The Great Wander

We are no longer homeowners as I mentioned last week.  Now, there’s still a lot to do to get ready, but we can work on the sorting, shopping list creating, etc. on the weekends and evenings without having to worry as much about house projects too.  I still need to mow, but it’s a lot less.  We still have to clean, but again it’s a lot less, it frees up a bit of time.

Last Sunday, Sandy and I loaded up the dogs and took them over to Rob Roy Reservoir.  It’s about 2 hours from where we live, but it was nice to get out of town and enjoy the mountains.  There weren’t a lot of people around the reservoir, but there were a lot of people out camping in the general since hunting season just opened. 

The shoreline was a great place to walk until the dead-fall got to be a bit too much so we headed back to find some new places to explore, that didn’t have as many people around.  Forest service roads abound in national forests, and we found one further down the reservoir that took us to a great spot to get the dogs out, let Kona try some swimming (he didn’t want to do much of that, I’m pretty sure that water was only about 40 degrees!) and in general just mess around in the mountains. Similar to the charter, there is something about being away from phones, internet, and in general being unplugged from devices that is rejuvenating.

One of the really amazing things about being there, is that about two or three years ago, there was a major wildfire in the area.  The really burn was a bit south of the area, but it did make its way to the reservoir and you can see the burned and fallen trees.  You really need to stay on roads and marked trails, because the vegetation is in the early stages of coming back.

What was pretty amazing to us both driving and walking through the area was the way some trees were completely untouched by the fire.  You would see burned trees all over, and then there was this one random tree that didn’t get touched.  The other thing that was pretty amazing to us was the amount of new growth that was all over.  Pine trees were already three feet tall in some of the burn areas.

Driving along on the way home, Sandy told me to slow down (not that I was going that fast), but she saw some movement on a hillside across the way, so I pulled over and at first, what we though were just cows, turned out to be a couple of cow moose and their calves.  It was pretty neat to see, and I got out to take some pictures of them.  We were talking and the cows heard us and stopped what they were doing to see what we were doing.  After a couple of minutes, they rounded up their calves and started wandering off.  Seeing a moose is always pretty amazing, such skinny legs supporting such massive bodies and yet they just walk on through the forest, just like they belong there.

The other thing we wanted to do was to get Kona more experience at outdoor dining.  So, we stopped in Laramie to get dinner at a place that had outdoor seating and would allow dogs. After a little bit he settled down, but he hasn’t had a lot of practice of being on leash and being where there’s quite a bit of traffic, both people and pet.  We know that as we go to other places, we will be taking him to restaurants with outdoor seating and that allow dogs, so it’s important that he get experience whenever possible.  Not eating out a lot though, there’s not always a lot of opportunity to make that happen. So, when we have the chance, we want to take advantage of it.

Overall, he handled the situation pretty well.  He pretty quickly came to recognize that people walking by weren’t necessarily interested in meeting him, though he wanted to meet them.  He still wants to play with every dog he sees and when one sat down not to far from us, he started barking, but after a few minutes decided he’d had enough and that they weren’t going to play.

It was great to get out into the mountains and not have to worry about projects at the house.  I know that we have a bit of work to do to get things sorted, finding a boat, planning next steps. There’s plenty of things to do, but getting out and seeing the countryside right now is a lot easier to do than before. I think that Nick O’Kelly was right when he said the more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you.