Boulder and Sylvan Lake

I’m now back home in Boulder. It’s strange saying that, since a big part of my return is to wrap things up and close down my residency. But Boulder has been my home for over ten years and a big part of my life. These bittersweet moments will continue until my departure. As difficult and sad as some of these aspects are, hope shines through and reinforces my decision to travel. The biggest of these negatives is taking a separate path from my partner. It will remain a backdrop of my travels, but with our ongoing support of one another and the inevitable passage of time, things will slowly but surely get easier.

As part of my initial plan, the primary focus of the months of June and July was to spend time with family and friends. As of the writing of this entry, that plan has been going very well! Shortly after my return, we embarked on what has become our early “camping” trip to Sylvan Lake State Park. I say “camping” because we actually rent a cabin. With a little bit of luck and diligence from my siblings, we get to book the single larger and amenities-filled cabin. This place is highly sought after, and there have been years when we have not been able to reserve it. The cabin has a refrigerator, stove, and lights powered by solar panels, with a generator if needed. The park troopers comically refer to that unit as "the house" instead of a cabin.

While there, we spent a good amount of time fishing with the kids. Although I’ve never been a big fan, my brother has always been, and all the kids were pretty excited about it. One of my younger nephews was just getting the hang of it, and I was able to help him a bit by reviewing some casting steps his dad had instructed. By the end of the trip, he was doing it all really well. It was a bountiful time; some fish was caught each of the days we were there. That meant we had fish every day for dinner. My brother was our fish cleaner and got them all ready to throw on the skillet on the campfire. In addition to fishing, we took on a couple of trails where we got to see a bald eagle relatively nearby. We rented a canoe for one of the days and took various short trips with the kids around the lake. As our final night arrived, we managed to get everyone together for a game of Kids Against Maturity. As the name alludes, it is a children's version of the Cards Against Humanity game. For the majority of the time, if your card has some variation of a term with poop, you have a great chance of winning. It was a great way to wrap up the four days in a beautiful setting.

After Sylvan, we had about one week until our family trip to Canada. I had made a tentative plan to help one of my nephews learn how to ride a bike. He is a little over eight years old. Although he’s tried on and off to learn, it was one of those things that still hadn’t clicked for him. The free week made for a perfect time to start the training. I used the same location and drills that I used years before helping a friend learn to ride. The location is a parking lot behind an office building we used to work at. It’s the ideal place because in addition to not being busy, it has what I’ve found to be a great surface to learn to ride a bike. It’s about 60 feet of a slow decline into a middle ridge that turns into an equal incline for about 40 feet. The great thing about the inclines is that it prevents them from picking up too much speed. The drills involve having him go down the decline without pedaling with the goal of reaching the bottom without touching his feet to the ground. By the second day, he had that down. The next level, as I called it (I thought gamifying it for him would make it even more enticing), is to do the same thing and try to pedal once he felt comfortable doing so. From there, you add braking, turning, and taking off. In a little less than a week, he was able to learn it all! He did a great job of listening to the instructions, which really helped. All in all, it was very fulfilling.

As the week wrapped up, I attended my first big Couchsurfing event. It was really great meeting others from a community that enjoys traveling, connecting, and helping others to accomplish the same. I heard various stories of cases where at the time of the event, random strangers went to some great lengths to help each other. In doing so, they created lasting friendships. I look forward to being able to meet more surfers and hopefully get to surf as well. That same week I enjoyed a wonderful homemade paella at a friend's house where we had a wonderful time connecting and having great conversations about a myriad of topics.

In addition to these great events, I had an unexpected experience. I don’t think it is something that I could have been told or that I could have planned. It reminded me how there are times we just have to experience things firsthand. It first happened while washing dishes as I normally do: well and speedily, which is the way I've taken on tasks at least since high school, if not earlier. But in that moment, the realization that I didn't have to move fast came over me -- there was nothing else I needed to do after. Without thinking, I slowed down and found enjoyment in slowly washing the rest. It was akin to the feeling of when you first balance yourself on a bike, where you feel the sensation for just a short period. Since then, it has happened a few more times, and I hope it continues to become more common. I think that without a job, I'm getting to rediscover joy in doing things without wanting to get them done fast.

My goal was to wrap up the blog before leaving for our trip. Alas, I’m writing this blog in Canada. I’ll share all the details about this trip in my next entry. Stay tuned!