I've made the trip over the mountains many times, having come out here 5 times before Mike and I got married last May 21st. I've been back and forth to Kansas six times since then and I'd have to admit that there have been drives that seemed more like a journey of 1,611 miles instead of the actual 611. There are a few stretches along the way that are long and arduous, referring in particular to places like Arrowhead Canyon and the long stretch from Salida to Canon City. By the time I reach the Kansas border and cross over near Syracuse, it turns into the flatlands and it's always a straight shot as I follow the "yellow brick road" back to Reno County. For a person who never used to even leave home all that often in the years before the present, I've become accustomed to being behind the wheel now. I am grateful for a vehicle that gets me back and forth and doesn't guzzle as much of the nearing $4.00 a gallon gas that we are seeing in our part of the world right now. I'm blessed.
This business of flying is not one of my favorites, not even in the least. I hate flying and I'm kind of tensing up as I type these words. I swore it off about 13 years ago and couldn't think of any reason I'd like to go into an airplane ever again. But last year, in the spring of 2013, my youngest child Ursela convinced me that it would be ok to fly and since we both had wanted to see New York City that we should go together. When we boarded that plane in Tulsa to head to the north east, it was a huge leap of faith for me but I did it. Unfortunately for me, I took an unplanned tumble down the escalators in the airport at Detroit and the travel plan got altered a bit from there. I laugh now as I think of it, a most unladylike kind of thing to have happened but except for a couple of broken ribs, I lived to tell the story. The good thing was that I learned that I could board a plane again and take off to go to places that were much too far away to drive to. Four months later, flying solo this time, I flew to Whidbey Island to witness the marriage of my first born son to a beautiful young woman who was destined to become the mother of a sweet little baby named Catherine Lois Miller. Strange how life works for us all as we sit back and allow the "plan" that has been made for us all along, to play out.
I'm figuring that I am a "late bloomer" as far as travelling very far away from home goes. I have absolutely no desire at this point in time to leave the United States and see anything in another country. The way I figure it, I'll be doing great just to see what life offers from within these borders. I admire the folks that do travel abroad and I actually love to see their pictures and hear the stories that they tell. World travel is just not for me. But there are a gazillion places that I've never seen and before I leave this earth, I hope to see a few more of them. People who have known me forever were shocked that I would take out on my own in 2012 and make a "bucket list trip" to the state of Maine for the sole purpose of seeing my first lighthouse. Some even said that I was crazy, which sometimes I most certainly concur with them on :) But I did and made it from Kansas to Maine and back with no issues at all. Not one problem plagued the journey and except for the near-accident along some very busy road just about 20 miles from the Boston exit, I was an exemplary driver. 4,000 miles later I arrived home no worse for the wear. Not sure that I will ever make the trip again, so far away and driving alone. But if I never do, well at least I know this much. I made the journey once.
Before school was out yesterday afternoon, I told my students that if the weather held for the good, that I'd be gone from school a couple of days next week to go home to Kansas and get my home ready for leasing this summer. You know, I noticed something about their response to my telling them this time. It wasn't their usual reply of, "Mrs. Renfro, you ARE coming back to us, aren't you?" that I have received twice before during this school year. This time is was different and the difference was so subtle that I just now realized what happened. They asked who their sub was going to be and if I was going to move all of my stuff back from Kansas to Colorado this time. That was it. No mention of whether or not I would return to them because the nice thing is that they now must realize that I surely will. That has given me a nice feeling inside, a sense of surety for them and an even greater one for me.
The clock on the wall is saying to me that it is time to head out the door for another day of school. Friends and family who are reading this, I want you to know that I am doing fine. I pray the very same for you in whatever this day ends up offering you. I am growing and changing here along the Western Slopes and learning more about myself than I could have ever imagined yet to learn. Love you guys all and by this time next week, I will be waking up in Kansas in my old house on 14th Street. But the kids were right~I'll be back.
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