My Favorite Place


A handful of weeks ago we were in Seattle visiting with our good friends Larry and Karen. These are a couple of our sailing friends that have been working their way around the world for the past 4 years on their boat. They left their boat in Australia and flew back to Seattle for a short visit and we were lucky enough to spend a little bit of time with them. Anyway, these people are pretty amazing. First of all, they are older than dirt (I can say that because they are our friends, we love them, and because it's true...they are older than dirt) secondly, they have been to amazing places while seeing and doing amazing things, and they are seeing and doing these things while they are older than dirt. They really have incredible stories that we can only dream about (some of these stories are scarier than we would like to deal with).

While I was talking with Karen, I asked her what her favorite place has been so far. Keep in mind that they have been to countless countries, they have crossed oceans, and they have been to deserted islands thousands of miles from nowhere. Her answer was “my favorite place is right where I am”. I didn't really understand her answer at the time because I was sure that there had to be some spot that stood out from the rest. There has to be a best spot on earth. There has to be some place that we have to get to because it doesn't get any better. Well, I finally understand where she was coming from.

We are currently at a place called The Great Goose Necks of the San Juan River. It is spectacular here! It is the best spot that I have ever seen. Brenda even said “this is the coolest place I have ever been to!” This is a place that the San Juan River has carved out for millions of years and has zigged and zagged its way down through the landscape carving out amazing giant S's. We are camping up on a plateau that is in one of the S's. The little spot that we are calling home for tonight is on top of one of the carved out fingers that is about 100 feet across and it is straight down 1,000 feet to the river on both sides of us. The sunset was amazing, the sky seems bigger here, and the stars are brighter than I have ever seen. Incredible.

The funny thing is that yesterday we were camped out on the Colorado River in a canyon that had amazing red rock walls that were 500 feet tall surrounding us. The day before that we were out in the middle of the desert with incredible sunset's and beautiful starry nights. A couple of days before that we were climbing through ancient ruins on the sides of cliffs. A few days before that we saw a bison fight for his life against a pack of hungry wolves. Each day brings us something new and spectacular and each day we say to each other “this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen!” Each day seems to be that we are standing in the best spot on earth. There can't be anything better. Then tomorrow comes and we get to a new spot and what do you know...it's the best spot on earth.
What I'm getting at is that I finally understand what Karen was telling me. I may have a different interpretation of the statement than she does but I think we may be pretty close to being on the same page. Wherever we are seems to be pretty great. Today, this is my favorite spot on earth. The Great Goose Necks of the San Juan River is something that I think everyone should see. It is incredible. Tomorrow we are going someplace new (we don't know where yet) and it will most likely be my favorite spot on earth as well...and I will probably think that you should see that place too.

Comments

  1. Larry_and_KarenOctober 7, 2014 at 1:54 PM

    From our prospective the number of best places on earth appears inexhaustible. But I can tell you that whoever they are, they are all next to Karen or Brenda.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Larry_and_KarenOctober 7, 2014 at 1:55 PM

    That should read wherever, not whoever

    ReplyDelete

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