the view from a different window~

Greetings everyone to you this evening, not from my home on 14th Street in Hutchinson, but rather from Montrose, Colorado along the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains.  Never in my wildest of dreams would I have imagined finding myself in Colorado during the coldest time of the year here, but nonetheless here I have been since late Friday evening.  At the kind invitation of a dear friend from the "land of long ago, and far, far away", Mike Renfro, I came to see what his part of the earth looked like.  And now as night time has quickly fallen and my car is mostly packed for the journey back home to Kansas in the morning, I am so very glad that I have come here.  I would have to admit, it's with a bit of sadness that I will have to leave because I have had a great time and of course, as the age old saying goes, "time flies when you are having fun".  But hey, what the heck?  I know the way  here now and I will be back.  

This was a gigantic "leap of faith" for me to take out from the certainty of life at home in Hutchinson, Kansas and travel to a place over 650 miles away from me.  I had never driven alone in Colorado and I knew that traversing the mountains would be a formidable undertaking.  But I figured, "OK Peggy Miller~you drove 4,000 miles to and from Maine not even 8 months ago.  You did it then, you can do it now!" and so off I went just as soon as I could finish up a few things after school on Friday.

The journey on Highway 50 out of Hutchinson and all the way to the far western Kansas town of Syracuse was pretty much a slice of that "proverbial piece of cake".  Mike had told me, shoot Mapquest had even "seconded" it that Montrose was a mere 650 miles, give or take a mile or two, west of Hutchinson on Highway 50.  So all I would need to do is just "follow the yellow brick road" and by the way, if any of the heirs of L. Frank Baum are reading this, my apologies for borrowing a line from one of the scariest movies I have ever YET to finish.  So off I went.

About LaJunta, Colorado I began to get a little tired and I realized that my body had been awake and going for well over 16 hours.  But since I was yet to become overwhelmingly drowsy I continued on.  The traffic was pretty light and I thought just as long as I kept plodding along, all would be well.  On to Pueblo, then Canon City and all of a sudden I began to wonder what the heck I was doing continuing to drive.  I knew that I'd never make it all the way to Montrose in one fell swoop as planned.  It would have been crazy to do that so I began to formulate "plan B"~just get to Salida and find a place to sleep for the night.

If I were going to choose the worst part of the drive for me, it would have to be that seemingly never ending journey from Canon City to Salida...on the map a journey of 57 miles that should have only taken an hour and fifteen minutes.  But as "Miller luck" would have it, the journey took twice that long.  I should not have been surprised since "Miller's luck" and "Murphy's Law" are second cousins twice removed on my mother's side of the family.  It was bound to happen.  The rise in elevation of over 1,800 feet got my attention really quick.  My ears began to pop even worse than they already had and thank goodness I'd remembered (thanks to my son Grahame) to have some gum along to chew.  The Honda Civic did its best and carried me up the road, slow but sure. 

 In a way, I was glad that it was pitch dark outside.  I figured it was better to NOT see where I'd end up landing if I left the road and went down into a canyon.  About an hour into the journey I saw a sign that said, "Royal Gorge, 1/2 mile" and I was determined not to visit it the hard way.    I jokingly told a few of my friends at school that if I didn't happen to make it back, that hey I'd lived a pretty good life for 57 years.  But actually I kind of DO like living. Once in a sad moment of time, when I felt like maybe I was an "idiot" for trying this all alone in the dark of the night, I thought about my late father.  I remember actually saying out loud at one point in time, "Daddy are you there?  It's me Peggy and I need you!"  Crazy wasn't it?  But I got this peace of mind almost instantly that everything would be ok....and I'll give you the cleaned up version of the message my dad sent me...  "Peggy Ann get your head where it belongs and you will be fine."  And he was right, I was.

After a good night's sleep in the town of Salida, I took out once more.  In the early morning hours, I arrived in Montrose and met up with my friend, Mike.  He has been a wonderful host, a terrific tour guide and wonderful friend to visit with for the past two days.  I have seen more marvelous and wonderful things in the past 48 hours than I have seen in most years of my life.  And I surely do thank Mike for his kindness in showing me around.  

