Set Free

For those of you just beginning to read this continuing story, there are four previous posts that begin the tale, should you be interested. They are: Possibility Within Impossibility, Breakdown, Stuck. Again., and Shifting Sands.

Chapter Five

Let me begin by saying how sorry I am that it has taken me this long to get back to telling you the rest of this story (that of the thwarted travel-trailer trip to attend a wedding in California). But I am determined to get it told if only to find out for myself what it may all mean.

As is true for most of you I’m sure, life has a tendency to present possibilities we don’t intend, and when we/I take some of them up, I/we can find ourselves overwhelmed. Thus in keeping to form, in the middle of my “normal” living, all sorts of “abnormal” things kept popping up to pull me away from writing, thus the long stretch of time between my more recent posts…

But for anyone out there who is still following along with me, please allow me to continue…

[As an aside first, though, let me just say that one of these diversionary possibilities that cut into my writing time, was the visitation to my small bit of land here in Truchas, NM by a French TV Journalist/Director and her cameraman, Emma and Thibault…

… Emma is pictured above and Thibault is the dark spot in the upper left quarter of the photo below. I kept joking he was part mountain goat. I still swear to it…

But I’ll tell you all about that and them in a later post, I promise].

Just now, though, let me take you back to that forlorn little story of my trailer trip, all the way back to last fall this will take us. As noted in the previous post, Shifting Sands, we were FINALLY able to pull away from Snow Canyon State Park in southern Utah and I felt as though I’d been set free from whatever hold the desert had over me. And I had to trust I’d be packing home the lessons it had imparted because I sure wasn’t clear about them yet, although I knew there had to be something…

But we hit the open road and it felt celebratory; I was almost light-headed, giddy…

A big storm was brewing and it felt like we were loping along just ahead of it. I was very energized by this and the added sense of escape it all presented. If I can imagine what it would feel like to fly on the edge of an electric force field, I think it would feel just like this…

… it felt like magic. We were “getting out of Dodge” just ahead of a band of furies…

… just ahead of the snow and the predicted freezing temperatures that were traveling with this storm, thank the stars…

We passed orchards and lush farmland…

… and then we were exiting the main highway and taking the turnoff to Cedar Breaks National Monument. I’d forgotten what a stunning road this is…

What a drive we were in for as we started to climb…

There’s the first shocking bit of fall color (remember this is way back in October still)…

We started climbing up through a big stone canyon…

… beautiful, ancient and powerful; awe-inspiring…

… up into the aspens…

… which were ablaze with varying color!

Even the red rocks took something of a backseat to these luscious colors of fall…

But, no, I loved the stunning red rock cliffs AND the changing colors of the trees and shrubs equally. I watched deciduous leaves dotting the forest, almost like a dance, as we made our ascent. But the black storm nipped at our heals, thunder rumbled through the canyon, as the storm started to overtake. It was almost as though Snow Canyon herself was reaching out through her various connecting sandstone cliffs and ridges, trying to pull me back to her…

… or else that’s me feeling a wee bit too self-important? You think? Well, maybe so.

And as I write this I’m thinking maybe it’s time for ME to let go of Snow Canyon and all the memories that are held there for me, rather than the other way around.

Then almost all at once we leveled off. We had reached the Markagunt Plateau which stands at about 10,500 feet, the same as if we’d driven to the top of Truchas Peaks and parked the trailer there. In the last 45 minutes to an hour, we had climbed 7,000 feet.

The landscape, being a plateau, was much more open and light than the canyon we had just traversed…

… but the storm, still behind us, was threatening even so. Kim really wanted to get the Airstream set up for the night before we were faced with snow and frigid temperatures.

And we had no idea what our campground might be like. Best get there well ahead of the dark.

It had been a stunning drive. In fact I couldn’t help but feel a bit like we had climbed straight out of hell and landed in heaven, fingers crossed.

The campgrounds of my childhood, I was finding, rarely exist anymore. Replacing the pine-needle strewn tent sites tucked around a lake or along the sides of a river or creek, were big parking lots with “services” plumbed throughout them, like those that would deliver water, electricity and sewer to a trailer. After Snow Canyon I was praying this place would be a better experience, and it was.

Even though this was exactly what I described above, a huge gravel parking lot, there was lots of space surrounding each site…

… and beautiful views…

… quiet surroundings…

… all services except WiFi, drat. But I would recommend it to any of you. It was called Paradise RV Park & Campground.

So we settled in easily and quickly…

… and were so very grateful for space around us and cooler temperatures…

… and a gentle good morning in our new, quiet, campground…

… except it was 19° out there when we woke! The trailer was FREEZING!

I confess I only poked my nose out from under the warm comforter…

… until Kim handed me a steaming hot mug of coffee and he’d had the heater cranking for some time…

These sweet little songbirds chirped and chatted at us as we got the Airstream fully settled into what would become our new town for awhile…

Welcome to Panguich, Utah, a wonderful little town that time has mercifully passed by. There are about 1500 people living there…

… at 6,600 feet, so up from Snow Canyon which was at 3,500 feet…

I was very glad I’d packed all of those wool things I’d felt silly for having in Snow Canyon in the 90° heat…

… And very glad, also, that on vacation all diets are suspended. Ahhhhhh, Panguich my love…

Love to you all,

Jeane

 

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