Saying Goodbye to The Rockies

2017–07–28 —I had decided it was time for the next chapter in my life.

My girlfriend and I said one last goodbye to the Rockies that stood beside our old home. We drove a little of the way and found a nice place to settle in for the night.

The view of the Rockies as we woke up.

It was Friday morning, and we cooked up our breakfast on a cast iron pan and portable gas stove that we had brought along. A quiet morning sipping tea as we dipped our feet into the lake and let the Sun rise up over the mountains to warm us up was a welcome change the daily office commute.

The only thing missing was a hot shower.

After the Sun was up, we worked our way out to a nearby pasture nestled in between the mountains. A local dairy farm was selling freshly made icecream; who could ask for a better wakeup call?

For lunch, we cooked up some locally farmed sausage and just enjoyed the serenity of it all…

Now, this was all pretty tiring, so we decided we needed to go pick some strawberries… The area we were in had berry farms abound, and they were all in season. As we picked, we ate our fair share of raspberries along the way.

The other half were already in my belly!

And with that, we suddenly found ourselves in pickup country. I had previously spent a few years in an area where many people had flocked to work for the oil and gas industry and there was no shortage of pickup trucks there. I had all but forgotten about them until now.

I don’t think it’s big enough.

I had found a local magazine… while it has nothing to do with the rest of this, I felt it needed to be shared:

This man is confident in himself. Of this, there is no question.

It was a full day of icecream, sausage, and strawberries, so we struck off to find somewhere new to sleep for the night. Looking at my map, I saw an old forest road leading north into the mountains, and ending along some lakes. It seemed like a good hideout for the night.

The car we were driving was not fit for that old service road. But we made it work, and the muffler wasn’t torn off to my astonishment.

Once there, we encountered a number of locals. Lots of big trucks, lots of beer, and lots of partying out on an isolated lake in the mountains where nobody could or would bother them. It was a good place for it, but for us, we wanted somewhere quiet, peaceful, and isolated.

It looked like these people had been parting out there for weeks.

They’re living on their own homemade island. God only knows how they got it all out there.

With a tip from a local, we had found our own little nook; a private waterfall and stream. A fire ban meant no campfires, but we’d make due with the gas stove. We couldn’t have asked for much more.

The roaring waterfall nearby helped ensure we never heard the party-goers.

Pea soup for dinner! And all the fresh strawberries we could eat.

The back of the car would be our tent.

Farewell, Rockies.

Part 2: https://medium.com/@lemmings19/to-the-netherlands-f12b117a52f2