"Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life."

The day started early in the morning as I kissed Silas goodbye in Albuquerque and headed on my way. Our day today began with an elderly woman early in the morning carrying a Netflix envelope home from her mailbox, and ended with the I-19 exit for Vicksburg Rd. Glorious bookends right there, folks. I'm sure I forgot/didn't do many things at Bandelier (get my volunteer pass, bookstore credit, and box name tag; obtain my NPS cowboy hat, find my headlamp in my car, bring Rebecca a tshirt and mug, check my mailbox, say goodbye to Shannon, Dennis, Tori, and many others, oh, and checkout of my house!--I bribed Maddy with cookies today but she suggested I send them to you, Beth). As Virginia said, my departure was like ripping off a Band-aid. I couldn't get myself to leave the house, where I was hanging out so comfortably with Beth and Gini and I eventually looked at my watch 15 minutes after I told myself I was going to leave. I stood up and said "see you guys later" and walked out to my car. Their rousing complaints lulled me back inside to give them hugs (2 each, and just kidding, that was all part of my plan, but I needed to somehow rip that band-aid off even if I did intend take the last little bit off carefully). Above is the photo of the beautious ("crazy-beautiful") moment that I texted many of you about---the rainbow over Black Mesa.

Leaving the Great Outdoors, Headed to the Urban Outdoors

It looks like I will be moving back to DC for 6 months starting in January. This is a big jump, but I'm confident it is a good one--be it stepping stone back out west or stepping stone to something else or a whole new door open.

For the record, these are the boots I wore for the past 9 months. Every day for 5 months at Wupatki, plus my whole backcountry season at Bandelier, during which I hiked over 250 miles in these suckers.

D. and I ventured to Amarillo (Armadillo?) spontaneously to pick up car parts and visited the Ft. Sumner area as the sun was setting, the moon was rising, and Venus and Jupiter were making themselves known.

The next day, D., V/G., and I proceed on an epic adventure a la "Portage up Mt. Washington" (see Chubbers, every summer). We salvaged a flotation device, paddled is downriver, and carried up the F.Trail. It was epic, the F. Trail surprisingly felt shorter than ever, the rapids were fun and I finally used my lifejacket that I have carried around for 17 months, I got to sport my hiking skirt in the park and feel cute and outdoorsy at the same time, and

Quote of the trip, repeated with all sorts of fill-ins: "Eww! I've got Rio in my _____!"