It’s back! Yes, winters hold on us has truly lessened
and trees are blooming, flowers blossoming and more to the point, we hear the
siren call of the highways once again. Ignoring our last outing that saw us battling
snow, after a couple of local trips up and down our favorite canyons, we can
safely say that we will be spending time looking over maps and familiarizing
ourselves with routes we truly like to revisit. West coast? East Coast? Canada?
It doesn’t really matter at this time of year so long as it is an opportunity
to take in that vast vista that is America.
It was while perusing our local furniture store that I passed this picture and I just couldn’t help myself. I had to snap off a quick photo. It just seemed so appropriate. Maybe not the VW van, although there was the one time my father drove home in one and proceeded to take us for a trip between our home in Lindfield, Australia, back up to his workplace in Hornsby, another part of Sydney, Australia. Sitting in the front seat totally oblivious to the potential risks associated with a frontal collision, to see the world spread out before me was well, mind you what is now clearly a cliché, priceless!
Our home in Windsor, Colorado, backs onto our estate, Highland
Meadows’, golf course. We overlook the seventeenth hole green and get to
witness some truly amazing golf. Perhaps not, but all the same there is the
occasional shot that surprises us. What doesn’t surprise us after five winters
is the speed with which the golf course comes alive. It is remarkable to
witness and even with a week of absence where nothing much seemed to be
happening, on returning it’s the old familiar carpet of green. We have had our
gardeners pay us their first visit so hopefully the greening of our surrounding
flora isn’t too far away.
The speed with which we make that mental leap that the world is all new and fresh once again never surprises us! That snowstorm of just a week or so ago is already a fading memory. Out of mind and free to absorb what is taking place, we set aside our heavy clothing of winter and pull out those familiar shorts and tees. As for Margo it’s simply a matter of moving down her wardrobe a little to pull out lighter fare whereas for me, it’s almost as if in an instant I become a walking advertising billboard for Tommy Bahamas. Or perhaps, Margaritaville? Very soon the outdoor grill will get a spring cleaning as dining al fresco becomes the renewed normal once again.
While I am looking forward to grilling all through the
warmer months, it was Margo that delivered her first steak tri-tip.
Surprisingly, she slow-cooked the steak having seasoned it well before it
entered the pot. Whatever magic she worked on this particular cut of meat and
much to my disbelief – how could you not grill such a fine piece of steak – it
tasted wonderful! Having said that, we have been eating out a lot more this
year as, yet again, with inflation impacted the weekly grocery bill, restaurant
pricing hasn’t quite kept up and even at the fine dining establishments we
prefer, the bill for an evening out is hard to match by cooking it all at home.
We have a restaurant in Ft Collins that we have
mentioned in the past, RARE. On Sunday nights with the new week about to begin,
you might find us dining there even as it’s all been rather cold out of late.
No surprises to read this but perhaps it might be surprising to read that on
Sunday nights, all bottles of wine are half price and with that, we head for a
bottle of Penfolds Bin 389 for which this establishment charges $44. A price,
mind you, considerable less than what that good establishment CostCo deems to
charge retail.
But what do you reckon? Would you want to venture out
when you can enjoy a meal like this at home? Huge thanks to Margo who always
seems to mix up the plate to where it is not just tasty but presents well; can
I begin to eat? Of course, as the photo above suggests this was still a situation
where we were eating indoors but it will probably be the last time you might
catch us including a photo like this. What happens to left over steak is that
it usually is mixed with a couple of other leftover proteins and ends up
contributing to a very tasty Shepherd’s Pie which is a dish Margo was
unfamiliar with until I came along.
Yes, the maps have been pulled out once again and the backroads looked at with enthusiasm. However, before we truly hit the road we have a couple of business trips that will take us away from home, but that’s all part of keeping busy. Even after all this time I still enjoy the working hours I spend in my office and with clients who continue to call upon our services, it is providing us with opportunities we had never thought possible. While we are still ways off from any consideration of retiring, the global pandemic has shown a brighter light on remaining active in the work force as nobody wants you to come into their offices. That’s the way it seems.
And who would want to leave a view like this? Margo and
I are fortunate that the work keeps us engaged with business communities and it
is something we both like doing so heading out on business trips isn’t a
hardship that we shirk. Rather, they are simply entries on our calendar that
oftentimes allow us to keep a couple days to ourselves. We have been calling
these trips BizCations as that was a name that came up quite often before the
global pandemic, but these days, a new term has been coined and become popular
that being Bleisure.
“The lines are more blurred that ever,” wrote D.J.
