“I was surprised, as always, be how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”
~ Jack Kerouac ~ [On the Road]

This is the Wild Wild West no doubt until the snow birds [to borrow that expression] come back, not to install any order but to mingle with the triggers of this non forgiving Nature towards which they have no say so and enjoy their [well earned?] fall, winter and even maybe spring. There is no hiding the fact that the temperatures have gone off the chart, yet, not reaching other numbers I have heard of as in 114, 117… That would be degrees in the shade. I think I am half a snow bird this summer, for the fear of being called a hypocrite [!] as we are leaving soon to join our good Friends from Germany we have not seen in over two years. We are however jumping from one frying pan to another as East of Kansas City will be our destination. Again, hot, but also with the added attractions of mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, poison oaks and I must be forgetting something. Oh yes, 100% humidity. Things we do for Friends! They are my Family.

Sometimes the intensity of my losses turn from a sprinkle to a downpour blurring my nights and days. It is no one’s problem, situation, but mine. It is a hide and seek game always wanting to win, to find the culprit and yet, I am familiar with losing and not finding any answers as there are none. I have been called strong, courageous and more. All I am is honest with rarely the fear of saying it the way it is. And why not while I smell this steaming early morning coffee when I always have "that" realization that these pages are mine and no one else’s. We have such by choice little contact with the outside world that when we do here and there I lately feel so disappointed with the bulk of society. Who knows? Maybe they are disappointed with me? So many have nothing nice to say about others, sometimes others who are also friends in common which have done no harm to us. I guess it is only Human Nature which I also stopped trying to understand.

A couple more days as I am up daily at 5 am to take advantage of the cooler window of opportunity. I wear my headlamp with a red beam and still the flying wildlife attacks me as if I was a landing strip. A bite here and there, I am used to it as at the same time I try to avoid stepping on the toads who also have made their home here this summer. Soon the birds will also wake up and start their morning concert while the packs of coyotes howling will get together and have their own party. I sometimes feel we are living here in the middle of a zoo with no gate keeper! It is already in the 80’s and unusually humid as every so often I seek refuge in front of a fan. Whoever invented the fan should definitely receive a Nobel prize or something of that sort.

The storms daily in the late afternoons have not stopped as finally around midnight from 100 the temperature drops to a comfortable [?] lower eighties. My conclusion is, summer is not my favorite time of the year here. Spirit does not like it either! I figured out that his comfortable ambient temperature is about 72. Good luck I keep telling him… wait till we get to Kansas! All is my fault in a way as for all these past years we have never seen over 80. His eyes look at me imploring some cooler weather. If he could talk vocally I am sure I would get an earful of complains. I don’t think he understands this is summer in Big Bend.

I have a new kidney belt/lumbar support now that I wear only when riding. I feel as that took me one step closer to getting old! I have to watch what I lift, generally nothing over 20 lbs. as I did yesterday and paid with a little bit of soreness. I wish I was in better shape and don’t seem to get there. I think being back on the road will make me shed a few pounds. For every pound lost there is four pounds of less pressure on the hips and knees. Something new I learned which gives me some incentive. The biggest punishment in my Life [our Life?] would be to not be able to ride. I cannot imagine that.

We are now in Alpine for the night before moving on tomorrow back to Midland for a follow up with the Spine Doctor! Lucky us to have such good Friends offering a bedroom/bathroom and air, their wonderful company and that would include Spirit’s new buddy Lincoln. A good name for a dog. The road with every mile passing by is like turning pages of my thoughts. What else is there to do? besides admiring the sunrise, the hills and mountains.   Because we have Netflix at The Oasis and I watched part of a series called "Hell on Wheels" which was the building of the train track going west, I am realizing "we" as Human beings sure have not advanced much mentally versus the leaps and bounds of technology. We have now gone to Mars, I think there is a satellite going by Pluto but it sure seems that we have remained the same.

I know that for many Facebook’s Time-line is entertaining. When I wrote about it as an entry titled " The two sided pulse of society" which to me Facebook is, I did get some replies that quite a few enjoyed such time-line immensely, entertaining they said. I just don’t know. Is someone falling head down from a roof, are the worse motorcycle and car accidents entertaining? Why would I want to watch that? Like everything else it is a double edge sword as some do post some beautiful photos, some worthy articles. So. What do I do? We met all our best Friends on Facebook. I pick the ones I want to see, follow their spaces, read their thoughts, their cooking, where they are on their own travels.

We made in to Midland and enough blabbing! Must be this heat.

Best of 10 years, 62 photos, 11×13, best quality paper and print…
Our Photo Coffee Table Book is now available through Blurb as a hardcover, e Book and I Book.

Stay well…
               Ara and Spirit

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2015 at 5:14 pm and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.