Off-Roading Road Trips, and Then Some…

by | Oct 6, 2017 | Introspective

I’ve had a lot of fun in my life, and I’ve also had plenty of losses as well as routine. Most times, I’d choose routine, but there are times you have to get out in the world and explore. Still, in this day and age with so many bad things happening, it’s hard not to feel anxious.

On Monday, after learning of the shooting in Las Vegas, my husband and I were going on vacation and were planning to take the first road trip out of state that we’d taken in three years. We love road trips! We also love to cram as much as we can into a short amount of time and not really have a plan. However, this road trip, on many levels, gave me a lot of anxiety, especially because of the recent tragedy in Vegas so soon after all the natural disasters across the world.

It really makes one want to hunker down indoors and hide sometimes.

It’s especially easy to hunker down when you have so many other responsibilities at home. A budget, pets to care for, family who might need you, and our work-in-progress remodel. For some people, it’s easy to pack up and go at a moment’s notice and for others, it’s a hard thing to even consider. Despite the ongoing tragedies, we decided to stick with our unplanned plan and take our little road trip. And boy did we not regret it, even though we almost did!

On our way home, tragedy almost struck! If not for my husband paying attention and what I now joke with him as his martial artist skills behind the wheel, I might not be alive to make this post today! (I think he gets a kick out of me bragging on his martial artists skills behind the wheel.)

Tragedy really makes you realize how quickly things can happen in an instance. How much you should cherish each moment. I’ve had plenty of losses, and with my Type I Diabetes for 36 years now, I wake up everyday thankful to be alive. Something so many of us take for granted. I’ve had plenty of scary moments with low blood sugar reactions. But still, things can change in an instant.

My husband and I were about five hours from getting home. The speed limit was 75, and he was going about 70. It was dark enough for the bright lights and there were 2 lanes on our side but one on the other and not a divided highway. A long and straight highway, but not without its issues! My husband had just dimmed his lights for traffic on the other side of the highway.

He was looking over my direction and I asked what and he said there was something beside us, not on the road but kind of like it might have been a train and he was trying to figure out what it was. Then, suddenly, a white Ford F250 pickup pulls out from either a store or a café (or a bar since he was really stupid about it). There’s another vehicle behind him, but not right up against him. He pulls out, takes up both lanes of our 2 lane road, and stops or at least hesitates as he looks to be about to pull into our lane. We don’t know why. Probably because he realizes there are 2 18 wheelers barreling down on the other side of the road where he is trying to turn.

There is no way, no how anyone with the best brakes could have avoided hitting him. I’m somewhat just dumbstruck at this point because I am sure we are about to die. And it’s still dark or more like dusk but light enough you can see the road and the ditch you may or may not flip into.

So my husband, hoping the other car doesn’t pull up behind this pickup because we’d hit him instead, brakes and pulls into this café or store or whatever it is (it really isn’t a town, but you know how things are on the outskirts of a town) right behind the truck, just barely missing his backend. There’s a ditch and shoulder. Thank God there aren’t any curbs like many towns and such have. He moves around him, back onto the shoulder, the shoulder is one of those bumpy really ditchy where the concrete is thicker than the dirt and ditch if that makes sense. There’s a drop off but not a culvert, and a harsh transition between road and land. Then I’m thinking, well we didn’t hit him but we’re about to lose control and hit the ditch and flip or overcorrect and go on the other side of the highway with all these 18 wheelers. But he managed to get back on the road and keep driving like nothing had ever happened. I distinctly remember the sound of the tires while driving between the shoulder and the ditch, where the concrete just dips off into the ground. As we are talking about it afterward, he later recalls the sound of our ridge grappler tires and says he’s very impressed with the way they handled the situation. Well, I was impressed by the way he handled the situation and later told him he probably didn’t see a train but our guardian angels. Even my husband, who is calm, cool, and collected about most things, thought we were about to die. It was a bad situation. Probably neither we nor the drive of that truck would have survived at that speed. I later joked with my husband: “Well, we did want to go off-roading!”

But we came out of it. We got home. We aren’t scarred, and we had a lot of fun! We crammed a lot of stuff in like we always do on our vacations! And I couldn’t stop thinking about the Vegas victims, and so many people who are killed in tragedy or in wrecks that happen in the blink of an eye. Most of them would probably tell you to go out and live your life, don’t be afraid of what might happen. I went down the 750 foot cave of Carlsbad Caverns almost panicking in the first drop because I’m so afraid of the dark and enclosed spaces, and yet it was so exhilarating!

Oh, and on our trip we stopped for gas and our Jeep didn’t start because the battery went dead. A Good Samaritan at the gas pump helped and we were able to make it to an auto parts store. He didn’t know us, and we didn’t know him, but he didn’t hesitate to help us! In this day and age, it can be scary to offer help or ask for help.

