" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be." Yogi Berra
Or so I am thinking as I sit in the waiting room at Orthopedic Associates while my youngest has hand surgery. A case of fist meets steel door resulted in an injury requiring titanium pins and anesthesia and deductibles and co pays and nervousness.... and, yes, the
BOING!
phenomenon whereby your college kid returns to campus only to bounce back home when life happens.
Life also happened a couple of weekends ago when a much anticipated, long-weekend trip with my men
didn't quite turn out as planned.
Husband had been talking up the wonderfully remote GAGE HOTEL (click here for more information) for a very long time. Located in Marathon, TX, and ever so close to the epically beautiful BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, the GAGE is my kind of place...my kind of experience.
Redolent with old frontier charm and grace, the Gage is the perfect place to stay while enjoying and marveling at the craggy, prickly, breathtaking landscape of southwest Texas and the magnificent Big Bend.
(cue sountrack to GIANT)
A hiker and photographer's dream...an artist's fantasy, a designer's muse.
a people-watcher's heaven.
Not that I personally enjoyed any of these traveler delights.
Oh, no.
On the way home from Enid on Christmas Day, my men and I were listening to Garrison Keillor as he recounted memorable Christmases of the past, one of which was memorable because his family was visited by, and I quote
"the Dark Horse of Projectile Vomiting..."
Well, let's just say,
my trip was memorable (though, thank God, not necessarily projectile...)
and resulted in Husband's visiting a pharmacy in a town an hour away. (I had good sense to marry that man.)
On top of the visiting dark horse, our already-short-to-begin-with excursion was cut even shorter
by a snowstorm in central Texas
that threatened to leave us stranded in our little desert oasis for a bit. Fortunately, my men avoided the stomach curse, and managed to get in a long, sunny hike...more than one Chili Rellenos breakfast...
and, yes, more than one cerveze and shots of tequila.
Oh, I did manage to take lots of pictures though;
granted... through a phenergan-induced haze.
Please don't let my experience dissuade YOU from visiting this magical place.
I plan on visiting again, soon I hope.
Though not necessarily on horseback, if you know what I mean.