California or Bust

First off, sorry again for the long delays in posts. It has been a very pleasant couple of weeks now running around Colorado, and I just haven't made the time to sit down and update. Last we spoke, I was eagerly awaiting Yonder at Red Rocks, and then planning on heading out to Burning Man with Chase. As per usual, life did not go "according to plan." After some serious discussion, Chase and I decided not to attend Burning Man this year. After months of looking forward to it, we realized that we were really not anything close to prepared to go spend a week in the desert living the way we have been living, and so we made other plans. Chase returned to Massachusetts to pursue some leads that he had established there, but I'll let him get more into that himself. I ended up staying in Colorado and bouncing around the state for a while waiting for a Ween show at Red Rocks. Quick note, Yonder was amazing, as predicted. We got a pretty good family crew together for the show, and the Yonder Mountain boys threw the fuck down! To top it all off, at the end of the night, they gave copies of their new CD away to everyone in the sold-out crowd. The next week, I saw my first Ween show, also at Red Rocks. It was another great show, and I got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen together in some 3 years. Afterwards, we all caravaned up to the Macy house in Conifer to shoot pool and drink beer all night. Thank you again to Mike and Julie for letting us use their beautiful home while they were away celebrating their 25 year anniversary. Right now, I am in Durango getting everything ready for my return to the Pacific, and soaking up as much Rocky Mountain sun as I can. I have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out exactly what it is that I am going to do with myself. My journey does not seem to be moving with quite the inertia that it was at the beginning of the summer, and I have been doing my best to figure out why. While I was in Gunnison, there ended up being some family issues that I needed to be present for, and while I was around, Gunnison did it's best to get back under my skin. Right now I am torn pretty equally between returning to Western State College for the spring semester or continuing the journey despite the loss of my traveling partner. In the 4 months that have elapsed, I have already learned a very great deal about myself and the role I will play in the changes to come, and I feel like getting stationary again for a little while to reflect and be productive could finally be a good thing. I also feel that if I decided to, I could still fan the flames back up and carry this thing as far as it can go. Either way, tomorrow I will be heading out to California to pursue some work. I made several connections on farms around the state, and am going to try and go make some money for the fall harvest season. Hopefully, by next week sometime I'll have found someplace to hang out for 6 weeks or so and make some money for the winter. I have finally found my own personal yoga practice, and am looking forward to some good hard farm work and some time to delve inward for a little while and figure out my next step. It was really cool, because after getting stuck in Gunnison for two extra days, the first person to stop took me all the way from Blue Mesa reservoir to Durango. I jumped in his car, and he asked me where I was going, saying that he didn't really know himself. He was on vacation, and hadn't been through that part of Colorado in 25 years, since his stint at Western State in the 70's, and asked what the drive to Durango was like. After telling him a little bit about Ouray and Red Mountain Pass, he got real excited, and he even ended up letting me drive his cool Pontiac G5 over the mountain. This one ended up being a little bit more journal entry than anything else, so thanks for sticking with me. More to come...