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“Intensely active older men and women who have the means and see the twilight years as just another stage of exploration are pushing further and harder, tossing aside presumed limitations.”

Kirk Johnson’s inspiring article (NYTimes.com, January 7, 2010) reminds us that our golden years aren’t just our golf years. Retirement means more free time to explore and challenge ourselves and the world beyond the gates of our familiar community. It’s time to take the risks we were too cautious to take earlier, to chase down some of those dreams we’ve kept wrapped up for so long.

While some latter day adventurers “pursue challenges close to home, mastering a headstand or the perfect side crane balance on a yoga mat. Others go far afield.” Johnson describes Tom Lackey who started wing-walking in his eighties! And Betty Beauchemin, less than a decade younger, felt inspired to parasail. She learned how and even picked up skiing again.

Isn’t it foolhardy for octogenarians to court danger like this? Actually, some experts suggest that “older people might in fact be safer in adventurous, high-exertion activities and environments than their younger counterparts, or at least no less safe. And some use an old-fashioned word to explain why: wisdom… ‘It’s still the same knuckleheads getting in trouble or coming unprepared; young people, mostly,’ said Sgt. Bob Silva of the Eagle County Police Department in the central Colorado Rockies, who regularly gets called for search-and-rescue duty.”

Although Johnson sidesteps the obvious, aging is the ultimate adventure. Whether we surrender the yearnings for adventure which fueled our imagination and hopefully our lifestyle during younger decades, or whether we throw ourselves into life – the adventure life – with grace and enthusiasm reflects just how hungry we are to live. Just how unwilling we are to archive ourselves with all the other farts bitching about memory loss and joint pain…

While cross-country skiing in the back meadow, I snapped this image with my Blackberry. Not a great shot, but it captures the gist… These are the patterns imprinted in the snow when a couple of turkeys took flights. Griffin and I had been following the turkey footprints throughout our adventure — probably close to a dozen birds — and I had noticed several coyotes tracks weaving among the turkey tracks from time to time. No doubt the turkeys and the coyotes had wandered through at different times. But seeing that this area where all of the turkeys suddenly took flight suggests that they just may have been startled by a couple of hungry coyotes. Or maybe they just heard us coming?

Fresh back in the USA after 2.5 weeks in India. Still sorting out the culture shock, etc. Soon Susan and I will start sorting through hundreds of photos, but in the meanwhile here are several daily candids snapped on my Blackberry to keep family and friends in the loop.

Lake Placid shows up in the Winter 2010 Gorsuch catalog, right up there with Zermatt, Sun Valley, Vail, etc. Is Lake Placid sexy again? The 1932 Winter Olympics and the 1980 Winter Olympics pushed our Adirondack alpine wonderland into the spotlight, and maybe it’s happening again.

By coincidence, this morning I received an email notice this morning about Whiteface, the Olympic downhill ski mountain in Lake Placid:

“Whiteface will open Saturday, December 5, 2009 for the 2009-10 winter season. Mother Nature was off to a slow start, however, it looks as though the tides are turning back into winter! Our snowmaking crews are making snow 24/7 as temps permit! We will open with Excelsior, Summit Express, and Upper Valley. Over 1.5 miles of terrain. Beginner terrain will not be available. Cloudsplitter Gondola and Little Whiteface will be open with downloading on the Gondola, lower mountain will open asap.”

By then I’ll be in Mumbai, but it’s good to know that we’ll be able to start skiing when we get home!

Spent several hours at Shelburne Orchards yesterday with bride, dog and friends. Actually, we were supposed to be at Champlain Orchards for the Harvest Celebration with food and live music, but I botched the plans. Somehow had it in my head that the event was at Shelburne Orchards instead and had everyone ride across on the ferry and meet just up the road from Charlotte instead of heading down to Shoreham.

Needless to say, there was plenty of food, sunshine and fun to be had and we enjoyed ourselves despite my brain sabbatical. The eating was great! I had a pork sausage with grilled peppers and onions with cider and some of Susan’s pumpkin soup. And for dessert, a delicious twist on apple crisp called Apple Betty, and described to me by the girl carrying the pie in the photo as, “All the comfort, with none of the committment.” For some reason the name One-Eyed Betty lodged in my brain… And that pie? Enormous. A couple of feet across at least! With a nifty old pickup parading across the crust. (FYI, the red clad pie carrier is Nick Cowles, owner/operator of Shelburne Orchards.)

