As the summer began to wind down, I felt a strong calling to get back to my roots and return to the simplicity of road tripping to a music festival, as I had done so many times in my younger days. Each year when summer ends, I mourn the loss of sunshine and warmth. I lament the ease of jumping in the campervan and going…wherever. I see the lake down the street and it teases me by being too cold for me to coast along on my paddleboard.
And as the reality of middle age sets in, it’s easy to get lost. At some point we shift from following our favorite bands and talking about their sickest jams to managing lower back pain, worrying if our investments are on track, and avoiding too much cheese so that we can stay ‘regular.’ All of this is true for me and has been compounded by a summer of working my day job (which I love), building my business (which I am excited about), and continuing to learn and develop my craft (which is part of who I am as a lifelong learner).
As much joy as all of this brings, it’s been a lot. It requires a level of discipline that doesn’t come naturally to me. I’ve had to be incredibly regimented to stay on track and it’s exhausting.
So when I learned about the Borderland Festival, it felt perfect. An amazing line up. Far enough from home to feel like a journey but close enough to drive in a day.
First step – expressing my desire to go on a road trip and attend the festival to my other half and getting his buy in. This wasn’t hard.
The experience of 5 days away from reality taught me some important lessons.
Getting back to my roots taught me...
1. Don’t make it hectic
Borderland featured many incredibly talented acts. Each day started at noon, with doors opening at 11 AM. We elected to stay at a campground 30 miles away. We slept in. We enjoyed our coffee. We rolled in between 1-2 PM each day. My instinct typically would have been to get there right for 11 AM to get a good parking spot and because we paid to see all the bands. Instead of letting this old life rule overtake me, I allowed myself to flow with it and it enhanced the magic of the experience.
It helped that my Fitbit died after the first day and I forgot my charger. I do love this device, but my life has become a constant cycle of having to know what time it is and setting timers to manage my attention issues. Not to mention tracking each day to see if I make it to 10,000 steps which I almost never do. All in all, I found it supportive to let go of obsessive time keeping for a few days.
2. Sometimes Simplicity is Best
After much deliberation, we decided to leave our beloved van at home and road trip in my husband’s jeep. The campground we chose is absolutely stunning and proudly touts having no hookups. Plus, they had an adorable unfurnished cabin for rent which felt too tempting to pass up. And after all, we’re campers. For so long, we “roughed it.” Somewhere along the way we got fancy. Likely because it’s so fun and esay to add gear and features to the van.
For this trip, we let that all go and lived as simply as possible and it was perfect.
This is not to say that we roughed it entirely. Based on this I’d always recommend having…
First, a good water jug because hydration is important. And kudos to Borderland for providing FREE water refilling stations and cutting down on unnecessary plastic waste.
Secondly, a Grill and grill station so that we could cook goodies that we gathered by stopping at local farms.
Jetboil because COFFEE.
Multi-tool so that we could cook hot dogs over the fire using sticks that we found.
Good sleeping bags and an air mattress, because Buffalo gets cold AF at night and back pain is to be avoided at all costs.
The Yeti because keeping phones charged is important – it was our ticket to the show, parking pass, and GPS.
And finally, my tens machine just in case of that pesky back pain because this is my life now.
3. Say YES when you feel it in your body
Upon checking into the campground, we learned that the woman assisting us offered private yoga lessons. As she described this, I could feel my body saying yes. For a moment, my gremlin brain took over with statements such as…
“That’s gonna be expensive. It’s too indulgent.”
And even better…
“If it’s a private lesson you won’t be able to hide. She’ll know how bad you are at yoga.”
So I did what any good coach would do. I texted her and said YES!
I ended up with a beautiful private outdoor yoga class with Gretchen, an amazing human. During our time together, I learned some great adjustments, which I incorporate in some of my work. Most importantly, I experienced nature. It gave me a much needed reset before another long car ride and the other thing I said yes to – all the incredible food trucks at the festival. Yes, for the weekend I gave myself a pass and ate whatever called to me. But yeah, remember my reference to too much cheese?!
As I sketch this out in my journal (which is where all my blog posts start), I feel immense gratitude for the experience I’ve had over the past 5 days. I’m refreshed and ready to get back to the work that I love. I reflect on another lesson of the festival in knowing that I’m not the only one who has grown a bit older. Now it’s more about the music, the art, and the food and less about smoking anything that stays still for more than 10 seconds. Everyone will go home to their back pain, their investments, and tending to their digestive systems.
But for a few days, we came together in community at the Borderland.
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