Hanlon of fractional jet provider Flexjet. “Clients figure they can work
off-site with a cell phone and a laptop, so they’re exploring domestic vacation
spots and realizing that they don’t have to come back Sunday night.” On the
other hand, “some say that the technology enabling the explosion of remote work
is more disruptive to travel than steam engines or commercial flight, and
accounts for a ‘great untethering’ that’s here to stay,” came a post from Cate
Chapman, Editor at LinkedIn News.
“The ‘great untethering’ isn’t a trend, it’s
permanent,” says Airbnb Inc Chris Lehane. “It’s a durable and enduring pattern
that would have ultimately happened as society moved forward even without the
pandemic.” But as one blogger remarked after reading Chapman’s post, “This
‘bleisure movement’ reminds me of the trends (now staples) starting in the
2000s where folks who had remote duties would spend a few hours working in
coffee shops, just upscaled to the max!” For Margo and me, Bleisure or
BizCations have become a way of life and have played a big role in how we go
about planning our business activities.
The simplicity of our current home is a far cry from
the one where we spent two decades. From a Provence / Tuscany chateau to a
Craftsman retreat, considerable adjustment most noticeably, when it comes to
garages that come with more modest abodes, in where we park our cars.
Oftentimes, this means leaving a car out on the street but so far, to no
noticeable harm. But with the arrival of spring, the acceptance of Bleisure,
our preference continues to be the journey. The road trip. And the only issue
to discuss is which car?
For now we are really struggling as we have a larger
SUV on order – to be delivered sometime mid-June – but until then, with warmer
weather at hand, our options come down to which two seater sports car will we
take and can we adapt to an abbreviated wardrobe. We may have moved down the
racks in our wardrobe but planning for an absence of a week or more challenges
both of us. Perhaps it’s more about taking the most fuel efficient vehicle
given these inflationary times we live in.
The Jaguar F Type is always a pleasure to drive. It may
be a sports car to some drivers but it’s more of a touring car and it has the
bigger trunk. Then again, it can be noisy inside the cabin as its insulation
isn’t the best. It offers a level of luxury that even today’s BMW and Mercedes
cars lack and it continues to surprise me why so few Americans bother to give
Jaguar a second look. These aren’t you fathers or grandfathers Jaguars and no,
you don’t need to buy two of them or marry a Jaguar mechanic. Entering our
fourth year of ownership we haven’t experienced a single problem.
What then of the BMW i8 Roadster? Borderline ridiculous as a touring car but then again, initial observations may be erroneous. We have already driven this vehicle to Florida and back on a three week Bleisure drive and it all worked out for us. Yes, there were compromises along the way as we couldn’t pack a cooler and limited ourselves to one bottle of water whenever we filled the tank which pleased to report was not very often. The hybrid technology that is the power train of this particular BMW continues to amaze us even as the 40 mpg / 50 mpg / 60 mpg figures we have achieved make this possibly the best choice in these times.
Whatever we elect to take on our road trips will more
than likely be covered shortly in another post to this blog but for now, we are
leaning towards the BMW. Part of the enjoyment that unfolds before us as the
roads take us where they will is simply the escapement itself. Tucked away in
our own separate cocoons that today’s modern sports cars are intent on
providing, we have time to think and time to weigh the effects of the passage
of time. Margo and I have been driving together for decades and we have not
tired yet of the remoteness so afforded us. Out of shot of everyone and
everything. A mellowing of our spirits, as it were!
Even so, as the early morning photo captured so
clearly, looking to the west where the light was just breaking through, the
rising sun appears mirrored in the window adjacent to our main balcony. The
real take away here is that as much as we enjoy road trips and the Bleisure
that we enjoy mixing work with the occasional down time, we are still very
fortunate to have a place that we never tire of nor find less enjoyable than
what we encountered out on America’s highways. And of course, the return
journey is sometimes even more rewarding than the outbound trip.
Before leaving this post it would be remiss of me not
to mention the weekend that is past where there was a focus on
motherhood. Mother’s Day is celebrated in our family and seeing three generations
gathered for the occasion is heartwarming. Perhaps that is just one more reason
why coming home remains as meaningful as it always has – not the food, the
views, the route selected, but just being home.
Ahhh – but then again, maybe it’s an age think but here
I am getting truly psyched about that next trip wherever it takes us. Yes,
certainly, it’s time to travel. Maybe this emotion can best be left to Toad of
Wind in the Willows to truly put into perspective after all:
“I've
discovered the real thing,” Toad declares, “the only genuine occupation for a
lifetime. I propose to devote the remainder of mine to it, and can only regret
the wasted years, that lie behind me, squandered in trivialities.”
“Glorious,
stirring sight!’ murmured Toad, never offering to move. ‘The poetry of motion!
The REAL way to travel!”
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