Being alone

I estimate that yesterday, for most of the day, there was not a single other person for miles in any direction.

Miles.  Think about it.  Even when we're alone, we're not that far from someone.

Moo.

My motto for the Four Corners area: "seal your stuff up, and then get sand in it anyway."

Recent rains gave me flowers.

My trusty steed.

Mokie Dugway.  That road at the bottom is the start. That ribbon of gravel on the right...

In any case, keep your eyes on the damn road.

I think I could lose myself for decades in this place.

When life offers you the chance to camp on a (small) (not that exposed) cliff, do it.

I came out here hoping to see stars.  I got a hazy morning instead.

The storm comes, the storm goes.  The cows, I guess, just hang around.

5 years and 9 months ago, I drove to the Arctic Ocean with some of my best friends. A feeling I remember from all the emptiness we saw was...friendly?  The people we did run into were friendly.  Interested in why we were there.  Interested in helping where they could.  But nowhere did I feel that they were excited to see more people.  Yesterday, in the Valley of the Gods, I crossed paths with a very polite German man. We exchanged reports on road conditions, and went our separate ways.  And the first thought I had when he moved past me was, "If I wait a few seconds, he'll be around that bend before I start moving again, and I won't have to see him."

I'm wary of sounding melancholy about this sort of thing, this solitude.  It's not.  It's just quieter.  When I'm alone, my thoughts rarely end with exclamation points.