Today

4^th October 2010

SHERIDAN, WYOMING

Today,

Sitting in Starbucks

Connected to the world

Coffee, Mockingbird, www,

A friend, daylight, air conditioning.

I could be anywhere in the world

In Starbucks

No, that was not a poem, just a different format. Like today. We arrived here at Sheridan with the agenda of getting ‘the sound’ checked out. Our car has been making strange and loud sounds that I would have loved to ignore and pretend that it did not matter, but the better sense supported by that of my friend Carol and we got it checked out!

Seems we need to get some brake lining work done and since we have about 7000 odd miles to go, it’s a good idea to get it done. So we have found a camping site – free, in the Washington Community Park that has swings and Goose Creek flows through it. It also has snakes – Carol almost stepped on one in the grass as it reared it’s indignant and seeking head at Carol and then serpented its way into the creek.

I am ready to pitch, without pegs, our tent in the basketball court or in the swing stand, even though kids pee in it (that’s Carol’s brilliant argument in favor of grass with snakes and not swing sand!)

Sheridan is in Wyoming. The term, I don’t know whether it exists or we invented it – The Great Plains of Wyoming – is true and appropriate. There are First National Monuments - The Devil's Tower, and the First National Park and Kelsey, the First Dinosaur Lady - the first Triceratops to be discovered. She hangs so sweetly in the Wyoming Welcome Visitor's Center as soon as you enter Wyoming on I 90 West. And ofcourse Yellowstone, where we are headed. But all through the huge wide open spaces - oh mi god - not in my wildest imagination could I have seen something like this - the sky seems minimized sometimes.

I have had a beautiful day - two hours by myself. Alone time daily is something that we had planned for in our original program for this entire trip, but today is the first time that we actioned it. I am happy that the brake-work gave us this time and space to do what we have wished for. I am happy I asked for it.

Love and gratitude to everyone who is following us, reading us and everyone who has helped me to make this trip come true.