Pre-Preparations

This morning was my last taiji lesson before taiji camp, which starts next Friday evening. I've actually been getting some impressive compliments from Don. On Wednesday he actually told me he thought I had the sword form down about as well as he did. I very much doubt that, as he keeps pointing out principles that I either don't understand or can't apply. :^) Ah well. We shall see what Bataan and crew have to say about my sword form. As far as the bare-hand form goes, I must be doing something right, because Don keeps showing me more advanced push-hands ideas. Some of which I can apply, some of which I vaguely understand, and some of which make no sense at all to me yet.

But I finally remembered to get hotel reservations made this afternoon. I meant to get it done last week sometime, and just kept forgetting about it. So we might have gotten a better spot in Fort Collins had I made them in a more timely fashion, but the place looks ok. I'll be there one night, the day before camp, my mom will be there the next night. Then she's going wandering while I'm at camp, mostly visiting old college roommates from the sound of it. I am very much looking forward to camp. It was an awesome experience last year, and I expect it will be so again. I'm not sure what kind of shape my legs are in at this point. I seem to have dropped to a lower stance, but I've been doing more hiking than practicing, honestly. The hiking helps part of the quads, but not as evenly as the taiji does. So my legs may well be screaming at the end of camp.

After camp, we're planning to go to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day or so. Which means I must do research and find new and bizarre places to stop along the way! *grins* We've been there several times, but I'm sure there's stuff we haven't seen yet. It is my solemn duty to make sure we DO see it. Though I'm sure we'll stop at the gift store up on Trail Ridge Road. Some nice stuff in the store, but I really like the short hike behind it. You climb up a rock/dirt staircase (likely built to control erosion from so many visitors), and go down the trail a ways, and there's an elevations sign. I can't remember the exact number, but it's over 10,000 feet. There's often still snow in the area, even this late in the summer.

I'm not sure what route we're taking home, but since Mom wants to stop off in Steamboat Springs, we just might go through Dinosaur National Monument. Another place to find, er, places we haven't visited yet.

We're not leaving until Thursday, but I may or may not have any time to hike in the meantime. We shall see.