A little bit of rambling

I am going to start this bit of rambling off by apologizing. I have been feeling pretty reflective lately and I have a feeling that this is going to be a long bit of rambling with no point in the end. I don't know if I am feeling this way because of the holidays or because it's the end of the year and I always tend to reflect back on the passing year. Whatever it is, all I can say is sorry because this may end up being looooong.

Anyway, we have just spent about a week in the Palm Springs area. While we were there, I remembered that some good friends of ours have a vacation home in Palm Springs. These good friends used to be our neighbors when we were living on our sailboat at Shilshole in Seattle. We really liked having these people as neighbors because first of all, they are great people and secondly, because they were hardly ever around. The best kind of neighbor is one that you never see. We could be as wild and crazy as we liked and they weren't there to complain about it...and believe me, we were wild and crazy neighbors. Since they weren't on their boat most of the time and since their boat was nicer than ours, we would routinely break into their boat and rummage through their stuff and dream of what it would be like to have a nice power boat like theirs (John, if you are reading this, that was all a joke...only sometimes would we break into your boat and rummage through your stuff...not routinely...and it wasn't really us that did it, it was always Brenda).

When I remembered that they had a place in Palm Springs, I gave our good friends John and Jean a call to see if they were possibly in town. Luckily for us, they had arrived in town the day before us and luckily for John, he had just retired the day before he got in town (congratulations again!). Since a retirement is a good reason to celebrate and since we were pretty excited to see our good friends, a dinner out was in order. Out to dinner we go and I have to say, it was really great to see some familiar faces and to have some time to catch up. One of the hardest things about our foot loose and fancy free lifestyle is that we miss our friends and family, so it was really great to be able to spend a little bit of time with some friends.

While we were catching up, John had a couple of statements and questions that have stuck with me and have made me think for a bit about what it is that we are doing. Since I don't work anymore and I don't have to worry about meetings and schedules and other mundane tasks, my mind is free to wander on things that don't really matter to anyone but me...and now you are reading about these things that don't really matter to anyone but me.

The first statement that he said went something like “it doesn't seem that you have quite figured out how to be retired. You haven't seemed to slow down since you left Seattle.” That got me thinking about what it means for us to be retired. I've also been thinking about how much we haven't slowed down but rather how much we have sped up. When we left Seattle 7 months ago, I thought that we would take some time to wind down, chill out, smell the roses, and just maybe relax. In the past 7 months, we have had 3 days where we stayed home and relaxed. The rest of the time, we have been on the move and seeing the sites. 3 days is not much time off. Those 3 days were really forced recuperation because we were so exhausted that we couldn't physically move even if we wanted to. For the first couple of months after we left, I actually thought that we were doing this all wrong. We should be hanging out on a beach having some foo-foo drink while soaking up the sun instead of chasing down adventure at every turn. We felt a constant need to see something new and then move on to the next spot. It took me a while to figure out that this is our version of retirement. The best thing that I can come up with about retirement is that, for us anyway, it is having the time to do the things that we love, and for us those things are pretty simple. We love the great outdoors, we love to see cool stuff, we love to learn new things, and we love to spend time together. I think that we are getting pretty good at being retired because we cover those 4 things every day. It's pretty great and I can't recommend it enough.

The second thing that John had said that stuck with me was “some of this stuff that you are doing looks pretty scary! What is the draw to get you to do some of this stuff?” I actually have been thinking about this statement more so than the first. Is this stuff scary? Are we risking our lives? Are we doing things that would bring us harm? I never thought of it that way. Sure, there is an element of danger in being out in the boonies with the lions and tigers and bears but I think there is an element of risk in just about everything we do. I think that we have had more scary moments just driving through rush hour traffic when we were still working than we have had in the last 7 months of adventuring. And when I was working, I can remember lots of times when I was hanging off of the side of a Seattle high-rise building thinking that this is what is going to get me killed (I am really happy to have left that behind).

This part is the disclaimer for my Mom because I am sure she is freaking out about some of the stuff that we are doing. Mom, I am Mr. Safety 96.4% of the time. The other 3.6% of the time I throw all caution to the wind and whatever happens, happens (Mom, that was a joke...I am Mr. Safety all of the time...that was a joke too...I'm actually Mr. Safety 84.8% of the time). When we are rock climbing, I triple check the knots. When we are squeezing through a tiny slot canyon, I wear skinny jeans so I will fit through the tiniest of openings. When we are hiking in the boonies, I carry a gps with extra batteries so we don't get lost (and we bring extra supplies just in case we do get lost). When we are wandering through the desert, we have lots of extra water. When we are in bear country, I make sure the bacon is in Brenda's backpack and not mine. Safety first.

I know that there are people out there who would look at our adventure and think that we are crazy to do this sort of thing and that they couldn't imagine living this kind of lifestyle. I also know that there are other people out there who would look at our adventure and think that we are a couple of weenies because we aren't pushing ourselves hard enough. All I can say to both types of people is that this is our adventure and it fits us perfectly.  This is the most fun, educational, and exciting thing we have ever had the chance to undertake.

Why are we doing this? Well, this answer is pretty simple. Because we love it. The longer version of the answer is that we are seeing and doing things that a very minuscule percentage of the population gets to see and do and that alone is pretty thrilling to us. We are looking at natural wonders that would blow your mind (my mind has been blown at least 158 times since we left). We have learned more in the last 7 months about ourselves and about the world than we could have ever learned while at work. And more than anything, it's just plain fun.

So that's what has been occupying my mind for the last couple of days...and that's the short version of what's been rattling around in my noggin. You really don't want to hear the long version.

Enough of that rambling and back to Palm Springs. While we were in the area, we had a lot of fun. We had thought we would be there for 2 days so we could get laundry done and get cleaned up but we ended up staying for a week. We spent a couple days in Joshua Tree National Park, we climbed a couple of the high peaks, we hiked through the belly of the San Andreas Fault and hoped that the big one wouldn't hit while we were there, we explored a couple of slot canyons, and we had a night out with some good friends. It was another great week.

Up next...Christmas in Death Valley.

Sunrise in the Boonies

The tippety-top of Ryan Mountain

Joshua Tree National Park

The view from the tippety-top of Mastodon Peak

Me looking into the San Andreas Fault...trying to figure out the way in

Me in the center of the Fault.  

Exploring another slot canyon