We are back home

3/4/07 Sunday
I was looking forward to going to church to let our friends there know we are back. I don’t think it’s going to happen. The sinus infection I had at the start of this adventure returned as we drove back here. This morning I have that “Lou Reed” voice. I think it’s Lou Reed. The guy who has that deep voice and often narrates in his songs. So I look at Cherie and in that voice say “Yeah baby”. It worked, she laughed, I felt good. This is an addictive cycle that we will always follow. Joke, laugh, and love, God this is good. What a way to live. Like my plaque says “Love life, live a life you can love”.

So despite being sick I have a renewed zest for this farm. Both Cherie and I have a renewal of our enthusiasm, the dreams are more alive now. All the way home there was an excitement and a little trepidation in anticipation of pulling into the driveway. It’s HOME. It feels good to be able to say that. We wondered what we would find. Would Skittles still be there? Did the rats chew their way into the house and trash everything in search of food? Did the house blow down? You know how it is. Once you allow this to start your mind comes up with every possible scenario of disaster your imagination can come up with.

But we kept getting closer, Arkansas, the last state before Texas. We are getting closer, can you feel it? It’s drawing you home, the land is calling you. “TEXAS” What an entrance into the state. We tried to take pictures of the sunset but only got a few before the battery died. It was like the state was welcoming us in with this display as we crossed the state line. As you can see Arkansas had a bunch of rain so was flooded when we went through. Another storm we missed.

Now our thoughts are on home, what do we have to do? What first? Where will I put this stuff in the trailer? How can I rearrange the garage? We discussed some of this but many of the miles were spent quietly as we separately contemplated on what lies ahead. I’m thinking of the farm, evolving concepts and designing marketing strategies. Cherie was on her sewing business.

And we kept getting closer. It’s only maybe eight hundred miles across the state from Texarkana to our house. I really don’t know and am just guessing. That seems to be too much but that’s not the point. There was at least ten hours left to drive when we got up Friday morning so there was plenty of time to think. Now that we are within reach the tug of that land was pulling at our heartstrings.

We stopped Friday night in Eastland, Texas. It is only a few hours from Stanton and I could have easily pulled in this drive by two in the morning and was determined to do so till Cherie said “But this is the last chance to take a shower, I want to stop at a hotel and freshen up before we get home”. Good point. It didn’t take long for me to make up my mind so we now start looking for a good cheap hotel.

That shower was good. Lots of water pressure and lots of hot water. I soaked and soaked. You know, it’s the simple things of life we miss the most when it comes down to it. Cherie exhilarated in her shower as well so we hit the road again, now knowing our next stop would be home.

It felt great to pull in but we jumped out to check things out first, to alleviate those fears that had touched our thoughts the whole time we were gone. Everything was great. You could smell some of the bug fogger we had released as we left the house a week ago so we opened the doors to air it out.

At first there was no Skittles to be seen. I checked his food and saw it had been disturbed. I know he stays on the bus allot so went there to check. Oh yeah. He’s here but true to his name was not at all sure of me when I came in, scurrying quickly towards the other end of the bus meowing loudly. Skittles listened to me cooing his name and slowly made his way closer as he zigzagged across the bus waiting to run if I tried to pounce on him. Then it was like he remembered. As soon as I touched him he was on it, rubbing and purring as hard as he could to get his pets and say he missed us.

It feels good to be back. There is much I need to write about but will have to do it later. I’m feeling pretty rough but will get moving despite that.