I'm exhausted. It's been a long, long day on the road. Kate wanted to leave early, so she had me up at 6:00 AM! By the time I used the bathroom, had a short shower, and got dressed, it was 7:00 AM. By the time we got me loaded in the truck, it was 7:30 AM. That's when we finally got underway, and 12 hours later I arrived here at my Mom and Ray's place in Vancouver. Exhausted.
The last hour of the trip is always the most difficult for me. It's not that I don't want to do it; quite the opposite. I want to do it desperately. After getting to Abbotsford and dropping off Kate, I am so close to Vancouver, so close to my intended destination that I push on regardless of how tired I am. I have learned to reach into the depths and pull up that last little bit of reserve energy, expending it wisely in my mind, expending it so I can get here.
Driving through the mountains today was glorious. The road west from Calgary, weaving as it does through the foothills, giving glimpses of these giant crags shearing the ground ahead and piercing the sky above, showed beautiful and green today, with just enough trees turning to gold to speckle the forests and hillsides. The sun glistening of the high, snowy tops shone brilliant against a clear blue sky.
From the cold of the high mountain passes to the warmth of the central valleys and plateaus, the weather today held the crisp edge of fall in the morning and pushed to the warmth of the last days of summer as we wended further west. Yet through all of this, wildlife was noticeably absent. Not a deer, not a bear, not an elk, not a moose; nothing but domesticated beasts in green fields lining the roadside. At least the traffic was light and moved along steadily.
I love the road. I hope, every time, that this will not be the last time. I will forever look to that one last road trip, that one last adventure. I'm not sure when, but it will happen. Then? I don't know. I just know that today, with Kate along and the road clear, it was a terrific ride.
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