My Sister-in-Law made me do it...

Life is a series of transitions, and as usual, I'm right in the middle of another one...starting to travel without worrying about my husband.

You know how it is, the guys get older and don't like change anymore. They want their TV, their comfy bed, their regular meals, don't make them leave their accustomed space!!! Or you will be Groused At. Or their health is compromised and they just don't feel good. Traveling is an imposition, not fun anymore. I have sympathies, getting older sucks.

But I really like going new places.

I have felt that traveling on my own will make other people look at me suspiciously. 'What is that woman doing all by herself? Doesn't she know it's Not Safe? Is she just Looking for Trouble?? Why does she event WANT to go anywhere alone?'

In the past I dealt with that by gathering a bunch of other women who also wanted some travel adventures and putting together trips for all of us. That's been great for over 15 years, believe it or not. We've rafted the Kings and Tuolomne Rivers, ridden horses and camped in Canyon de Chelly, driven a trailer cross country to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, kayaked in the moonlight on Mono Lake...and done a lot of camping all over southern California.

And then last year I rafted the Grand Canyon for two weeks. My brother-in-law and his wife were along so I wouldn't be by myself, but early on I noticed something really interesting. After maybe a day or two, the whole group sort of melded into one big clan. I didn't stay on the same raft that they were on anymore. I got talking to the older gay couple, to the younger couple from Colorado, to the outfitter staff. On hikes, I chatted with whoever was nearby. I started just being myself, and not the sister-in-law. It was wonderful. Everyone took care of everyone, sharing snacks, cleaning dishes for another person or two, making sure PFDs were fastened correctly.

I think the meld happened partly because it was important that everyone was safe, we were on a self-supporting raft trip and would be completely away from civilization for two weeks. The staff and other participants helped me scramble up some pretty amazing boulder piles, pointed out safe paths along ledges, and good spots for hand grips when navigating tricky underhangs. Again, it was about staying safe, and making it a good trip for everyone. Just by putting ourselves in the outfitter's hands, we had tacitly agreed to comply with their rules, and many of those involved watching out for the other people. They were all nice people, so it was EASY to watch out for them.

Another reason for the meld was that everyone accepted there were different age levels and abilities present. If someone didn't want to do a hike, that was okay. If someone wanted to do just part of a hike, that was okay too. The complete acceptance of other people, their lifestyle, their level of participation, was another reason everyone became an extended family of sorts.

Okay, so rafting the Grand Canyon was great and I'd highly recommend it to anyone, but that's not why I wrote about it. The main thing the raft trip taught me was that I could travel solo and have a good time.

For the last 15 years or so much of my traveling has been handled via trips with my ladies camping group. This year I noticed that we didn't have any trips planned for summer/fall, and we'd only done one really short trip in the spring. We *obviously* needed to go somewhere. I trolled them via email with visions of beachcombing, of mountain creeks, of desert hot springs waiting for us...no takers, everyone was busy. I trolled a married couple with the idea of me tagging along on one of their trips. Wifey thought it sounded good, but in practice, no invitations materialized. How could everyone turn me down??!! No one had time for another trip this year. {sad face}

Gracious this is a long post! It will all make sense in a bit, I promise!

I'd been aware of a horseback riding outfitter in Utah for a while now. I'd even tried to stir up interest in them before with my ladies group, but no luck. Maybe go by myself? I can do that. I need to get buy in from the husband, but I think he'll be okay as long as it's a good outfitter. (He was reluctant, but he was okay.) What does the trip schedule look like? Fall color trip? My, that might be really nice. Price isn't too bad. Let's give it a shot...

And so I'm going horseback riding for a week in the Grand Staircase region of southern Utah. When I was talking to my sister-in-law last night, she asked if I was going to blog about it. I've never blogged, but I've written about other trips and got a lot of people's attention, so what the heck? A blog it is.

So my sister-in-law made me do it.

--b