Lazy Days of… Spring
Winter has come and gone here in Oklahoma. Today is the first day of Spring after a Winter that wasn’t much different (very warm and only one light dusting of snow) than most early Spring-times in these parts of the country. Winter is over. Enter the lazy days of… Spring?
Around this time of year I make my yearly trek off of the Great Plains and up into the glorious Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It is a time of rest and relaxation… A time to recharge the mental batteries, so that I do not go completely insane.
While there is no place that I have found on this earth (and I have seen far more than my share of this planet) that I enjoy more than the Arkansas River Valley where it winds its way out of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, I seem to always put the trip off a few times before I actually get going. It’s not that I am going to miss the severe weather of the Oklahoma Spring or the obsessive heat of Summer here on the Great Plains. It is the drive itself.
From Henryetta, OK to Salida, CO is a twelve hour drive… Well, at least it is for me. Others may take a bit more time to get there.
When I get behind the wheel of a vehicle to head out to some point on a map, I do not want to stop until I arrive at my destination. This has caused some contention on family vacations in the past.
My wife is the polar opposite of me. She would rather make a few stops along the way… Spend at least a couple of nights in a motel along the journey… Stop along the side of the road to take pictures of freshly plowed wheat fields that stretch for endless miles in Western Oklahoma… Take a bathroom break every hundred miles or so… You get the picture… This is why she rarely makes the trip with me.
Being that I love being there so much, it is a wonder that I have not moved there permanently. It is something that I have been planning to do for the past ten years or so, but just have never found the perfect place. There are so many sites and features to behold on the Arkansas River between Leadville and Canon City Colorado. To find one particular spot to settle into forever would seem to cheat myself of the daily beauty of the other places that I have come to know.
Things changed during the Summer of 2009. I found a town along the trail that I could settle into for the remainder of my days. My two sons and I spent a few days and nights there that July and we were hooked.
I took my wife there the following March (2010) and she fell in love with the place, even though it snowed and she is not particularly fond of the white stuff. The snow was melted before 10:00 am and it warmed into the upper fifties.
My younger son and I returned last Summer (2011) and after immersing ourselves in the culture, it only deepened our longing to be there permanently.
The town is small and relatively free of crime. The climate is mild year round. Food choices are extraordinary for a town of less than 6000 citizens. The beer choices are unbelievable (and I do like my beer) at most eating establishments and bars. It is a bustling place full of activity, but, at the same time, remarkably laid back. Most importantly though, the people are friendly… even to me!
I am not the most approachable guy. I probably do not help this in any way by my appearance: 6 foot 1, 230 pounds, long hair (usually in a pony tail), goatee, 501 jeans, black or red Henley shirt, work boots and baseball cap… I kind of resemble a reject biker dude… Couple that with the fact that I am a somewhat standoffish around strangers (unless I am at a Sooners’ football game or in a pub) and you can see why most people are a bit intimidated by me.
The trip this year is different. While I have scouted for a place to call my own in this Utopia the past couple of trips, I have never seriously put my mind to finding a permanent place to settle down there. This year my main purpose is to find that place and be settled there by the end of June.
I will miss Oklahoma. The drives to Sooner football games will be much longer. Going swimming in the Spring (outdoors) will be much colder. Visiting family (who mainly live in Oklahoma and Texas) will not be a short trip. But…
I can trout fish and whitewater raft during the Summer, ski Monarch mountain in the Winter, hike to the top of 14,000 foot mountains, do a little gold mining when I choose… and so much more.
So where is this mountain oasis? Salida, Colorado. You may have guessed from one of the early lines about the trip from Henryetta to Salida.
Let me take a moment out to say that I do not want all of you people reading this moving up there and driving up real estate prices and disturbing my peace… A few of you may be alright, though. But please come visit us! Just keep it friendly: Stop behind the crosswalks… Watch for people walking and on bicycles… Speak to strangers on the street… Don’t be an asshole! More than one of us there may destroy the way of life.
