Checkin' off #9

In the early "before dawn" hours this morning, I drug my tired carcass out of bed in preparation for fulfilling Bucket List Item #9-"to return to the very same place, on the very same date, and the very same time where I witnessed the most beautiful sunrise on planet  Earth last year and perhaps be able to see another one again.  Unlike my trip to Maine for Bucket List Item #1, this journey of a few miles was not nearly as expensive.  All it cost me was an hour's worth of sleep and $2 worth of gas in my Honda Civic.  I considered it an investment that pales in comparison to the nearly $750 it took to see my very first lighthouse on May 31st.  

This was a planned occasion for me on what is the first anniversary of seeing what I have considered to be definitely the "most beautiful sunrise on Earth".  As I said back then and many have said before and since, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder".  Just because I thought it was the best sunrise EVER doesn't mean that you haven't seen another one that was  even better than mine.  All I know for sure is that on that day in 2011, I felt blessed beyond measure and I guess that's all I want to say about that.

I headed out the door about 5:40 this morning in anticipation of arriving at the "spot" at about 6:00.  I ended up being stopped by a train (never a good omen) and wandering through the construction zone maze that now greets visitors to the "Salt City" as they come in from the east and west on Highway 50 or traffic coming from the south on Yoder Road.  I couldn't believe everything that had been done out there, how much change there was.  Obviously Peggy Miller doesn't get out near enough these days.  

Sure enough, a couple of minutes before 6 a.m. I arrived where Eales Road intersects with Yoder Road, the exact place where I needed to turn.  I wanted to be sure to go to the very same spot as last July and I knew that I could find it without any trouble.  Once I found it, I just put the car in "park" and decided to wait it out.  

It's amazing to me how the sky changes its color in the moments before the sun truly rises in the sky.  God's "crayola box" is filled with some of the most majestic blues, reds, yellows, oranges and purples that a person could ever imagine.  I decided, what the heck...I was going to just start taking photos before that "yellow orb" even began to rise in the sky.  It was beautiful and looked like the photos below.

Although I was surely enjoying the beautiful pre-sunrise sky, something just didn't seem quite right.  It was a weird feeling, like maybe something was missing from it all.  In fact for a time, the sky became rather "ho-hum" like, well that was IT?  I began to feel like perhaps I was in the wrong spot.  After all, last year this seemed to be perfect and now this year...

So at the very last minute, I made the choice.  If I WAS in the wrong spot, then I either needed to move forward or "put her" in reverse.  What was it going to be?  What ever the decision, I need to dang sure hurry the heck up?  So at 6:21, just a few moments before the sun did indeed rise in eastern sky of Kansas, I made up my mind and moved forward.  The end result was the photo shown below.  And although perhaps it wouldn't qualify as the most beautiful sunrise that I have ever seen, I do believe that it was the sunrise that God had in mind for to see today.  

The Monday morning sunrise over my part of the great state of Kansas.  I have no idea how I even got that photo.  I just pointed and "shot" and this is the one I came up with.  But at LEAST I came up with one.

Without going into details, may I just say that I came away with a different kind of perspective on parts of my life this morning?  I went out there into the country, believing that things would be just like they were a year ago and I'd be coming home with a photo that looked like last year.  And when I realized that would not be the case, for a moment I felt sad.  It seemed too much like the way my life has gone at times (LOL) and OUCH, that kind of stung!

I learned something else too.  It's ok to do something once on a bucket list but doing it twice?  Nah, it'll never be the same as the first time.  But at least there once WAS a first time, and to borrow the words of Sammy Johns' "Chevy Van" song,  "And that's all right with me."

Well, I'm outta here soon friends!  Heading out to see if I can "catch" the sun going down.  Plenty of great vantage points, just outside of town for me to watch from.  One of my friends asked me earlier why I wanted to see both sunrise and sunset...and my answer to them was, "How on Earth can you see one, yet not the other?"  Now THAT would just be wrong friends! 

Have a great Monday evening all and one of these mornings, roll out of bed and check out the sunrise.  It's a cool thing to see!  Love to each of you!