By the flip of a coin

So a few days ago I was in Eagle Mountain, Utah, visiting my goddaughter and her parents. The morning I was to leave I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go. See, here's the back-story. A bit more than a week ago, a lot of things happened at once. The money I was waiting on hit my bank account, I got a job offer in Bozeman that I wasn't expecting, and I made some choices about my life. I decided to take the job, to start a bit of a new path for myself in Bozeman. This gave me two last weeks of freedom before returning to the 9-to-5 life. I spent some time with my sister and her family in Colorado while I had the freedom to do so, likewise in Utah, but then I had a week of freedom left and looking at the weather forecasts and mileage, I could see no good plan for how to spend my last week. I wanted to drive back to the coast, spend some time contemplating the ocean and the sky, but looking at the forecast decided me against a week of rainy, hiding-in-my-car contemplations. Everywhere I wanted to go was either raining or snowing all week. So I decided to leave it to chance.

Monday morning, in Utah, I took a shower, got dressed, and before putting on my compass shaped necklace, I shook it like a die and dropped it on the dresser figuring I'd head which ever way pointed away from me. South. I said my goodbyes, packed my car, and headed south. I was rewarded with a gorgeous view of Utah Lake following me south for the next half hour. A while later I came to a T in the road. I flipped a coin. West, it said. West, I went. I continued thus, my coin leading me through back country dirt roads where I saw all of two cars for the next six hours. It reminded me of the serenity I find in the ocean or flying, the sense of being smaller than the world around me. As it was getting dark, I found a highway, and headed to the the next decent size town to find a hotel parking lot to car-camp in; Ely, Nevada.

The next morning I continued this trend, using my necklace when I had more than 2 directions to chose from, the coin for the rest. I let chance decide at every fork or junction, and by early evening I was in northern Idaho on highway 93 heading north. About this time, I realized that if my coin didn't lead me otherwise, I would be in Hamilton by nightfall which is when I usually stop for the night anyways. By the fates, my sister lives in Hamilton with her three gorgeous children (and a sweet husband). However, I continued to let the fates decide. Four more coin flips later, I was in Hamilton. The nerd in me has to point out that the probability of those four coin flips leading me here is a measly 6.125%.

Long story short, I'm spending the next few days in the Missoula area, visiting family and hopefully doing some more portrait sessions. Then back to Bozeman, back to work, though I plan to continue with the portrait jobs and photography in general. I've got lots of ideas still running around in my head demanding attention. My aimless wandering may have been cut short for now, but I think I got what I needed out of it. And I find myself actually looking forward a bit to becoming semi-stationary again. I say semi-stationary because I fully intend to wander away as often as possible flipping a coin to find my way.