Montana weekend

I love Montana. For only a few hours out of Calgary, it's more than a world different from the rat race. Montana has a different pace, a different aesthetic to life, that makes it all the more valuable as a change of surroundings for a vacaton.

Devin, Tori and I went down for a little biking and R&R. We slept 12 hour nights and biked leisurely; I sure needed that kind of pace. We ate oversized Yankee portions of simple western cooking, swam in lakes, and drank a cyclist/Montana comprimise quota of 2 beers each per night. I think we all felt a decade or so younger, even though we're now 3 adults travelling in a new (sweet!) minivan together. I shut off the blackberry, which has only spotty reception down there anyway (of course on Tuesday morning the world was ending because 3 solid days of long weekend work didn't happen).

I skimmed a cowboy wisdom book, which taught me the two following things, among many others:

Don't work for a man with electricity in his barn, you'll end up working late.

Refrain from working for an income that inhibits your personal liberties.

These two stuck with me, even though Always carry two ropes, cause you never know when you'll come across a two rope job and Don't squat with yer spurs on seem valuable too.

I'm not much of a rider these days, both Tori and Devin can attest to that. 3 hour rides leave me drained and sore. Tori beat me to the top from the St. Mary side, which made me proud. One of our first rides together when Tori was a budding cyclist was up Logan pass, what a difference a decade makes. They waited at a few corners for me and kept shoulder checking, asking "what's up". What's up is I have no energy, haven't been riding, and maybe subliminally am OK with not redlining for a little while. We didn't quite make it to the top of the West side due to a ranger strictly enforcing the time limits, but Devin was far enough ahead that he made it to the top. Devin blazed trail ahead of us both days, like he should, on the long climbs.

Two of the things that arguably mean the most to me in life are going through a low ebb, for lack of better wording. I'm not riding much or well. Tori is going to be more distant for a year too. They both rode away from me on the hill, and left me where I was... guess that's pretty clear symbolism.