Memories

I was driving to Sierra Vista Saturday and was thinking of past adventures.  The ones after the divorce and before I retired.

I took up backpacking and really enjoyed it.  Made a lot of friends and went on about 20 trips.  The joke was if Anita is here then everyone is here.  I  was always last in camp.  I hugged a few trees and enjoyed the views.  I even tried snow camping!  Once was enough for me,  I do not like sleeping in the snow, just playing in it.

I took a 12 day trip down the Colorado River thru the Grand Canyon.  Loved it!  I reccommend it to anyone that is thinking of going.  It is a trip that I had wanted to take for years and that was the first thing I did after the divorce.  I could not get any of my friends to go wth me, so I went by myself.  Met a lot of really great people and had a grand time. Great memories:)  Also took a few white water trips on the American river.  Great fun!

 Cross country skiing - took a few lessons and had some good trips.  I enjoyed it very much, did not get to good at it though.  I had the opportunity to have downhill skiing lessons and really enjoyed that.  Again I was an intrmediate bunny run skier, but loved it anyway.  Never felt the need to ski the black diamond runs. The breakthru came when I discovered that I could control the speed that I was going down the mountain and when I learned to stop. But as I was with backpacking the trip is the best part of it, not the destination.

Took sailing lessons with a boyfriend.  He bought a sailboat and we had some good times sailing.  I was also lucky enough to sail in the Newport to Ensenada sailboat race, several times.   I had friends that bought a sailboat and we sailed in the "beer can" races on Wed and Fri evenings in Dana Point. We actually got pretty good.  During the sailboating I also got to learn to snorkel.  We went to Hawaii and snorkeled - so beautiful!!

I joined an organization that puts on the Swallows Day festivities in San Juan Capistrano.  I was the first La Presidente and then the Parade Chairman.  Made many good friends and had good times.  Worked hard and played hard.  During that time I took 2 step lessons and enjoyed dancing from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon.

During that time I also volunteered on the Brig Pilgrim in Dana Point.  It is a wooden square rigged tall ship.  The only way to sail on her was to do the upkeep.  We worked week ends and sailed 2 weeks in August.  There is nothing like shutting off the engine and to be under sail.  AWSOME!

Then I reached a point in my life that I needed a change and sold my home, put all in storage and took a road trip.  I traveled for 6 months in my 1985 Toyota MR2.  Went to visit friends and relatives that I had not seen for years and years.  Finally settled in Santa Fe, NM.