Stormy day going up to Spring Green, Wisconsin

Jen "The Hurricane" Nordhem

Climbing Off the Roof of the World

We headed south from Denver to the mountains near the border of New Mexico, where Justin's parent's let us borrow their cabin for the weekend. It is situated in a valley that faces southward towards two big mountains - San Isabel and Ferdinand, which is a peak that rises 14,ooo miles above sea level. Above the valley the stars stretched in an infinite canopy at night.

It is bear country down there - evidence of black and brown bear activity was all over the cabin in the form of scratches, and Justin recalled seeing one during one of his first trips up there. It was scavenging food out of their cooler and reared up taller than 10 feet on his hind legs before galloping away on all fours when they started making noise. A she bear is said to inhabit the valley on a regular basis.

Over the course of the weekend we were making so much noise and smoke so that all the wild creatures of the mountains knew to stay away. With all the dinner bell gonging, Lil Wayne blasting out the speakers and the firewood in the stove for heating the hot tub we created a commotion all weekend. The mountain view was so immense and there was no one else in sight.

Things got buckwild as soon as we woke up in the morning. Somehow Jeremy got ahold of a machete and used it to cut up the watermelon, soaked in vodka overnight. I put on a headband and stuck long red feathers from the wildflower garden into it. Justin rocked a fake fur vest, and Jen decided that it would be an all bikini weekend as soon as the heat of the day started beating the valley.

On the summer solstice, storms were brewing in that mountain range. We ascended another 3,000 feet to a lake by truck, a wild ride that seemed to follow the route of the storm cloud. All around us it was sunny and clear blue, but right above us the thunderstorm raged. Half blinded by all the rain washing down the windshield with the broken wiper, we saw a lightning bolt spear the earth, a hot pink straight shock 100 yards ahead of the car and the sky boomed almost immediately.

When we finally got to the lake it was surrounded by clear streams of melting snow and mountain pines. I had never smelled anything as soft and sweet as those trees - the altitude, that fragrance, and the mimosas Ann brought made me dizzy with all the natural beauty. We dared each other to jump in and splashed around in the icy water hollering and creating a ruckus until it was time to roll out.

On the way back,, we met up with Suzanne and Curt, who promptly announce their engagement over a few pitchers of beer. It was officially a celebration, and that night we splashed in the hot tub under a clear night with endless stars that just got clearer and clearer, watching the lightning storm electrify the over the big mountains in the distance. The sun bowed out as late as it ever could, with the psychedelic shadows of sunset stretching long with magical light. The sound of gut busting laughter and music stretched throughout the valley and their vibrations seemed to echo back to us with howling reverberations.

The next day, I stayed with Jen and Justin as the rest of the camping crew took off back to Denver. Ann had said that if she couldn't find a ride back, she wouldn't mind hitching one. No one was particularly adverse to jumping on a freight train if necessary. Those guys were crazy badasses. We soaked in the sun and basked in the beauty of the amazing vista until the next day, a quiet stillness both humbled an awesome. Jen had taken me to one of the few places in the world where I have ever seen the sky as dynamic as this mountain one was. I would have been pining in loneliness had the crew that she had assembled not been so individually inspiring and fun. I could not have shared that time with a better group of people.

I've got to Raammbble!!

Yesterday I ambled past the Frenchmen snoring underfoot in my living room with nothing but a knapsack on my back and headed towards Midway by train after stopping at my friend's house for some quick bong hits. I got on the plane and thought of the drifters who have headed west before, people who have gone to the same place but by jumping trains. Decided that this trip would be a tribute to my literary heroes and the adventurers whose books I read as a kid that stoked the latent fires of wanderlust in my imagination.

When I think of Denver I think of Jack Kerouac... that was his first stop after Chicago in On the Road. He was in turn profoundly influenced by Jack London. Wanderers and hobo travelers heading west while getting more introspective with each mile gained, rambling on and on and on both in print and on foot.

"I've got to Raammmble!!" Led Zeppelin was playing in the bar Jen took me to after she scooped me from the pointed tented airport. We played air guitar solos and ordered shots of whiskey. They were kind enough to hook me up with a bmx bike to cruise around Denver in while I am here. We stopped at Jen's boyfriend Justin's bike shop on our way home and he hooked me up with a skateboard as well... traveling light and in style. Then we raged in typical Hurricane Jen style - she is as rambunctious as I have always known her to be, alternately endearing and terrifying all those around her.

We are heading to the skatepark this morning, but first I am going to the camera store so that these words can be illustrated. This evening we are heading south to stay at a cabin in the mountains.

This is how we got around in Denver.

Tack!!

At the end of the night last night I counted the number of miles I had traveled during the week: I had ridden about 50 miles by bicycle, 4 by car and 5 by sailboat. Today I will travel by plane a thousand miles to Denver.

