Post Vacation Relaxation

"We stowed our fat bikes, dusted off our trail bikes and traded volcanoes for the beautiful mountains of Crested Butte. It's great to be home!" 

-Keri's first post on Instagram post vacation

Grateful for our beautiful and challenging experience in Iceland during the previous three weeks, truth be told, we missed sunshine and warmth. We longed to be dry. We missed all that is wonderful about our home.

After a full day's travel, I returned to work for two days before having another five days off. Keri was still unable to work, waiting for Colorado's bureaucracy to issue her license to practice, so we packed the car with bikes, packrafts, and trail shoes and escaped to the mountains. 

With no plans other than to enjoy what our home offered, the next five days proved to be exhilarating and exhausting.

Sleeping and waking with a rising and setting sun seemed novel after our time in more northern latitudes. 

The speed and agility of our normal trail bikes was shocking and unnerving at first, but feelings of joy and absolute freedom soon followed.

I rinsed the dirt and sweat away in a mountain stream and was dry before reaching the towel.

Thin air at 10,000+ feet of elevation punished us for our trip abroad, as did the cat. We were soon forgiven. We stood on the summit of a 14,015 foot peak on a near cloudless, calm day. Meowzers joined us to snuggle and snooze. 

We spent 25 of 30 days at home in a tent.

We descended over 7,000 feet from the craggy, aspen lined alpine to the luke warm Colorado river while flirting with thunderstorms.

There's no place like home.