Tag: adventure

San Juan del Sur Sunset

Travel

Sandy beach
White froth
Breaking on shore

Heavenly blue sky
Light fluffy clouds
Bright sparkling sun

Hot glistening skin
Salty lips
Foot tracks in the sand

Sailboats anchored just off shore
Bobbing gracefully
Awaiting their captains

Vendors with heavy loads
Plodding along
Anxious for the Córdoba
American green back even better

Ice cream peddler
Rolling wagon with a brisk step
Bell ringing
Cool in the tropical heat

Blue umbrellas for a price
Divan included
Waiter with cold drinks
And local sushi

Christo overlooking
From the mountain
Hand outstretched
With love

Sun slowly setting in the west
Sinking below the waves
Palms waving in that direction
Putting the little town to sleep

-Kate Riley

When Does a Journey Begin?

Leigh, Travel

When does a journey begin?  The answer might seem obvious – maybe you feel like it begins when you get on the plane, or pack the car, or even make the reservations.  But we might argue it begins much earlier… before you even make a list, or hit “enter” on that first internet search.

Since our journey into the arctic circle (part three is coming soon), we’ve been thinking about our next adventure… and watching videos of other travels into the wilderness.  One that caught our eye was posted by a guy named Justin Gibbins and you can find it here.  His assertion in telling the story of his moose hunt in Alaska, is that the journey began when he was talking with his friend about trips he always wanted to take.  They always thought of the moose hunt as one they would do “eventually” but hadn’t even gotten to the first mark in the actual planning.  But in this particular conversation, something turned.  They began to ask themselves: why haven’t we done this yet?

That’s the moment.  They committed.  That one-second click between “I’ve always wanted to do that” and “I’m going” — that’s when the journey really begins.  That’s when you can first picture yourself on the beach, the lake, in the mountains, or across the globe in a coffee shop surrounded by people speaking a language that’s foreign to your ears.  No tickets have been purchased, and no budgets made.  But the decision is there.  The journey has begun.

 

Cold Country

Leigh, Travel

Minneapolis.  Cold country, my family called it.  I called it home for four years, and the better part of a fifth.

I went to school in Minnesota, but not at the U of M, where most people assume when I say that.  Instead I went to a small private school downtown, a few nondescript buildings that covered a couple of blocks and became my first home away from home.  My first Big Move.

I remember not knowing at all what to expect, and being worried about how I would make friends.  I was enthralled with the adventure, but nervous about how it would all play out.

As is often the case, I needn’t have worried.  I made friends quickly… tight ones, the kind you make when you’re all in the same situation, and in desperate need for community.  I landed on a major, found a part time job, and decided the snow wasn’t so bad.  I got used to my wet hair freezing into a crunchy mess on the way to class, and learned which bus lines go where you want, and which will strand you in the middle of nowhere at the last stop of the night.

I’m not sure who taught me this moving method, but I remember regretting it right about this point.

After college I got my first TV job in Minneapolis, at the same place where I interned my senior year.  The city was different though, after all my friends had moved on, and the place where I had so many great memories seemed brand new again, back to a sea of strangers, with no forced orientation or constant comfort of communal living.  I got lonely, and didn’t stay long.

This week a chance work trip will take me back.  Back to Elliot Park and Hennepin Avenue.  Back to skyways and skylines and Prince’s club downtown.  I bet the quarter bus route is up to a couple of bucks, and I would be surprised if Jitters, the downtown coffee shop is still around, packed with students “studying” and enjoying the all night shenanigans.  For old time’s sake, I’d love to go to the airport at dark, park under the route the planes pass as they head for the runway, and think about the 18-year-old me, sitting there bundled up in my dad’s flannel with my new friends and my wild dreams, striking out on my first adventure.

Rides Around: A Custom-Built Missouri River Boat

Travel

This week’s Rides Around is more like a “Floats Around” and comes to us from a friend who was inspired by last week’s post and poem.  

The owner and builder of this flat-bottomed boat grew up on the Northern Pacific shore, on the outskirts of Juneau, AK.  He was a Woodsman, a Hunter, a Boatman, a Builder, and a classic example of The Men Who Don’t Fit In.

He loved all kinds of boats (and trucks, and cars, and army vehicles), and sketched them in his many notebooks.  He had the opportunity to own many, and custom re-fit a few.

This 18-foot, 1992 Lowe Jon Boat was a bare hull when purchased.  Everything was fabricated from the center drive console to the entire trailer, which was customized with knobby tires and .50 caliber ammo boxes just for storage………perhaps.

It made many trips down the Missouri River in search of Adventure, Bighorn Sheep, and Family Camping in the White Cliffs of the Missouri.
The Rig: 1992 Jon Boat
The Location:  The Great State of Montana
The Driver:  A Fine Figure of a Man
The Special Circumstance: Thinking of Erik
 
-SKI

Rides Around: The Men That Don’t Fit In

Edgar, Travel

Last week’s Rides Around has us still thinking about why people like the spirit of motorcycles, and specifically adventure motorcycles.

