Out of Kansas, into Colorado

I forgot to mention that I talked to my friend Adamarie the other day while I was in Abilene, KS, stretching my legs and getting some postcards. Adamarie is my hero because she did basically what I’m doing, only she did it with much more gusto. Yes, I quit my job, sold my home, and went on the road, which is probably the gutsiest (and I know for some people “gutsiest” = “stupidest”) move I’ve made in a while, if not ever, but it took me about a year and a half from the time I decided my job wasn’t right for me to the time I actually quit outright. First I went half time and did that for a year. Then the rest of the things—selling the home and planning the trip—fell into place quickly once I decided to quit completely, but I can’t help but think it was a LOOOOONG time coming.

Adamarie, on the other hand, tore the bandaid off with one jerk. Dove into the deep end of the pool. Held her breath and jumped. What I mean is, she quit her job outright, packed up her stuff, and within 2 months was living in a monastery in the Poconos, contemplating her navel and basically doing the mental/emotional/spiritual equivalent of a juice fast after some hard time at McDonald’s and Dairy Queen. After the monastery, she got in her car and drove around until she found a place that felt right for her to live, which turned out to be Albuquerque. And then she moved there and has been living there, happily, ever since, about a year and a half now. All without a backward glance. Well, probably with many backward glances, but certainly without my kind of hemming and hawing.

So I love talking to Adamarie, because she is living proof that you can do stuff that scares you witless and come out the other end into a good, happy life. In fact, in my opinion, she is living proof that you HAVE to do stuff that scares you to get the life you want. Somebody famous (Eleanor Roosevelt, maybe?) said she does one scary or impossible thing every day before breakfast. That’s kind of a good credo. My take on it is that if I ever say, to myself or out loud, “Oh, I could never…” then I have to do what I said I could never. This is how I ran a marathon, started training BJJ, and have done numerous other rewarding things. Now whenever I start to say it, I smile and figure out how to get done what I just thought I couldn’t do. Hence this trip.

Adamarie and I just shot the breeze; it’s strange how normal it seems to be on the road after only 2 weeks (“Yeah, I’m sitting in my car outside the Abilene, KS, visitors’ center. Yesterday I was in St. Louis, tomorrow I’ll be in Denver, and in a couple weeks I’ll be in Alaska.”) but she gets it—and was a little envious about my unfetteredness. (My spellcheck is telling me that “unfetteredness” isn’t a word, but I kinda like it.) Anyway, thanks to Adamarie for always being a shot in the arm!

I spoke to my mother today too. She and my father were on their way home from the hospital. She sounded great: in good spirits, in relatively little discomfort, and happy to be headed home. She needs to take it really easy for the next couple weeks and then the radiation treatment starts. The one drawback to the successful procedure is that she can’t play the “cancer card” anymore; apparently for a short while there she was saying things to my dad like, “Honey, can you please take out the garbage? I can’t do it because I’m busy having cancer.” It’s difficult to render my dad speechless, but I’m sure this did. Way to go, Mom!

I arrived in Denver today after a 300 mile drive from Colby, KS on Route 70. Bright sun interspersed with rain and lightning. Denver is the Mile-High City, but it didn’t seem like I gained much altitude; I remember much more twisty-turniness on Route 70 when I’ve driven it in the past, but that’s probably farther west.

Before I left, I ate lunch at a cute, old-timey feeling place where everything was homemade and you could tell.

The woman who ran it was very friendly and asked me, “What’s a Submit Pit?” (I was wearing my shirt again.) Of course, the old-timeyness of the place was a little undercut by the Walmart Superstore looming in the background, but I didn’t put that in the picture. While eating my lunch, I wrote postcards and enjoyed the sunny weather. Colby seems to be kind of a bustling metropolis, relatively speaking. There are lots of hotels and restaurants all bunched in one area and there were tons of people in campers and SUVs looking very vacation-y. I debated stopping in the visitors’ center to see what’s so great about Colby, but decided against it. My sister will probably be disappointed. She got caught in a snowstorm on her way to Steamboat Springs, CO, right after she graduated from college and claims you can buy postcards there that say, “Greetings from Scenic I-70;” she wanted me to send her one. I sent her a different one—I hope she likes it instead.

Eastern Colorado is very flat. I always forget that when I drive through. I was trying to time my arrival at Lacey’s place so that I didn’t interrupt a conference call she was having, so on a whim I pulled off at the exit for Genoa, CO, when I saw a sign that said, “Point of Interest, This Exit.” They wouldn’t actually say what the point of interest was, which made it all the more interesting. The best part was driving through the “business district” of Genoa:

(And yes, the sign on the right says "Business District.")

The point of interest is the Genoa Tower and Museum, 20 rooms full of STUFF, some of it having some historical significance or meaning, some of it looking decidedly like junk. The proprietor was a sweet elderly man who charged me a dollar to come in and see some of the items the place was piled high with. He made me guess what some of the things were, which I was atrocious at. (I am troubled that I just ended the previous two sentences with prepositions, but I’ll move on. Dammit—that’s three!) Here are some of them:

A "stool sample" (get it?)

A tool for killing chickens (you put the chicken in a paper cone and snap its neck):

A piece of rubber from a Model T Ford tire (and a pic of the Model T):

There is also a tower, elevation 525 feet, from which you can apparently see 6 states. Here are pics of the view, including one with my car. In that one, you can also see the STUFF in the front of the museum.

And here are some pics of the tower and the building itself.

It was a cute detour. When I got back into the car, I talked to Debbie, my friend who lives in Juneau. I am going to visit her for about a week and then spend a couple days in Anchorage training at a BJJ school run by a black belt named Ted Stickel. I visited Debbie last year and had a ball, and this time will be even more fun because it will be high tourist season: lots of seasonal workers, lots of daylight, lots of tourists on cruise ships. So I’m definitely looking forward to that.
I arrived too late to make class tonight, so tomorrow I’ll go to Colorado BJJ, where David Ruiz is the main instructor. I also want to hit Boulder BJJ, where Amal Easton teaches. Sharon, a brown belt I know through the online BJJ forums, very kindly emailed me about a problem I’ve been having with my training. I keep getting stuck in a particular position called the turtle (see the BJJ glossary) and she has actually been working on this very position, going on the offensive even though it’s seen as a defensive position.

So Sharon is my new best friend, and I am very excited to try some of the things she suggested. I’m going to have to talk to her to really understand, but that will be a nice excuse to talk to her! And even just thinking about that position as an offensive one will be helpful to me the next time I’m in it. So thanks, Sharon! I’ll call you soon.

Instead of going to class, Lacey and I took Tallulah to the dog park, called Chatfield. I need to take a picture of myself in front of the sign for Chrissy and Brian; they used to live in Denver and take their doggies Deke, Schumi, and Miles to Chatfield, and they miss it. I can see why. Here is Tallulah, aka Ta-drool-ah, being cute. There's a heron at the top of the third pic.

Colorado is gorgeous. I really am drawn here, though I don’t know if I’m drawn to live here. I guess I don’t need to know that yet; I’ve only been on the road for 2 weeks and have tons more to see and do. For now, I’m just happy to be here for the time I’ve got, hanging out with Lacey and Tallulah, getting excited to train tomorrow, going out for Thai food tonight.