Old Lady Who

 Tomorrow is launch day.  I have as much packed as I can, I have rooms and campsites booked through October 15, then a couple of nights in my cousin's guest room.  Then back toward home. I have a very clean house, as I decided to clean rather than sit around and panic.   I have a guided climb booked in Rumney, 3 train trips in various places, 3 days on Cape Cod, and a ticket to the space museum in Huntsville.  Yay Space Camp! I am mostly camping for spiritual and economic reasons.  I always get wanderlust in October, so this should fill that need.  I am planning lots of bike riding, hiking, and bouldering, and lots and lots of water watching.  Maybe some paddle board renting, since I don't know if it will be warm enough to paddle, and an inflatable paddle board takes up a LOT of room! The trip has been substantially scaled back and rerouted since my last post.  I am heading inland after Cape Cod, and hitting the Monongahela National Fore...

I'm doing it!  I'm taking a Golden Gap Year. I am setting off the end of next month for a three quarter circumnavigation of the United States, with a short dip into Canada.  Being the neurotic overthinker I am, I have reservations for the first month made already.  I have most of the gear I need, and could technically go right now with what I have, but I think I will be happier with water jugs instead of a dozen Camelbak bottles like I do for local camping, and with something besides three suitcases for the large amount of clothes I'll need, since I'll be doing laundry once every ten days or so. Did I mention I am primarily tent camping?  Around the top of Lake Superior, across Vermont and New Hampshire, a hotel on Cape Cod, AAC campground in the Gunks, and it's kind of up in the air after that. Later plans include Virginia Beach again, Ocracoke, Huntsville, Alabama for the Space Museum, lots of zigzagging to get everything in New Mexico and Arizona, then Joshua Tre...

 I took RTD and Summit Stage to Breck Nordic Center today. I left Englewood Station on the D Line about 8:40.  Had a 10 minute wait for the E Line, got to Union Station and discovered I had to download the Bustang app to buy tickets, so I did.  The Bustang left right on time, and made it up the mountain in the predicted 2 hours.  It was sunny and dry on the east side of the Tunnel, and WINTER on the west side!  Heavy snow, you could hardly see across the valley. I saw a doe browsing just before Georgetown, and a hawk somewhere on the outbound, but I don't remember exactly where. We got to Frisco Transit Center and I had to go around and ask bus drivers which bus went to Frisco Nordic Center.  The nice man in the first bus in line told me where and when to wait, and I had a half hour, so I went across the street and got a sandwich, and made it back in time.  The driver of the right bus confirmed, but forgot to call my stop, and the busses on that route ...

  I couldn’t find my way out of the neighborhood, as the on ramps I normally use for I25 were both closed.   I finally wound up going north on Santa Fe and getting on there.   Overshot The Parking Spot, as usual, but made it there and got parked.   The shuttles were way behind.   The first one that came was a special call for a minivan of vacationers who filled it up.   The rest of us were left waiting behind an SUV with a license plate that said “GODISLV”.   I was starting to think we were waiting for Godot, not a spotted van. Made it to the airport and through security with no problem.   They gate checked my suitcase, so I didn’t have to lug that through Atlanta. Atlanta was no big deal, though they have taken the TV screens off the ceiling of the tunnel between A and B concourses.   We arrived on time in Norfolk, and it was only a couple of minutes to get my suitcase and to the rental car.   The car was   Malibu with the ...