Friday, May 8th - I Like to Drive

I was out by 8am – it was a beautiful blue sky day with warm winds whipping the air.  I was happy to be back on the road – with a big smile on my face and an out-loud, ‘hello boys’, I entered the freeway.  It is such a different, masculine world – there really haven’t been many of us non truckers on the road the last few days – fun to visit for a couple of days but not a place to live every day … 

The drive was beautiful – incredible ‘big’ land, and ‘big’ sky.  Still flat - you turn a corner and can see for miles and miles where you are going - and still feels high (not true I know, but somehow the clouds really do feel closer). 

Lots of time to think on the road - some of the things I’ve mused:

• I love my car – accelerates very nicely when I need it to
  
• Drivers follow the rules – drive on the right, pass on the left – thank god
  
• I smile when I see ‘England’ trucks – kid you not, big huge scripted letters on the back – makes me think of my English friends 
  
• “Parking Area” and “Rest Area – no facilities” really = truckers stop
  
• Driving buddies are great – one leads, the other follows, then switch
  
• I finally really get how I really should know how to change a tire (there have been parts of the drive where I know BCAA will do me very little good … I say nice things to my car, rub the steering wheel and tell myself, I will buy a tire jack with instructions ….
  
• I have a very healthy paranoia about my car, it’s noises and particularly how the tires feel – my pressure gage is close to hand
  
• I go faster with music I sing loudly to (but still in an ok range)
  

My one stop before Denver was Cheyenne, Wyoming – another place I really wanted to say I’d been – home to Dick Cheney after all … I have to say the downtown was disappointing – not a lot of life/activity at all.  (I have a feeling the sense of community has migrated to the outer malls.)  Though it did still feel like a “western” town – rough wood buildings, empty streets and big wind (incredible, like the kind on a ferry when you have to lean your body into it just to make progress – and helped explain all the drive in banks as at least it was warm wind when I was there).  I spent a couple of hours walking around – visited the Capital Building and the old governors house and learnt Wyoming was the first state in the world to give women the vote and had the first woman governor in the US – helps even things out a little for Cheney …

ps - the picture is for my nephew - it is one of the largest train engines ever built for the cross country rail line (Cheyenne is a major junction point - explains all the trucks on the highway and the very large K-Mart distribution centre on the outskirts of town ...).