – with two kayaks on the rack – which was pulling our E2 tent trailer – with surf boards and windsurfing gear on top – and headed south. We both had big smiles watching Long Beach fade away in the rear view mirror as the sun was coming up to the east. This year we caravanned with Mark and Tammy and their two girls in their Eurovan. Maddie (12) and Tillie (9) have made this annual trek every year since they were born. As we followed them across the border and through the streets of Tijuana after taking a wrong turn we became acutely aware of how we must look to the locals in our rig. Driving though Orange County in this same rig we might look more like the Beverly Hillbillies, but here it seemed embarrassingly excessive. I guess it’s all relative, but it gave our so-called Minimalist lifestyle a very different perspective.
Once through Tijuana it’s pretty smooth sailing except for the occasional toll road or military inspection and gas stop. The goal is to get as far south the first day as possible, hopefully to the half way mark at Guerro Negro. Then with another full day of driving we can make it to our friend’s place, Dean-o-Vista, in time for the sunset. It is a total of 1,100 miles of flat dry desert, cactus the size of redwoods, winding mountain roads with lush hillsides, vistas of the Pacific waves on the west and the Gulf shores on the east. The scenery became more beautiful and dramatic with every mile and the people more friendly. We spent many hours talking and reflecting on our incredible journey in the last few months. It just feels right to be on the road and once again it resonates with us that “the Journey is ALL we have”.
We arrived safely just in time for the sunset and one of Dean’s famous homemade pizzas. Life is good, indeed!
You may have noticed there hasn’t been any activity on our blog for a few weeks. This is due to a severe case of Culture Shock we are both suffering from. We left our quiet little house in Kanab to spend some time (and do some maintenance) at the house in Long Beach. Wow – talk about going from one extreme to the other. We seem to have developed an acute awareness of all the sounds of “normal” activity, which we had hardly noticed before. Vehicle traffic moves constantly in front of the house. It slows down as the night gets late, but it never stops. The deep base boomboxes and performance exhaust systems are especially interesting – they have a nice reverb effect as the sounds reflect off of the nearby buildings. The sirens from the fire trucks and police cars rarely seem to take a break. It seems there are many emergencies in Long Beach. Because the houses are very close together (and there is no insulation) you can hear the neighbor’s conversations next door as if they are standing in the living room. Skateboards traveling on the sidewalk in front of the house might as well be skating through the bedroom. The house also happens to be directly under the helicopter flight path for the Long Beach Airport, so most of the other noise gets temporarily drowned out every few minutes as a helicopters passes by. In addition, this flight path is now also used by an advertising blimp and while the blimp is not really very noisy, there’s something disconcerting about a gigantic blue vessel lumbering slowly above the house telling me to call this number to buy some crap. Nope, we are definitely not in Kanab any more.
So after a couple of weeks we have slowly started to re-acclimate to the environment and are reluctantly settling into the numb, detached state that we live in for so many years which is required to maintain our sanity. The only difference is now we are AWARE that we are in this state. Could we ever go back to living this lifestyle? Unanimously, the vote was NO (actually, it was HELL NO!). In this little Adventure of ours we still don’t know where we want to go or what we want to do, but we do know what we don’t want and I guess that’s a start. So with that decision behind us, we decided we might as well get out and enjoy the many good things here, which we don’t have in Utah. First on the list is our great friends! And of course, there’s the dozens of fantastic restaurants. And another big one…the Pacific Ocean. Then there’s the weather. Just knowing that Kanab has snow and freezing temps right now helps us appreciate the warm sunny days here. Might as well try to enjoy what SoCal has to offer, even though we know Kanab is really where we “belong”. We find it so interesting that we both have lived in California most of our lives and yet after only 5 short months, Kanab feels more like home than it ever did here. We are also working hard fixing up the house in preparation to rent or sell after the holidays. Our desire to get the heck out of here has been great motivation, so we are making good progress!
With all this hard work we’ve been doing on the house, we decided we should take a vacation (can you call it a “vacation” when you’re unemployed??). So in a couple of days we’ll be loading up the truck and E2 trailer and heading out on an 1100 mile road trip adventure to Southern Baja for the holidays. It will be interesting for sure. Stay tuned for more posts and photos of our next adventure…
We wanted to get in one last hike before heading back to Long Beach for awhile. Snake Gulch Trail is located on the Kaibab National Forest (north of the Grand Canyon) and is known for it’s world class ancient Rock Art dating back as far as 300 BC. This trail had been on our list since we got here in July, but it had been too hot in the heat of summer. Not much protection from the sun and water is hard to find. With the Fall season firmly upon us, now seemed the perfect time to enjoy this hike.
It was beautiful warm day as we started down the trail, enjoying the familiar feeling of our packs on our backs, knowing it would be months before we felt them again. Ah Life is Good!
Surprisingly, it was only a short distance to our first sighting, a small cave filled with petroglyth (carved) and pictograph (painted) rock art. Beautiful and mysterious images covered the walls. What did it all mean? Was it a story? A warning? A punk indian kid doing graffiti? We made up all kinds of stories, but decided the images must have a much deeper meaning. You could just feel it. Each step down the canyon seemed to take us further back in time. As we hiked we became better at spotting the red or yellow images on the tan rocks and soon it seemed to be everywhere, although I’m sure we missed quite a bit.
As we hiked back out of the canyon and back into 2009 we couldn’t help but wonder what life might have been like for these early inhabitants. No internet, no cell phones, no fancy hiking boots, no camelbacks, no sunscreen, no polarized sunglasses. Did they appreciate the beauty of this canyon they called home? I suppose not, if it’s all they had ever known. If they had ever lived in Southern California I’m sure they would’ve recognized just how lucky they were!
View photos here.
We had the pleasure of playing tour guide for a few days with our friends Dana & John, who came to visit from Orange County. We felt like real locals showing off our cute little town and beautiful sites near our new home. As I reflect on their short visit I realize now that it was all about the FOOD! We ate GOOD and we ate OFTEN!
