Opposable Road Trips- Day 1- Part I

Eleven days, 3500 miles, 1200 pictures, 388 digital voice recordings, and 3 videos later, I’ve returned home.  Home; where Dexter is, where my stuff sits, where I pay rent, utilities, and other assorted bills, but not where I live.

My road trips (plural, but we’ll get to that later) for the better part of the last two weeks; that’s where I lived, doing things I’d never done in my 30++++ years.  On this journey, spontaneous yet very intentional, I didn’t find myself, I redefined myself.

I don’t know how to describe the experience without getting sappy, soapy, melodramatic, or sentimental.  So I’m going to do this; I’m just going to show you what happened, and let you decide.  But keep in mind, no matter what you decide, my mind is already made up, my course has been corrected.

This is the abridged version.  If you want the whole story, you’ll have to wait until I’m finished transcribing my voice notes, which at this rate will take me longer than the road trips.

I know what you’re thinking (not really, but I know of some individuals who might), “Why don’t you get some voice recognition software, like Dragon or something?”  Well, I tried, then I cried.  I don’t have time for that BS.  Instead, I’ve hand written nineteen and a half pages of transcripts on the first 46 entries alone.  It took me about six hours.  46 entries, 19.5 pages, 6 hours.  There are 388 total entries, so you do the math.

No, I wanna do it!  164.5 pages and 51 hours to complete them all.  Good thing I don’t have a life (wait, I left it on the road).  Anyway, I’m glad I’m doing it.  I’m ecstatic to have been given the foresight and sense of purpose to record this trip in every way possible.

The L.L. Bean Bootmobile just East of Glenwood Springs, Colorado

For you see, not only was I embarking on my own voyage of discovery, but retracing an extended vision documented in the novel, Opposable.  I won’t give you too many details now.  Those will come later, hopefully in the form of a published manuscript.  And thus, Opposable Road Trips (plural).

Elk cow using a fire hydrant at the Grand Canyon.

As I continue this series documenting the Opposable Road Trips, forgive me if the entries come sporadically.  I’ll do my best to align the timeline of the vision quest with corresponding imagery and transcript excerpts.  Because, in the immortal words of “Weird Al” Yankovic (and Richard Dreyfuss, I guess)…

I’ll leave you with one of my random thoughts from the road.  If a bad day is tailgating you like an angry semi, just pull over and let it pass.  Then get back on the highway, hunt it down, and run that M-er F-er off the road.

I thought I had you for a second there.  Then I went too far.  I always go too far.  Or maybe I don’t go too far enough.  Now I’m just rambling.

Don’t forget to check back.  I may actually start writing about the road trips.

Until next time, don’t bother me.  Here’s a sunset.

Ouray, Colorado