Big Wheels for Cody

After a gift night in a motel, I have spent two nights now with the Higgins family....movies, hot food off the grill, tea on the deck, and the sounds of family everywhere in broken conversations that sound just like summer, and all is well. Ron Higgins, the pastor of the Open Bible Church, has become a quick friend to the point that we have both regressed into laughing kids that are constantly playing off each other to the humored chagrin of Debra his wife. "I can't even imagine what it would be like if you two lived next door to one another." Debra smiles at our silly puns as she hands me many treats for the road that she has gone out and gathered, and a book that I have been longing for to read in camp. The warmth of this Wyoming family is a refreshing glass of cold water after nearly two large states of just moving through without being asked beyond one front door frame. It is hard to describe the intoxicating effect of morning bread rising to heat in the oven and then out in a smell as old as time, walking barefoot on carpet to the computer with my morning cup as Jessie and Ian, Ron and Debra's daughter and son skirt about ideas that go into filling a summer day without the tax of school.
Ron and I went on a field trip yesterday to find a new set of tires for the cart. Worland, just north of here by 30 miles, provided the raw supplies for new shafts, tires and of course we just had to peek in a few outdoor shops with new toys any adult kid would just drool over, from packs to rifles, sling-shots just acking to shard a window, and a hillside of new hats. I made fun of the long horn steer pin ( that looked like plastic ) on Ron's new hat until he gave it to me for my Tilley....whoops.
Yesterday Ron and I rebuilt my rolling kit with Ron's addition of much taller tires that would no longer need a running start to roll over three inches of sage beside a ditch.
It is near the hour to leave again. Young Ian has a cast on his arm that today he'll have checked at the doctors office. I remember the pathetic tender pale flesh,all tone and strength flown, when I had my cast cut from the length of my leg so long ago. Leaving is alot like this. The large protective cast of family is carefully pulled away with delicate intention and strained good-byes till, before I know it, I am naked on the walk again with my pack too heavy with new supplies, lighter with new memories, and under me... is all the road in the world.