My Birthday Was Far Out!

It was a trip, both geographically, and cosmic-ly speaking.
I drove hundreds of miles out to western Kansas....where I found hippie heaven. 

It was actually called Hippie Chic Oasis, and it was quietly existing as its own counter culture in this deeply rural setting. The exterior was an inconspicuous building on a modest Kansas farm with grandpa vibes, but inside this crib was letting its freak flag fly!

All the walls and ceilings were painted psychedelic colors of  yellow, orange, pink and green.  

A groovy loft upstairs had a groovy bed....

And windows connecting me to mother earth...namely the cow pastures

But the cows were cool. You can't see them but they're there...grazing, walking, just doing their thing. Very zen. 

The colors outside were as hallucinatory as inside. Wide open spaces and a clear sky of 

cerulean blue. I spent a lot of time on the balcony, just drinking in the view, along with my wine. 

I watched the sun set from the balcony before turning in....

 and in the morning saw it return with my head still on the pillow.  What could be hipper than

 watching the sun rise without having to get out of bed?

It was hard to leave the hippie house of my dreams, but this flower child had to move on. 

I had some rocks to go look at. 

Ancient marine sedimentary deposits loaded with fossilized sea life, can ya dig it?  

   

      Ghostly, other-worldly, remote and isolated, the Monument Rocks chalk formations 

      are way out, in every sense of the word!

     So it took a couple hours of driving to reach my next destination. The Rocktown Trail

     at Wilson Lake.  Because.....more rocks!

      But these were orange and red and yellow.  Like some hippie came along and tie-dyed them. 

 

 

The rocks were really cool but so was the hike. The trail wound through rolling hills covered 

with plant life and waving grasses. As a weirdo who loves a strong Kansas wind, feeling

 the gusts blow across the prairie was a gift in itself.  

 

   But it was the stickers I got in my shoe, reminiscent of my years growing up in western Kansas,

   that made my birthday trip complete!