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Summer Road Trip 2014_Day Ten

We had a great Father's Day in spite of the sadness.  After a restless sleep, I was up before the alarm and anxious to get started on the journey home. There was a chill in the air, a foreboding of sorts, as we loaded the bikes and left my nieces house in Lakewood Colorado.

I watched the Denver skyline with the Rocky Mountains as backdrop, disappear in my rearview mirror. Sometimes the direction you want to go is not the direction you need to go. After my last trip across I-70 on two wheels, I vowed I would never do it again....and here I am headed east on 70. 

The Great Plains region of our country is starkly beautiful....I understand the 'amber waves of grain' lyrics perfectly. However, when you are rolling along on two wheels, the endless fields of grain, corn, and fallow ground is monotonous. The kind of monotony that is hypnotic; you feel like you are on a wheel that just rolls the same section of scenery by, giving only the illusion of moving. You find yourself relieved to see a herd of cows in the distance....something new to focus on!   Then a train, at least three miles long, bifurcates the fields of grain, giving relief to the monotony...I am sorry to see it go. There are precious few towns in this area of the country;communites have sprung up around gigantic grain elevators. Clumps of trees in the distance indicate a lone farmhouse...their nearest neighbor has got to be 100 miles away!  The desire to farm must be in the DNA.

During breakfast, I get a phone call from the Principal who interviewed me last Tuesday for the Literacy Coach position; he offered me the job and I was momentarily elated!  Talk about an emotional roller coaster today....sad, happy, sad, frustrated.....I need it to end. Anyway, after the responsibilities I have in Indiana, I will be headed home to embrace a new position, a new school, and a whole new challenge. 

Shortly after 11am, the gently rolling farm land of Eastern Colorado turns into slap, flat-out Kansas plains, and the wind starts to whip us to and fro. Its the opposite direction of the wind that flipped us side to side through New Mexico and Texas tho..so I'm thinking the tires will get wore evenly at least. I personally was grateful for the challenge of riding in the God awful wind; it took all of my mental concentration and physical strength to stay on the road.  I seem to be running on adreneline, maybe a little fear of whats to come.....sailing into the eye of the storm.

Its difficult to make good time; I had hoped to be closer to Kansas City Kansas before stopping, but the wind the road the sun and the circumstances can make for a tense day. Its probably best that we just stopped and get a good rest for tomorrows ride.  Thank you God for safe travel today; please give the wind a rest tomorrow.

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