http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/balmorhea/

This is where i woke up this morning..after a long day of driving.. sometimes u can't possibly comprehend u r in paradise.. thought it was clearly nicer than the parking lot, in Louisiana, where we'd stayed just shy of baton rogue.. a few days earlier

i went into the office to pay for my space, Joanne greeted me.. i gave all my personal info, my name, address and phone # why i don't know, like we're kept track of.. horrid thought

she says so did u see the pool.. i'm like no, like i give a shit about a pool.. she says well u absolutely should.. why must i, again i'm starting late, but earlier compared to days past.. so feeling like a bungie cord has a hold of me, not letting me leave to the west, just getting taunter..

so about this pool.. which u can read about, feed by hot springs, so we ventured over to see this magnificent pool.. oh and it was.. oh my,, truly so fantastic, i'd always wanted to see a spring feed pool, i'd like to sit in a jacuzzi like feed spring pool.. with no one there.. no crowds, just the moon, the stars.. the cool breeze , ok back to my story.. ha ha ha hahhaahaha


i took lots of pix.. but shortly after i was shooting my camera battery died, then i used my phone, and it's battery died, shit fuck.
so i decided we should run back, put on our suits, forget we were on a schedule, and take a dip, as well as there was this high dive i really wanted to dive off of.. there were these boys jumping off it and i so wanted to do the same.

and so i did, dive off the high dive, my legs shaking, oh no what have i done, and i wasn't going to just climb down those stairs so i did, and i never just dive into water, i go slowly, just an inch at a time, not today.. i just dove in.. and u know, that's what life is all about.. just diving in..

then i threw Andres in, in the much shallower end in a life vest.. no i'm no worried.. all by myself here, save a life, his and mine.. he struggled at first then i threw him in.. and he swam quite a way to the stairs.. slippery from the moss.. hold on tight!! as we strolled back to the deep end Andres wanted to go back in, so i said ok.. and started to lower him in.. he was resident, and i was struggling, when madeline pushed us both in, it was so great, we laughed , and swam, together.. to the next latter up.. he so wanted to go again.. like a ride no amusement park could ever provide..

i practiced a few dives on the low board before hitting the scary high dive again, but put myself back up there, better with practice, i was 15 again, when i was in Durango, with Kimberly Waldon, a girl i'd meet at the local pool in Durango, summer baby sitting.. for parents.. what i learned.. i became a great diver, because of her. i had dove off off of bowsprits 20 some feet off the sea in the islands so this should be nothing.. this is where diving began.. for me.. i didn't like the water up my nose so i decided diving was better, into the sea with out a thought, and so diving is very important, at least every so often.. I am achey all over. but it is a reminder, how great that was..then and now.. wait till u see the pix i did get..

by the way, i was 50 miles west of Marfa, a sign along the road said, and i flashed on myself maybe 10 yrs old sitting in a catilac,(the spelling is so off i can't find this one in the dictionary!!!!!) the window open, feeling the hot air blow, on my face, in the back seat, remembering my dad, gliding.. in some soaring contest.. some summer, a million years ago, seemingly.. he was gliding, we were chasing him in the car, for any chance he would land in some field or another.. who knows what the task was that day, in my long ago memory.. but i was back there just for a moment..

and onward we drove, passing over the boarder of mexico.. and a sign that said, mountain standard time.. and i knew in that instant, i was farther west, the ache of my summer travels, yet closer to an end.. a quick stop in el paso, the call of cowboy boots, with my name on it.. and a really cool cowboy hat for Andres, and a lasso, as he will be a cowboy for halloween this year.. wearing those cowboy boots i'd found at stormville a month or so ago.. which by the way he wears everyday, the ones he so loved that day, when i bought them for him he wanted to sleep in.. sure why not.. don't cowboys always sleep in their boots..

and new mexico, seemed short and sweet, before u know it we were in.. Arizonia, drove through miles of vistas, stunning.. the distant mountains, as i carved out a few more miles to land in Willcox.. safe and sound for the eve.. having driven into yet another time zone, drove late by my stands, of EST.. putting 3 hours between me now.. my friends east.. so far away...

my friends, west, waiting in anticipation for my arrival, either late today, or early tomorrow.. maybe it would be nice to be in my bed tonight.. as i sit here so incredibly early looking out my window from my coach maybe the last time, to see the neon colored pink morning sky the sun rising now, a gray bunny with a cotton tail, crossing the pebble paved parking lot, some call camping!!
and the birds again, chatting in the background.. the roar of the highway.. as early truckers get a move on.. They look so huge as i see them driving by, when on the road they, seem so comparable, my comrades.. driving in and out around them passing them to maintain momentum.. flashing them in when they pass me or visa vera. the hazard lights a flash to say thank you.. i love driving..

I loved my summer, be it not that, profitable in dollars, the profit of our experiences, trying not to miss an opportunity, to see something, go somewhere, lillydale, or my dive off the high dive, all so fantastic, a swim in the sea.. my son on a kayak.. a sandy road.. fried clams, lobster, the cornfields on my way east, the desert on my journey west.. i think u might even say i fell in love... the love of freedom, to be happy.. unlike ever before, no one to give me grief, finding, each day a joy, and for the few, not so great ones, so forgotten....

i wish this feeling for anyone.. and everyone.. no matter how one finds it.. FIND IT .. stop whining, get up and do something.. the only whine i want should come in a bottle.. already uncorked.. ready to be consumed.. like life..

be well, as i drive further towards where the sun truly sets.. west.... my crew still sleeping it is time i made coffee..

and to all a great day

Andrea and Crew