When they arrived Thursday afternoon it was like getting a special delivery from our favorite SoCal grocer, Trader Joe’s FISH, avocados, carrot cake and other items that you just can’t find here in Kanab. Thanks, guys!
For dinner we decided to take them to Rocking V which is THE best Kanab has to offer. We enjoyed a fantastic meal including the famous and dangerous bread pudding for dessert. Dana & John, I think were quite surprised.
Friday morning we decided we better get out for a hike to work off our dinner, but first we had to stop at Linda Lea’s for coffee and her amazing homemade pastries. We took the scenic route towards Escalante through Johnson Canyon. Just past Escalante we pulled into the Kiva Koffee House for a “light” lunch before starting our hike. The restaurant overlooks the canyons of the Escalante River and we all thought the food was as incredible as the view!
Feeling more like we wanted to nap than to hike we drove a few miles to the Lower Calf Creek trailhead. The trail guide promised a short 6 mile easy hike with a gorgeous waterfall at the end. We waddled up the trail and indeed, found everything the guide promised and more. The fall colors were great and Mike got lots of great shots.
Back at the truck, we were tired and felling good and, believe it or not, a bit hungry. So we decided to continue east to Boulder where I had heard there was a good restaurant called Hell’s Backbone Grill. We were pretty skeptical that there could be a decent place to eat in this tiny isolated town, but boy were we wrong! You would have to experience it to believe it, but it was a beautiful spot and truly, world class dining. John and Dana slept well that night under the stars in a food induced coma.
Saturday morning we lounged around, but eventually headed out to explore Zion, which is a short 30 minute drive from our house. Of course we had to stop at Laid Back Larry’s, but we were still full from our dinner so just got some coffee to go. Dana had not seen Zion before and it was fun to see it new through her eyes. It’s such a beautiful place, but especially this time of year. Feeling ambitious, we decided to hike up Angel’s Landing trail. I wasn’t expecting too much from this mostly paved trail leading to the top of a rock. Again, I was SO wrong! Unbelievable trail up a sheer cliff and it kicked our butts! But it was so worth it.
Naturally, after a long tough hike, we were starving again. Just outside of the park in the town of Springdale we enjoyed another delicious meal at Oscar’s.
I was sad to see Dana & John go this morning. I do miss connecting with our friends. But as we sit out front surrounded by beautiful red cliffs and the valleys below, we know this is home.
Pollie Seaford, otherwise known as Mom to me, is celebrating her birthday today. Although “Celebrating” might be a slight exaggeration. She’s not big on parties and will go to great lengths to avoid being the center of attention, a trait that didn’t make it down to her first born. 
She had me at a very young age, so Mom and I sort of grew up together helping each other through the good times and bad. I am as proud of her as she is of me to see the woman she has grown into.
After 60 years, I find it so amazing, that she has finally found her calling – to be a (crazy?) cat lady. Really, and I mean that in the nicest way. She is working at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary as a Caregiver for many very special Cats and is happier and healthier than I’ve ever seen her. Most of these cats are either feral or have special needs. No, I don’t always get it, but when I watch her at work I see the passion for what she does and the compassion for her beloved cats and realize how lucky she is to have found that. I can only hope that I will be as passionate and active and healthy as she is when I am sixty-something!
So Mom, hopefully you can get over being in the spot light for just one day and allow us to treat you to a nice dinner at the finest restaurant in Kanab (Rocking V, of course!). Happy Birthday!
YK
Click here to see just a few of her cats.
Watch Slideshow.
The biggest shocker was the new stoplight recently installed in town at Main Street. That’s right…Kanab is no longer a one stoplight town! Psychologically, this is a big adjustment, but in reality it’s not such a big deal since the light has been green anytime we’ve gone through town. I must admit having 2 stoplights does seem to add a new level of sophistication to the community, without becoming too snooty.
The other big change, which we thought was much more noticeable, was the relocation of “Latex Larry”. For those of you not familiar with Latex Larry, this is the name affectionately given by the locals to the dummy cop that sits in a patrol car on the south end of town to deter speeding tourist (and not so bright locals). Latex Larry was moved approximately 1.7 miles to the north end of town, where he sits motionless and seemingly unimpressed with his new incredible view.
Makes you wonder what other big changes are just around the corner in this sleepy little town, doesn’t it? Stay tuned for other breaking news stories….
We left Wednesday morning driving up Johnson Canyon to Skutumpah Road to the small town of Escalante, which is an adventure itself, but this was just to get us to our starting point of our adventure. Our intended destination, Coyote Gulch, can be accessed from several trailheads located along Hole-in-the-Rock road. Since we would not start hiking until the next morning we decided to explore this road to the end, where some crazy Mormon pioneers crossed the Escalante River. We were exhausted after driving sixty miles (3 hours) on a 4WD road in the comfort of our air-conditioned truck. When we finally arrived at a narrow crack in a sheer cliff leading straight down to the River, it seemed nothing short of a miracle that 250 Mormons, wagons and cattle made it down safely. You can check out more on their adventure here:
We camped in the back of the truck near the trailhead and headed out from the Redwell trailhead early the next morning. Coyote Gulch is a 26 miles round trip hike with soaring canyon walls, 3 arches, a natural bridge and several waterfalls, it’s no wonder it’s considered one of the best (and most popular) hikes in southern Utah. The canyon walls grew taller and narrower with each mile. We setup our base camp in a huge natural amphitheater just past the Jacob Hamblin arch. We fired up the JetBoil (which we love) and enjoyed the best dehydrated something we ever had. The sound of the cascading water below echoed off the walls and had us sleeping before 8:30. The next morning we headed further downstream and found amazing sites around every twist and turn of the gulch. Surrounded by undrinkable water, we were quite relieved to find a nice spring to replenish our water supply. Near the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River is a spectacular view of the canyon and yet another arch. We rested briefly and chatted with a couple from Minnesota who have been coming out to hike for 40 years. Love it! Surprisingly, they were 2 of the less than 10 people we encountered during the entire trip. On our way back to camp we found the canyon looks completely different and enjoyed things we hadn’t seen coming down. We took a short steep trail up to an Anasazi site where we found incredible rock art and dwelling remains. A nice little side trip. We finally made it back to camp exhausted and hungry. We devoured another delicious gourmet JetBoil meal and forced ourselves to stay awake long enough to see the stars come out, a humbling experience. The next morning we packed up and headed for the truck. Uneventful, except for a little trouble with some quicksand, we spent the time reflecting on our experiences and how vast and amazing our world is. We watched as a jet passed over us and marveled at the thought of 200 people sitting on the plane 35,000 feet above the earth traveling at 500 MPH – all complaining about the food, or lack of leg room or having already seen the movie. Maybe we were delirious, but it just seemed so hilarious! We laughed all the way back to the truck!