In these tragic times, when everyone is wondering what is wrong with the world and how can we make this a better place, I offer one solution: kindness. So many heroes in this world today, but we don’t have to save the world in order to truly save the world. Living our life, experiencing everything that nature has to offer us, and sharing our experiences with the world can help change our world. Offering a smile to a stranger, helping them when they need a jump-start in a totally different state, or being there for someone when they need to talk it out. Most of us can’t explain or imagine how anyone could make the decision to take a life, and some other people might say we all have violence within us. In the world I live in, and seeing the worst at my job in prosecution, I still refuse to believe that. I still believe in kindness and the intrinsic good in most of us. And I refuse to stop living my life and exploring just because I’m afraid of what might happen. I do believe we are at the cusp of change and it might not be the best of changes, but I also believe we can make it through stronger, with a deeper understanding and appreciation of humanity.

So smile! If your life isn’t what you want it to be, maybe you just need to offer a smile to someone else! Maybe you need to make a list of everything you are grateful for! Just in case…just in case it’s the last smile you will ever give someone. And just in case it’s the last gratitude list you ever make. We need to put our differences aside and share love, not hate and propaganda!

Thanks for reading this far as I process everything going on. And now for some pictures!

Would You Change Your Life?

by | Oct 17, 2013 | Introspective

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Reagan is burned out. She’s just lost a coveted advancement for the job she’s spent years at, she’s just broken up with her boyfriend, and she’s tired of being where she’s at, in her comfort zone. Have you ever felt that way? Broken, and no idea which way to go?

How many times have you wished for a clear answer?

I can’t tell you how many times I have. My sister recently moved to Colorado. Left everything she had, and the likelihood of her doing something like that was way less than me doing something like that, because my husband and I have dreamed of moving to Colorado for some time now. She had never even visited, and then she met a man and up and moved. We’ve been dreaming of doing something like that for years, and here my sister and goes and does it and moves to my favorite state in the whole world. The mountains, the outdoor adventures awaiting and abounding, and the fact the state has four seasons (and is close to my home state) is one of many reasons why Colorado would be at the top of my list.

My sister and are both responsible-minded people with long-term jobs and homes, so it isn’t always easy to just pick up and move and leave everything you have, including families who need us. I’ve had other family members who have lived all over the place and will pick up and move at the drop of a hat. I’ve often wished I could be more like them.

And yet, every time my husband and I talk about it, we realize how much we have here. Life is fleeting, yes, but we’re happy here and our home will be paid for by the time we can retire. There are a lot of pros and cons to moving. And it’s never an easy answer, at least not for us. If only it could be more clear on what to do.

What would you do?

So…needless to say Reagan, in Burn on the Western Slope, is a lot like me. Staying in the same job year after year. And it’s not a job she hates, it’s just a job she’s good at and she doesn’t see the point in changing or moving. She’s in her comfort zone. But when she inherits a condo and money from an uncle she never even knew existed, she jumps at the opportunity. And I guess if that happened to me, I’d jump at that opportunity, too.

The likelihood of that happening is few and far between, and usually the answer isn’t near as clear. I’d like to hear from others who have picked up and moved and left everything they had, whether it was an entire state or just a few counties away. What instigated the change? How did you handle it? And how are you doing now? Is it a drastic change for you, or just daily life?

Ammonite vs. Nautilus Shell

by | Jun 11, 2013 | Books, Research

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The difference between a nautilus and an ammonite? Not much at first glance. And really, not much in the grand scheme of things. The biggest difference between a nautilus and an ammonite is that they say the ammonite went extinct around the time of the dinosaur’s extinction.

Hmm, I wonder if it was some type of aquatic dinosaur?

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They are both squid-like creatures, but the nautilus still lives whereas the ammonite is extinct. Certain dinosaurs might have even used them as a tasty snack. Their defensive behaviors were also different, in that the ammonite was able to suck its body into its shell in order to defend itself. Ammonites would constantly build new shells but only live in the outer chamber. And some were able to grow near 3 feet! Can you imagine finding a 3-foot seashell?

Though I don’t live near a beach, I’ve always enjoyed walking the beach and looking for seashells. Finding and collecting certain rocks and arrowheads appeal to me. But to find an ammonite fossil along the shores of my next vacation spot? That ranks high along my list of things I’d like to do.

In Burn on the Western Slope, when Reagan first sees the fossilized seashell that the villain has stolen, she describes it as “peering into the soul of high-definition earth.” You know how HDTV is the big thing now, and there really is a difference between that and regular TV (especially if you grew up around the antenna-age!) But nothing on any HD can ever compare to the beauty of our earth.