11 years ago today...

...C and I, with our dog, left Colorado in my little blue sedan, an old and rusty Ford truck, and a much older 1950's trailer in tow, headed north and westward to Montana.  We travelled and camped in the back of the truck that Fall for about 5 weeks before settling on where we are now.

10 years and 1 day ago we were married in the back field, still a couple of years before pouring the foundation for the house.

Looking back further, about 13+ years ago, we were living in a basement apartment together in Boulder, just a couple of blocks from Penny Lane. 

We were working opposite shifts and in the weeks leading up to Christmas, while C was at work during the days, I was sewing a fly-fishing fly case made of canvas with a fleece interior to hook the flies onto and a zipper that closed it shut and allowed it to open like a book.  I followed a pattern from a DIY book of camping/outdoor equipment that I'd checked out from the library.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was working evenings, C was sewing this skirt for me.  Yup.  He went to the fabric store, picked out the fabric, asked for help with pattern selection. He brought it all home in secret and, while I was at work, took out my sewing machine and worked on the skirt, and then put it all back into place in the closet exactly as he'd found it, even taking out the thread he was using and replacing it with the thread I was using.  I don't actually wear this skirt all that often, usually just on special occasions like anniversaries, birthdays, and such, particularly in the Fall.  You can be sure I'll still be wearing it when I'm an old, old woman.  :) By the way, the fly fishing fly case?   One of the dogs chewed it apart a few years ago. 

Tomorrow morning, C and I will head south and eastward to where C will be participating in the 15th annual Western Design Conference as part of the Fall Arts Festival in Jackson, WY, where he will be showing a recently built piece of furniture there.  Once again, we'll be pulling a trailer, this time full of his furniture.  Once again, we'll be camping out the back of our newer, but still fairly old, truck.  There's an absurd mix of just about anything and everything to be prepared for, from the rustic to the hoity-toity:  business, camping, a fashion show, an hors d'ouevre party, all with a weather forecast of mid 80's during the day and mid 40's at night with potential thunderstorms.  I'm pretty sure I packed most of my clothes from skirts and tanks and shorts to long underwear and woolen hats and mittens and raingear.   S0, as you can see, there are a lot of unknowns as far as what to expect of this week.   

One thing is certain, it'll surely be a little like old times...except for a couple of things...two boys waiting back home for us having a blast with a string of friends and family back here, barely noticing we're gone.  We've been so looking forward to this time together, just the two of us, heading out into the unknown again, but now, when we're all packed and ready to go, and the boys are all packed for their own adventures and arrangements finalized for their care while we're away, now that cold-feet-I-don't-want-to-leave-them-even-if-they've-been-pestering-eachother-and-making-me-crazy-lately-but-I'll-miss-them-sooooo feeling starts setting in somewhere deep in the pit of my belly.  I'm sure it'll all be better once we're down the road a ways, radio turned up, wind blowing in through the open windows, just the two of us.  Right?  Of course.  Whew.  Just needed to talk write my way through.  Thank you.

Stay tuned.  There's a contest in the works for while we're away.  Details tomorrow.