ROF= Ring of fire Odyssey
MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
ITW = Into The West journey
Original post: ITW Back Safe from 12k miles
Back Safe
ITW Back
Back Safe October 2010
T - O, Back safe. Thanks for checking on me. 1st couple weeks jet lag/ humidity/ & wrung out from being up on the line knocked me down hard. Getting re-started & back on feet now.
This was NOT a vacation... but a journey... I called it into the abyss of time & life. Went 12,000 miles, all on back roads -- many dirt roads-- NONE of it planned... well, west to Canyon de Chelly, AZ, then north through the Rockies to Glacier npk was planned, but everything else day to day was a wandering, stumbling onto some amazing places in our really great country. Interstate was only the last week heading home.
When I say stumbling... it was -- well today let's see what this/ or what that's about... & it was usually things right there in front of everybody(not in the chamber of commerce brochures)... like climbing "round top" in Thermopolis, WY(behind the T-28 plane)... right there overlooking the town & hot springs... took about 2 hours... & there was nobody there. just out there alone looking at some really great views / places / canyons/ buttes/ mesas/ rivers/ sunsets/ ect...
I wondered at times why there was no one else-- very few-- at these places. Most places were off the beaten path / the road less traveled. Saw people in the big RV bus thing sitting inside watching CNN & thought WTF! ; saw a lot of people in a hurry going nowhere. Each to his own... but I really enjoyed seeing all this; it was a journey in a lifetime.
ie... like Devils Tower , WY...(near the end of the journey) This was a very powerful place. The close encounters film got it right. You get a glimpse of this from 10- 20 miles away & it begins to pull you. ... & the closer you get.... it draws you right in. & you see the defined rock spines that looked like this was combed... those are hex collumns -- six sided rock crystals that formed as the volcano flow came up through the shaft & cooled in place. The closer you get you are just paralyzed at what you're seeing... at the phenomenon of the spectacle. This was a sacred / mysterious place for the indians & pioneers
There were so many places that drew you in & paralyzed you at the sublime beauty/ the history/ the sureal starkness of it.... like Mesa Verde. or Canyonlands / Arches np at Moab... Flaming Gorge, UT trout fishing the Green river, then a day later a desert sunset / sunrise at firehole. & it's hard to explain Wyoming & Montana... I could talk to you for a couple years about it... hiking through snowpack to get to walk/ dance around Medicine Wheel , going to a rodeo in Livingston , MT on july 4th-- can't get more American than that! Columbia river gorge, Crater Lake -- so sureal that I had to hike down to the lake, get in it, drink a handfull of it. ... so paralyzing ... still can't describe the blue. Bighorn canyon/ river, Shell falls, Canyon de Chelly, the Tetons, Glacier np, Santa Fe trail, Oregon trail, Bozeman trail, Petroglyphs at Thermopolis, Moab, ect... Too many places to mention...
One of my friends said it will take a few months to sort this out & put it in perspective; back now & realizing the enormity of it... it will take years... if not the rest of my life tosort this out. It was a journey. Since back , checked out Homers "Odyssey" from the library & really understand & appreciate Homer much better. My head & heart are still out there on the edge of the universe. I was my own man before... & am pretty well ruined after this; don't know that I can come back to the rat race. We'll see. ...watched about 30 minutes tv & wanted to go outside & throw up.
Will probably put some of this on a website where some of the pics can be viewed; I just don't know where to start... I kept / wrote a daily journal... will piece together some of the highlights... most days were pretty unique; not much dull... will figure out how to a web page / story.
It was an amazing journey, & am very thankful for the abundant blessings that allowed this. ...said many prayers for friends & family while standing at some pretty good views. & thank you for all your prayers for me; I could not have made it w/out you! You may have saved my life keeping me alert & focused & got me back home safe; thank you dearly! Whit
T - O, Back safe. Thanks for checking on me. 1st couple weeks jet lag/ humidity/ & wrung out from being up on the line knocked me down hard. Getting re-started & back on feet now.
This was NOT a vacation... but a journey... I called it into the abyss of time & life. Went 12,000 miles, all on back roads -- many dirt roads-- NONE of it planned... well, west to Canyon de Chelly, AZ, then north through the rockies to Glacier npk was planned, but everything else day to day was a wandering, stumbling onto some amazing places in our really great country. Interstate was only the last week heading home.
When I say stumbling... it was -- well today let's see what this/ or what that's about... & it was usually things right there in front of everybody(not in the chamber of commerce brochures)... like climbing "round top" in Thermopolis, WY(behind the T-28 plane)... right there overlooking the town & hot springs... took about 2 hours... & there was nobody there. just out there alone looking at some really great views / places / canyons/ buttes/ mesas/ rivers/ sunsets/ ect...
I wondered at times why there was no one else-- very few-- at these places. Most places were off the beaten path / the road less traveled. Saw people in the big RV bus thing sitting inside watching CNN & thought WTF! ; saw a lot of people in a hurry going nowhere. Each to his own... but I really enjoyed seeing all this; it was a journey in a lifetime.
ie... like Devils Tower , WY...(near the end of the journey) This was a very powerful place. The close encounters film got it right. You get a glimpse of this from 10- 20 miles away & it begins to pull you. ... & the closer you get.... it draws you right in. & you see the defined rock spines that looked like this was combed... those are hex columns -- six sided rock crystals that formed as the volcano flow came up through the shaft & cooled in place. The closer you get you are just paralyzed at what you're seeing... at the phenomenon of the spectacle. This was a sacred / mysterious place for the indians & pioneers
There were so many places that drew you in & paralyzed you at the sublime beauty/ the history/ the surreal starkness of it.... like Mesa Verde. or Canyonlands / Arches np at Moab... Flaming Gorge, UT trout fishing the Green river, then a day later a desert sunset / sunrise at firehole. & it's hard to explain Wyoming & Montana... I could talk to you for a couple years about it... hiking through snowpack to get to walk/ dance around Medicine Wheel , going to a rodeo in Livingston , MT on july 4th-- can't get more American than that! Columbia river gorge, Crater Lake -- so surreal that I had to hike down to the lake, get in it, drink a handful of it. ... so paralyzing ... still can't describe the blue. Bighorn canyon/ river, Shell falls, Canyon de Chelly, the Tetons, Glacier NP, Santa Fe trail, Oregon trail, Bozeman trail, Petroglyphs at Thermopolis, Moab, ect... Too many places to mention...
One of my friends said it will take a few months to sort this out & put it in perspective; back now & realizing the enormity of it... it will take years... if not the rest of my life to sort this out. It was a journey. Since back , checked out Homers "Odyssey" from the library & really understand & appreciate Homer much better. My head & heart are still out there on the edge of the universe. I was my own man before... & am pretty well ruined after this; don't know that I can come back to the rat race. We'll see. ...watched about 30 minutes TV & wanted to go outside & throw up.
Will probably put some of this on a website where some of the pics can be viewed; I just don't know where to start... I kept / wrote a daily journal... will piece together some of the highlights... most days were pretty unique; not much dull .... will figure out how to a web page / story.
It was an amazing journey, & am very thankful for the abundant blessings that allowed this. ...said many prayers for friends & family while standing at some pretty good views. & thank you for all your prayers for me; I could not have made it w/out you! You may have saved my life keeping me alert & focused & got me back home safe; thank you dearly! Whit
You never drink twice from the same stream.
Just because you wander doesn't mean you're lost.
Uncle Hargus: Last of the Independents
Have Bear,
Will Travel
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