endings...

back officially on the grid. wrapping up our two plus weeks away. yesterday concluding our long anticipated week long stay at Red Feather.

we are back on the road again, this time heading home.

I currently sit amongst a copse of trees off the interstate in the midst of the Dakota prairie grasslands, and with the breeze cooling the wide-bright sun, i may be close to a perfect summer day. (generations of men lived and died by the sweat of their brows to settle and homestead these rolling plains, and I can see the beauty today which may have been their yearly silver lining).

We spent a rainy night (surprise surprise....how many nights has it rained on us now?), but a lovely crisp morning in the truly wild, and moonlike landscape of the Dakota Badlands. It was a long bumpy (12 mile down a dirt road) ride through the rain, the prairie-dogs and the roaming buffalo (no fences, right on the road), but ending up being quite a spectacle. the low clouds obscured our long views but brought an intense lightning show, of which I've never seen. the vibrant yellow orange sunset sky was reminiscent of a wildfire consuming the land just over the hills. excellent.

and there is much beauty around me, and many things to marvel at, but i cannot deny that there is an air of mixed feelings.

our time at Red Feather was hard. hard work. long days. with equally hard realizations that this may be our last time. life, and it's inevitable changes, marches on. I think Carly and I have both, inadvertently, been comparing each new Red Feather experience with our first time back in '06, the one that started it all. but first times are always special, and rarely repeatable.

this knowledge that we've changed, and Red Feather has changed, and life is changing, coincides with the long drive back home, and our return to another life, jobs, responsibilities, et al. and while this breeze breeds a peace under this leafy treed sunshine, i feel many things: joy, anticipation, heartache, love and loss.

i spoke before about how this trip has meant much for me, and with each mile we traverse, i see the meaning more and more clearly. these memories that Carly and I have shared have joined many others (both on and off the road), and have begun to form a wonderful base on which to launch ourselves into so much more...