Saturday Night’s Alright For Commenting: 10/7/17

There are two things I can’t stop thinking about. The first is that I went to Colorado a month ago. I met up with some California friends, went to a Rockies game, and spent a week at Rocky Mountain National Park. We split up. I backpacked and they day-hiked. I spent three days hiking the Continental Divide Loop. I was at 12,300 feet on the second day walking in a tundra. I had never seen it before. All those little maroon grasses and boulders made a different planet. I felt like an astronaut being closer to the stars walking around that Rocky Mountain skyline.

Two days later, we had to leave. During those two days, fall began to set in. There were splashes of yellow and orange on the mountain sides where the trees are still allowed to live. I just wanted to stay. I didn’t want to go. I was dying to see it all change. To just sit in a field for an entire year, to watch the seasons arrive and die would be more than enough.

The trip to actually backpack cost me $80. $20 for a permit and $60 for food. I went online to see how much outfitters charge. $1,300! $1,300 to do the exact same thing, and that doesn’t even include flights, hotels, or a ride to the park. Now all I want to do is keep saving all my money, buy a van and some flea market backpacks, and call Legal Zoom to get some waivers made.

The other thing is that I’m reading “Walden.” Except I can’t really read it consistently. It’s not a book to read indoors. You can’t have a roof over your head when you read it. You need to be next to a stream or under a tree. No cars can be heard. There needs to be more butterflies than people in your vicinity. I’ve spent the last two weeks in different cities and am dying to finish it next week. If you haven’t read it, I recommend you do the same. It’s some spectacular words. Reading it in the middle of a hike will get you looking closer at the flowers, savoring the smells, and rubbing the trees.

What about you? What do you have going on, even if it has nothing to do with the Texans? It’s Saturday night and the floor is yours. Just remember that the standard commenting rules apply.