Archive for April, 2008

I left Bishop after lunch on Saturday.  My parents (as usual) were great and came up to help me load the truck.  Since I was sort of on a time crunch (needed to be in Minneapolis by Monday morning), I didn’t get to take as many pictures as I’d like.

Driving across the western high plains – you really get an idea of the scope and enormonity of this country.  Also makes you question whether this world is really getting overpopulated when you can drive a hour and not see a single sign of civilization.

Driving through Nevada, it really becomes apparent that most of this state is really just one big empty place with people stratching out an existence wherever they happened to land.  And then there’s a lot of evidence where people just gave up and left.  Abandoned houses probably outnumber habitated ones ten-to-one.

Shrine to the Tractor Wheel Gods?

Even the cemeteries are dry, dusty affairs.

Who lived here before? What did they do?  Why did they leave?  How long has all of this been sitting there?

Who knew Nebraska had such beautiful rolling hills?

For the first time in weeks, I took the 35mm off my camera to use my big-gun, the 70-200mm to take this amazing late-afternoon picture.

Yup.  Left Bishop Saturday afternoon and drove back to Minnesota.  Some (not many) pictures to come as soon as I shake off the last of the road fatigue.

My parents are gonna be rolling up here soon.  They’ll stay with me and take some sights in.  Oh, also they’ll help me pack my stuff in the truck because I can’t.   Nice parents, huh?!

Then it’ll be a 1,800 mile drive back to Minneapolis.  Back to where I started out Jan 10th of this year.  When I left that cold snowy evening, did I even entertain the thought that life would bring me full-circle back to Minneapolis?  With a broken foot?  Can’t say I did.

But I’ve always been one to roll with the punches.  Sometimes… no… not sometimes, its a certainity that life will knock you down at some point.  As someone famous… and probably dead said, its not about falling down, but how you get up and dust yourself off thats the big idea, yeah?

Oh yeah, doctor said I could start driving again.  So I drove around the valley.  I drove up and down roads I’d never driven before.  I saw whole new sights I’d never seen before.  And whole new angles to familiar landscapes.   As I watched the clouds go by, my heart broke a bit.  I’d become attached to this little town in a big valley.

I keep telling myself that I’ll be coming back.  This is not by any means my last time here.  But I know that for the rest of my life, I will reflect upon the four months I spent here as truly priceless.  I came here to climb and I discovered so much more about myself than I expected.

But well, its time to turn the pages, time to look ahead to things yet to come.

One more drink please? For old time’s sake.  Just one last round before we stumble off into the night?