Sorry I keep talking about how beautiful the views are here. I know many of my friends/famiy that read this are stuck in the mid west with zero elevation gain and flat lands for miles (but you DO have the lakes! Oh I miss the lakes!) I just wanted to report on another ahhh haaa moment I had on my Valentines Day run.

My friend and I drove up this super steep long road that started as dirt and slowly became snow. I’m not used to this. I’m used to snow all the time, all over, knee deep annoying and cold… but here I have to seek snow out and I don’t have a car to scrape off in the morning—I kinda like it. Any way, we hit the trail and ran a few miles out and back and enjoyed the chill of February 14^th. I was cold and hot at the same time, sweating profusely for some reason, but then really cold from the chill of my own sweat, (does this happen to anyone else?) It was invigorating and the air was fresh and clean at 6,000 feet.

On our way back down we drove slowly, we wanted to take notice of the houses, (my friend is looking for a house for when her significant other moves out here,) the houses are beautifully nestled in the mountainside but pretty far removed from town. My house is small, quiet, cold, (mostly because we don’t want to pay for heat) but really close to town, really close to trails, stores, bars and two great grocery stores. Location! Location! Location!

I love my roomies, I love this town, my jobs are pretty awesome, yet why do I keep reading travel blogs, reading poems about Wanderlust and yearn for life on the road again? My Valentines Day consisted of loving where I am but dreaming of something else? Weird, right? Oh, AND I fell off my bike. It was a well-rounded day of scraping my knee, re-spraining my ankle and confusing my head, heart and body. Oh well. I’m here right now, so I’m enjoying the views while I can.

Breathe, Sloan, BREATHE.

Ps: I’m fine, just whiney about my knee and ankle. I ran this morning. J