This day hike was another edition of the “Walks and Talks” series co-sponsored by the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM). If you ever get the opportunity to go on one of these walks and talks, our experience has been that they provide details of this area that you would never get a chance to discover had you been on your own. Makes us wonder how much other great stuff we drive by on a daily basis and don’t even know about. We met at the GSENM Big Water Visitor Center at 9:00 A.M. and then drove in caravan towards Lake Powel to a place called “Ferry Swale” with GSENM Park Ranger Merle Graffam and six others over slickrock and sand to dinosaur tracks in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, about an hour from our house in Kanab.
It took a remarkable series of time related events to preserve these tracks in order for us to see them today. The area where the tracks are located had to be more swamp like and muddy at one time for these prehistoric 10 to 30 foot creatures to walk across them, and then they had to be covered and compressed by massive sand dunes for millions upon millions of years only then to be eroded again by wind to re-expose the tracks for us to see. There is a lot of earths history buried right below our feet.
Some things to think about when you are walking into the desert to try and find these tracks: Are you currently worried about global warming? Did you know that in most of the earth’s history it has run at least fifteen degrees hotter than it is today? Did you know that within roughly another 100,000 years the earth should follow a familiar pattern and will be in another ice age once again? Why did some species evolve with radical extremes over these periods of time while others have remained virtually the same for millions of years? If the human species manages to survive, what will we be like in another million years?
It takes time to digest the fact that we are such a small spec in time on this planet, let alone in the universe. Do you think all those silly little things we worry about at work and in life will make any difference in the great grand scheme of things, or should we maybe just realize how short our time is here on how precious time really is and do something with real meaning?
Kind of puts things into perspective doesn’t it.
No dogs allowed here. Mike took off on his BMW R1200 GS and rode across the Arizona desert near the house. This is a video of part of that ride.
It started out innocently enough. The last time we took off in the morning on a hike in our backyard we only took our morning coffee with us and ended up hiking for three hours. We weren’t going to make that mistake again so this time we took our camel backs with water for a four hour hike to the top along with our dogs. The back of our property is the border for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, which is nearly 2 million acres of Utah’s finest hiking. The goal was to hike to the highest point, which is a large white rock visible from our back door. There is no trail, so we scrabbled and climbed up and down the canyons as best we could, giving Duke a necessary boost in a few spots. The views from the top of the rock give you a 360 degree panoramic of the Grand Staircase National Monument. Pretty incredible! Getting up was difficult, but getting back down (safely) was proving to be nearly impossible with sheer cliffs drop-off every time we tried. We opted for the safe route (i.e. LONG route) back home. On our way back we did find the remains of several Indian dwellings, an area full of broken Indian pottery, and a white arrow head in pretty good condition, which we marked with the GPS to explore another day. We were planning on being back home for lunch but did not get back until after 5:00 in the evening. Man were we tired and hungry when we got back to the house! But what a cool feeling to know that such a great adventure exists literally right outside our back door!
Toroweap is located on the far west end of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is not an easy road to get there – 2-1/2 hours on a dirt road that sometimes requires four wheel drive and may or not be passable depending on the weather. Take BLM road 109 approximately 61 miles to get there. Apparently the washboard road has a reputation for puncturing tires, so if you make the journey be prepared to change a flat. It is not visited by the thousands of people who come by car or tour bus as so many people do to see this amazing canyon, and for this reason this destination appealed to us. The point is situated at 4550 foot elevation, and the Colorado River down below is over 3,000 feet below. There is no fancy Park ranger booth to collect your money, no sophisticated ranger station to provide detailed information, and for us, nobody else out there except for one other car. We only saw two other people while we were there. There are no fences, warning signs, or barricades to keep you from stepping over the edge, and even if you have no fear of heights, this radical drop-off may leave you feeling a little uneasy. Talk about spectacular. Just our kind of adventure.
The sky was almost perfectly clear with only a few clouds in the distance when we got there, but within a half of an hour we were treated to a great thunder and lightening show as the weather changed and moved towards us. We love this kind of weather, but you have to be careful and remember that the 61 miles of dirt road on your return might be impassible if you stay too long. We saw the effects of several small flash floods on our way back home, and the truck ended up being a red colored muddy mess, or a trophy of sorts that we had been there. We left big clumps of dirt clods going through town the next couple of days until Tana washed the truck.
Unfortunately, we discovered a few things we did not have time to see like Lava Falls, Vulcan’s Throne, Saddle Horse Canyon, and the pictographs at Shaman’s Gallery and Gordon’s panel. We will definitely be coming back to this incredible landscape when we can find the time to explore this area further. On a scale of 1 to 10 for dramatic beauty, this place rates a 10.
View photos here.
We drove twelve hours from Sacramento to Kanab. When we got home we were rewarded with this amazing rainbow and sunset.
The emotions a Mother goes through watching her little girl get married are…well…complex to say the least. Probably the only thing more confusing would be the emotions of the Father! Most of all, though, I felt proud. What a beautiful young woman my little girl has become, on the inside as well as the outside! It was a very special day for everyone, but Taylor was especially happy to see her mommy and daddy get married.
Mike was quite honored when Jess asked him to be her wedding photographer. As you can see, he did an amazing job capturing the beauty and magic of their special day.
