Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Day 2

Sometimes you feel like a nut because you are

 Vacation is all about not having to be any place at any certain time, about relaxing, laughing and drinking in as much adventure as you can tolerate in a short time. The first half of day 2 started early for me. I got up early before anyone else and slipped outside with my sweater. The morning was beautiful, the view was breathtaking and I was a happy little camper. As everyone began to wake up, they ventured to the back porch to enjoy the view too. No one seemed to be in a hurry to get dressed, eat breakfast or to break the spell that had been cast on us by the early morning beauty of Colorado. As the sun climbed higher in the sky, we barely changed positions. I wondered over to the horses to see if they would be my friend. They would, so I braided their manes (they looked spiffy), then my husband pointed out that the owner may not want to round up cattle on horses with braided manes, so I took the braids out and apologized profusely to the horses because they would have to go another day with horse hair until I cleared the braiding with the owner. They understood. I stood

Like breakfast at Tiffany's only better

on the front porch for a while and listened to the ranch hands bang around in the barn. When my husband joined me, I told him I had the urge to go ask them if I could do something "ranchy". I was starting to feel all cow girlie and wanted to get my hands dirty. He agreed, I should go on out and see if they'd put me to work, but then the lazy took over again and I went around back, laid a blanket on the porch and soaked in the sun as the day began to warm. We lay on the porch and sat in lawn chairs, some of us with our eyes closed, some of us in a hypnotic trance that only vacation can bring and listened to one of the boys read C. S. Lewis out loud. The morning lasted forever and we had no desire to hurry it along. Finally one by one, we roused ourselves enough to get dressed and waited

for my son and daughter. We had no particular plans, but thought perhaps we'd mosey (cause I think that's what you do in the country) into town for breakfast. When they arrived, we did mosey into town for breakfast, but found the time for breakfast had passed so we mosied down to The Rancher's Roost Cafe' and Bowling Ally for an early lunch. The perfect chance since  I needed to survey the dreaded bowling ally my son was insistent on having his rehearsal dinner in. The Rancher's Roost Cafe' and Bowling Ally was a pleasant surprise. The bowling ally at home is dark, dank, and disgustingly void of any charm. This bowling ally was bright, cheery, the food was great and the staff was so nice. When I asked to see the banquet room, I was pleasantly surprised and totally at peace with the bowling ally rehearsal dinner. Although this wouldn't be a chocolate fountain and pink champagne rehearsal dinner, it would fit right in with the easy going, laid back theme of the wedding. I was at peace, and trust me that makes everyone's vacation a better place to be. We

talked to the staff about our plans for Thursday night... Critical stuff like, could we have all of the televisions playing The Thunder game while we bowled. When you're having a wedding, you must get all the tiny details worked out in advanced, so with that done, we headed back down the street to mosey around the shops. Actually the women mosied while the men internally groaned and dreaded to see what we would bring out of the shops. We girls all got really cute cowboy hats that looked like they had been stained with years of sweat. We thought we looked very cow girlish, the guys thought we looked like tourist. What do they know? Then my husband made an executive decision (which he rarely has the opportunity to do) and decided we should all go to Bishop Castle. He had looked forward to seeing Bishop Castle forever, so we loaded up in our cars and meandered (instead of mosied) through the mountains to this looming castle in the middle of the forest. It was very

impressive, especially when you realize it was all done by a single man... For no particular reason whatsoever. I loved the spiral staircases that took you far above your comfort zone, and just like the volcano, you got quite a workout climbing the stairs. The castle went up and over with endless staircases and bridges. I totally wanted to play hide and seek, but no one else really seemed excited about the idea (why must we always act like adults?). The man building the castle sat up on one of the structures mixing and muttering while his friend sat on the front porch of a shack nearby and talked to him and anyone else who wondered up. The more I climbed and looked around, the more odd it became. It was a mixture of whimsy, beauty, craftsmanship and just lunacy. On some level, his strange obsession made me feel more normal than usual... Less creative, but more

normal. You'd probably would have to read the large handwritten (or scrawled) signs he had posted to fully understand how this odd attraction could make me feel normal, then who knows, it might make you see me as more normal too. LOL! We headed home, stopping to buy groceries for the cabin. Our boys prepared for their last adventure together while they were both single men. They had planned on hiking, or camping for the night, but the planning never made it to the where, what or when stage. They left on foot, heading for the nearby mountains as we all crossed our fingers and prayed they would make it back in time for the wedding. The day ended with The Oklahoma City Thunder rolling through our satelite dish to a victory over the Miami Heat. It was a good day!

THUNDER UP BABY!