Friday, November 17
I should mention that each morning we would rise in time to watch the sunset together. It was not so cold here, so we sat outside, rather than in the van like so many other says, talking and enjoying the quiet and solitude of the morning, waiting for and enjoying the first rays of day. One of the accompaniments Laura used on this trip was a blue, fleece blanket of mine. I originally gave it to her to use as an extra layer for her sleeping bag, as there had been several nights early on, when we first started traveling together, when I’d hear her 4Runner engine crank up so she could warm up some. She slept in the rear of the 4Runner. She had a rooftop tent, but she noted that it would be much colder using it. She had not used it once in the weeks I had spent with her. She named the blanket “Big Blue.” This morning, she was sitting in her chair wrapped in Big Blue, having her coffee, and writing in her journal.
Today’s active adventures began with the two of use taking a bike ride north on Furnace Creek Road, the main road through the park, which I had taken yesterday to Stovepipe Wells. We rode ten miles out, turning around at a turnoff to Beatty, NV, then ten miles back. It was exhilarating and beautiful, a fun ride together. Spectacular view, energizing activity to get the lungs, heart, mind, and spirit synchronized in an amazing harmony.
Later, in the early afternoon, we drove up to Stovepipe, where there is a dirt road turn-off to Mosaic Canyon. The canyon name is taken from nature’s creative design and placement of rocks along the canyon walls, as seen in some of the photos. It is mind-blowing how there can be so many different designs of canyons, with colors, shapes, sunlight and shadow, passages wide an narrow. On one hand it is seems simple, on another it seems an absolute miracle and wonder.
On the way back to Furnace Creek, we stopped at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. We arrived shortly before dusk, and took our time, slowly walking out part way towards the higher dunes. Some of the walk was along sandy flat stretched and dunes, some across hardened sun-baked mud flat with cracked fissures running throughout. It was an opportune time for photographs.
Spending time with Laura, be it quietly at sunrise or sunset, or in activities hiking and cycling, as well as regularly nightly walks before bedtime, had developed into a welcome, wonderful, daily experience. When I began this trip, I could not imagine such a thing to be. I felt we had a chemistry, synchronicity, and natural spontaneity and comfort with each other. We did these things while having great talks, sometimes simple, sometimes more complex, about life and our place here, in the world, and in the wonder of the universe. Amazing stuff. Every day.
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