Kennedy Meadows is an interesting old summer camp town near the top of Sonora Pass consisting of several small cabins, a small Hotel/Restaurant/Store, and of course a Saloon, complete with bowlegged cowboys (and cowgirls). There is one old cabin, though, that is noticeably different than the others. To me, it was always known as “Rip’s Cabin”, a tiny rustic log cabin that had a kind of historical museum quality about it. Rip Reeves was a good friend and co-worker who has been gone now, unbelievably, for over 10 years and is missed by many, including Mike and myself. The cabin didn’t actually belong to Rip. I don’t know the whole story, but apparently, his best bud, Casey, had acquired the cabin years ago when it was nothing more than a falling down shack. Casey spent years restoring & rebuilding the place by hand with amazing detail and quality. The way Rip told it, Casey got snowed in one winter and spent the entire time working on things like, carving drawer pulls and making cabinet hinges from leather. The snow was so deep he had to put in a window in the loft so he could get out! At any rate, the end result was a beautiful cabin that was available to many of Casey’s (and Rip’s) family and friends for the small price of a bottle of wine or Glenlivit. It had been many years since I had been there. Sadly, the cabin sits closed up most of the time now, due to some kind of dispute over ownership. Still, just seeing it brought back some great memories of a special friend who would share anything with his friends, including someone else’s cabin! Thanks Rip!
View photos here.
Maynard Dixon was a well known American West Landscape artist who came to Southern Utah for find his peace in 1938. While on a short motorcycle ride we decided to stop at the Bingham Gallery, which we had past several time before, located 17 miles to the north of our house on Highway 89 in Mt. Carmel, Utah. The gallery was an amazing showcase of Southwest artists including a few original Maynard Dixon pieces. A short walk from the studio we found, even more interesting, the actual home and studio property that was built by Maynard Dixon and his wife. An incredibly beautiful and serene setting, it’s obvious why it has been used as an artists retreats for over 60 years.
There a was buzz in the air all week and we were filled with anticipation for our first Western Legends experience. Western Legends Round-Up and Western Film Festival is the signature event held in Kane County each year. This event was created to honor the richness of Western movie history, and to celebrate the 100-plus classic Western movies and television series filmed in the area over the years, including the well-known Gunsmoke.
Some of the events included:
– The “High Noon” Parade right down the middle of hwy 89 complete with a Texas long horn cattle drive through town.
– Good old fashioned Rodeo with local cowboys riding bulls and mutton-busters (babies riding sheep – huh?)
– Antique Tractor Pull (was that a V-8 in that old tractor??)
– Wild West Gunfight and Stunt Show
– Old Western movie stars signing autographs
– Cowboy Poetry Jam Session
– Barn Dance in the Old Barn Theater
– Fiddling Contest
– All the Corn dogs, cotton candy, shaved ice, Navajo tacos, etc. you can eat!
We’re definitely not in Orange County any more! But we sure had fun! Yeehaw!!!
This adventure was well planned. We were looking for a three day backpacking trip where we could take the dogs and have plenty of water to collect along the way. We had read about Coyote Gulch in the “Photographing the Southwest” guide, researched the hike on Trails.com, had downloaded the USGS topo maps and appropriate waypoints to the Magellen Triton GPS, had purchased the latest copy of the Grand Staircase Escalante canyon lands map, and had informed family members of our planned wilderness excursion. With descriptions like “Coyote Gulch epitomizes the best that Southwest’s Canyon Country has to offer”, and “one of the Greatest hikes of all times”, we were pretty excited about our planned three day backpacking trip. There was just one glitch in our plan as we found out the morning of our departure while visiting the Escalante visitors center located two hours away from our house; NO DOGS ALLOWED in Coyote Gulch.
Plan “B” consisted of finding another hike with water where we could take the dogs, and we decided in less than five minutes that our new trip would be backpacking the Escalante River Trail. We filed our backcountry permit at the trailhead registration box and headed out with Duke and Whitney at about 1:00 in the afternoon on Monday. We had not done much reading about the trail but decided it would be a good idea to take a pair of water hiking sandals for each of us since we would be hiking next to a river. The first river crossing was approximately 100 yards from our truck, so we removed our hiking boots and put on the hiking sandals to cross. We never put on our hiking boots again for the next three days as almost the entire Escalante River trail IS the river!
At about 6:00 P.M. the first night, we came across a huge overhang in the cliffs and set up the tent next to the river. The next morning we continued up the narrow canyon which became more beautiful and challenging with every step. At one point the canyon crossed a section of water too deep to wade across with the backpacks and had to hoist them up the cliff walls with rope before taking the swim. We were not able to receive a decent GPS signal in the steep and narrow canyon, and we were not able to compare the coordinates from the GPS against the topo map until about noon when we got a good satellite fix. It was at that point that we realized we had taken a turn to the north and were now inside “Death Hollow” and must have left the Escalante River sometime the day before. Amazing. We had just followed the larger body of water thinking it was the Escalante River and were now about five miles up this deep canyon famous for it’s ability to loose livestock and wagon trains during the use of the original Boulder Mail Trail.
We headed back that afternoon and spent the night under another spectacular cliff overhang just yards from where we camped the night before. Wednesday was our last day of hiking and we made it back to the truck by about 2:00 in the afternoon. This was definitely one of the most beautiful deep canyon trails we have ever been on and it was just wet and challenging enough to keep the average hikers out of the canyon. We only saw four other people the entire three days.
We had driven by the road side marker many times posted at the Paria Townsite turn off on Hwy 89. Today we decided to pull off and at least read it. Looking in the direction of the ghost town we saw nothing except the same beautiful red cliffs that we could see in any other direction. Paria (Pahreah in the old days) was an old farming community, which had been wiped out by a flood, then later resurrected as a mining town, also wiped out by a flood, then finally used to film some old westerns including one of our favorites “Outlaw Josey Wales”. We debated on whether we really wanted to drive down the 6 mile dirt road to check it out. It was late morning and we had nothing else on the agenda so we headed down the rough dirt road. In no time at all we unexpectedly emerged into an incredible valley surrounded by amazing multi-colored striped cliffs that were beautiful and fascinating. We parked and got out to explore. We found no evidence of habitation until we wondered across the shallow (and quite muddy) Paria River. There we found scattered remnants of the old town and mining operation which was extremely interesting and made for some great photos.
