Well, it’s good to be home. Rolled the big two wheeler into my driveway yesterday afternoon about 2:00 after a 16 day, 4,838 mile tour through Northern British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. I managed to get 16 watercolor paintings done to add to the collection of memories.

I took this ride by myself so I could go hither and yon when I wanted, stopping to paint when and where I wanted and to move on when the desire struck me. In other words I was in complete control of my daily travels and activities…well sort of. What I hadn’t considered was how much the weather would play a part in my decisions, especially since I was on a motorcycle. As it turned out I got chased out of the country by this weather system.

For the entire ride north into Canada I had been battling the wind. Apparently it was a low pressure system moving into the area which culminated in the rain that changed my plans. Then on most of the way home I had to deal with the wind and rain, finally getting out of the rain when I entered the US into Montana. I was just left with the wind from then on. Looks like I had been able to get just ahead of the system because I saw on the weather last night that all of western Montana was getting soaked and Jackson Hole, Wyoming received snow the day after I came through there. With all of that I still managed to get some watercolors done.

After dealing with the death of my mother just before I left, it was nice to get away but I have to say that it is just as nice be home again. I’ve got a number of paintings waiting to be done and I’ll be back in the studio on Monday.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was looking for my bench, when I chatted about my idea of retirement. Well, I’m happy to say that I found it. It was in Utah. Oh and in Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, Wyoming and oddly enough right here in Colorado. For you see, as we all knew anyway, retirement is merely a state of mind and for me the ability to sit on a park bench of my choosing for about 20 minutes or three days, however long I want to. Ironically, an unintentional benefit to the route I took home led me right to the very spot in Pinedale, Wyoming where my idea of retirement came to mind.

That’s it right there in the town park, and here is a selfie of me sitting there today.

Yes, I stayed there as long as I wanted to . Very fitting.

 I think when I left you good folks before, I was in West Yellowstone, MT.