Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#Scattered_TheBox

     Bree sat silent in the passenger seat of Della’s Range Rover as they drove away from the city towards Bree’s farmhouse. Della respected her friends silence, glancing furtively towards Bree, checking for what? Della didn’t know; was there a protocol for ‘how to act when your friend is told she has a few months to live?’ Della wasn’t sure and at this moment her heart hurt as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand intent on crushing the organ in her chest.       Della met Bree Maxwell at the registrar’s office in 1974 at the University of Chicago. Just two long-haired hippie chicks in bell bottom denims and crop tops among thousands, struggling to look cool while simultaneously overwhelmed by the process of registering for classes. The two became fast friends and shortly thereafter they met Tish and Ann, also freshman. The foursome became inseparable and forged a bond that has endured four decades.         Bree is the...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Waning Light

  There are times I dread the waning light of day, That golden hour which precedes the night. The night brings sad memories. The night brings old terrors. The night brings lonely hours, Sleepless hours, Blackness filled with sorrow. The darkness carries the quiet, the quiet commands the truth. The night accentuates my aloneness; it echoes my fears. The darkness makes me yearn for my children and for my loved ones long gone. The night plays a melancholy tune in my head. The night makes me yearn for the light of day when everything is new once again.                                                                                                     ~ Author: Debi Tolbert Duggar   As a...
Post a Comment
Read more

SummerRoadTrip2012_Orlando to Calgary

June 28, 2012  My friend Vern and I on the North shore of Lake Superior 2011  The trip was originally planned on the bikes; alas, destiny had other plans for Bessie and Me. I was to connect with my friend Vern (who I met last year on the North shore of Lake Superior in Ontario Canada....that in itself is a whole 'nuther story...) in Milwaukee this summer, after my Midwest visit. It has been my goal for the past three summers to ride across the Canadian Rockies and out to Vancouver British Columbia. When my friend heard of the accident and that Bessie was totaled, he suggested we go ahead with the trip, only on four wheels. I've never in my life turned down a Road Trip - via any mode of transportation - so I wholeheartedly agreed. Only a little apprehensive since I have never had a partner - other than my two daughters - for an extensive road trip, I booked a flight to Calgary, Alberta Canada and packed my bags. Ironically, I find packing for a car trip more challengi...
Post a Comment
Read more