As much as I love Arizona and monsoon season, this girl is pointin' north toward the heart of the Rockies! Later....
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Showing posts with label colors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colors. Show all posts
Horsin' 'round...
So, I was taking a day off my normal go-go-go (aka bike-bike-bike run-run-run) and was out off-roading in the truck, exploring an area southeast of home. Off the grid, I had already gone at least an hour w/out seeing another soul.
For some reason, I'd decided to throw my rarely-used cowboy hat on while in the truck today, even though I surely looked ridiculous with my running shorts and flipflops, but who would possibly even see me way out there? I rounded a corner and lo and behold I see a horse’s bootay sticking out from under a scrub tree. Poor thing was trying to beat the heat and at least keep his face in the shade. There were two more a few feet away, just chillin (in the 105F heat :)
Were they wild? I was on govt property (state/natl forest), but I hadn’t gone through any gates and I don’t think a cattleguard. But cattleguards are so common here that maybe I did cross one (or two or three) and just didn't notice. They wore no shoes nor had any saddle/bridle marks.
Of course, I’m a sucker and had to get outta the truck to make friends. And friends we became, all four of us. It took a bit, and by no means did they run up to greet me and ask me to saddle up. But they ‘knew’ I was a horse girl and saw that my eyes were the same color as theirs.
Turns out they were thirsty too. As soon as the one lowest down on the hill saw/heard me chugging out of my water jug, he stomped right up through the scrub and asked for some water -- more like demanded some. For a second, he drank out of my hand, but then impatiently nudged my hand out of the way and went straight for the mouth of the jug.
It was hard to leave those guys, but I’ll be back, with the hat.
A Short Update in Photos...
Upon arriving home, adore it...
Appreciate it, get to know it again...
Experience untimely admin crap...
...which makes Donkey happy.
And then go run/hike/ride/play some more...
All that playing makes for a hungry girl...carboholic???
Leaving...
When I was a little girl (when not harassing horses, cows and my little brother), I would bury my head in my aunt's collection of National Geographic magazines and plot to explore the world I saw in those pages. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to be able to explore many of those places, many spectacular and others with luxuries and amenities much less than our own, and in turn have had some humbling yet amazing experiences abroad. And ya know what? Beauty aside, there's nowhere like this place I call home. The Southwest. Arizona.
In those final morning hours before I fly off, I wake up so attuned to our high desert's crisp scent of juniper and sometimes pungent creosote if after a rain. Driving up the canyon, I notice new rocks, new trees, new cracks in the road, hyper-appreciative that this is the safety, the nest, the place I get to call home. Before I climb into the small plane where I'll get my last few moments breathing in the crisp northern AZ air, feeling the sun against my skin, smelling the ponderosa pine sap, and hearing only the sounds of aspen leaves rustling in the breeze and of the ginormous ravens playing high in the thermals.
Flying out of the closest airport, Flagstaff, can be hard. The little airport is a total breeze to use, and while waiting quietly outside for for my departure flight, all these northern Arizonan exclamations remind me just how darn fantastic it is here!
I often brainstorm of ways to stop traveling so much, so that I can simply sit-put here...to embrace this high desert mountain oasis and breathe/sniff/hike/play/mtb/etc anytime I want.
But I never come up with anything. Maybe deep down I know that this place is even more special when contrasted against all the other places in this world I go.
And I know, that yet again, I can look forward to soon stepping off that small plane and breathing it all in once again.
.
In those final morning hours before I fly off, I wake up so attuned to our high desert's crisp scent of juniper and sometimes pungent creosote if after a rain. Driving up the canyon, I notice new rocks, new trees, new cracks in the road, hyper-appreciative that this is the safety, the nest, the place I get to call home. Before I climb into the small plane where I'll get my last few moments breathing in the crisp northern AZ air, feeling the sun against my skin, smelling the ponderosa pine sap, and hearing only the sounds of aspen leaves rustling in the breeze and of the ginormous ravens playing high in the thermals.
Flying out of the closest airport, Flagstaff, can be hard. The little airport is a total breeze to use, and while waiting quietly outside for for my departure flight, all these northern Arizonan exclamations remind me just how darn fantastic it is here!
I often brainstorm of ways to stop traveling so much, so that I can simply sit-put here...to embrace this high desert mountain oasis and breathe/sniff/hike/play/mtb/etc anytime I want.
But I never come up with anything. Maybe deep down I know that this place is even more special when contrasted against all the other places in this world I go.
And I know, that yet again, I can look forward to soon stepping off that small plane and breathing it all in once again.
.
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