Hello Folks,
Welcome to the Sonoran Desert.
That's right, we are smack in the middle of Blue Hair, Snow Bird, Winter visitor, Arizona.
It's been so long since I last blogged I feel ashamed to ask anyone to read them. But, here goes another one of my mindless rambles about life on the road.
We have put quite a few miles on Red Rooster and Andiamo 3 since we last sent out a blog. We left here in Arizona last April and headed east and south to Big Bend National Park in South Texas. It was one of the most amazingly beautiful sights I have ever beheld. Mountains dusted with snow and wild flowers in the form of Blue Bonnets, Indian Paintbrush, and well as many forms of desert cacti. It was magical.
While we were sitting in our lawn chairs sipping tequila one evening and start gazing, we decided to head north to Alaska. Sounds like a song in there somewhere. So we left the dry souther climes and started North to some big county.
It's a LONG way to Alaska from Terlingua, Texas. We figured about 4,600 miles one way! We make a conscious choice to take our time and not get in a big hurry to get there or see it. So we spent the next 6 months heading North and West. We entered Canada on July 5 and made it into Alaska three weeks later. Along the way we saw lots of amazing country. And once again, we found Canadians to be some of the most delightful folks we have ever met. They are light hearted, funny, self effacing people that love to have fun. Our kind of folks. We actually tell people if Trump wins the next election we are moving to Canada.
We fished, hiked, biked, and drove all over Western Canada. From Alberta to British Columbia to the Yukon Territory we explored as much as we could. Then we entered Alaska and headed about due north. We ended up about 300 miles north of Fairbanks, Ak and 60 miles above the Arctic Circle. We arrived in early August to find fall had fell up there and snow was expected the following week!
From there we went West and South to Homer, AK and spent a week on the Homer Spit. We explored and met new folks and visited with people I knew 45 years ago when I traveled with the singing group Up With People. It was a great time. The food was amazing as well as the company.
We worked our way along the Southwestern part of Alaska visiting Valdez, and Seward as well as my taking a three day trip alone to Cordova to fish with a good friend from Denver. Six of us caught 900 pounds of fish in 4.5 hours. It took all of us 2.5 hours just to clean the fish. It was epic. We caught Ling Cod, Halibut, Rock fish and some other stuff as well. Charlie and I ended up with about 70 pounds of fish fillets!!
We messed around Alaska until the snow started falling and headed back to Canada in late September. We too another month to return to Denver in late October.
Our trip was one we say "everyone ought to do" in their lifetime if at all possible. You may not choose to go the same 13,000 miles we did, but find some way to visit one of our largest state.
After spending a few days on the Colorado River doing some fall fishing we headed to North Arkansas to meet friends to fish the White and Norfork Rivers for elusive trout. Then on to our home town of Hot Springs, Arkansas to see friends and family.
After spending two weeks sailing in the Caribbean we started what is becoming our annual trek to southern Arizona. Along the way we visited friends in Austin and then visited Kartchner Caverns State Park near Benson, AZ. It is a remarkable cave that has been preserved as well as any you will ever enter. Stop in for a tour next time you visit AZ.
Our travels have taught us much about ourselves and each other. We both continue to love one another more each day. We still can't believe this all started with one dance at our 40th high school reunion. But it did, and here we are going on 4 years later.
We invite you to take risks. Get off the couch and out of your comfort zone. Make life happen!
Otherwise you are just another bystander on the side of the road watching others go by.
My next blog with post pictures and poetry from my trip to Nepal in January.
Peace to all.
Namaste,
Coy, Charlie, and Jojo the pretty good dog most of the time
