![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
two hundred miles to the west
Aug. 13th, 2006 03:05 pmWe drove down winding country roads, and Tyler discovered 105mph is about as fast as his little car wants to go but we did that at least six or seven times. The more westward, the more the land turns into ripples and mountains. After a right hand turn in Utopia, we headed south towards Concan and the Frio River. Despite the heat, the river was rippling along over the copper rocks. We could plant out folding chairs under the trees hanging over the banks and read all afternoon long in the shade. I have never spent so much time doing nothing. It was a blissful period of sun drenched intoxication. Tyler and I would start drinking around 11:30 in the morning, and keep on in a slow, steady way until bedtime. It's amazing how many stars show up in the blackness.
On the way down there, we got stuck behind an old Lincoln town car. The driver and the passenger were fighting over something. The car kept veering off into the other side of the two lane road, sometimes driving for awhile on the wrong side. At one point, a large can of beer went flying out the window. It was unsettling, and I kept waiting for them to have an accident. On the way down, there was hardly any traffic to impede our speedy progress. Today, we hit the church traffic and slowpokes.
In my voice post I mentioned the scads of butterflies. They were truly everywhere. I would sit on the eastern bank in the morning, looking upriver where lazy turkey buzzards circled and swooped. they would dart over the water, settle on the arms of my chair, flicker on the rocks. Sometimes little fish would leap up and grab the ones lingering too low. If you stay too still in the water, or have much leg hair like my unlucky companion, the fish will nibble at your legs and feet insistently. It tickles. I did not see any turtles, or snakes but that is quite alright. Yesterday I sacked out on the large white rock jutting out of the waterand spent half an hour adopting the pose of a lizard in the sun. My legs are not nearly so white as they used to be.
This really was the best vacation I've experienced in nearly twenty years. It reminded me of the summer I spent with my grandparents going all about the Southwest fishing and throwing rocks. I was lazy, and content. The only downside to the whole affair was that one of the crowns cracked and came off my back tooth. It has a dull ache now, but eating and drinking is a chore. The dentist has promised to fix it Monday so I'm less worried than I was yesterday when this happened. Still, ugh.
I am genuinely glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight, but I would forswear the pleasure if I could another few days in the river under the sun.
On the way down there, we got stuck behind an old Lincoln town car. The driver and the passenger were fighting over something. The car kept veering off into the other side of the two lane road, sometimes driving for awhile on the wrong side. At one point, a large can of beer went flying out the window. It was unsettling, and I kept waiting for them to have an accident. On the way down, there was hardly any traffic to impede our speedy progress. Today, we hit the church traffic and slowpokes.
In my voice post I mentioned the scads of butterflies. They were truly everywhere. I would sit on the eastern bank in the morning, looking upriver where lazy turkey buzzards circled and swooped. they would dart over the water, settle on the arms of my chair, flicker on the rocks. Sometimes little fish would leap up and grab the ones lingering too low. If you stay too still in the water, or have much leg hair like my unlucky companion, the fish will nibble at your legs and feet insistently. It tickles. I did not see any turtles, or snakes but that is quite alright. Yesterday I sacked out on the large white rock jutting out of the waterand spent half an hour adopting the pose of a lizard in the sun. My legs are not nearly so white as they used to be.
This really was the best vacation I've experienced in nearly twenty years. It reminded me of the summer I spent with my grandparents going all about the Southwest fishing and throwing rocks. I was lazy, and content. The only downside to the whole affair was that one of the crowns cracked and came off my back tooth. It has a dull ache now, but eating and drinking is a chore. The dentist has promised to fix it Monday so I'm less worried than I was yesterday when this happened. Still, ugh.
I am genuinely glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight, but I would forswear the pleasure if I could another few days in the river under the sun.