Wow. So its been a minute! I'm not even going to try to catch up on
everything that has happened. I'm just going to jump right in.
Last weekend I got to take a trip (by myself!) to go visit Barry while he was
on set shooting in Silverton, CO. We have always had this plan to never be away from each other for more than two weeks. Usually we can't do anything about it because of money or we can't find anyone to watch our dogs for us. But not this weekend! The boys stayed at Nana and Papa's house and my brother begrudgingly watched our dogs.
I won't lie. I was a little scared to drive by myself. Our car is coming up on 250K miles (love mah baby!) and the idea of being stuck in the middle of nowhere is a real fear of mine.
Also...desert zombies. True story.
Lets just start with me saying...I get sick when I travel. Not sure if its motion sickness (unlikely) or if its just anxiety (bingo!) but every time I travel there is puking involved. I traveled to Austin for Celena's wedding and spent the first two hours of her wedding day puking. Not a good look. It usually hits first thing in the morning. It is JUST LIKE morning sickness.
If I can get to 9am I am usually good.
This trip was no exception to the Maria's Travel Anxiety Saga. Unbeknownst to me, I was traveling the weekend of Spring Break so after a nine hour drive I was shocked to find out that there wasn't a SINGLE hotel in all of Amarillo that had a room for me. I was exhausted and freaked out at the prospect of having to drive another two hours to the next "big" town. Luckily there was a room available at the next small town, only twenty minutes away.
I got in my room and settled down to rest. And that's when it hit. Anxiety about driving across the desert the next day. Anxiety about having to drive the treacherous mountain pass to get to Silverton. Anxiety about the truck breaking down (despite it driving beautifully all day long). I finally got to sleep but a few hours later (like two) I was awake and there was just no way I was going back to sleep. The nausea had hit me and since I was in the middle of nowhere there was no place I could go to to get some meds. So I started driving and it was the most miserable I have been while sick. Long story short I was finally able to get to a bigger town where I snatched a nap and some pepto and the fog lifted and I was just fine.
My trusty Whataburger cup! For vomit.
There is nothing in New Mexico. Like...nothing. Most boring drive ever.
But what I DID FIND was another Tahoe just. like. mine. I followed him all the way from Albuquerque to Durango. We were travel buddies. Or I was stalking him. Same dif.
I FINALLY made it to Durango where I was to meet Barry. Durango is only about twenty minutes from the New Mexico border so it pretty much looks like a mountain-y desert town. We grabbed some lunch at a little made-from-scratch restaurant and then
drove the mountain pass to get to Silverton.
It was terrifying. Honestly, it wasn't that bad but I hate heights and oh man, some of those curves are just maaaade for cars to go flying off into oblivion. But oh goodness, the mountains.
Silverton is nestled in this little valley surrounded by five mountains and it is stunningly beautiful.
Most of the crew was off shooting so it was just me, Barry, and Phil doing a pseudo driving tour. I got to see the old mines and learn about the different ways homes are built there. I spent most of the time just looking around with my mouth open in wonder. We got an early dinner and then Barry and I just completely crashed.
The next morning we decided we would do some more driving and then go hiking in the afternoon.
Ok, this picture is kind of stupid but for me it was empowering. I finally have a Instagram worthy picture of just my morning coffee. I know, I know. I shouldn't base my life on the scale of others..whatever. I got my picture and I freaking love it.
I still had some leftover travel tummy issues so I had some tea at the local coffee house and we did some driving. Now, when I say we went on a little drive, its kind of misleading. We went along a winding road north of town and stopped every three minutes or so so I could take pictures of nature.
My first time in real snow!
Mah baby!! I freaking love this truck.
We saw little creeks, a house built right over a mine shaft, and some of the older mines.
I edited the shit out of this picture. Thank you FaceTune!
We talked with an older couple from the area and talked about off roading in the summer.
We had lunch and then went on our hike!
It was just so beautiful. It was everything I could have hoped for.
I got stuck in the snow. It was amazing. Phil didn't even try lol
We ended the hike with a trip to one of the creeks. I've always wanted to take a drink out of a natural body of water. Luckily, Barry had one of those filters that you can sip out of so of course that had to happen.
Just in case you were curious, it tastes just like bottled water.
Unfortunately Barry looks very puffy in this photo, but I look cute as shit so this is the one that got uploaded to facebook.
That was pretty much the trip. I wasn't there long and it is an itty-bitty town. Barry and I talked about the possibility of getting a vacation home there in the far future. I want to explore more of Colorado. It gave me this huge incentive to get fit. There is so much I want to do there that involves physical and mental staminia. It was a huge boost for me.
We are going to take the boys and visit Billie this summer, it should be a lot of fun!
-Ri
