Stupid, but Fun and Beautiful

I did something incredibly stupid yesterday - it ended up being a fun, beautiful, and eye-opening experience, and, thankfully nothing terrible happened, so I was just very lucky.  We were lucky, since Beatrice went along on the escapade.  What did I/we do?  I looked at several maps, but didn't take any with me; the SUV I was driving doesn't have GPS (not that I know how to use it, or even want to know how to use it).  We decided we needed a day away from the city and decided to go driving in Larimer County - around Rist Canyon, the Cache la Poudre Canyon, and the Red Feather Lakes.  I'd driven around Rist Canyon and the eastern part of the Cache la Poudre. I didn't think anything about not having a map with me.  We had brunch and set out...
   We took a few back roads up to Fort Collins and Laporte, drove through Bellvue, and headed west along Rist Canyon.  We headed north along Stove Prairie until we hit the Cache la Poudre, then headed west toward Rustic.  I later found that Larimer County contains 2,634 square miles; and the majority of roads are not paved.  We had taken along some snacks and water to quench our thirst - but hadn't thought about toilet paper and/or bathroom availability. Duuuhhhh.  That shows that I'm a dumb Eastern tourist....   Luckily we had some plastic bags and a new box of Kleenex in the car.
   We ended up in the Rawah Wilderness area, and kept turning right or left arbitrarily.  Looking at a map last night, I realized that, at one point we were just 3 miles south of the Wyoming state line... but the views were glorious!  Open valleys and prairies, mountains and buttes, lakes, creeks and rivers - horses, cattle, buffalo, open range signs and lots of cattle guards to cross.  Mule deer, elk, moose, squirrels, birds of all kinds, chipmunks, pack rats, marmots - all there to see and hear.  The lonesome skreee of a hawk on the wing and the raucous call of a Stellar jay...   It was totally magnificent.  Blue skies with a few clouds; temperatures in the upper 70s (F), and a continuous breeze.
   We finally decided the only way to get home was to backtrack our original drive - which we did until we hit Stove Prairie; then we followed the Cache la Poudre back to Laporte.  It was a fantastic day.  No worries.  No radio. No telephones. No television.  No people - except Bea.  We laughed and joked and talked about our families and growing up.  We talked about religion and politics.  We talked about respect and history.  We laughed until we cried.  It was a wonderful day with a friend.