In the future, if we ever wonder if we really want to go down that dirt road, the answer will always be YES!
Just look at those clean hiking shoes ladies and gentlemen. Not a single piece of mud on them. How does Tana do it? By carefully choosing her path I suppose. No, Mike is not making fun of Tana. He is just pointing out that her shoes are always suspiciously clean. Good morning campers.
When a friend of ours who volunteers at the Healing Heart Sanctuary here in Kanab told us about the very special 10 week old golden lab coming to the sanctuary soon, we thought it would be fun to film her arrival. Little did we know, she would steal our hearts, as she does with anyone she meets.
She’s a very special girl, indeed. She was surrendered to a veterinary clinic by her owner who wanted her euthanized because she is paralyzed in her back legs, probably caused by a fall when she was a few weeks old. The staff could not bring themselves to put such a darling and otherwise healthy dog down. Bella was fostered by volunteers of 2nd Chance 4 Pets, while being evaluated and fitted for a special cart. She arrived at Healing Hearts where she is cared for by an amazing group of individuals who have created a very special haven for special needs pets at Healing HEART Sanctuary.
To read more about Bella go to: http://helpbella.wordpress.com/
You can make also make a much needed online donation at Healing HEART Sanctuary
Have a GOOD Day!!!
Just a couple of miles from our house is a fantastic road to the east that runs through Johnson Canyon and through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We took this road which led us to the appropriately named Skutumpah road. Travel about 14.8 miles on Skutumpah and you will find the Lick Wash Trailhead just on your right. (37°21.895 N, 112°11.331 W) The Lick Wash turn-off is labeled as Road No. 554 if you have the Grand Staircase map that you can pick up in the Kanab BLM field office. According to our field planning guide, Tana, this hike should be just a little over 4 miles round trip. The trail is actually 4 miles each way for a total of 8 miles of pretty easy hiking. The wash was unexpectedly beautiful and interesting which made it well worth the effort. We did not plan to hike this trail when we left the house this morning, and so it was not until we got back and did a search on the internet to find out that there are petroglyphs after walking for only 0.6 miles from the parking lot if you take a little slot canyon to your right. We will definitely be doing our homework before leaving on the next adventure.
View more photos.
About 10 miles from our house to the east, highway 89 crosses the “Great Western Trail”. This trail supposedly traverses some 4,455 miles through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Mike took his BMW R1200 GS motorcycle out for ride on a section of this trail and captured a short clip while hand holding the camera – not as easy as it looks to ride and shoot at the same time.
I pulled the E2 trailer up to Sacramento and kidnapped Taylor, my 5 1/2 year old granddaughter, for a few nights of camping and fun at Folsom Lake! We read plenty of books, played games, played in the lake, played with the dogs, got our face painted, ate S’mores, stayed up late, slept in late, didn’t brush our hair, dug up fish bones, pulled out slivers, climbed on rocks, swung on trees, caught bugs, took lots of photos and snuggled together in our sleeping bags. Basically, we had the best last week of summer EVER! Taylor’s school started on August 10th – too soon, but I was so happy to be there to see her off for her first day of First Grade! So hard to believe – she has grown up so fast and so beautifully!
The miles ridden on a motorcycle are some of the rarest moments in life that really allow you the opportunity to be by yourself and to think. I rode over 400 miles on the R1200 GS today. I left Tana and Taylor back at the camp at Folsom Lake at 10:00 A.M. and arrived back at the Long Beach house at 7:00 P.M. (thanks to that L.A. traffic). For every mile that I traveled, the journey allowed me to think about what we are doing now, to reflect on the opportunities that we may be missing out on, and to embrace the opportunities that we are are acting on. Good stuff, those miles ridden upon that motorcycle. I am no doubt a lucky man.
I have an identical twin brother named Mark. We both learned to windsurf on the same day with our good friend Bob James on Millerton Lake in 1982. That was 27 years ago. If I could only take an extension cord and plug that memory of mine into yours, you might understand the importance of that day in my life. Today I sail only a few times a year, but it is a good feeling to get back on the board and ride the wind on the water. It’s like riding a bicycle to me and it feels especially good to sail with my brother in his back yard in Rio Vista on the Sacramento River. This is exactly what I had the opportunity to do last Monday and Tuesday. Thanks Mark.
In our society we have been taught that if you work hard in school and your career you will be rewarded in the end with what is called Retirement. And if you work really, really hard, you can reach that reward even sooner. Retirement is that place I dreamed about with far away eyes, as I sat at my desk piled high with work at 6:30 pm on a Wednesday evening. It’s what motivated me and kept me going. Kind of like Heaven if you believe in that sort of thing. I’m not so sure I believe in Retirement or Heaven these days. We saw our parents and grandparents working hard, saving money which they cashed in for their reward allowing them to travel and do things later in their life. The economic crisis has pulled the rug out from under so many of us and we may never reach our assumed happy ending as we had imagined it. We can be depressed about it OR we can change the way we think about retirement and working for a living.
“Yeah, when I retire, that’s when I’m going to start living”. If you think about it, it’s a pretty silly idea anyways. There are no guarantees in life. Who’s to say you’ll even live long enough to retire? How many people do you know who never made it to retirement. Working too hard can kill you!! Who’s to say your hard earned money will be there even if you make it to retirement? How many people do you know invested in real estate or the stock market and lost it in the recent economic crisis.
Here is our new philosophy…
1) Enjoy life NOW, you will not have THIS time ever again. Take the time to spend with family and loved ones. Do the things in your bucket list first.
2) Plan to work the rest of our lives. Work hard, but make sure it’s something you really love and are passionate about so you will enjoy doing it for the rest of your life. Like the Life is Good guys say: “Do what you love, love what you do”
3) Want what you have, have less. Experience the power and freedom of Less. Resist the urge to go out and buy the latest and greatest cars, houses, gadgets and toys. (this is a tough one for us!)
