A few days back I had stopped to fill up the ever hungry gas tank. I met Keith who was filling up his gas tank. He popped over to ask me about my Roadtrek. After touring the RV he told me he had two weeks off between jobs and was driving the Oregon Trail from St Louis to Oregon. What he was really doing was a reconnisance tour.

Keith is 63 years young. He has a deep interest in the history of the settlers who walked west to find a better life, one of new opportunities. Keith is planning to walk the trail, as close as he can to the original trail and is planning to walk it soon. He has investigated handcarts and showed me a photo of one that he thinks will fit his needs. It is made by the Amish. He has mapped his route. Unfortunately I don’t remember his target date but I know it is soon. He plans to camp for free as much as he can and has contacted organizations such as the Elks, and churches.

This man has a plan. I hope he pulls it off. You should have seen his eyes light up as he spoke of this great adventure. I think we all need great adventures in our lives. For some it is traveling to a far reaching destination. For others it may be a walk out the front door. It doesn’t matter what the adventure is. What matters, I feel, is that we reach for the unknown and make it ours.

I have had a lot of adventures in my life, some small and some much larger. One of my great adventures was getting married. Jim and I had a marvelous life together for 21 years. I miss him still. Since his death I am on another grand adventure. Traveling is fun and I have been enjoying seeing so many new places and meeting new people. I don’t think this is the grand adventure. I feel that all this travel is my way of looking for that next great adventure in my life. It frustrates me to not be able to identify it. At the same time it is OK. What is the saying “sometimes it is the journey that is important, not the destination”?

I am not always patient. I am learning to be, thanks to yoga and meditation and learning and being alive this long. Age does help in expanding my conciousness. Sometimes you have to live a while to “get it”, whatever it is.

I am sitting on my mat in the middle of the Piedras Forest in Southern Colorado. I have soaked in the hot springs at Pagosa Hota Springs and by the time I post this I will be on my own mini-adventure.

In 1996 Jim and I bought 45 acres of property in the Four Corners area outside of the town of Durango. We were planning to build a straw bale home, live off the grid and enjoy retirement in southern Colorado.

When we got close to planning our next grand adventure, we kept getting bad news. First breast cancer (Janet) and then salivary gland cancer (Jim) and then the metastasis of the later. Plans had been drawn up and we were slowly working through everything. When we both needed medical treatment, the plans for building came to a stand still.

This is my first trip to the property since Jim died. It has been emotionally very hard for me to think of this land and coming out here to figure out what is next for this property. As I arrived back in the USA from Canada on this current trip, I decided it was time to come south and go sit on the property and figure out what the next step might be. If I can’t figure it out, I at least can say hello to this beautiful piece of property and enjoy it for a few nights.

Nothing needs to be done in haste.

Wish me well on this mini-adventure. I feel that I can use all the support I can get.

When the next grand adventure appears, I hope I can see it for what it is and grab a hold and go along for the ride.

Today I am thankful for grand and mini-adventures. Today I am thankful for my friends. Today I am thankful for all the followers of this blog.