An Itch to Scratch

     Albuquerque, NM. End of July. In the present.




   
     "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."

     ~ Alan Alda

     Everyone says that 2012 will be the end of the world as we know it. For me, it was true. My world changed this year. It is hard to know where to begin, but maybe less is more and all you need to know is that I need to spend some time finding myself. I honestly don't know what I expect to find; that is the beauty of a vision quest. The basset hound and I have rented an SUV, we are loading a cooler with beer, and driving until the cell phone looses service. 

     The itch started some time ago. It has finally become unbearable. The city is hot. It stinks like people. Everywhere you go there is people! Work -- Let's just say it isn't called "Happy Fun Time" for a reason. Electricity pumps through your blood stream after spending too long in the city. Its been 2 years that I haven't left the city. I also haven't had the pleasure of my own vehicle since December..  ..The open road calls my name.. This vacation is long overdue. 

     I can't help it.. I am just SO excited!!! It is all I can think about, therefore all I can talk about, and I am worthless otherwise. Purposely building anxiety, I can see my friends getting excited for me as well! And I haven't even gotten to the good part yet! The destination..

      For 7 days I will tour Southwest Colorado Mining towns. Starting in a little place called Dunton Hot Springs, the tour will advance to Telluride, where my lovely mother and I have a standing brunch date for Lox Eggs Benedict and a Bloodymary. ..be jealous..  :)  Continuing north, I will stop in Montrose, the largest town on my route. Here I will recoup with Grandmothers and friends before heading into the great unknown.. Up until this part I will have company. Friends and family dot the countryside along the way, and I have alot of faces to visit! My vision quest turns solitary at this point. There is a wonderful little hot spring just before Ouray on my return trip where I can camp for the night. Did I mention it is clothing optional? Silverton is next, probably just for lunch and a visit to the miners shrine. The last night, between Silverton and Durango there is a campsite at 10,515 ft elevation where I am determined to make it through the night. It could snow. 

     "If you should, in your imagination, put together in one small group, perhaps 12 miles square, all the heights and depths, the rugged precipices and polished faces of rock, and all the sharp pinnacles and deeply indented crests, and twenty times the inaccessible summits that both of us have ever seen, you would not have a picture equal to this."

~ W.H. Holmes, describing the San Juan Mountains in 1876