Finding space and place

Just incase you thought I was kidding about how much crap we carried Miles and miles high, up to 7000 ft.... Here's a picture from the Hike-a-thon! by my dear friend Justin Voight (www.JustinVoight.com)


i make a good hobo, eh? (except that we were only camping one night!)


i went to the doctor here in Midland yesterday... He thinks I have pneumonia or bronchitis and pneumonia... But i got a shot in the butt and a z-pack (along with a "CYA" x-ray), so, I am now, officially on the road to recovery!

Actually, today I feel much MUCH better!

I've had a chance to look over Justin's AMAZING and INCREDIBLE photos from our West Texas trip and I have a TON of ideas of what I can do.... and (unlike yesterday) I have the energy to start working on some of them...

Last night, I started to feel like I had some energy... and I wanted to do something creative, so i decided I would pull a couple books off of the bookshelf and draw something from each cover... and then creativity kicked in.... I call this one Hamlet and Ophelia:

i started to read Hamlet, and then started writing different parts of the script as background...

I decided today that would be a good way to start on some ideas for our book.... so, I took some of Justin's photos and drew something from each one.. it needs something more but here's the idea:


And then I add: (I had to paste in two because I took this pic with my phone):




I need to get a projector next week... and then I'll start working LARGE... I also need a griddle so I can do more encaustic!

I'm starting to really see our book idea materialize... just not in the way i had imagined.... but a more unique and interesting way (at least I think so).

My parents have been wonderful... so welcoming and excited to have me here... I'm thankful... and blessed. i think the only "debbie downer" here is me... I had been putting off the inevitable as long as possible, scheduling trip after trip... so I wouldn't have to make a decision of when traveling stopped and life started again... Lately, the thought of living life is so much scarier to me than dying.

I've always been self-sufficient... i never thought I would be almost 30 and moving back in with my parents... I think I prided myself (wrongly and to a fault) on not being one of "those people"... well, now I am one of those people... and I have two choices: A. to fight it and cause friction because "I'm better than living with my parents" (which I'm not.. or maybe I am... I just need help and that's what family is for).... or b. realize that THIS is exactly where I'm supposed to be at this point in time... and it may be what is best for our relationship, for them and for me... I'm gonna go for choice B... unfortunately choice A likes to sneak in the back of my head and make things difficult...

Dear Choice A,
F- OFF!
Love,
Ryann

If only it were that easy...

i really do think this is going to be the best thing for me right now, for a while... and I'm excited! i've already started to set up my studio in the spare room! :)

Overly ambitious... and heart shaped rocks...

Heart Shaped Rocks! I explain in the last few paragraphs:



So... we made it through Big Bend... Right now we're in Marfa. we just had breakfast at a little coffee shop/juice bar/breakfast place called Squeeze Marfa. I'm listening to the man next to me chatting away on his cell phone in Norwegian... little does he know that I can understand part of his conversation... not very much.. but enough that would shock him. I'd tell him... but I need to type before I get into a conversation.


So... our Big Bend adventure:

On Monday, we left Marathon and headed towards Big Bend. We stopped in Alpine for groceries... and we stopped to take pictures along the way. We stopped in Terlingua Ghost Town.. it's not really a ghost town any more, because people live there... but the remenents of the ghost town are still there. We took pictures of the cemetery and old buildings...

Then the increasingly beautiful drive into Big Bend. Some areas of the park are still flooded and closed... we had no idea how big of a deal the floods were until we talked to locals...

Once we were in the park, we headed up to the Chisos Mountains. We decided to camp one night in the basin, and then spend the next hiking up to the South Rim.

Monday night we grilled out... our camp was visited by a group of 6 Javelinas... they were fine... and nice... they walked right up to us...

The next day we packed our backpacks and headed out on the 6.5 mile hike. We OVER packed... I couldn't even lift my backpack, and Justin's was so heavy that the strap of his ripped and we spent an hour duct taping it... The whole hike was up a mountain... NO RELIEF! It was the hardest thing either one of us has EVER done... I still have NO idea how we made it... we didn't make it to the top... but we made it 3 miles UP and that took us 5 hours! We were more than exhausted... we pitched our tent at the first campsite we came to and slept... for 13 hours! EXHAUSTED!


