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May 27, 2009

roadtrippin'


oh what a spontaneous road trip offers! no expectations, no real road map, no specific time frame. heighten senses emerging around each corner, abnormal amounts of cd listening, all that good stuff. the reason for the trip was to climb, simply climb. oh, and the destination was arkansas.

after some fast decisions, there was no turning back and we set off probably too late but who cares right? there was somewhere to be gettin' to. nothing, not darkness, not sleep deprivation, not even a pitcher of long island ice tea was going to hold us back. i was traveling with a person i could talk to for the 12 hour drive and still have more to talk about after arriving. remarkable i must say. i came to realize a lot of things about traveling and more specifically road-tripping that had previously crossed my mind but never made it to words. life on the road is quite a capricious lifestyle and nothing i have fully experienced. i can tell however it breathes new life into ones soul. i suppose the closest i have come to this is living in rome, but funny enough didn't operate a vehicle for 6 months so no road tripping, just train tripping.

i had never made this drive before so even though the majority was what some would say "the most boring drive in the US" across the flat midwest, i didn't mind it one bit. we caught the sliver of a moon and an uncommonly pink sunrise. pulling into fayetteville and more specifically driving around the university was so odd. just plain odd. it made me happy, sad, nostalgic and maybe a few other things. i should have taken a few hours and walked around campus but choose a nap instead.

the crazy thing about this trip was that i was going back to a very familiar place to do something i had never done there before. we left for horseshoe canyon ranch in the morning and spent 2 days there. we climbed, we climbed in the rain, we made new friends, we watched the rain soak into sandstone and tried not to get too upset about the predicament. even though weather conditions hurt the climbing situation it was still great to get out of the city life and into a slower pace. isn't part of the program in spontaneous action to be accepting of change whether you prefer it or not?
step 1: assess the situation.
step 2: do what you can/want.
step 3: be happy.
if you can't do these things i believe life on the road is not for you. but what do i know? i haven't been there.

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