Robert Service captured the spirit of the fabled open road in a poem called The Men That Don’t Fit In.  Taken as a whole, the poem may not accurately describe every adventure rider, but the lines that speak of the allure of the new, the challenge of the mountain and the love of the unknown can’t help but catch our attention.

 

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,

A race that can’t stay still;

So they break the hearts of kith and kin,

And they roam the world at will.

They range the field and they rove the flood,

And they climb the mountain’s crest;

Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,

And they don’t know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;

They are strong and brave and true;

But they’re always tired of the things that are,

And they want the strange and new.

They say: “Could I find my proper groove,

What a deep mark I would make!”

So they chop and change, and each fresh move

Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs

With a brilliant, fitful pace,

It’s the steady, quiet, plodding ones

Who win in the lifelong race.

And each forgets that his youth has fled,

Forgets that his prime is past,

Till he stands one day, with a hope that’s dead,

In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;

He has just done things by half.

Life’s been a jolly good joke on him,

And now is the time to laugh.

Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;

He was never meant to win;

He’s a rolling stone, and it’s bred in the bone;

He’s a man who won’t fit in.

-Robert Service, Source: The Spell of the Yukon, and Other Verses (1911)
The Rig: 2008 BMW 1250 GS Adventure
The Location: Texas Hill Country
The Driver: a Robert Service fan 
The Special Circumstance: taking the long way
Edgar~

Rooted in Beauty

Edgar, Travel
Mr. Kilmer’s 1913 poem still resonates today.  It is a lovely and classic piece that brings reverence to wondrous creation and our journey through it.
“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a
tree.”

 

-Joyce Kilmer

Memorial Day Observed

Travel

On this Memorial Day, we pause to remember those who fought for our country, so that we can enjoy the freedom and the beauty they helped to preserve.

“The trail ahead leads into wilderness. It is a place where wild plants and animals live out their daily lives, and where natural processes prevail.  It is an area for people to be spiritually refreshed, and physically challenged. It is an area to enjoy.  From our visits, we gain rich experiences, and memories, but in return we must remember to give this area another day of unspoiled wildness.”

-Henry David Thoreau

Everyday Adventures

Edgar, Travel

Traveling and adventure are defined by our perspective.

Indiana Jones had some of the most marvelous adventures that an on-looking thrill-seeking adolescent could ever imagine. When he wasn’t teaching class, he kept us captivated by roaring through the jungles in paramilitary vehicles, rescuing people in peril, and claiming booby-trapped riches for himself; what a wonderful existence.  It makes us wonder what his average day was like. Was it hum drum monotony around the university?  I don’t think so.  I believe he found wonder in it.  Professor Jones did not get bored because of his perspective, not his profession.

Most of us live fairly routine lives, and certainly all of our lives are common to ourselves.  We are used to our own activities, and this can be misunderstood, by us, as boredom.  This can lend to looking for greener pastures, and distract us from appreciating the beauty and adventure we are surrounded by daily.

A lot of us take on a different persona on vacation.  We appreciate a meal, are more outgoing, linger at a sunset.  Why not do that daily?  It’s free. It’s fun, and it’s simple.

Just a slight redirection of light, and the form is changed.

Bee the Positivity

Travel

Change

New beginnings

All beautiful things

The change of season is a wonderful thing and a reminder that when things change there is always going to be beauty.

It all depends on your perspective.

Choose to see the hope.

Bee the positivity.

….

…

.

-Marie

First Trip

Edgar, Travel

Since I can remember I have looked for the truth.  In this, I have not readily accepted what people tell me as fact.  I like proof.  I want fact, but I prefer it w/ data.  This has led me to “challenge authority”.
This has put me in an interesting group, slightly outside the herd.  I have lived on societies’ fringe, at the edge of firelight’s glow.  This has made me a seeker, a traveler, and made me search for the truth.  Like other travelers, what I seek is an understanding, but unlike many, I understand this has a price and accept the ride, and its lesson, is worth the cost of admission.

I remember running away from home for the first time.  I was about 5.  I had a disagreement w/ some level of authority at my house. I acted on the emotion provoked by this circumstance, threw on my spider man costume (it was just after Halloween), packed a bag, and hit the road.

We lived on five acres, and out on a rural route.  I headed down the drive and then North.  I went for what seemed like forever, and finally came to rest in the neighbor’s lawn.  I remember the grass was cool, as I sat in it, w/ the sun setting.  I opened my bag, and took out some candy to eat.  My first meal on the road was fabulous.

As I sat in the cool grass, eating sweets, in that solitude I felt a grand independence and peace. I was alone, and apprehensively excited about what lie before me.  I was at the edge of the firelight, excited about exploring the dark.  In this, I found peace, and an appreciation for my soft warm bed.

I packed it in, and returned home from my first journey.

I returned w/ a new understanding of life and self.  Since this, my wanderings have grown, but they are still filled w/those deep and colorful thoughts and feelings.

Travel thrills me and continues to enrich my mind, spirit, and soul.

Edgar~