52. That’s how many adventures Dawnelle and I committed to
when we started our challenge. One a week for a year. January went fantastic
and we were able to hit an activity each week which sparked new ideas for
outings and future collaborations.
Then came February.
I knew I was going to be out of town two of the weeks of an
already short month. I had flight attendant training one week and my Nicaragua
Treetop Yoga Adventure Retreat another. So it wasn’t that I wasn’t going to be
out and about experiencing new things it’s that Dawnelle and I wouldn’t be
together in our experiences. You’d think having an adventure every week would
be easy but it’s not. We each have a child, we’re running businesses (hers on a
much much large scale than mine) and of course there’s adulting to do between
cleaning houses, teaching classes, grocery shopping and taxes. We do not live
in a society that’s conducive to taking a whole day off to simply indulge
oneself.
If I’m being honest I thought Dawnelle’s interest might wain
too…I mean I know I’m a fun person but for someone to give up what
little free time they have to spend a day with me each week? Well that’s usually reserved
for people like my husband and daughter that have no choice but to love me. If your time was money who would you spend it on?
Turns out, neither of us are flakes. We don’t call to cancel
on one another we call to plan our next adventure date. So we kicked off February
by heading up to Loveland for a day of snowboarding. Let’s be clear, I’m a
skier and have been since my husband taught me when we first started dating 11
years ago. I have never strapped a snowboard on my feet in my life and tried
throwing myself down a mountain. February 4th changed all of that.
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| 4 hours to shred
Dawnelle is my mentor and was the person who taught me yoga
so I trusted that if anyone could teach me to snowboard with minimal damage to
our friendship it would be her. A fellow student at QiFLOW loaned me her snowboard
and boots and we took advantage of Loveland’s half day pass where you can ski
for any consecutive 4 hours and get $12 off the ticket price. Upon arriving we
took one look around at the crowd and decided we should follow suit and rent
helmets. It appeared to be beginner’s day at Loveland and we didn’t want to be
the only ones not suited for our adventure.
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Snowboarding was tough. In fact, it’s probably one of the toughest
activities I’ve ever tried to do. Thanks to Dawnelle’s expert teaching I never
did fall getting on or off the lift but I did fall and fracture my tailbone. According
to D, she’s never seen someone so willing to throw themselves down the mountain
and get back up and do it all over again. I was surprised how nervous I was to try something new. I remember learning how to ski and being mortified when people saw me fall. This time, a little older and wiser, I had no issues with falling in front of others or laughing at myself. In fact there was a group of guys on the green slopes with us that were just as bad as I was. I appreciated all the cheering on by them and D and it gave me the confidence to keep trying. It's humbling to suck at something but you have to be willing to get over your limitations if you ever want to get better.
The week of the 17th was so nice that we headed
outdoors for a workout at Red Rocks and a round of golf. Neither of us had
really been to a driving range so we figured it would be a good learning curve.
We took our mobility sticks up to Red Rocks Amphitheater after the stepFLOW and
Move Weird classes and ran the stairs 10 times then had a mobility flow session
on stage. If you’ve ever been to Red Rocks for a concert you know how amazing
the venue is but even more special is the fact they keep it open for people to
enjoy or use for a workout. To think we were practicing hand stand walks on the
same stage as some of the greatest artists in the world blows my mind.
One of the best parts of our adventures is the people we
met. At the golf course we made friends with the bartender (always a good
friend to have) and then a few more gentlemen on the course who were determined
to teach us how to swing. People were so helpful from lending us their golf
tees to telling us how to fill up the bucket of golf balls without spilling
them all over the place. We may have not hit any balls past 75 yards but we had
a fantastic afternoon regardless.
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| youngest people here on a wednesday afternoon |
The following week I was in Nicaragua which deserves its own
blog posts but let’s just say I had plenty of adventures with Margaret and the
13 yogis who joined us.
We still have two more weeks left in March and thus far we’ve
had 7 adventures and over 400 photos together. From deciding where we’ll go to
what we’ll do, half the fun of this challenge is the unknown. We never know who
we’re going to meet, where the week will take us or what will happen during our
time together. We’ve spent many hours already in the car driving, sharing
hamburgers, learning about each other’s childhoods and balking at each other’s
choice in beer. I’ve come to realize too that part of this journey is about
doing this with someone that I didn’t know a lot about to begin with. Anyone
could have 52 crazy adventures with their best friend but what about with a
person you don’t spend a lot of time with? What would it be like to blend those
personalities, to see how each other does under stress and to be able to teach
that person something you were better at than they were.
I have a feeling the weeks are about to get even more
exciting as the weather warms up and we can be outside longer. I’ve already got
some places in mind and I can’t wait to take my readers along with us for the
journey…
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| the odd couple |
Oh and just wait...there's a book in the works to follow
