I promised them that I would be back

     Hello everyone and greetings from the city library in Montrose, Colorado, a very nice place that from time to time I try to stop in to pay a visit.  Since there was no school today I thought that it was a good day to come and check out a couple of books that I want to share with my students.  We've started reading "Out of the Dust", a young reader's book about a young girl who is growing up in the Dust Bowl times.  They love it and are asking if they could learn more about that horrible and bleak time in the history of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and even Colorado.  Any time that those 9 and 10-year olds express an interest in learning something new, I'm going to get right on it.  They made the phrase, "better strike while the iron's hot",  just for classes like mine. 

                                                 Your history lesson for today~
The folks that survived these times were the heartiest of the group.  The worst damage, shown in red, impacted five of the states shown but if you look at the yellow spots, the damage from the storms even affected Nebraska and South Dakota as well.  I'm glad that they want to learn more about it and I'm proud of them for even having the desire to do so.
      The weather today is beautiful here in south western Colorado with a seasonable temperature of 60 degrees under a very sunny and gorgeous blue sky.  It's warm everywhere around here today and even Monarch Pass which is normally much colder than us in the valley below it is standing at 63 degrees.  Unfortunately that wonderful weather we are enjoying is soon going to give way to much cooler temperatures and rain, beginning of all days on Thursday, the day we want to start back for Kansas.  Right now the 5-day forecast only calls for rain up on the pass but as we all know, the weather up there at over 11,000 feet can and does change on a moment's notice.  I guess that time will tell but one way or another, we are coming home.  We will watch the weather carefully before we take out Thursday afternoon and promise to be safe.
     Sometimes I stop to remember all of the times I drove out here in the weeks and months before Mike and I were married.  There were 5 of them in all, beginning with the first one in the dead of winter.  It was a heck of a long journey, over 600 miles in all but most thankfully there were no instances where I had trouble.  Wait a minute, I take that back.  There was a time, the second one to be exact, that I ended up in a snow filled ditch just a little ways away from Cerro Summit.  I should have known better, I DID know better but I just thought if I could get ahead of the next blast of snow and winter, I'd be much better off.  Turns out that wasn't the case at all and if not for the kindness of two total strangers to me, I might STILL be sitting in that ditch today.  
     Surely don't want to jinx myself here but in all those miles that I put on there was never a flat tire, car troubles or an instance when I ran out of gas.  I really don't ever remember being lost either and the more I drove out here the easier it became.   Every single time I would start out for here or start the journey back to home, there were a lot of folks in Kansas and plenty of other places that would make it their mission in life to "pray me back home".  I was always thankful for that, more than they could even imagine at the time they were doing it.  As I traveled along,  I would post where I was in stops along the way to my Facebook page.  There were always words of encouragement and advice.  For all of those things, I gave thanks then and I surely give thanks now.  Even though sometimes I was miles from anywhere without a bit of cell phone service, I never felt alone.  At all~
     Hoping for the next 3 days to go quickly and the time back home in Kansas to go slowly.  Time does what it will but no matter what, I'm just thankful for the chance to be there, no matter how quickly the time should pass.  If you are so inclined to do, we could use some "praying us home" on Thursday night.  We should have no trouble and that's how I like to look at it.  It's been a good day here, a quick day thankfully.  Time to head out soon and see what's happening at home.  Take care my dear friends and family.  The road ahead of us is long but shoot, we've travelled it a couple of times before.  Hey, a couple of those times were in the dark and the dead of winter.  We'll make it and will see you so very soon.  Have a good evening everyone, wherever you are as you read this.  I'm blessed to be able to call you my friends.  

These two Kansas girls are going home for a while!  Claire, a second grade teacher here at Olathe Elementary, is going with her family to Winfield, Kansas and leaving a day ahead of us.  We'll both be traveling back on the same road come that next Monday morning.  Sure glad to have found a fellow Jayhawker here at school to become friends with.  

    The kids know that I am leaving for a few days and it was cute last week when one of the little boys thought I was quitting and not coming back.  It was heart warming to hear one of the other little guys tell him, "Mrs. Renfro is  JUST going to Kansas.  She's the teacher so she has to come back."  I promised these 18 little people that I would indeed return and they know that I will.  I need them just as much as they need me.  They just don't know it!  :)