I’ve been in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, for 48 hours—just now longer than it took to get here. Departing Johannesburg, I had the chance to go to Gaborone, Antananarivo, Noola, Luanda. Bulawayo, Lusaka, Doha… I came here—at least here I know there’s granite. I arrived and got my rental car, and immediately got inside, on the wrong side (my right side) … Read More
To Do: Go To Namibia. Namibia 3.
Courtesty of Petzl: Check out their new Website. I’m five days out from a five-week expedition. I have eight lists. On a one-to-one completion rate, the odds are not leaning in my favor. Right now I’m supposed to be working on my connections. That right there, to the left, that’s all the draws and anchoring material I’m bringing to Namibia. Five weeks … Read More
Running for the Butter. Namibia 2
I don’t run. I jog. Barely. I likely still jog the same speed at which I completed the mile run in fourth grade. This is hard for me—I come from a family of marathon runners and live in Boulder. I don’t really like running. I resent how perfect it is. But I’m getting over it for Namibia. I need to … Read More
Mobile Home, Africa Style. Namibia 1
This is where I’m going to live for the next five weeks. The tent, not the lawn. The tent is going to Namibia with me and the lawn will stay here outside of my house in Boulder. (The poodle, unfortunately, will also stay at home.) There is chance this tent will get trampled by an elephant. Either with me inside … Read More
Deceleration
It’s snowing in Boulder, Colorado today. I just came from the desert. Before that I was ice climbing. Three nights ago, I had a dream that my van would not slow down on a New Jersey off-ramp. Even inside of my dream I recognized the symbolism. Determinedly, I brought in the “decelerator” to my mechanic and asked him to fix … Read More
An Inbox President
I’m three months behind on my reading. I catch up in random coffee shops and doctors offices along the path of my current road trip. This is why it took me until last week to realize that I stand to risk being like George Bush. I know. A January issue of the New Yorker told me so. Maybe if I … Read More
Going Local
I-70 stretches 449 miles across Colorado. I’ve been plugging away at this stretch of highway for thirty years. It houses a portal to every memory I have. Somewhere in my mind I think that I will have finally grown up when I can drive I-70 without a combination of sweat, tears, and laughter in an empty car. But it isn’t … Read More
The View Thus Far. Namibia 6.
We have less than two weeks to spend in Namibia and my mind is trying to add more, not less. Kilometers pass like miles on narrow dirt roads. I pass landscapes I do not have time to explore and trade them for those I believe I want more. I make mental pictures of what to return to when I am … Read More
Where I’m From
The other night, while speaking in Amherst, I was introduced as living in North Conway. Just like that, three months in, and I am from New Hampshire. The woman who introduced me had no problem uttering this statement; good thing she is not me. I came east on December 1st, and for the next month, when people asked me where … Read More
Transient Connections
I spent the weekend part inside the future of my past. The Pacific Northwest was my first landscape of adulthood—it was where I learned how to be an independent woman and climber set free by the snowy peaks and the soft earth. Back in the beginning, I lived in Bellingham, WA. I came out there in 1996—a time in my … Read More