I took a drive to Durango today. It’s a beautiful drive and I was thinking about living in the West and how lucky I’ve been.
In 1989 Rick and I bought a little portion, 54 acres, of a former ranch in the middle of Texas. It was in that strip of land where the Texas Hill Country winds down and West Texas begins.
With my move to Colorado seven and a half years ago it makes 35 years total that I’ve been able to live in the West, a dream I had since I was about 5 or 6 years old. It was sometimes part time and sometimes full time. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of struggle. But when you really want something you find a way, if you can. Sometimes you can’t. You have to factor in some luck along the way.
I love everything about the West. The mountains, the desert, the history, the wildlife, the plants. The clear rivers, the climate, the types of people that inhabit it. I love the bigness of it, the wide open spaces. The dark skies with more stars than a person can imagine, seeming so close you could reach out and grab them. I love the artwork depicting it, the beautiful jewelry with stones dug out from the mountains. I love the log cabins and the adobe houses. I love the light, the way it hits the mountain tops each morning and evening, the pink sunrises and the orange sunsets. I love the conifers and the aspens in Colorado, and the live oaks that were in central Texas. I love the way the dry wind feels on your face, the way the snow makes everything quiet. I love the food and the beer and the whiskey.
I love the traditions and the cultures here. The stories of the indigenous people that lived here before Europeans. How they are still here, still living their lives as we all are. How they are so much a part of the area here in Colorado as they have always been. Signs marking when you enter their land. You don’t see that in the places I lived before here. If there were any Comanches in Kimble County, Texas I never ran across them.
But life is full of stages and changes. And for many reasons I’ll be moving with some of my family. It’s not somewhere I thought I’d ever live. But I’m fascinated by the idea. I’ll be living about 4 hours south of Canada. I can hardly imagine it! That’s a day trip for us who grew up in Texas. And a long way from where I started out in life, and not just in miles.
Barring any unknown circumstances, I expect this will be my last move. As long as the family stays there I will too. And at 75, let’s face reality, I don’t have that many years left. I expect this will be my final frontier. It will be a strange land for me. But the wilderness is all around there and there are new adventures to be had. I’m slowing down but once I get this old back repaired, I hope to be out on some of them. Stay tuned!
“Ain’t nothing better than riding a fine horse in new country.” ~ Augustus McCrae, Lonesome Dove
