There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home~

Greetings everyone from my home on 14th Street in the very "flatlands" of Kansas :)  Today has been a day of journeying home from a delightful and fun weekend in Montrose, Colorado.  I left the Western slopes of Colorado at a little before 7 this morning and 611 miles later, I arrived home at about 7:15 p.m.  The trek home was not difficult but there were many times when I wish I could have just been like "Dorothy" from the Wizard of Oz and clicked my ruby red slippers together, closed my eyes and uttered those famous lines...."There's no place like home.  There's no place like home.  There's no place like home."

When I left my friend Mike's home this morning shortly after sun up, I knew that I'd just be following the trail in "reverse" from the way I took to get there in the first place on Saturday morning.  I was anxious, in a weird sort of way, to be able to see all of the sights that I had missed by driving in the dark all of Friday evening to get there in the first place. And as I headed back towards the towns of Gunnison, Salida and Canon City, I was very amazed at the sight of what I had actually come through in the "pitch black" of late Friday night.

One  thing I learned for sure, actually really quickly, is that there is no such thing as a straight road in Colorado!  The twists and turns going up and down the face of the mountains is surely an exercise in paying attention.  I was shocked when I stopped for gas in Gunnison on Saturday morning and asked the store clerk how long it would be before I arrived at Montrose (only 62 miles away)  She said to me "Well now, that depends on how you drive, but I am going to guess about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  But hey, you might be able to make it in less."  I couldn't hardly imagine it taking so long..but turns out she was right.  

This morning, one of my main hopes was to get a photo of what it looked like at the top of the pass at Monarch.  As I was driving it in the early morning hours on Saturday, I knew that I was definitely at a high altitude.  I just wasn't sure just how "high" that kind of high was.  This morning I learned when I pulled off to the side to see it once more in the daylight hours and take the photo shown below.

As I continued on eastward from the top of Monarch pass, I began to notice something that I hadn't even considered in my "fear" of having difficulties with the drive in the dark that first night out.  I remembered that in the pitch black darkness, the road from Canon City to Salida had seemed about as scary as they come.  I can recall having a "death grip" on the steering wheel, jaws clenched and one heck of a sweat building up on my brow.  I was positive that around the next bend was another "curve" just waiting to get me or something.  I cannot describe the unbelievable "aloneness" that I felt and more than once I remembered with thankfulness that I had given my destination and approximate time of arrival to more than one person.  I guess what I'm saying is that I doubted my ability to get myself there safely MORE  than a couple of times.  And if something were to have happened to me, I was just about positive that I'd lay for a long time before anyone found me or the car.  Kind of a bleak way to look at things, isn't it?

But in the bright sunlight of this morning, I couldn't imagine what it would have been that could have scared me in the first place.  It was only a road...OK, yeah it was a winding road and there WERE some pretty tight turns in places but nothing a person couldn't handle.  Every mile that I drove down that mountain in the daylight hours today, I saw that there were little towns, filled with people and businesses.  I wasn't alone Friday night, it had only SEEMED like it.  There were lots of folks there~ it was just that I hadn't been able to see them.  They were "sane" people, soundly sleeping with their lights out, unlike those drivers who INsanely were making their  way to somewhere they had never been in the dark.  And about every mile or so, I saw a "safe spot", a place to pull off to temporarily get your "bearings" again.  They were like "havens" if you will~sanctuaries carved out of the rock.  I stopped to take a few photos of that "scary place" from Friday night :)  Turns out to be quite beautiful~

When you get the chance to spend about 11 hours of driving all alone, you get the "blessing" of time to think about a lot of things.  I couldn't help but to be reminded of just how similar my life's experience has been to the more than 3 hours worth of time driving this stretch of road on Friday evening.  As I thought of it, I learned an important lesson..no wait, there's a BETTER way to say that~I was REMINDED of something that I already knew.  And that something is this....no matter what "roads" life takes us down, you never have to be alone as you do it.  There's always someone, sometimes when you least expect it, that is willing to help you get to where you are going in this life.  In my case, well in my case, it's YOU guys, one and all.  Friends who have stepped up to take "up the slack" when I could not.  And the further that  I climbed down that mountain today, the more I realized that. 

Several of you checked in with me as I travelled home today and it is nice to say that I made it without any difficulties at all.  Thank you all for your care and concern and prayers for safety.  In many ways, this journey helped me to bring some peace to my life.  Strange what a change of scenery every once in a while can do for a person's spirit, for a person's soul.  I loved my time there but it was time to get back.  I'll return again though, ever more wiser and ever more thankful for the gift of life.  I wanted to spend 3 days of "living as if I were dying" and I think I was able to do just that!

Good night everyone and thanks for caring and worrying about me.  I'm telling you, I will be forever beholden to you friends, one and all.  

Spring of 2011...My son Grahame Hemman and I before he left for his 30 day walk along the Appalachian Trail.  In our family, HE is the real adventurer, not me!