We are always trying to think up new and unusual ways to remember Dave so when Dave’s Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob suggested geocaching, we basically said, “Huh? What’s that?”

After a brief discussion to pique my interest, they sent me to the website www.geocaching.com where I learned that “Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices.  The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors (anywhere in the world) and then share your experiences online.  Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.  There are 1,111,199 active caches and an estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide.”

From my understanding, a member can locate caches by going to the website, entering a destination (city, country, etc.) and all caches within a certain radius will pop up.  Once the cache is found, the registered “travel bug” is removed to continue its travel by the person who found the cache, the logbook is signed, and the cache is returned to the exact spot for the next person to find.  Most people leave a token, such as a special coin or another “travel bug”, in the cache.  A message that the cache was found is then logged onto the site.

One of the caches that pop up for Andros Island is Dave’s LIFE IS GOOD travel bug.  This is what Jan wrote on the site:

“CURRENT GOAL: To travel internationally all over the world and all 50 states

LIFE IS GOOD is a celebration of Dave Buschow’s amazing life.  In his 29 short years, he lived his life to the fullest.  After serving in the Air Force for 4 years, he became an independent contractor working for overseas companies.  One of his year tours was on Andros Island, Bahamas, where we will start this TB’s journey.  He learned the balance between traveling and having adventures, to maintaining all his relationships with family and friends. ‘To a life that accepts Nature’s hand in sculpting an individual expression. Nothing is exempt. From the mellifluous rhythm and tone of the wind chime, to the transitional form of the cloud. Nothing exists alone.  All things thrive and whither in confluence with one another.  So it is; the paradox of our divinity.’  Dave Buschow–www.rememberdave.net”

Our recent trip to Andros Island in the Bahamas was Dave’s first cache.  We rode and walked our bikes up a very rocky trail.  A short distance off the path is where we found someone else’s cache.  We deposited Dave’s “travel bug” and general info and headed back.  Since it took over a year for the cache to be found by us, we thought it would be quite some time before Dave was on the move again.  But lo and behold, only three weeks later, it was discovered–coincidentally by someone visiting AUTEC.  Here is the message from the fellow who found it. 

“6/11/10 retrieved from Sunset View-Bahamas

I found this during some free time during my stay at AUTEC.  I will take it with me to the states when I return in a couple weeks. This was a great little hike to a scenic bay lookout.  Though the sun wasn’t shining when I got there, rain had started to fall, the ending was beautiful and the hike was great.  I knocked this cache out, along with the Rainbow Blue Hole, on the same day.  Many thank yous to the crew at Small Hope Bay Lodge for placing the cache.  I took the LIFE IS GOOD TB (travel bug) with plans of getting it back to the states.”

Thanks to Bob and Jan for knowing how important it is to me to find new and creative ways to keep Dave’s story alive and to allow him to continue his travels.

What’s Dave’s next destination?  We’ll keep you posted!!

The last large purchase Dave made was in Feb. 2006. It was his snowboard; an Arbor Element 62. He admitted it was much too expensive, but said it would probably be the last snowboard he would ever buy so he wanted it to be a good one. (I still don’t know why he said it would be his last!) He was so excited to try it out.  After his first and only trip using the board, he returned confident that his purchase was the right one.  He said,  “It was “really awesome, Ma, and definitely worth the dough.”  After his death, Rob made it a point to take snowboarding lessons so he could put Dave’s board to good use.  He knew that’s what Dave would want.  Once he had a few lessons under his belt, we planned a family trip of skiing and snowboarding.  Dave’s cousin, Mike, wrote this amazing letter after the trip.

“This past winter of 2010 was very special. I had the opportunity to spend time with my family on a vacation to Shawnee Ski Resort. It was a great trip. My 7 year old son Daniel had his first lesson in skiing and turned out to be quite good for his first time. I was very proud of him and seeing him flying down the mountain was a moment I will never forget. I am sure Dave would have said something to the effect of “Skiing! What do you think about just getting him right on a board and not wasting time with skiing.” The thought definitely crossed my mind as I walked into the rental shop. Well, I ended up getting him skis to start with since that was how I started when I was his age. I could picture Dave’s expression. He would have had that little smirk on his face that we all know and miss.

Being with everyone in our family always reminds me of Dave. But snowboarding especially reminds me of him. As everyone knows, Dave LOVED snowboarding! He was very good on a board. I think his style was similar to the way he lived his life. He was very smooth, controlled, humble and fearless. Dave made snowboarding look easy. He was a natural for sure! He was capable of pushing the envelope when he wanted to and aggressively taking off like a rocket down the mountain or just peacefully carving his way down. Never trying to be the best or prove anything, just enjoying it with no ego trip or competition with who he was with. He was hands down the best person to be on a trip with, or really to do anything with. He is my cousin and my best friend. I miss him so much.

