Down the river...

MOAB, UTAH - Monday - putting in on the Green River tomorrow for 29 days. (I see that it's been raining at Holden. We're back in hot summer weather here.)

I am happy to report no memorable incidence on our way down here. Makes for a dull blog, I know, but I am happy to concede to dullness. Actually, it wasn't dull at all, but full of more all-night packing and rearranging (how can that be?), driving and more driving. Our little ancient Mazda with 240,000 miles on it, stuffed to the brim with us and our gear, did it's usual - averaging 40 mpg from Chelan to Moab! I don't think we could have crammed in even one extra water bottle (though we did manage to fit those 14 homemade scones from Marc's mom!).

Was it just five days ago that we left Holden? Even though it was such a blur, leaving new friendships and old, leaving the squirrely-guys (and those friendly mice) - there is such goodness associated with it. Amid all the chaos of packing and no sleep, amid all the goodbyes, there were moments of crystalline heartbreaking beauty, moments of laughter and joy, moments of sadness, (and a few moments of pure panic). Life, love, the universe, and all that.

And so we're off - down the river. See you in a month.

Into the Never Never...

And so, we're off. Well, almost. Packing up our lives at Holden Village is taking a bit longer than we'd planned. So after two nights with a total of one and a half hours' sleep between them, we decided it would be smart to postpone leaving for one more day. And this will give us time to say goodbye to the ground squirrely guys and all their friends (since they didn't show up last night at our farewell, though I think they were eying the cool trinkets at our giveaway for possible additions to the den decor); and you know, leaving Holden on caffeine and no sleep pretty much muffles any actual feelings you may be having about friends, mountains, stars, cool breezes, that sort of thing. And really, I want to say, "Thank you, just so, straight into the universe." (That's a quote from Never Cry Wolf in case you were wondering).

So here are a few pictures of where we'll be and what we'll be doing for the first month (these are from last year, but we won't be able to post anything till sometime in October when we'll have a couple days back in the computerized world before heading off again).

Here's our itinerary so far (and as Yoda says, "Always in motion is the future"):

• September 8 - October 6: canoeing the Green River from Green River (the town) to the confluence with the Colorado River (the second half is through Canyonlands National Park). That's about 125 miles, which you can do in a week, but we want time to explore and hike up the myriad side canyons, look for Anasazi ruins and bighorn sheep, listen to canyon wrens, sit around the campfire in the warm evenings as scorpians bravely venture close.
• October 15 - fly to Kathmandu, Nepal. We'll be trekking to Everest Base Camp the "long" way - that is, starting where they used to have to start before they made an airstrip halfway there, exploring Sherpa villages and Buddhist temples, climbing over high passes with some pretty darned nice views (so I've read).
• December 11 - fly to Bangkok, Thailand. Spend the next two weeks (if all goes well with arrangements) volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in the northern part of the country. That takes us past Christmas, then we'll head to Cambodia and Angkor Wat, some steaming jungles, and whatever else we can find.
• January 25 - fly back to the states. Spend spring semester in Ashland, Oregon so that Raina can have a "normal" high school experience for at least one semester out of her high school career (she's a sophmore this year). She'll be getting credit from the Chelan School District for our travels.
• Then the future has multiple possibilities, of which we'll know more as time passes.

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures. We'll be thinking of you.