Whether or not there is such a thing as Retirement or Heaven our plan is to live a good life everyday and have fun doing it.
Mike upgraded the old BMW RT1150 to a new BMW R1200 GS, did no work around the house, went on nice ride to the beach at Crystal cove on the GS with Tana, and had an amazing dinner at the Beachcomber restaurant while watching the beautiful sunset. Lucky man, that Mike. Stay tuned for some upcoming Adventure Riding in Southern Utah.
We are headed back to the Long Beach house for a few days before making a little adventure trip along the northern California coast to visit with family and friends. It is about an 8 hour drive from the Kane County house to the Long beach house. It was hard to leave the little town of Kanab – it seems more “home” to us in just three weeks than fifteen years in SoCal ever did. We have great friends in California, but we have met lots of new friends in the Kanab area and I think we are just a little bit less sophisticated in the Metropolitan kind of way than we used to be.
What we miss about Southern California:
1.) The ocean – what a treat to live four blocks from the water in Long Beach.
2.) The cooler climate.
3.) An incredible selection of fresh produce – it is amazing to see how spoiled we are in California.
4.) We both can’t stand Starbucks anymore but why is it the first place we stopped in St. George?
5.) Fresh seafood. Damn we have good fresh fish here in Long Beach – nothing like that in Kanab.
6.) Certainly our friends – we don’t have many, but the friends we have here in SoCal are the best.
What we don’t miss about Southern California:
1.) The amount of people, smog and traffic.
2.) The noise.
On Thursday 2009.07.23, we packed up the new E2 trailer and headed to the Kaibab Wilderness and worked our way through an off-road trail to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We literally camped 25 feet from the rim, not another soul in sight. We took a short hike Thursday afternoon to scope out the best spots to photograph the morning light. Everywhere we turned the views were amazing and surreal. There is nothing like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon to put things into perspective. Friday morning we overslept and almost missed the sunrise, but managed to get some great shots. We ended up hiking almost 4 hours. All four of us were exhausted by the time we got back to the campsite, but enjoyed a nice little nap in the E2 before heading back home.
Love this stuff! Be careful though….If you read too much of it you might do something crazy like quit your job to roam the country for adventure!
We added a new Fleetwood E2 tent trailer to the Adventure fleet today. It seemed as though we have been spending lots of time driving to many of the scenic areas of southern Utah lately, taking on a decent hike, then driving all the way back to Kanab to shower and climb into bed at the new house. What a waste of time and money. The E2 is an off-road model too cool to call a tent trailer, with plenty of ground clearance, off-road shocks, an ATV deck in front for a couple of motorcycles, and has a small shower, toilet, cooking range and kitchen sink. We are definitely into the small utilitarian concept that this thing provides and we are looking forward to setting it up as a base camp for some upcoming multi-day backpacking/camping/photo adventures.
Just yesterday we were commenting on the fact that we never seem to have an ordinary day here. Everything we do it seems, no mater how trivial, seems to turn into some sort of bizarre adventure. We decided to just stay home today and work on the computers and try not to get ourselves involved in any more excitement.
We have only been in the new house a couple of weeks, and we’ve heard that the Monsoon season is coming, but this little storm caught us by surprise. It was a beautiful afternoon one minute, with blue skyies and sunshine, then raining and hailing the next minute. It only took about twenty minutes of rain to cause a little flash flood in the little creek in front of our house. We had marble sized hail pounding the house and you could look out the window and see blue skies just down the road. That’s the driveway to the house being given a nice mud wash in the video.
Watch video.
As part of the “Walks and Talks” series co-sponsored by the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM), this group hike took place about 20 miles east of Kanab at the Kitchen Corral Canyon. The group met GSENM’s archeologist Wade Parsons at the GSENM Kanab Visitor Center at 9:00 A.M. and we all carpooled to the site. The Walks and Talks series promote “learning from the land”, and that, we certainly did.
The small group was led by Wade Parsons & Colleen Nicholas , both GSENM Archaeologists, and included Brad, who is also a knowledgeable Archeologist, Marty Feely, a GSENM Park Ranger and a few others who seemed quite educated in the field. We were, without a doubt, the most uninformed members of the group, but we made up for it with our enthusiasm soaking up every word from the other members in the group.
The area around our new house never ceases to surprise us with it’s hidden treasures and we are both realizing that the ordinary things we see here every day contain many stories about the people who once lived here if we just take the time to see instead of just look. If you have never been with a trained park ranger or archeologist in the field, you might be surprised to learn that you may be pretty ignorant as to the details of the ground that you walk on. It amazes me the amount of knowledge these people have, their ability to see things that are right in front of us but our untrained eye does not notice, and especially their absolute passion for their work. To see Wade and Coleen and Brad find a piece of pottery and still be so excited after handling thousands of shards and artifacts over the years, gives credit to their passion of this land and it’s history. We heard each of them at different times exclaim how lucky they are and how much they love their “jobs”. It seems to us that being wealthy and rich might just have a meaning not associate with money. If you are looking for something that you are truly passionate about and can understand life, not just as we know it today, but millions of years ago, you might actually be one of the richest persons on the planet.
It started out innocently enough. Get up early on a Friday morning, grab a large coffee with two add shots at Laid Back Larry’s, and head out with our new map for about an hours drive to somewhere we have not been yet. The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is literally in our backyard, so we decided we should take a drive through it to check it out. Well, objects on the map are larger than they appear! GSENM is HUGE, over 2 million acres! And it is all incredible! Before we knew it we had traveled over 300 miles mostly on dirt roads and saw everything from desert canyons to Arches to sheer cliffs to aspens to farmland. And we just barely scratched the surface.
Watching movies in a barn? Yep, that’s right. There is plenty of free entertainment in this small town of Kanab if you know where to look. The barn is located behind the Parry Lodge. It was built sometime around the turn of the century and was used for years to keep animals and to store hay. If you are not familiar with the Parry Lodge, let us give you a little background: The town of Kanab was an extremely popular place to film some of the best western movies and TV shows. The motel was built in 1929, and has been home to many popular actors such as John Wayne, Charlton Heston, and Clint Eastwood while filming many of the famous movies that were made here.