The next day we left our stuff at the campsite and hiked the rest of the way to the South Rim... it was beautiful. incredible. But we were hurting so bad, I'm not sure if we were able to enjoy it as much. But we did it.

After reading in the Big Bend hiking book about the hike... we realized that we overestimated our hiking abilities... and were overly ambitious... some may say STUPID. The book said it was VERY STRENUOUS but that every hiker "worth his or her salt" will try to hike the South Rim at least once... oops... we are two people who don't even work out! Even the hike down to the basin was so hard... it looked like we were beaten up badly... and we were.

That night we desperately needed showers... so we drove back to Terlingua and stayed at a motel there. Yesterday we woke up and drove back into Big Bend... we did a SHORT .25 mile hike... but mostly drove... a beautiful drive through desert... down to where the road was closed from flooding.

Something AMAZING happened.... I wanted to play Carter's CD for Justin... so we were listening to it and driving. I really felt like I could connect to the environment and the experience.... I felt like I could feel Carter around... We stopped and walked around... I said a little something... something like, if I really feel you, show me... let me find a heart shaped rock...

I'm NOT even kidding: As soon as I said that I looked around and EVERY rock where I was standing was heart shaped! i started to pick them up... Some of them looked heart shaped because of shadows... but a lot WERE heart shaped... they were EVERYWHERE!

I didn't want to tell justin... because I thought he'd think I was nuts... but he walked over when I was taking pictures... I told him, and then I picked one up... he said, "Oh my god! you weren't kidding! that is a heart!"

Here's a picture of one of the rocks:

After that there were hearts everywhere... When we drove into to Marfa, we stopped at a Indian gift shop... they had "Worry Stones" the one on top was a red stone in the shape of a heart! I picked it up... it was the only one that was heart shaped... the other ones weren't in any shape...

wow... I asked... and I got my answer.

The road goes on forever....

...and the party never ends... Seriously... the road goes on FOREVER... hours on a open road.. and not seeing any other cars.. it's insane, especially after driving through New England last month...



After packing up and getting the last necessities (and some arguable necessities) we were on the road. First stop: Monahans Sandhills State Park..

Monahans is amazing... so remote... and white sand dunes that seem to go on forever... i took my shoes off and walked around. We rented a sand disk for a dollar, (which is a disk shaped sled), and I tried it twice... but barely slid... I slid quite a ways on a really steep sand dune... but at really slow speed... I think it's made for kids who weigh nothing.

It was windy and really sandy... but amazing and beautiful. The color contrasts between the sand, the sky, and even the plants... is incredible. It is so remote... we only saw one other car while we were there...

Next we went to the Wickett, TX bluegrass festival... um.... or non-festival... Wickett is a town of 400 people... as it puts the po in podunk. We found the building, but there was no one and no sound.... except the wind across the very flat land... there was a cute little boy standing outside the arts building, blonde hair, wearing jeans and a white wifebeater. I asked him if there was any music.... he just shook his head, no... it was REALLY creepy... Children of the Corn, creepy... the only thing creepier would've been if he said, "yes, inside...." .... yikes. Here's a pic of the building and street of the festival:


To be fair, the website said the festival went on for three days... we got there on the 3rd day... it coulda been hoppin' the first two days... but for some reason, I'm skeptical.

Then we headed towards Big Bend... we stopped in Grandfalls to take pics, and then Marathon, "the place where the pavement ends and the west begins." The drive was AMAZING... SO incredibly beautiful... the landscape is so hard to describe.... it's plains that go on forever... and then Huge random mountains!

Marathon is a really incredible place... We feel like we are in THE west! (we are, but... it's the energy or something)

We are staying at the very nice and very haunted Gage Hotel in Marathon... the employees have been spooking us with ghost stories...

We left to go see the Marfa lights.. I was SHOCKED. I can't believe that something so strange, as lights bouncing around and appearing and disappearing isn't more visited and hasn't been figured out... that's just beyond me...

Tomorrow, More adventure.. but so far, i'm even more impressed than I thought possible... I'm not sure when I'll be able to write next.. so bear (ha!) with me...

here's a pic at dinner at the Gage Hotel... me acting silly (shocker)