I have to admit I was struggling. My last post was during Lent, 2022. Before that, I started (and dropped the same day) a narrative about our trip to Glacier National Park during the pandemic. I’ve thought a lot about why I quit writing and came to the conclusion that I was trying to make every story funny. I’m sure you already know this, not everything is funny. But, since most of the comments I received on my earlier stories were about how the readers laughed, I began trying to make everything funny. Well, let me try to catch you up on the last two years and maybe I can find some inspiration to keep writing.
We finished our trip to Glacier. On the way, we stopped in Moab, Utah, and visited some of the parks there. By far the most memorable, for me, was Canyonlands. We almost didn’t go because it was raining the day we left Moab, so we knew we wouldn’t get to do any hikes like we did in Arches. But the views were incredible! We would be driving along on the seemingly flat, desert ground and see a mist rising in the distance. Then, almost like magic, we would come upon a view like this. To see God’s handiwork and experience his provision of water for the desert plants at the same time is awe-inspiring! How could the trip get any better?
From Moab, we went to Salt Lake City. During the summer of 2021, there were a number of wildfires in the western states and Salt Lake was covered with smoke from these fires. We did manage to do a tour of the Mormon Tabernacle and the Beehive house. During the Tabernacle tour, we learned about the work that is being done to stabilize the Temple – it’s pretty incredible. One of the things that impressed me was that Brigham Young was a carpenter or woodworker. They still had some of his tools in the house. More on tools later, but from Salt Lake City, headed to Boise, Idaho. #ShoppingBeauty has some friends from her earlier life at UT Southwestern that live there, and we were going for a visit.
I’ve always thought I was a pretty active, fit, and healthy person. I used to run – till my knees gave out. But I still hike, climb trees (to hunt), ride my bike, etc. But man, these mountain states folks take fitness to the next level and beyond. We went for a bike ride with our friends and thought we’d done something riding 15 miles. Then we found out they kept us on the creek trail because it was flat! Talk about a humbling experience for #TheOldManInTheWoods, but that was only the beginning. That evening at dinner we met their daughter and son-in-law. He was injured while training to be a Navy Seal and is paralyzed from the waist down. So what does he do now – he rides with his father-in-law’s bike-riding group in his wheelchair! I’m telling you, next level and beyond.
From Boise, we made our way to Hungry Horse, Montana, and the Glacier National Park/family reunion phase of our trip. We were met there by #ShoppingBeauty’s cousin and her husband from South Carolina. This was my first time to meet them, but they felt as close as some of my cousins, because of the phone conversations we’d had over the years and planning for this trip. We hiked, rode bikes, did a river rafting trip, and just generally had a great time hanging out and getting (re-) acquainted.
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After leaving the park, and the cousins, we took a couple of days in Great Falls to celebrate #ShoppingBeauty’s birthday, then made our way home. I think the only disappointing thing about this trip was that we couldn’t go over to Canada to see Waterton Lakes. Remember this was 2021 and the Canadian border was still closed. In fact, a lot of the shops and restaurants on the US side were closed or limited because so many of their employees lived in Canada. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to force ourselves to go back!!
So that finishes what I started way back in 2021. Since that time, we’ve spent as much time as possible with the grandkids, made a couple of bike trips, as well as a couple of other memorable trips. I may, or may not, write about these trips. I think the next installment will be to update you on a new hobby. We’ll see, you never can tell where and how inspiration will strike the #OldManInTheWoods.