TURAS GIRLS

Wanderlust! I think it all started in a green and yellow A-frame cabin in the woods of Medicine Bow National Forest. My grandparents built this cabin when my dad was a teenager and it remained our family get away well into my teen years.

Even now, my heart is aflutter thinking about that place….that beautiful cabin! It was not fancy by any stretch of the imagination. It was a simple 2 story cabin with a lovely stove in the middle of one big room that heated the entire place. Upstairs was one big loft with a bunch of beds lined up. Each of which had to be checked every night for spiders before crawling in.

In the wintertime there would be too much snow to drive in so we, well my dad, would go get the old snowmobile. After several trips, all of our supplies, food, and people would finally all be transported to the cabin. It was frigid in the wintertime until the stove had time to heat up. Plenty of hot chocolate was drank standing near that stove.

My sister and I spent countless hours playing outside and exploring the woods. Our cousins were often there and we would play Cowboys and Indians and tetherball, until someone would inevitably get smacked in the face by the ball, then it was game over!

We spent great amounts of time with my grandparents here. Helping stack wood in the shed, playing board games with my grandmother. I learned so much about my heritage and the strength of my roots during these trips. A few silly Norwegian songs as well.

I believe in this cabin, in that beautiful forest, a desire was sparked in me to explore. To travel the world. To understand and embrace the culture of other people. To see the beauty of this earth and to stand in awe of its glory.