Where a Grateful Dead song, a science theory by a futurist, and this blog all intersect.
Author: Shelly
Hauling Ass from Colorado to Wisconsin
A four-day trip across the plains, with Charlie Parr as our reward.
An Unlikely Landing Location
You may find this hard to believe, but of every location in this country we could live, I’ve chosen Madison, Wisconsin. (See my previous post on planning to stop traveling.) I swear, I’ve been thinking about a landing place for about three years. Everywhere on this map, we’ve stayed at least one night and we’ve looked around […]
Choosing a Normal Life after Living an Extraordinary One
We’ve had a handful of big changes here in the Tracy and Shelly (and Banjo) world, and they’re happening in a mixed-up, muddled-up order. I’ll tackle them one topic per post. Topic #1: I decided I’m done with life on the road. I wrestled with this decision for ages, thinking I wanted to settle down, […]
From Moosappointment to a Cowboy Count
I have dreams of things I’m going to see in new places, but I’ve learned, of course, that the cool things you see are what you’re not expecting. For example, when I was in Alaska and in the Yukon summer before last, I had a lot of moospectations. I mean, there were signs everywhere telling […]
Creeks, Waterfalls, River Crossings in SW Colorado
A fat marmot and a mountain iris American White Pelicans giving me a thrill (as always) above the Rio Grande Pyramid Banjo says Hey!
How to Capture the Colorado I See
A friend and I had a conversation about the genre of realism; we were talking about painting, but really what we said applies to photography and writing, I think. Our discussion: What is the value of realism in art, and how do you achieve it? Her first reaction was that realism in painting these days […]
West Slope Is the Best Slope
West Slope Is the Best Slope is something people say who live on the Western Slope of Colorado, which I now know (because I’ve asked Tracy a million times) means west of the Continental Divide—and not east of it, which is called the Front Range. We were on the Western Slope at Colorado National Monument […]
Lemme Tell Ya the Story of Mike, the Headless Chicken
In Colorado in the 1940s, a guy stepped into his backyard to kill a chicken for dinner. His ax skills weren’t all they could have been, I’m guessing, because not all of the chicken’s head came off. What remained was one ear and the brain stem. The chicken (Mike) didn’t just run around headless, he […]
The Drama of Colorado National Monument
We’re at the very western edge of Colorado, at another amazing national monument. Feels like we’re seeing one after another of these places while they’re still protected. From Our Campsite Tracy scored a spot at Saddlehorn Campground, which is in the monument and therefore tricky for two reasons. You have to pass through roughly blasted […]
