"The clouds began to swallow up the Black Canyon of the Gunnison last evening as the hours towards darkness approached. Mike and I could feel the temperature dropping as we went out to look at the garden area that our landlord had just finished plowing up for our use in the coming weeks and months. It wasn't such a plunge in temperature that I needed a jacket but a person could definitely tell the beautiful day's warmth was gone. All night long the wind howled with the kind of fury that makes you believe that it is pounding on your back door, demanding to come inside. As I lay down in bed to get some sleep, I began to imagine what my trip over the mountain this week might perhaps be like."
I made my peace with Monarch Pass some time back. It no longer scares me, well not all that much at least. It's there though, standing really tall at an elevation of 11,312 feet and about two hours away from our home here along the Western Slopes of the Colorado Rockies. It's a giant obstacle to go up and over if I want to get to the other side and back home to Kansas. The first time I came here, now well over a year ago, I crossed over it in the dark and the dead of winter. I had no idea what I was doing, only praying that God would get me to the top and down again safely and in one proverbial "piece". The naïve flatlander girl that I was back then tried not to even imagine what I was driving through. Monarch Pass seemed like a monster that was waiting to gobble innocent drivers (just like me) up for supper. It was not, yet I always treat it with respect.
The weather looks as if it will hold all right for my journey back to Kansas this time and if I take out just as soon as I can possibly finish at school this Wednesday, I will make it over the mountain with plenty of daylight to spare. By the time I get through the canyon lands between Salida and Canon City, things will begin to look better. After Pueblo, the road becomes much easier to traverse, even boring to some I suppose. Not to me though because I know what waits at the end. The journey between Kansas and Colorado takes 11 good hours, 611 miles of driving. I feel that I know the road very well by now but I pray to never be so complacent about that fact that I forget how quickly driving conditions can and do change here in this part of the world.
It will be a very busy four days back there for me as I continue to clean, organize, pack the last of my belongings and give away things I don't want. That dear little house on 14th Street will soon have the chance for new occupants come summer time and I have to get things finished up there. This trip back has created a new sense of urgency for me because I know there is limited time left to do what needs to be completed. I hope that I can accomplish what awaits to be done and make it back over the mountain to return home to Montrose by Sunday evening. The good Lord willing, I shall.
Over the course of nearly twelve months now, I've slowly become acclimated to life at the higher elevation level. I've found beauty in the surroundings here and as the days have gone by, I've learned to really appreciate the geographical variety that living in Colorado provides a person. But the thing that I have become truly enamored with here in the south western part of the state is really not the topography but rather, the people. The new friends and "family" that I have met since moving from Kansas are the reasons that returning here come next Sunday will be so much easier. Oh yeah, and there is a man and his dog who also live around these parts who will be waiting for me too :) I have to come back. They need me.
Yesterday I was talking to a friend downtown and said that I always seemed to crowd a lot into such a short span of time when I go over there. I had to stop and laugh as I realized that I was now talking like one of "them". I will never forget how funny it sounded to me when people would find out I was from Kansas and then would ask me, "So you are from over there?" I always thought to myself, "What? Where do you think Kansas is? In the North Atlantic or something?" Now I finally have realized that when they say "over there", it truly is "over there", way across the Continental Divide and smack dab in the middle of the Midwest. My heart feels happy as I type these words because I think it means to me that my homesickness is going to be "ok" now and I more than likely really will make it.
Besides the gazillion things that I have to do at my house while I'm there, I have a short "to do" list of other things I want to do while back in Reno County. We're going to have a good garden this summer here and I'm hoping that the dear folks at Smith's Market down on South Main Street still have plenty of seed potatoes and onion plants for purchase. I want to make a trip or two or three to the Etc. Shop on Main Street to see if there is anything that I just cannot live without. I hope to stop into the offices of the Hutch News and visit with my friend Kathy who is a fine reporter there. Can't forget my dear Oblio the Roundhead and hope that she hasn't forgotten me. I hope to be able to see many of my family and friends that live in Reno County and other points beyond. Time will fly by and I always end up wishing to do much more than could ever be accomplished.
Well the clock on the wall is showing that it is definitely time to get a move on. I've been up since 4 this morning and I cannot believe how fast the time has passed by me. Somewhere nestled safely into their places of rest are the '18' and soon even they will awaken and get ready for their day at school. Things will keep me occupied in the days that remain in this week so I plan to take a respite from writing in this blog until the weekend comes. I say that because once I didn't write for several days and a friend emailed me wondering if I was sick or if something had happened to me :) Rest assured, I am fine. Tomorrow's journey will be a long one but I will make it, one way or another. Please dear friends, pray me home, will you? I thank you for your kindness, your genuine concern, and steadfast friendship. Never could it be said enough. I love you each and everyone. May I some day be able to return to you all the goodness that you have indeed shown to me.
Have a great Tuesday everyone! This is the 18th day of March in the year 2014 and a great day to be able to be alive in. That is one thing for sure.
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| The place where I turn "west" and just keep on going along Highway 50 from back home in south central Kansas. |
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| Two kids from the "land of long ago and far, far away", now married nearly 10 months. |
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| I never have beaten Mike in a game of bowling but at least I've still never had to use the little dinosaur helper. |
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| The blessing |
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| I'm always grateful to see this sign on the way back home to Mike here in Montrose. It's a hard 130 miles but I can do it! |
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