I have been snowboarding for about 15 years or so. I started out skiing when I was young with my parents and brother. Snowboarding wasn’t really around or popular yet. In the early years of High School I was still on skis. That is until I went on a trip to Vermont with Dave and my brother Chris sometime around 1993 I think. It was a great time, full of the usual family jokes and screwing around like a bunch of idiots. I’ll leave the details out. Chris: I know your laughing right now. I can’t help but laugh even though the tears are rolling down my face as I type this. I miss him so much. It feels like yesterday that we were there. Chris and I were skiing and Dave was ripping it up on a board, never afraid to try something new. And he was ripping it for sure! Holy crap!!!!! He made it look so fun that I had to try it. He encouraged me to try boarding, which I soon did, and fell in love with it. Ever since then I’ve snowboarded. Dave was my inspiration for converting. I always think of him when I board. I even have dreams often that we are together on the mountain once again. He usually rides off into the distance looking back at me with that smile. I just can’t keep up. And I also cannot keep up with living my life as good as he did. I’m trying my hardest. It has been hard for me to deal with this. Everyday it is natural occurrence that I think of Dave. I miss him so much.

During the trip to Shawnee Mountain I was presented with an opportunity to spread Dave’s ashes. Aunt Pat and Rob were very kind to ask me to spread some of Dave’s ashes on the mountain. To be in another place that he loved. This was such an honor for me, and another experience from the trip that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Dave was with me. I could feel his spirit all around me the entire trip. I’m sure that everyone else felt him. That feeling was very strong as I held his ashes. One that I cannot deny being real. He was undoubtedly with me.

I sat up on the top of the trail and strapped into my bindings. Rob wanted to take some pictures so he was waiting for me at a predetermined spot further down the trail. We agreed that actually snowboarding while I spread his ashes would be the best way to honor him. Unfortunately I was going a bit too fast and it was getting dark so the picture isn’t very clear. But, nonetheless, it still was successful in my opinion. Before I pushed off down the trail I took some time while I was alone with Dave. This was by far the most eye opening experience of my entire life. That moment has proved to me that the soul goes on. I spoke to him and told him some things from my heart that I will keep between us. I thanked him for all he taught me through his life and his death. I KNOW that Dave heard every word of it. It was a moment alone with him just like the moment that we had the last time I saw him. It’s hard for me to explain but I heard his words in my heart. I also heard something that I had heard him say to me many times before. These words …….. COME HERE CUZ…BIG HUG. I visualized this being accompanied by our usual handshake hug with a double slap on the back for good measure. I miss that hug. I miss Dave. It was just the two of us on that mountain. It was a moment that I get chills from every time I think of it. I felt a change in me that evening. I felt something move in me, like a puzzle piece that I couldn’t figure out where it went, and it was put into place. I’ve never told anyone this.

Dave, thank you. I hope I can be half the man you are. I hope that I can make you proud of me. I LOVE YOU CUZ!!!!….BIG HUG !!!!! That was the last thing you ever said to me. Those words will be with me forever. I miss you so much.”

Thank you, Mike, for such a wonderful heartfelt letter; one that brings tears to my eyes each time I read it.

When Rob and I visited UT in 2008, we made it a point to meet with a representative from the Forest Service, Kurtis R, District Ranger of the Fremont River Ranger Division with the sole purpose of expressing our gratitude for the kind, professional, and diligent manner in which the investigation was conducted after Dave’s death.  We expressed our wish to remember Dave somewhere in the vicinity and asked for any suggestions he might have. 

We drove to the Homestead Overlook where Kurtis explained that a restoration project was underway with the Hwy 12 Committee and interpretive panels would be erected explaining the spectacular view ahead.  We pondered whether this could be used to somehow remember Dave being acutely aware that the tone must be appropriate to the setting.

After numerous e-mails with John H, Chairman of the Hwy 12 Committee, everyone agreed that Dave’s Wind Chimes poem was perfect for the sign.  This couldn’t have made me happier!  Now anyone who views this amazing panorama, will read Dave’s words. (Double click on the photo to enlarge.)

I needed a bit more description of the sweeping vista than the signs could provide with their limited space. So I reached out to Laurel H.; someone who knows the area like the back of her hand and  has an amazing knack with words.  My simple request of, “I would love to hear if you have any personal impressions about the area.” was met with this amazing portrait of words:

“Homestead Overlook is located in the middle of a grassy meadow on the shoulder of the Aquarius Plateau, aka Boulder Mountain, 9000 ft above sea level.  In June the meadow beyond the placard bearing Dave’s poem is a sea of bright yellow dandelion blossoms.  I’ve brewed batches of dandelion wine from flowers collected there.  In certain seasons, deer and elk can often be seen in these meadows.  Above and below, the Overlook is surrounded by stands of quaking aspen, or Populus tremuloides —easy to remember because of how aspen leaves “tremble” in the slightest breeze.  And beyond the aspen to the limits of the horizon, there is the desert.  As Wallace Stegner describes this landscape: ‘It is lovely and terrible wilderness, such as wilderness as Christ and the prophets went out into; harshly and beautifully colored, broken and worn until its bones are exposed, its great sky without a smudge of taint from Technocracy, and in hidden corners and pockets under its cliffs the sudden poetry of springs.’

