we left at midnight.
nobody plans a 27-hour road trip for a reasonable hour. you just go.
when it was my turn to drive we hit the plains and the land just opened. flat and forever and so impossibly big my brain couldn't hold the edges of it.
i pulled over.
stopped the truck on the side of the road because i literally could not keep driving. it took my breath — not in a metaphor way. in a i forgot how to breathe for a second way.
standing there on the side of that road, in the dark, in wyoming — i just knew. that's where i'm supposed to be.
montana was curvy and we got a little lost at night and it was cold so i thought of polar bears. the hotel was creepy.
but then morning came.
"hunty." in my madea voice. because nothing else covered it. when you wake up in montana after a creepy night and a polar bear situation and the sun comes up and you look outside — there are no words. you have to go. i am going to go.
the moose are bigger than a truck, by the way. real information. file it away.
i'm going to retire there. god's plan, not mine — but i'm putting it in writing right now on this website so it's official.