colorado and chill

Week two of the trip included a lot of transit. Both across physical space (specifically Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin) and across the psychological gap where after leaving a fabulous first week, your brain slowly realizes that you’re not returning home to regular life anytime soon. This gangly, sophomore segment has happened every long trip I have ever taken, and it’s been a few. It’s generally unglamorous and homesick. For a while it’s all gross motel bed linens, unserendipitous coincidences, pulling into a desert gas station at high noon on a Monday and being listless in a bad way. An emotional hangover from week one’s magic and a car full of increasingly smelly clothes.

There’s nothing to do but proceed and recuperate and trust the process that this, too, is just a small necessary chapter of a longer journey. The one where your body comes to grips with the fact that this ain’t your garden variety vacation.

🤷🏼‍♀️

The first stop after Moab was Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, which I honestly kind of can’t get over how dramatically beautiful it was.

Colorado meant more insane views, a large amount of time thinking about bears/moose, and of course daily thunderstorms. I adopted a flannel forward look to stay cozy and also was very glad for my super warm sleeping bag. I’ve also mastered the art of packing the car.

I primarily camped and hiked in CO and then shot across NE, IA, and the majority of WI in two back to back marathon drive days. Which for the record, I do not recommend as a format.

Some pics here from camping up near Aspen and hiking around the Maroon Bells Wilderness area. It was still snowy up there!

I arrived to see Jasmine for a quick, sweaty hug in Golden CO and then hit the road the next day. Not many pics from the transit to Milwaukee since it was just driving and audiobooks but here’s one of me, slurping towards bethlehem and a dog driving a uhaul.