35 Years Later

The ladies in the coffee shop asked me this morning what my plans for the day were. A little road trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park for fee-free day. Oh, have you been there before? Yeah, in 1976.

The hour drive up to Estes Park took me through the deep, dark Big Thompson River gorge, then a sign for bighorn sheep. Back in '76, when I learned about bighorn, I decided that was the animal I wanted to be. Good thinking for an 8-year-old. I learned more about sheep at Zion when I did a talk there about the extirpation and subsequent reintroduction of desert bighorn into the park. But I never saw them. Finally I saw them up close at the Grand Canyon and far away in Death Valley. And as you may remember, this summer Dad and I saw lots up close in Badlands. My luck is evidently changing because today I saw six sheep, including two full-curl rams, right along the road.

The morning weather was lovely, warm and sunny. Once in the park, I only drove the open roads. My ankle is still not up to hiking (although really much better). Saw lots of magpies, a couple of buck mule deer (one so huge I thought he was an elk), and an Aberts squirrel with tufted ears. And stunning Rocky Mountain scenery. I did scout some possible snowshoeing areas if my winter permits, and I bought a backcountry topo map to start planning my summer weekends. Really incredibly beautiful, and to know its just in my back yard. Yay!

An added benefit was making the trip with Meg Griffin, my favorite DJ on the radio. She played me some Lyle, Warren Zevon, and my trip concluded with a live version of Leonard Cohen singing Hallelujah.

Came home and put together book shelves and made soup. I bought a butternut squash last weekend at the store, and got a free acorn squash from a coworker yesterday. When the world hands you squash, make squash soup. Last weekend I also bought cardamom to put on fruit salad for a work event. Now I have a lifetime supply of cardamom, so I found this recipe. I left out the cream, added carrots and celery to the onions, and roasted the squash in halves, in the skin. So easy and the results are excellent.

Such a happy day--old memories and new, surrounded by my books and trinkets on shelves, tummy full of soup, sheep in a canyon, and I still have a weekend in front of me!

OK, not full curl, but still impressive.