...and I can't wait to get On the Road Again

Well...here we are back in GA. The trip has come to an end. Just like all things good must come to an end...Nancy and I are in the bittersweet interim of knowing that we have made so many wonderful memories and now facing a real world full of tomorrows back in the grind.
The funny yet not surprising thing is that Nancy and I have arrived back at home only wanting more. We became Modern Day Drifters (like Dierks Bentley's song) and we are used to the "on the go" excitement of not knowing what is up ahead. We of course have so many good and wonderful reasons to be excited about being home and we have a list of people we want to hug and kiss back here at home!!! However, she and I are truly sad that it is over. There is just something about those highway miles...the open spaces...that blue sky that seems to never end in the West that is so incredibly mesmerizing. We left a part of ourselves out there it seems...yet in that same breath I know it is also the opposite...we've brought it all with us too.

We saw so many neat places...we met so many nice people, and we got to experience so much and participate in so many fun activities. This trip was such a great gift to us both. I use the word gift because that is what I feel like it was to me. I was truly the lucky one to drive through the South up into the Midwest...meet and stay with the Callahans...then get to run and try to beat the camera's self timer with Nancy so we could get a picture at the state line of Colorado...and I was the lucky one because I got to see the mountains O! the mountains! the steadfast solid unwavering mountains! Then too, I received the gifts of being around horses and seeing both of my sisters...eating good food and shopping in Aspen and getting to see Nina play and hearing incredibly rich music at the Aspen Festival...I am blessed even more now since I had the opportunities to go white water kayaking, to watch the stars in a hammock, to camp out in a canyon, to have a picnic at Pike Peak, then later meeting Kathy in Fort Worth, dancing to country music, seeing two rodeos, and singing along to every song on the country radio stations that Nancy and I heard. The countless miles...the heartwarming memories...the people...the experiences...the music...the laughter...the tears...the pictures...the planning and saving...the maps...the early mornings and late nights...every turn of the tires...every inch of road we covered...Nancy and I are better for it.
We are more enriched and certainly more inspired.
Hope exists. Restoration begins here, and she and I have come to learn that sometimes it just takes a detour to really know where you are in life. This trip will forever be in our hearts and minds, and we can't wait to get on the road again...