Each night, the lodge plays a different old western inside of this barn and the admission is free. Talk about a cheap date! You can’t beat the atmosphere here either. Imagine a cool summer night inside the barn with the breeze blowing through the boards, maybe a well behaved dog or two, and a good old fashioned western classic playing on the screen that blows in the breeze.
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During a recent trip to Colorado, we stopped at the little town of Cortez and stumbled upon this little 1969 Airstream trailer that serves good coffee. The Silver Bean is a local favorite for getting your morning joe in Cortez Colorado. What a cool idea!
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N 37° 20.929 W 108° 35.470
12S E 713362 N 4136290
If you’ve never heard of Dolores Colorado, don’t feel bad. Dolores is a small town near Four Corners and even if you’ve driven through it you may have missed it if you blinked. Aside from the fact it’s where Tana’s folks are building a house, about the only thing it’s known for is The Galloping Goose. Part bus, part train, the Galloping Goose was the Ugly Duckling of the narrow gauge railways. It was used in the mining days to carry passengers, mail and precious metal to and from some of the most remote areas of southern Colorado. They still take it for a spin a couple times a year. Read more here.
The area around Tana’s folks’ house is covered with Anasazi Indian ruins. Walking across their property you will find thousands of pieces of pottery sherds and tools. Within walking distance of the house the Anasazi Cultural Center was built where you will find an amazing display of Anasazi artifacts and history as well as the remains of the Escalante ruins. Pretty interesting stuff.
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Took a drive up to Telluride Colorado. I remember the first time I was in Telluride, must have been about 1981, and there were mostly run down old houses whose occupants were either ski bums or hippies. It was a cool place. Over the last 25 years the town has transformed into a very popular resort town. There are still a couple of hippy shacks off the main street, but most have been rebuilt into cottage mansions or torn down to make room for condos and resorts. The downtown area is still very charming and the one thing that hasn’t changed is the spectacular view! It is truly one of the most beautiful settings on the planet!
If you are interested in architecture, and organic buildings in particular, you will love this structure. Located about 15 miles north of Lake Powel, the visitor center stands close to highway 89 but it seems to blend in with the surroundings. This Visitor Center is built as a spiral. Its shape mimics that of an ammonite, an extinct marine animal related to modern-day squids. Ammonites thrived throughout the world’s oceans 65 million to 395 million years ago, dying out with the dinosaurs. Ammonites fossils are scattered throughout the Monument’s ancient marine deposits, and are used by paleontologists to date and correlate rock layers worldwide.
The spiral growth of an ammonite demonstrates the Golden Mean, a mathematical principle found in many natural forms.
Mike and I are always at our best when we are on an adventure together If we were going to do this “adventure of a life time” together, it seemed like getting married might be the right thing to do. After all we met over 20 years ago and the circumstances and coincidences that brought us together seemed to be a huge neon sign that we just couldn’t ignore any longer (that will be another story!). So the Monday morning after arriving in Kanab Utah, we inquired at the County Office as to how we might go about getting hitched. A very nice woman named Carol was happy to take our information to complete the required Marriage Application. She asked us many question about the wedding like when and where and who would perform the cerimony and who the witnesses would be, all of which we had no answers. At first she seemed concerned about our lack of planning, but soon the entire office was pitching in to plan the event. Within 30 minutes we were all set. Karla, the County Clerk, agreed to perfom the ceremony and the other 2 women in the office, Carol and Cami, volunteered to be our witnesses. Perfect. As instructed, we arrived at the County office Wed morning at 8:45 am. Karla, Carol and Cami put aside whatever county business they were working on, jumped in a car and drove 3 or 4 blocks out past the city park to the Squaw Trail Head parking area. They seemed as excited as we were. Wearing their office clothes and heels, the 5 of us trekked a short distance down the Squaw trail to the designated ceremony location. It was a warm morning but we were still in the shade of the beautiful red rock cliffs were it was still cool. The ceremony was short and sweet, just like we wanted. Mike and I stayed on the trail and watched as the 3 cheerful women walked the path back to their car as if this were a normal part of their daily job duties. We were amazed and grateful how these 3 people, which we had just met, made this such a personal and special moment for us. This would NEVER happen in Southern California!
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When we visited Kanab last April, we decided that we loved the fact that it is located so close to so many National Parks, Monuments, and wilderness areas so we decided to look around at the local real estate market. We wanted something close to town but far enough away from it, something small but on a decent sized piece of property, something energy efficient with natural drought resistant landscaping, and something fairly affordable to be used as a second home. We found this almost new, passive solar designed house out in the Vermillian Cliffs on 2-1/2 acres which butts up to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The house is perfect for us. It is easy to clean with it’s polished concrete floors, it is energy efficient, has lots of natural light, and has spectacular views in all directions. We purchased it and closed escrow on June 30th – Tana’s last day at work.
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Coming from Los Angeles the day before and spending the fourth of July in the small town of Kanab was quite the culture shock. Two different worlds for sure.
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Mike and our Pit Mix named Whitney certainly have a special bond. Being a Pit Bull comes with a lot of misconceptions, and Whitney is a perfect example of how this breed just wants to please their owners. The one disadvantage here is that it can sometimes be a bit of a distraction when you are trying to drive and Whitney wants to give you some love.
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On Friday July 3, 2009, we packed a Queen sized bed, a couch, two dogs and a cat into a U-Haul truck and headed for our second home in Kanab. We had no idea how long we would stay, and still don’t, but that was exciting to us. It takes about six hours to drive from Long Beach to Kanab, and while Tana drove the U-Haul with Samson the cat, I drove the pickup truck with Duke and Whitney towing his BMW motorcycle behind them.
Six hours plus of driving is a decent amount of time. You are by yourself, you have plenty of time to ponder what lies ahead, and you can just let your mind wander as you and the clouds roll on by on Highway 15. If you really want the ultimate ambient effect, try playing some country music on the A.M. radio. It just feels right to be on a road trip.