For me, the most enjoyable mode of transportation is a toss up between the sailboat and my bicycle. There is no more beautiful path than the wake of the boat catching the waning light in green glints off of the waves. But a racing sailboat with a competitive and experienced crew is not the best place to leisurely bask in the awesome sights of nature, as I came to find last night.

I had only been out sailing with these guys once before, a couple of weeks ago. None of the sails got put up that day - we traveled in a thick fog that reduced visibility to a 20 meter radius around the boat to the starting point, where the race was cancelled. I stood on the bow talking shop and watching lookout with the guy who normally handles bow duties as we drifted through the ghostly spectral waters. I loved it.

This time the weather was cool, the winds were sweeping and the skies were clear to the stratosphere. I felt like a wide eyed ingenue or provincial cousin as the weight of my inexperience and technical incompetence was hard to shrug away when I stepped onto the boat. The best thing to do was to keep busy and out of the way when necessary. I found myself at a woeful disadvantage: upon biking six miles to get to the harbor, I discovered that I had only one shoe in my backpack. I distinctly recalled seeing the other shoe in next to my closet at home and realized that I had forgot to grab it on my way out. When I looked at the slippery flip flops on my feet, I knew I had to resign myself to a long night of feeling like an idiot.

Before all the roll tacking and jibing would take place, I still took time to marvel at the systems on the boat and the simple mechanics behind them. I helped pull down the mouselines and uncover the mainsail, and felt the gears turn in my head in high drive listening to the organization of the ropes that would control the main sail, jib and spinnaker. As we reading the boat to leave the port, a small Beagle with soft enormous ears was carried onto the deck clad safely in a life vest. He was carried by the handle that attached to the back of the life vest and would occasionally pop his head out throughout the rest of the evening.

"Hopefully next time you'll have some real shoes on," said the bowman from last time.

"Young lady, not only is it crazy to have those on your feet, it's dangerous!" scolded DS.

We had too many inexperienced sailors on the boat to have had a good showing in the race, but the boat was full of smiles as we parked it in the dock. We had towed a Rhodes 19 rocked precariously by three dorky, overly enthusiastic and breezy young preppy looking guys in khaki shorts, and as we turned into the boat's space one of the young men fell in the lake when they rocked him over. I rode the six miles home in two stages and stopped to eat, and when I got to bed I fell into a dead sleep.

I can't stoooopppppp!!!!!!

Last Saturday our house turned into a vortex of travelers on the move... fifteen minutes into our evening house party/ bbq/ soiree, I sat for a quick shot of rum with a few gentlemen in my backyard. Ben had his backpack packed and his boarding pass in his pocket - in a few moments, I would walk him to the train to the airport, where he would not breathe fresh air until he would disembark 14 hours later in Berlin. Coco's brother, Christophe, and his friend Didier had just put down their bags in my living room, fresh off the plane from Paris the night before. And my friend Mike wandered in, just in from hanging out in a boat off of Cape Cod photographing whales.

I raised my glass to life being a great adventure.

Later on that night many more people would wander in and out of our backyard in various states of inebriation. This time of the year brings many visitors to Chicago. Aside from our new houseguests, my roommate's friends and colleagues drifted in to help celebrate her birthday. Friends of friends of friends of friends, who I had never met before. I saw old loves meeting again for a brief moment in my living room, having been parted by the distance the length of the Mississippi, in the same town for just one night. The city opens up as the weather gets warmer, and the heat of the sun matches the strength of the wind - and the lake is a gleaming showcase of water and light. It would be crazy to come here when the weather is cold and people stay burrowed in, bound tighter that a nut, when the skies are high pressured and gray. I am not used to inviting people into my house, meeting strangers in my own personal space. I am used to being the one doing the visiting and then coming home just for a breather, doing laundry and sleeping for hours and hours in my small dark room.

There were several elements that appeared at the party that reminded me of how close to home here I have come - my brothers arrived to sit and philosophize under the tree, and were thrust with my old skatergirl friend's newborn baby and toddler to hold for a brief moment, my old schoolmate appeared and commiserated with my old neighbor. We were on a street I have lived on for years, in a city that I have come home to every time I have traveled anywhere and I still felt the push of life in motion.

Yesterday I went downtown to an Irish Pub with the Paris crew to watch the soccer match between France and Italy. The four of us rode there on three bikes - Christophe was heroically transported on the rack they had just attached to the back of Corinne's vintage Schwinn road bike. A towel was wrapped around it for comfort and he held on for dear life as she struggled up hills and across bridges to get downtown. Her tireless efforts were shaded somewhat by the easy birdlike gliding flow of my racing bike and the girl's cruiser Didier was stylishly swooping around on.

She yelled at me for blocking the way.

"I can't stop!!!" she screeched in a nerve wracked warble, as they hobbled across the intersection. I moved forward just quickly enough to not get crashed into. After we passed the intersection, balance and composure were regained and we arrived just in time to see the start of the game and for me to finally let out my chuckle.