Colorado

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"He was born in the summer of his twenty seventh year, coming home to a place he'd never been before. He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again,

you might say he found a key for every door."

a few days before heading to colorado i started humming rocky mountain high, it had been years since i actually listened to the song so i put it on.... goosebumps. the lyrics are eerily similar to the state i'm in, right down to this being my twenty seventh year. after a brief trip last month, colorado was once again calling my name.

it seems as though i always find what i'm looking for because i am in fact never looking for anything at all. i met miss sarah rose on a rainy fourth of july in the minuscule ghost town of silver plume, a month later i'm back in denver to spend a long weekend with her. 

i could get into the natural beauty that we surrounded ourselves with during my short visit; rainy hikes to granite cliffs overlooking a picturesque swimming hole, a glass like reservoir with quaint hill side homes as a backdrop, and of course the majestic rocky mountains. a sight like nothing i had ever seen before, seas of pine with alluring snow capped peaks jetting into the wide open blue sky. but the scenery was not the purpose of this trip, it was to spend time with someone who i felt an instant connection with. 

i read a quote a few weeks back that hit me hard, "Guard your time fiercely. Be generous with it, but be intentional about it." i have admittedly been spreading myself a bit thin over the past few months, jumping at any chance i could to get out. but a change of tide has washed over me recently, my time is now focused and given to those who are truly important to me, and this trip was no exception. 

by sheer happenstance we both ended up in that tiny mining town on the fourth of july, sitting fire side in the damp mountain air. i never could have imagined what would become of that chance encounter, but sarah said it best herself in a note she handed me at the airport that ended with "i'm lucky to have someone to miss."

 

Water World. Austin & Surrounding Areas.

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have you ever felt like a tourist in your own city or town? i constantly find myself looking around austin in complete awe of everything it has to offer. even after three years here, the people and places continue to amaze me. do i really live in this dream world? from swimming in barton springs to grabbing a coffee at brew & brew, i feel like i'm on vacation everyday(and thats saying a lot since i do have a full time job). these feelings were amplified two weeks ago when an old friend came down to austin from portland, maine. 

she spent the night in an airport due to severe thunderstorms, i blew out my tire an hour before i was supposed to pick her up, the normally bright blue texas sky was under a thick cover of grey clouds, but the string of bad luck leading up to her visit wasn't going to stop us from making it the best weekend ever. 

from the moment she rolled into town until her early morning flight home, we were nonstop. friends, food, drinks, hiking and a lot of swimming. 

a secret swimming hole, barton springs, commons ford and inks lake. our days were based around staying cool and having fun. i usually get burnt out showing people around austin and the surrounding areas, but when it came time for her flight home i didn't want the weekend to end. i was doing the same things i normally do when i stay in town, but it felt like i was on a vacation as well. the feeling of pure amazement and enjoyment in your own city is a beautiful thing and i'm happy that austin can still offer that to me. 

 

check out kanya's adventures in maine by clicking here. http://www.hillsandtrailsco.com/

Llano River, Texas.

for my twenty seventh birthday i had plans of heading down to the us/mexico border by my lonesome for a little kayak overnighter. on my way to pick up the rental car for the trip i feel my phone buzz, "come out to llano tonight." after an internal back and forth, and another text reading "del rio will always be there, we won't always be in llano." i decided it would be better to spend my birthday with good friends rather than by myself. 

this new year was started with a lot of laughs under a bright full moon and a sunrise swim in the llano river. i'm extremely thankful i decided against the solo trip, as i couldn't have asked for a better time with a better group of folks.

i've always thought of myself as a person who liked solitude, and after the divorce i had grand visions of solo road trips and camping under the stars alone. i do still long for that feeling, but as i continue to grow i find that sharing my time with old and new friends helps me better experience the places i go and the things i do.

"happiness is only real when shared." christopher mccandless

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Misc. CO

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last saturday night i say to my friend ryan (@brotherstories) 
"we should go on a trip next weekend."
"yea we should, where do you want to go?"
"i don't care lets just drive as far as we can."
"want to go to colorado?"
"hell yes"
and that was it, we had no plan on where we wanted to go or what we wanted to see. we had a day that we had to be back by, but we ended up blowing that off anyways. we just loaded up the car and drove.

a whirlwind trip, four days, two thousand miles, new friends and familiar faces, a night atop a glacier under the stars, beer, whiskey and good tunes. i've never had a vacation like the one i had this past weekend. we crammed a weeks worth of fun into three days, all while running on a few hours of sleep a night.  

we saw some amazing sights, the great sand dunes, red rocks amphitheater, st. marys glacier, chautauqua park and the beautiful cities of denver and boulder. but what made the trip were the people we met and shared our days and nights with. stories from the heart about love and life, to ridiculous arguments about trash bag ponchos, they all made for the most memorable weekend.

on the long drive home i turned to my friend and asked him if he ever felt like everything in life was just perfect, like you're almost searching for something to go wrong or be worried about because everything just feels right. i've felt this before, although it's been a while. a little over a year ago when i was finally getting better after a very serious illness i wrote this, "i have always been what you would call a glass half full kind of person, now that glass is always full and i couldn't ask for anything else. life is good, life is fun, life is easy." i feel that again and i couldn't help but sit in the passengers seat and shake my head in disbelief, everything in my life just seems to be in a perfect balance. 

Season of Change

it's been an interesting few weeks to say the least, a season of change if you will. i've been stuck in austin for a month straight, a rare occurrence and something that hasn't happened the last two years of my life. heavy, june started out with a million things weighing on my mind and heart but the last few weeks leading up to july have opened my eyes. i find myself anxious in the best way possible, not with fear but with excitement. like a kid on christmas eve knowing he has to go to sleep before being able to tear in to those presents, but laying there wide awake filled with the dreams of that brand new remote controlled car. good things and good people have been coming into my life at an almost alarming rate. i find my heart racing and a big grin randomly appearing throughout the day, a product of my enthusiasm for what the future holds. 

i've undoubtedly been slacking on the updates here on the blog, but things behind the scenes are picking up, and i have some good things planned in terms of travel for july and august. thanks again y'all for bearing with me.