It was beautiful this morning, waking up by the lake, opening the tent flap and finding the sun shining down on the water! The majority of the human body is water, maybe that is why I am always drawn to be near water. I stare longingly in to its reflection and depth. Water holds so many emotions and feelings, hot or cold, fear, beauty, strength, weakness, anger, romance… The list goes on and on. Novel after novel use it as an analogy for so many things. Water that brings youth, that leads you on adventure, life-giving, healing, freeing, etc etc. Find a natural body of water near you, and just sit there. Close your eyes and listen to the sound the water makes. It is not just the water moving, but the fish swimming, the birds eating. Along with water comes the sounds of thriving life.
This is why I chose to stay where I did last night. It was life, balanced in a way that is easy, natural. Even my tent turned in to a shelter for some bugs who crawled up under my rain cover. I had to shoo off about a dozen daddy long legs when I was packing up the tent. If you ask my friends I’m not a fan of bugs. They typically easily annoy me, specifically when they are in my home. So when I come to their home I have to appreciate and respect that that is where I am… even if those darn spiders don’t even knock before coming in my bathroom or bed while I am in it.
I have landed for the night with my friend Amanda. She lives right off the Oregon Trail in the NE panhandle. It was actually a gorgeous drive off my beaten path to arrive here. I love that I still appear to be following the Oregon Trail theme. So despite the drowned oxen a few weeks back, I have made it to chimney rock without dying of dysentery… which basically means I win the game.
Amanda is so great, I kind of new that from the moment we first spoke on the phone. She is a good down-home country girl and so easy to get along with… unless you cross her… which basically define a country girl. She drives a huge truck and fights fires with the local volunteer crew. We have this natural rhythm in life. I used to be terrible at making female friends, but now it seems to get easier and easier. I have found myself wishing finding a boyfriend/future husband would be that easy… but then again, I have grown to be able to be friends with women, maybe I am still journey toward that achievement with the right guy, whoever he ends up being.
Today was a fun day because I got to check Rocky Mountain Oysters off my bucket list. We went out to the local steakhouse and had a good mid-west meal of meat, potatoes, and rocky mountain oysters. I was a little timid, but they ended up not tasting too bad. They reminded me of chicken gizzards, a little tough. Turns out the preferred dipping sauce is cocktail sauce… and now that I write that… it comes off as ironic. HA!
I’ve stopped here for the night and Amanda and I talked ourselves silly before finally calling it quits. I have an early drive tomorrow and if we don’t stop ourselves I think we could talk for days. I’ll leave you with this interesting bit of information… Did you know that the Mormons had their own trail, basically just on the opposite side of the river from the Oregon trail? I found that out today… thank you for the history lesson, placard at the side of the road!
Signing off Bayard, NE