Early morning shadows on the bathroom wall and door from the wood blinds. Weird, huh?
As I sit here this morning in front of my computer I have no idea what I am going to say. I just feel like I should be here writing. Something. Anything.
I am working on a blog post about the cabin and the land around it but it’s more complicated than I thought it would be. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to anyone who has never been there. I’ll keep at it.
When I told a friend yesterday that I was having trouble navigating my own house because I kept thinking I was at the cabin and would go to the drawer here at home thinking it was the silverware drawer, only to find that it wasn’t. She scolded me with a “but Lynne you were only gone two weeks!” It’s hard to describe to someone the amount of immersion we experience. It’s not like going on vacation to a motel or resort. It’s our second home. Literally. Sometimes I feel like I am two different people: my New Jersey self and the Wyoming/Colorado cabin self.
I snapped these photos from the truck on the long drive home. Here is the sunrise in Iowa on our second day.
And the sunrise in Ohio on the third day.
This was taken a little later in the day in Ohio. I thought it was an interesting sky. I think it looks more like ripples of water on a lake than clouds in the sky.
It has turned to fall weather here. Our nights are dipping low into the 40’s and last night we had high 30’s. The last couple of days have been sunny and pleasantly warm with a cool nip in the air. Perfect! I find it ironic that it basically rained here the whole time we were in Colorado, and there we had sun every day. Now that we are home the rain seems to have disappeared just when I was craving a rainy day after two weeks of sun.
Another friend wrote to me the other day and asked how could I complain about the sun shining? Trust me, you would be bored to tears with day after day of brilliant sunshine. Weather of any kind that is the same—whether it’s constant rain or constant sun—gets monotonous. I like the sun; just not all the time! We were really hoping for rainy/snowy/cozy weather at the cabin but it doesn’t happen much when we are there. I know you all think I am crazy, and maybe I am!
After reading this blog post over I guess I really didn’t have much to say, but I like the pics so I am posting this anyway.
We arrived home in the very same kind of weather we left in. Rain. It rained nearly all the way through the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, again. We haven’t seen rain since the very first day we arrived in Laramie to do our shopping on the way in to the cabin. Two weeks without rain! The temperature upon arrival was a chilly and damp 50 degrees F which feels so much colder than the dry-almost-non-existent humidity of Colorado.
The dogs somehow knew we were home the minute we pulled in to the driveway and all three erupted into a frenzied joyful barking. We let them out of the truck and they ran around, barking of course, in the front yard. I’m sure the neighbors at the opposite end of the street knew we were home after that racket. The kitties once let out of their crates in the house roamed the rooms with tails straight up and eyes round. The house was chilly, so on went the heat for the first time this year. It smelled good; comforting. We unpacked the truck in the light drizzle, put some things away and then finally sat down to a well deserved glass of wine. We heated up the leftover chicken pot pie we had brought home with us from the cabin because we couldn’t bear to throw it out and had that for our dinner while we watched the TiVo’d premiere of Terra Nova.
Our neighbors called and told us to be on the look out as a big bear was getting into the trash down the street and we had just put our trash out for pickup in the morning. They said they’d had a bear in their garage three times over the past week. Welcome back to the wilds of New Jersey! Rick turned on our outside lights at the street thinking that might deter him.
Too tired to do anything else, we went to bed. As I lay in bed listening to the soft patter of rain outside I thought not for the first time how good it was to be home. We both love the cabin but now it’s somewhere we go on vacation and not home. At least “not home” in the sense of where we live. When we are at the cabin, we are home. Hmmm ... does that make sense? It’s hard to explain. I know I’ve said it again and again on my blog, but when we are there we are home and when we are here we are home. I think you get the idea. I am starting to come around to the idea of a trial year at the cabin, winter and all, once we retire. What a blog that would make!
This morning as I type it’s raining. The sky is gray and dark. So different from the brilliant blue that we had for the past two weeks. When I look out the window I see a wall of trees crowding the yard instead of an open meadow and golden aspens glowing in the morning light. Our trees here are just starting to change but I don’t think they will be very pretty this year. They look soggy and defeated. But they are oh so beautiful with their many colors when they do change. We shall see if all the rain has made a difference in our normally gorgeous fall.
I have much to do today as you can imagine. Grocery shopping is #1 on my list, then laundry. My new machine will certainly be getting a workout over the next few days!
I’ll leave you with a photo I took last week.
For the past couple of days conditions have been just right for con trails. They’ve been spectacular so I thought I’d share them with you.
A very busy morning over Bull Mountain.
And these over Camel Rock on our way in to Laramie. They kind of look like they are forming a flag to me.
And yesterday’s almost over the cabin. This was taken from our front porch.
Click on a picture to enlarge it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We arrived yesterday at the cabin around 3:00 p.m. after doing several hours of shopping in Laramie . All of us were glad to finally get here, although the long drive of 1,850 some miles in two and a half days didn’t seem all that bad.
Our drive west took us through the rolling wooded hills of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately it was raining the entire way through that large state.
The trees grew less and the open fields became more plentiful in Ohio. Also, the sun came out in Ohio. Indiana was much the same and we had a beautiful sunrise on the day we left.
(photo taken in motion on purpose with the tree in the foreground.)
The state of Illinois is always a tough one. Not much to look at on the interstate and the suburbs of Chicago seem to go on forever. However, they do have Culver’s, my favorite fast food hamburger restaurant.
We hit rain again in Iowa but only halfway through the state this time. We passed a windmill blade being transported. It looked a bit like a huge fish out of water. Immense!
Nebraska is one huge state. We break it up by spending the second night about one-third of the way through in Grand Island. Yesterday it was nothing but fog, fog, and more fog. The hay rolls loomed eerily in the gloom.
After that, it’s all downhill from there. Well, only mentally speaking since physically we are constantly climbing in altitude. But the last day always goes fast and before we know it we are in Laramie doing the grocery shopping.
However, there are some pitfalls of only visiting the cabin one time per year. One I will talk about now and the major one I will leave until my next post.
We have both satellite TV and satellite internet access, both from different parties. We have a contract where we can switch them both off for six months of the year and have them on the other six months. This works great with the television and we never have any problems other than having to re-verify each time by calling the service.
The internet on the other hand has always been a bit hit and miss. Last year it worked like a charm from the moment we arrived—a hit. This year, however, it was very much a miss. It was not working! Poor Rick on the phone to them (which in order to get a strong enough signal to talk to them he has to stand outside) for over an hour the first time. It turns out the satellite we were on was having problems with the transponder that we were on, so they ended up switching us over to a new one. We had to wait an hour while they downloaded all the new information to our modem and that finally gave us a chance to have dinner at around 7:30 p.m. When Rick called them back one hour later and talked to the nice man in India with a thick accent, all was restored! Hurrah!
Now if the other problem was as easily solved … stay tuned.
Oh! I almost forgot the treasure we found at the top of our driveway while taking the dogs for a walk just before dark last night. This wonderful giant puffball mushroom! At first when we saw something large and white in amongst the sage we thought it was a piece of styrofoam or some other kind of trash. I’ve never seen one this big before. It was almost big enough to sit on like a stool!
Here it is as seen from the top.
And no, we are not eating it although they say that they are edible. It’s too pretty to disturb!
I’ll leave you with a photo of my breakfast this morning. Rick made delicious bran muffins which are kind of a tradition on our first morning here.