At last, I’m returning to this long overdue update to virtualDavis! I’m resuming the process of migrating old content over to the new server, CMS, theme, etc. I know, I know, I first promised this update in April 2007! But between then and now my life was kidnapped by the folly of follies: renovating our new home on Lake Champlain.

W.D. Ross House, Essex, NY (c. 1822)

Recounting this epic adventure is my next challenge… But more on that later. Please don’t expect an overnight website transformation, but I will stumble through some of the most overdue updates ASAP. Patience and time will reveal the new and improved virtualDavis. I promise…

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• Sally Lesh & Hyde Gate

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A whirlwind return to the Big Apple to start packing up and moving on… With only a couple of weeks remaining before the closing, it’s time to make our home a movable nest for a while. Congratulations to Nikki Field, our excellent real estate agent, for finding the perfect buyer and for donating a portion of her commission to Hamilton College. It’s been a pleasure working with her and her assistant over the last year. Looking forward, we’re lining up a moving company to schlep our belongings north to our still-not-complete new home on Lake Champlain. Per the recommendation of our real estate agency, we’re leaning towards Padded Wagon. Seems like life has involved an awful lot of moving companies over my last decade or so. Time to settle down and stay put for a while. Until the wanderlust returns, at least… We’ve also been running some “furnishing errands” including hunting for rugs. And gobbling up sushi which is considerably less abundant in the North Country. Enjoying our final time in this beautiful apartment, but feeling very confident that the move is a great decision. I’ll update you once we’ve handed over the keys.

Drip, drip, drip,… Three days in and ten days to go. Feels like the forty days and forty nights. Sort of. Or that Ray Bradbury story where everyone’s going dipsy from the incessant rain on some far flung planet.

Headed out for dinner last night at Turtle Island in neighboring Willsboro, NY. Headed up the 2+ mile dirt drive way through the soggy woods. New leaves so green they were vibrating in the mist. Near the end of the road we approached the last of three ponds where we’ve been staging a turf war with a family of beavers for weeks. At least three times in the last week I’ve had to dismantle the dam he’s attempting to build across the road. And each time the beavers have rebuilt the dam, and attempt to annex the driveway as part of their swelling habitat. As I approached last night, I realized that they’d finally succeeded in building the damn about eighteen inches high all the way across the road. I stopped at the edge of the flooded section. A medium sized beaver was a couple of feet from us, clearly annoyed that we were going to dismantle his work once more. Even once he retreated several yards he swam back and forth menacingly. We pushed through the dam and headed on to dinner. Upon returning later in the evening he’d already rebuilt the area we’d breached. I had to accelerate enough to get my little four wheel drive Subaru to punch through once more. We drove through more than a foot of water!

This morning I snapped this photo of a resolute fisherman trolling along the Vermont shoreline undaunted by the rain, cold and fog. Slowly motoring along, almost imperceptibly. I was Skype-ing with a friend in Taipei, catching up on adventures and scheming an exciting and long overdue collaboration. I’ve been daydreaming ever since abbreviating the call to snap the pic, daydreaming about the quirky creations we’ll compose. I hope…

It’s Mother’s Day today, time to wish mine well for birthing me thirty four years ago. After all, I am sort of the one who “made her a mother” as first born, right? We’ll see what she thinks about that!

So how’s everybody coming on the NATO Phonetic Alphabet? Next time you book your airline tickets, read your confirmation code back to the attendant employing this new tool and she just may be so impressed she’ll give you your tickets for free. Maybe…

Just returned to the North Country after a couple of groovy skiing escapes. First a short week at Stratton in Vermont for the Philips US Open 2004 with my brother, and my buddy who works for Burton. He had volunteered us for the banner crew which meant we helped prepare all of the marketing banners, signs, etc. for the competition each day. And we skied. And skied and skied. We received plenty of fresh snow, and we threw ourselves into it like it was the last chance of the season. And it almost was. Except…

The following week I headed off to Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia with MHD for another short week of skiing. Spring conditions the first couple of days, but amazing snow since it had dumped just before our arrival. Then some base rain which was snow on the mountain. Skied the hell out of both hills including both glaciers. Visibility wasn’t always so great, and the bottoms of both mountains tended to mashed potatoes, but everything else was amazing. And hardly no lift lines since we went the week after most spring breaks. Then a stop-off in Chicago for several days to take a seminar on e-publishing at the University of Chicago. Also a chance to catch up with a couple of old high school buddies which was great fun. Then back to NYC and a long drive back to the Adirondacks where spring is arriving ahead of schedule.