Back home safe and sound after a long road home from Estes Park, Colorado; I am happy to be in the arms of my family once again. With a travel story that was better than any movie writer could have come up with, I can say that a bus is nowhere anyone should have to travel more than they must:
To make a LOOONNGGG story short. I departed Estes Park, Colorado on Friday morning at 1:00am with my fellow co-workers for a 16-hour bus ride home. We all settled in with our Tylenol PM and awaited sweet dreams and the steady hum of the engine and the hopes of being in our beds by that night. Well, let's just say it didn't go that way.
With a groggy head and heavy eyes, I awoke at 2:30am (yes, a mere hour-and-a-half later) in the northwest area of Denver to a bus that had stopped moving and a voice saying we should be back on the road in an hour or so. At this point, I told myself there is nothing for me to do, so I went back to sleep. At 5:30am, I awoke once again to a voice saying, "Well, it's broke and I can't fix it,we will need another bus to come get you guys." After hearing this, I realized we have not moved from the side of the highway and from the sense I was getting, we were not moving anytime soon.
Jump ahead 3 hours. If you are keeping count, this is hour #6 on the side of the highway in a bus with no working toilet and no air-conditioning due to the fact that the engine was broke and could not be turned on. The leaders of the company had been notified of the situation and had jumped into action finding flights for the 31 people on board, which they did a remarkable job in doing - technology is a wonderful thing.
It is now approximately 8:30am, 6 hours after the initial stop, and a new bus arrives to drive us all to the Denver International Airport for a series of flights to get us all home to our families. With flights scheduled at approximately 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, and 7:00pm; it finally looked like we were all headed home - the only bad part was is that we had 8 hours to kill in the wonderful Denver airport.
I was finally able to board our flight at 5:00pm (Denver Time) due to a small weather delay and I was back safe on Texas turf at 8:00pm Saturday evening. To say the least, I had expected to travel around 16-hours that day; but not in the form of trains, planes, and automobiles.
While the trip and summit hike were beautiful and inspirational, there is nothing like being at home with the family and safe in the arms of the ones you love. During the trip, I wanted to keep the ones I love close to me at all times. I took a picture with me and snapped photos during the hike and while at the house.
Looking southbound, somewhere in the flat lands of western Kansas.
From the back porch of the cabin. Summer in the mountains is an inspirational place to be.
The only piece missing from this slice of heaven is my family by my side.
At the trail head to Bear Lake, the starting point for the nearly 10-mile hike through the Rocky Mountains.
A view from the summit. Perfect.
Fern Falls, on our decent from the summit near Fern Lake.
Looking back from the end our journey. I missed you.
1 comments:
What a clever idea! These pictures look like postcards.
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