From Homestead you can see the flat top of Long Neck mesa, covered with pinon and juniper.  Deer Creek flows to the west of Long Neck.  Dave’s group camped near Deer Creek and traversed Long Neck west to east.  East of Long Neck is Slickrock Canyon, which is separated by a steep ridge from Cottonwood Canyon and Dave’s Cave.  This ridge is capped with a white checkerboard of Navajo Sandstone–the stuff on all the postcards from Zion National Park–littered with basalt boulders.  Near the cave grows Indian paintbrush, Box Elder and Cottonwood trees, and spicy wild onion.

In the distance to the east of the Henry Mountains loom; they were the last mapped mountain range in the lower 48. On the horizon to the west is the striated face of 50-Mile Mountain, or the Kaiparowits Plateau.  It runs from Escalante southwards all the way to the Colorado River and Navajo Mountain, which is in Arizona and clearly visible from Homestead Overlook.  On sunrise on clear days, sometimes you can see as far as Monument Valley and the La Sal Mountains near Moab.

‘But those who haven’t the strength or youth to go into it and live can simply sit and look.  They can look two hundred miles…they can also look as deeply into themselves as anywhere I know.  And if they can’t even get to the places on the Aquarius Plateau where the present roads will carry them, they can simply contemplate the idea, take pleasure in the fact that such a timeless and uncontrolled part of earth is still there.’ – Wallace Stegner:”

Thank you, Laurel, for painting such a beautiful picture in our minds!

Dave’s poetic words echo over the land that he described in his one-and-only journal entry as, “f-n awesome!”

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I was touched to hear from Katie A, their 4H leader, that some of the girls in the Boulder Broncs wanted to make the trip to Dave’s Cave. They had heard his story and wanted to do something in his honor for the family. 

They set out on a beautiful fall day and spent hours on the trails.  It was not an easy ride—as I can attest, but these young ladies still headed out for a long, tiresome day.  Katie A took pictures all along the way to Dave’s Cave and stopped to pick wildflowers; one of which she sent to me with the pictures.

My message to Katie was, “I can’t thank you enough for such a wonderful remembrance. My entire family was overwhelmed with the efforts of you and the girls; it was definitely not just a ‘ride in the park.’  It’s challenging and tiring. We are all quite aware that you all could have found something much more fun to do on a beautiful fall day.”

Katie kindly responded, “There’s no need to thank us for the ride. I feel grateful to do something to honor a wonderful and outstanding young man like Dave, who left us way too early in life.”

Thanks again to all of you!

(Take a minute to read the post about the Boulder Broncs under In Memory of Dave)

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We went on a family vacation in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida.  My mom had rented a house right on the beach; a pink house so my daughter was very happy with the color of the house.  It was such a beautiful area.

It was a nice sunny day when my husband, Ara, Cayla, Tyler, and I were all at the beach having a great time.  Cayla and I were kicking a beach ball back and forth and were giggling the whole time.  We were just having lots of fun.  Tyler fell asleep on the blanket and the next thing I knew, so did Daddy.

Cayla and I decided to go back up to the house because it was so hot.  A little while later, Daddy and Tyler joined us and we all had lunch together.  After lunch, my mom and I walked down to one of the hotels on the beach to go parasailing.  I was a little nervous because I am a little afraid of heights.

The plan was for me to spread some of Dave’s ashes as we sailed above the water, but I did not know where to put the little plastic bag.  I did not want the two boat guys to see it and wonder what I had in my hand.  So we thought it was a good idea to tuck it in the top of my bathing suit.  We took a speedboat out to the main boat and got all hooked up.  My legs felt like jello.  The next thng I knew we were lifting off.  It was the most relaxing experience.  It was so peaceful and quiet.  Talk about total tranquility!

We finally got all the way up and my mom said, “OK, get the ashes.”  Well, from sweating from nerves and also from stress, the plastic bag was stuck to my skin.  As the men were snapping our picture, we kept wondering what they were thinking as I was reaching into the top of my suit.  I finally got the bag out, but was afraid to open it.  My hands were shaking.  First off, I was afraid the wind was going to blow Dave’s ashes back into our faces.  I was also afraid that I was going to drop the plastic bag from up there while shaking his ashes out of the bag and then get in trouble for polluting the ocean.   All we thought about at the time was that I knew Dave was watching us and laughing at me.

It all went smoothly though; no problems. It was a nice experience with my mom.  It was a wonderful vacation that my mom gave to me me and my family.  It was something I will remember for the rest of my life.

And, if you’ve ever seen the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, you kow that it’s another beautiful place for Dave.

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