View From Three Windows

Sterling, Colorado

I recently took a short vacation to Colorado and South Dakota. The get away was important for many reasons, including the need to refill my creative well. A friend and I drove west following old highways (she doesn't do four plus lanes unless she absolutely has to--and the slower pace is nice most of the time...), and spent one night in Sterling, Colorado. That was where I decided to take pictures from each of our hotel windows. Sterling's stay was right off the Interstate--as evidenced by the semi on the road at the top of the embankment.

Not so exciting. In fact, the view is rather bleak. Kinda like how my sense of creativity felt at the time. There's stuff there, but I don't want to look very closely at it--I mean, why bother. Yeah, that's pretty bleak for a mind usually over-filled with ideas and creative thoughts.

Sue had gotten a deal for the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. So that was our home for a couple of days. This is a basic view from our window. I've got some 'close-up' shots I'll share later where you can see the snow still gracing the dips and swells of slopes in Rocky Mountain National Park.

From the second floor of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park

A wide desk sat in front of this window--a perfect place for watching the world, the people wandering the courtyard (including a wedding one afternoon) observing how clouds and rain flow over the mountains, and simply day dreaming. And writing. I didn't get words added to a work in progress, but sudden flashes of insight will certainly move them along now. I have pages of notes and ideas.

Hot Springs, South Dakota

We moved on from the opulence and character of the Stanley to a small hotel in Hot Springs, South Dakota. This view brings nature close to the window--what a great blending of greens, purples and browns--but doesn't give a hint to how the roads curve through the amazing stone outcroppings in the Black Hills nor the rolling hills where buffalo roam. Or at least they're supposed to--they were off roaming somewhere we couldn't see. :)

But like my ideas and my need to write, the view is almost within reach.

So now I'm home again and the views from my windows are the same as they ever were. However, the trip stimulated the writer I'd allowed to become lazy (never mind all the excuses--that's all they are and not to become reality). Are those common views really so common? Nope. The creative eye has returned. Hmm, maybe my new contacts have something to do with that too.

How has getting away renewed your spirit?