....camper envy

Ahhh, the 4th of July weekend has arrived.

It's always hot here in the foothills in july.  

Maybe not as hot as the Arizona desert...but hot.

I curated Timberline Gallery in Oakhurst today....Our appreciators of art were from other places...tourists from Washington D.C., Texas, Missouri, San Diego, Los Angeles, 

 Michigan, Italy...No locals today. 

Rafting Yosemite

There is a reason the locals stay home on 3 day weekends.

Highway 41 is at the end of the 49er Trail and it is also the road to the southern entrance into Yosemite National Park.  It runs through our towns and villages.  It is a treacherous road, it twists, turns and has blind corners....People drive it too fast and too slow...accidents happen regularly...deadly ones....Throw in people from many lands who drive are used to driving on a different side of the road, a lot of rented motor homes, add a few drunks and it's good to stay home.

Vernal Falls, Yosemite

Mist Trail

There are 600 steps to the top of the falls.

.the closer you get to the falls the wetter they become...

Today as I was watching the filled to the brim vehicles...stuff secured on the roofs, bicycles strapped to the backs as they paraded past the gallery, I experienced camper envy. 

Yosemite at night 

Many of us who live in the foothills are like the shoemakers children who have no shoes...we live 22 miles from one of the most beautiful places on the planet but rarely go there to sleep under the stars...Don't ask me why...

Today I let my imagination wander and wonder at the possibility of of packing up my jeep with all the essential camping gear, lot's of art supplies, Maia, my Great Dane and simply hitting the road....running away, or running toward  the adventure of just going.

What if I just camped and made art?

Would my fellow journeyers think me too strange to buy art from...Or would they embrace the strange woman gathering sticks and feathers and dried this and that and tying it all together with bits of fabric and twine...adding a clay face and calling the result a Spirit Figure....Would they enjoy the stories of my muse and how she comes to me...or would they think me just too odd.

I wonder?