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#Scattered_Day 8

"Tish (looking sympathetically at Ann across the table): Della, maybe we could just drive to Sedona. I mean its not like Bree will know.
Della (laying her hand firmly on Tish's forearm and looking her sternly in the eye): Tish, we promised Bree the  three of us would honor her wishes. Bree made it very clear; we are to ride the bikes to Sedona, taking the time to see the points of interest she always wanted to see along Route 66. And that's what we are going to do.
Della (looking directly at Ann): And you will just have to get over the whole I-cant-do-hills thing.
Tish: Oh Della, please don't be so harsh on Ann, she has legitimate fears!
Sometimes Della just wants to take Tish and shake her. Tish has spent the majority of her adult life taking care of everyone else's emotions (and generally their physical well-being as well). Tish's son died by suicide less than a year ago and Tish is just this side of acceptance in the grief process."

Friday/Saturday: Around Sedona/Sedona to Prescott - 555 miles
Sunday: Phoenix to Van Horn Texas - 553 miles

I'm just shoveling sand here. The character Tish has been fairly quiet. Today, as I traveled from Phoenix across New Mexico and into West Texas, I tried to conjure her from the wide open spaces surrounding me. Obviously, I need to give more thought to Tish.

No offense to my Wind Sisters who live in the area, but I'm not real crazy about Phoenix. Paid $3.99/gal for gas before I left, stopped at three hotels (I stay at Hampton Inn's or Holiday Inn) before I found one that was in a 'safe' area and relatively decent looking...and the HEAT. Driving down from Prescott to the Phoenix area was like descending into the pits of hell. I walked over to a little BBQ place near the hotel last night called Rudy's; awesome food! I had the smoked potato (baked) topped with sour cream, cheese and best brisket I've had in a long time! 

It was a good long ride today. Weather was good, roads were clear, the kind of day I can ride from sunup to sundown...which is essentially what I did! I embrace the wide open spaces; it seems my thoughts untangle in the wind. I stopped about every 100 miles to hydrate and top off gas. Stopped in Las Cruces NM at Barnett's Harley-Davidson to buy shirts. I literally have not purchased anything on this trip except gas, food , and repairs! Thought I better start grabbing a few destination shirts!

I crossed the Rio Grande River today in El Paso. As you round the curve on I-10 that bends from south to east, if you glance to the south you see the Ciudad Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The shanty style dwelling scattered among the Sierra Madre mountains. The verse 'Cd. Juárez - La Biblia Es La Verdad - Leela. ' is scrawled across the mountains in white paint.  The writing in the mountains south of Juárez state "The Bible is the Truth". These letters were painted as part of a project initiated by the evangelical pastor Gerardo Bermudez in 1987 and are touched up frequently to keep the message visible. I wonder what it is like to wake up everyday in abject poverty with unlimited possibility and gaze out over the divide where a short distance away, life is very different?

I talked with my friend Lin this evening. She made the comment 'you sound like yourself again. Welcome back! I've missed you!' She's right. An extended road trip always changes my perspective. 

Debi Tolbert Duggar is the author of 'Riding Soul-O'
Part Memoir, Part Travelogue, Part Spiritual Salvation
Available at Bessieandme.com and online wherever books are sold





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