This is a great audio podcast. If you think you will be listening to a bunch of religious propaganda then you might be surprised to know that this podcast is different. Winner of a Peabody Award, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett is public radio’s weekly program about “religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas.” They are produced and distributed by American Public Media and currently heard on over 200 public radio stations across the U.S. and globally via the Web and podcast.
If you are interested in philosophy, spirituality and life, check out this podcast.
The day after Tana left her job, we headed to Sacramento with a load of her furniture to see her daughter Jess and Granddaughter Taylor. It’s the first thing she wanted to do. All of our families are spread across the country and we always found it tough to get away to see them, especially if you are working six days a week. Spending more time with family is one reason we wanted to break away.
I am forty something years old. I have worked very hard since my daughter was 2 years old. She is now 26 and has a beautiful 5 year daughter of her own. Where did the time go? How did this happen? So focused on career and success, which I thought would bring me financial security, that I didn’t realize what I had been missing. It took the shock of an economic crisis for me to really open my eyes and see the big picture. It became painfully clear that I would lose my house in Orange County, which had I had put a very large down payment on and was now only worth half of what I paid for it. This house and my 401K, which had also plummeted is what I was banking on for retirement. The reality of my situation, which is not unlike so many others, began to sink in. “Retirement”, as we have known it, seems to be more of a fairytale in our current times. The reality is, I will probably be working the rest of my life. OK, so I guess I better just accept it.
So what now?? I decided it was time to take a break to regroup, to re-evaluate and to reconnect with the ones I’ve missed in the last 20 years. I felt this urgent need to experience those things I’ve been saving up to do in “Retirement”, before I’m too old and decrepit to enjoy them. Unfortunately, the company I worked for informed me there is no such thing as an “Advanced Retirement” policy, so I quit my awesome, good paying job hoping I had served them well enough over the years that I might be able to beg for a job back if necessary.
Mike, my best friend and partner, was asking himself some very similar questions (see Mike’s story). We decided to pool our resources in hopes of taking at least 6 months off to really enjoy life. I am not sure if we will look back on this time say “WOW, that was the (dumbest) or (smartest) thing we ever did!” But I am certain it will be the Adventure of a Lifetime for me. We created this blog as a way to document and share our experience. Hopefully you will enjoy reading it as much as we are enjoying writing it.
Life is good.
We started PawsForArt.com after Mike painted a few dog portraits and realized that people were actually interested in them. The painting process for Mike is just an outlet for that need to be creative and a way for him to do something positive with that energy. When Tana came up with the idea of posting the images in a blog, the whole thing just came together. Between the two of us, we managed to put this web site together and we were surprised at how we could collaborate on a project like this without killing each other. Mike says it is similar to when they used to work on Cost Reports and Labor Distribution Reports together some twenty years ago in that little job site construction trailer. Mike always painted a pretty picture, and Tana put things into perspective, refined it, told the truth about it, and made sense of it all.
“Don’t go there Mike – you will fall in love with the place and end up buying property there”. Those were the words of advice given to us by Dean, a good friend of ours who knows the area well. When Tana suggested (planned) a one week vacation there in April, little did she know that the little town of Kanab would soon be called home.
Almost every day since I got back from Baja, I would meet Tana at Bolsa Chica State Beach after she got off work to go for a walk. She would tell me about her busy day at the office and I would just look back at her with a blank stare on my face because at this point I had not worked in a couple of months. The daily office events just did not interest me anymore. We planned a trip to Kanab Utah for a mini vacation when Tana would have a week off. I don’t ever remember telling her I wish she would quit her job and hang out with me for a year, but I do remember her saying that was what she had decided to do. Life is short and unpredictable.
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I had quit my job but Tana was still working, and I could not wait to break away and head south of the border for some windsurfing, kayaking and fishing. This was my second trip to the Baja in less than two months. The weather was great, the fishing was the best it had been in La Ventana for over a decade, the windsurfing was phenomenal, and the people were amazing, but it just was not the same without her.
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After nearly twenty years working as a Construction Superintendent, building bridges, railroads, highways, treatment plants and airports, Mike calls it quits. “I love this work, the people, the challenges, the sense of accomplishment and the pride of building big things” says Mike, “but it’s time to move on”. After 15 years working with the best heavy civil construction company in California, he calls it quits as a Construction Superintendent and sells his shares.
Some things are painfully clear that you need to make a change.
About a thousand miles south of the border, and about an hour east of La Paz, on the Sea of Cortez, lies the beautiful little town of La Ventana. Mike and Tana and the dogs headed down there for a two week vacation and spent Christmas and the New Year there. If you windsurf, kiteboard, hike, snorkel or dive, paddleboard or ride bikes, this is one of the best places to be at this time of the year. We stayed at Deano Vista (spanish for adventure) and had a beautiful room looking out across the bay and towards Isla De Ceralvo. A couple of things happen to you if you make the drive down here; For every mile you travel, you erase one more worry from your mind. For every day you spend here, you begin to question why you only take a couple of weeks off a year to enjoy something like this.
Have you ever wanted to just escape the rat race and get out there and live – at least for awhile? This is a blog about 2 people who left perfectly good jobs during an economic crisis in search of adventure and meaning. Are they crazy or are they brilliant? Either way it will be [...]
Have you ever wanted to just escape the rat race and get out there and live – at least for awhile? This is a blog about 2 people who left perfectly good jobs during an economic crisis in search of adventure and meaning. Are they crazy or are they brilliant? Either way it will be [...]
Pollie Seaford, otherwise known as Mom to me, is celebrating her birthday today. Although “Celebrating” might be a slight exaggeration. She’s not big on parties and will go to great lengths to avoid being the center of attention, a trait that didn’t make it down to her first born. She had me at a ver
The miles ridden on a motorcycle are some of the rarest moments in life that really allow you the opportunity to be by yourself and to think. I rode over 400 miles on the R1200 GS today. I left Tana and Taylor back at the camp at Folsom Lake at 10:00 A.M. and arrived back [...]
Love this stuff! Be careful though….If you read too much of it you might do something crazy like quit your job to roam the country for adventure!
