The Long and Winding RV Road... Keeps Winding on

Looking Back through photographs of the last three years travels... Pushes Me Forward...

The road is calling and I must go... a twist on another wandering fellas words, an addition really. The mountains call to me as well... They are sisters, mountains and roads. They whisper to my very soul.

This RV Boondocking road is far from its end. It continues to fade away into the mists of distance in front of me... beckoning me to follow. Something along that ribbon of highway has a pull I can not resist.

Another mountain poet sang; "To the Mountains I can rest there... to the Rivers I will be strong..."

All I have to do if I'm feeling low and weary... is step out onto a precipice and my spirit soars...

It happens so each spring. At the end of each long winter, I've built up this wiggly, uneasy feeling. Though we bump around all season in the Arizona desert... and her sky island mountains, we sure aren't static... it's somehow still not the same as "moving on down the road"... knowing that a week from now, I may be states away from where I am with uncounted visions refreshing my spirit.

My sense of wonder is renewed each spring; "What ridge will I cross this summer that I've never crested before? What road will I ride I've never gone down before? What trail will I walk that's never known my boots before? What new understanding will I gain?"

 

From what camps will I look up and see that same moon shining back?

This wandering life has as sweet a taste as I could ask for. But, it is easy to take it for granted. It is easy to fall back into old ways and lose the trail. Every once in a while a traveler needs to stand back and check his pack. Make sure he's not Wandered off the Trail and got lost.

That can be sorta difficult to know... when you've no idea where you're headed. The only way I can describe knowing if you're following the right path is to judge yourself with a pragmatic eye; Are you still engaged? Is that quiet solid feeling still filling your lungs? Are you learning more 'bout yourself each day... or those around you? Can you see a bit of "yourself" in what you perceive as the failings of others... and find a bit more tolerance or forgiveness for their faults?

Ha Ha! I too often see a lil' too much of ME in those failings! But when those thoughts get too heavy... I search out a sight like this... and how can your spirit remain low? How can life carry a darkness... when THIS is the window you've opened into your life?

Looking back at photos from the last 40 or 50,000 miles of travels warms up so many memories, preventing their loss...

... and gets me excited and impatient for the coming season...

Soon we'll start finding our way north... We'll park our rig out in BLM... or in the National Forests... on occasion you'll find us in Forest Service, BLM and even the odd Corps of Engineers campground.

We'll turn up lil' two lane byways... shun the turnpikes and interstates... We'll BBQ our burgers and steaks under the Open Far Country Sky... We'll patch the tires and weld the cracks. We'll replace lost oil, broken glass and plug leaks in the roof...

Each day we'll gather in ever more riches of the Jewels the Boss has scattered across the landscape to keep us searching on...

But these aren't jewels you can put in your pocket and sell. They are gems that can only be held in your eye and protected in your soul. They are the Shining Times of life. 

From crashing, thundering storms at Lost Trail Pass in Montana...

 

To post card moments high on going to the sun road...

... and jeweled sunsets along the Washington coast...

They are the times that feed my hunger to gather ever more of 'em.... before they slip away.

 

*If you look close at this one, you can see the rig in the trees on the far slope*

 

*Our home is the far country. To the Mountains I can rest there...*

The road keeps pulling me along... I don't resist, I can not... I love it so.

 A Wandering Soul

Brian