Comfort

Before we left on this trip, a longtime friend, Dan O, who lives in Kansas City wrote to tell me if our meanderings took us in his direction, he would be happy to see us. After seeing the cold, wet weather that we faced in Wyoming and South Dakota, I needed another plan. We had already ridden through slush in Colorado and it was both painfully cold and dangerous. I called Dan and asked if his offer was still open. He told me they would love to have us stay overnight. We remapped our return route through Salt Lake City, Denver, and across Kansas to his place in Missouri.

At the hotel in Elko, Marty and I thought about what we had eaten for supper the last few nights. Monday we shared a bag of beef jerky. Tuesday we shared a bag of peach rings. Wednesday was much better, Ken and Charlene cooked brats on the grill served with potato salad. We were way under budget for meals, so this night we went to the hotel's restaurant and dined like kings on steak, salmon and shrimp. Afterward we went into the casino and played blackjack - losing slowly, but losing nonetheless - at a table where the dealer was a dour Korean woman.

Marty had two challenging nights in Bonanza with baby Collette and I had driven and ridden more than ten hours. Our heads hit the pillow and we were out from exhaustion.

I rose early Thursday morning and have completely caught up on blogging for the first time on this trip. I have scanned hundreds of emails both personal and work-related. Back at the office, the user acceptance testing of the newly developed Titan planning system is going pretty well. I am beginning to look forward to the final few rides of this trip and to settle back into my normal life.