Down days are sometimes as good as the adventures. Relaxing. Soaking it in. Pool and Jacuzzi. Seeing a movie in a place that serves up giant mugs of nut brown ale and lets you take it into the theater. Now that’s living.
The rest of the Griffiths clan shows up, except my children. Seeing my nieces makes me want my sons here all the more, but if everything went like it should, we’d have no Punk Rock.
It’s time to leave the desert behind us, at least for now. Jagged cliffs and rolling sandstone will be replaced by dark mountains and sprawling forests.
A long drive takes us away from the city, the people, and the endless convenience. Although I’m not saying that having a two floor, four bedroom cabin in the forest on the edge of Yellowstone isn’t pretty damn convenient. Having time with my nieces is a blessing, but is also a reminder of the constant knife in my guts. Why I was not allowed to bring my children so they could see their cousins is a mystery and a real crime in my eyes.
Still life without hardship gives us no challenges to overcome. No conflict = no heroes. If writers need to suffer, I’ve managed to pull that off. Still, no need to complain, I’m experiencing some truly spectacular things and in many ways I’m riding on a serious wave of luck, good fortune, and adventure.
I’ll have to see how this continues as we prepare to drive two vehicles into America’s first national park.
I end up being the driving road warrior for the family. Also since I’ve been to Yellowstone more than anyone else (more than half the people have never seen Yellowstone before) so I’m able to AZA it up a bit and be a tour guide for everyone, which I enjoy.
However, when being a guide, one also has to know when to step back and shut up. Part of the enjoyment of going to a new place is the pleasure of exploring it for yourself. Telling everyone your interpretations of past experiences. deludes their own ability to feel like they’re going to a new place, which they can learn and enjoy.
Funny moment when we go to the Yellowstone Ranger Museum and while looking at the replica of a ranger’s back-40 cabin, the ranger working there said, “How’d you like to live in someplace like this?”
My response is, “Damn, that would be so great! Hell, I’d pay money to live in a place this wonderful.”
I haven’t worried too much about sleep for the last week or so, but I ended up getting some problematic news. I shouldn’t complain since I’ve been using Nicole’s laptop for the last five months, ever since my last one broke while fleeing from the Flagstaff PD. But now she’s moving to Indiana and needs it back.
This could put a serious crimp in ShareStorm, which is how I’m making my money right now, continuing my writing, and maintaining my social contacts with the rest of the world as well, the Punk part of my WildernessPunk.
With me being financially challenged and also seeking to travel to Texas for my one-on-one E-Book training workshop, I’m not sure how I’m going to make everything work and somehow get a new laptop so my whole life doesn’t collapse.
I guess I’m back into the conflict and challenge part of life, even if I’m currently living in a notch or two below Nirvana state here in the Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming vortex.
So as I balance pleasure and problems on this perfect forest-filed morning, I sit in on a ‘writing party’ with my nieces. Plotting and planning versus enjoyment and sharing. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Thanks for listening and turn back in to see how my the rest of the month goes as I continue to explore the wilds of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, myself, and the path of the WildernessPunk?
You can grab some of my SkinJumper-Punk fiction here.
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WildernessPunk 