~Upon the time when life has to be divided into more manageable chunks~

Hello dear friends and family~sending greetings and best wishes from Montrose County, Colorado where for now in the early morning hours, the temperature sits at a cool 61 degrees with a forecast high of 100 for the next two days.  It's so dry here and we are desperate for moisture just like many other parts of this country are.  There is a chance for thunderstorms this weekend that have the possibility to bring us some much needed rain.  Yet with the "good" comes the "bad" as the lightning that could well accompany the storms  has the potential to spark yet another fire somewhere along the tree line.  Back home in Kansas, I used to keep my "eyes to the skies" for the threat of a tornado in the summertime.  Here in Colorado, the folks look for a different kind of menace, wildfires.  It's been an eye opener for me to experience this and I cannot even begin to fathom what it would be like to be completely burned out of your home and neighbourhood.  Please continue to keep the good people of the western states in your thoughts and prayers.  Much help is needed before the fire season comes to a close and whenever that might be, it surely won't be a moment too soon.

It's been a while since I worked on my bucket list and after living here in Colorado since the 24th day of May, I finally decided yesterday that it was time to do something.  After much thinking and reflecting over what it might be, I came up with only one thing and I know that if I can do this one thing, then life will be so much easier out here for me.  That sole item is this.....

Miller-Renfro Colorado Bucket List Item #1-
To make peace with life here in Colorado, to make friends and put down roots here.  To become familiar with the land that lies between Hutchinson, Kansas and Montrose, Colorado as you travel along Highway 50 and to know that I can go safely to and from the two places where my heart resides at the very same time.

The issue of being homesick and settling into a new life has been one of the most difficult things that I've ever done.  It's been a struggle, ok?  I mean a real struggle, one that I have wondered if I've had the courage to endure.  Kansas and Colorado may be "first cousins" on the topographical map of the United States but those two states might as well be "fourth cousins, a gazillion times removed on my great-great grandfather's side of the family" in the way that I've looked at it as of late.  Those 611 miles between my old home in Kansas and my new home in Colorado seem so massive, so forbidding at times.  Being lonely for what I always had known as "home", even though now I have the wonderful chance of having a beautiful life here with my dear and loving husband Mike, has really impacted my ability to move on and start life anew here on the western slopes.  Yesterday, I guess I just got tired enough of giving up happiness here because I was "missing"  home, and I decided that it was time to do something about it.  The right moment had come to take back control over those sad feelings and to devise a plan that would help me begin to better settle in.  The bucket list item above is that plan.  

Hey, you know that it's not something that will come to fruition over night and I dare to say that it's not going to be completed in even a month.  Maybe, just maybe, by Christmas this year I will feel as if I have made progress and I can only hope that perhaps by next year at this time, I'll be laughing about how silly it was to be so very homesick.  It's a small step but you gotta start somewhere I guess.

The "plan" actually has two parts~make some friends here, put down a few roots and settle in as well as to look at the miles between here and back home in a more "user friendly" kind of way.  My dear friends and family if you are reading this now, then I have a favour to ask of you.  I have always hated to ask favours of folks but you know sometimes, you just have to.  This is one of them and here's how the favour goes.....

After an exceptionally yucky and trying experience of returning to Montrose this past weekend, via the lovely city of Denver and I70 traffic, I realized that I would be much better suited to always travel Highway 50 whenever I make the journey between Kansas and Colorado.  I don't know why I chose to all of a sudden change the route this past weekend....ok, ok I really DO know why but I'll tell you about that a little later along the line.  Sitting in a traffic jam for over an hour and the additional 100+miles that the northern route adds were two very good reasons to NOT come back that way again.  So Highway 50, with it's infamous crossing over Monarch Pass, is really my only viable option while travelling and thus, Highway 50 it shall be always.  

In my mind (dim-witted as I might be sometimes) I need to start looking at that 611 mile route, not as the world's worst road to traverse, but rather as a life-line for me between the two places where for now my heart resides.  Here's where you guys come in~the favour part....  Between Hutchinson and Montrose are mountains, small cities and towns, a moderate amount of traffic, a random deer or moose, some beautiful rivers and lakes, and a whole lot of people who are strangers to me.  When I have travelled, I have sometimes worried that if I were to have trouble that there would be no one I knew who could help me along the way home.  Sure, I have a cell phone, a well running car with good tires and a pretty decent sense of adventure but I also have one thing I wish I didn't and that would be the underlying fear of being in big trouble if something were to happen to me as I drove back and forth.  If ONLY I were to know someone who lived in each of the towns along the way, it might be easier for me and put my worries to rest.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, hey does anyone reading this know someone that lives in Salida, Canon City or Pueblo, Colorado that could be my "phone a friend" if I need help?  Maybe someone out there has an acquaintance in Garden City or Kinsley, Kansas?  I know it seems a strange request, but gaining some knowledge and knowing that there is someone out there along the way who might help me if I need it, will go a long ways towards curing my bout of homesickness, now being experienced.  Hey, I'd be grateful if you have any "connections" with people along the route who would be willing to help me should I ever have any trouble to let me know about them.  I pray that I would never need to call them, for anything.  But just knowing they were there somewhere along the way would provide a lot of piece of mind for me.  I thank you in advance for even considering this and please don't feel obliged.  I have to start somewhere and I figure that breaking down that long stretch of miles into about ten, 60-mile segments each is as good a way to begin as any.

The day is nearly ending here and it's been a pretty good one, all things considered.  Somewhere out there today are thousands of people, probably more, who haven't had as good a day as I have had.  Homesick or not, I have been blessed hundreds of times over and in the least of these things I will always give thanks.  Have a good evening my friends, take care of yourselves and one another.  I will always remember you and think of you in my heart~thank you that you would remember me.  Good night everyone!

Monarch Pass, the very first time I crossed over on my own, mid-January of 2013.  

Monarch Pass, the day that Mike and I crossed over on May 24th to begin our life together in Montrose.  What a difference that six months can make :)