You know friends I could have stayed home this weekend...hey, with the load of work that I have 
waiting for me when I get home tomorrow night, I'm gonna be up for quite awhile before bed time.  I should have done laundry, cleaned house, taken care of school work, done some preparatory work for our school 4H meeting this week and on and on and on and on.  But I say to you, FOR WHAT?  Every single thing I would have done by staying home would just have needed to be done once again in another couple of days, so when I got the "invite" to visit Colorado, I decided that for once in my life, I'd choose to do something more meaningful and long lasting than folding up my towels and wash cloths.  

I have experienced so very much here during this Colorado weekend and I'm sure that those around me must have recognized quickly that I was indeed a "flatlander".  If I had a dollar for every time I've said the word "WOW" since I got here on Saturday morning, well then I could take us all down to Bogey's and the drinks would be on me.  The scenery is absolutely breathtaking here and although I love the plains of Kansas, I'm sure that I could easily get used to Colorado's "purple mountains' majesty."  Take a peek below at what the road to Ouray looked like earlier this afternoon.

  I saw "ice climbers" by the score in Ouray who come there from all over the world to participate in their sport.  I could have watched them forever and listen to their voices echoing all over the canyon.  Their comraderie was inspiring to me and just watching them fearlessly attempting to scale some pretty wicked looking ice lifted my spirits even more than they already were.  I'm not quite crazy enough to try it, even though I'm sure my good friends Craig and Dennis might disagree, but it sure did look fun.  And if I cannot do it, then I sure did enjoy watching the many others there try to.  Here's a picture of a couple of guys getting ready to rappel down earlier today.

I ate Mexican food in a place whose ceiling was festooned with dollar bills, all inscribed with some message from the person who left them there.  Normally I would not have done something like that, but with the encouragement of my friend Mike, here's mine.  I shall always be a "legend" in there now...  LOL.

I learned how to play "Cribbage", watched the movie "The Book of Eli" and even "Avatar".  I enjoyed myself tremendously and I say "it's about time."  I only got lost twice and have managed to hang on to my checkbook, cell phone, car keys, and money for the entire time.  And friends, that's gotta be some kind of record for me and in that I do rejoice.

Since this was the last day I was going to be here, I was determined to squeeze in as much I could between the sun's rise and the sun's fall at the end of the day.  I woke up early to wait on the sun to come up so I could snap a photo.  I learned that the sun seems to come up a little differently here in Colorado~but it was beautiful just the same.  

                                     "morning has broken" Montrose, Colorado

And although I nearly missed taking the photo, I was able to capture the sun's quick departure in the western sky a couple of hours ago.  It was beautiful as well.

 Come tomorrow morning, I'll be heading out towards the wide open prairies of my home state of Kansas and I will leave with a grateful heart for the chance to come to Colorado and see the beautiful sights here.  I'm sure thankful that I made the decision to make the journey and know that I will return again someday to this place.  Friends, may I ask you something?  When was the last time that you made a decision to do something good for yourselves?  How long has it been since you went to Colorado, or went fishing and canoeing at the Boundary Waters?  Been a while since you visited your mom or your grandmother?  Been meaning to go back to school and get that degree?  And if not THOSE things, then what about a thousand other ones?  Please dear friends of mine, do not wait until tomorrow, or next week, or even next month to do it for we all surely do know that those "tomorrows" aren't even promised to us any way.  You will NEVER regret having done so but you WILL regret having never tried.  

Well, bedtime for me as I need to be on the road tomorrow early.  It will be a long drive back home to the Sunflower state and even though I'll thankfully be making most of the journey in broad daylight, I'd sure be thankful for prayers of safety on my behalf.  No need to worry about me, I'm going back in pretty good hands.  "His" hands know the way home.  Good night everyone...love to you all my dear friends and family.  See you at home!

To my dear friend, Mike Renfro, thank you for showing me the view from a different window this week end.  For your kindness, hospitality and friendship I am mighty beholden to you.