June 26th, out the gate at eight…

447 to Pyramid Lake, pelicans in Nixon,

50 east through greater Fallon,

Fallon itself,

its outskirts

and extreme outskirts.

Subsequently Middlegate,

Cold Springs,

Trumpian Austin a bit shy of noon.

We nooned on Bob Scott summit, then east through Eureka.

Ely, gas as always, and

across the Western Desert, 107 out there; Utah.

By six-thirty Salina, I-70, 80 mph speed limit,

descended into Green River around eight for

dinner by the river as the sun sank in the wets, not wet at all out there.

Morning promised more of the same; we fled to Colorado and

Rabbit Valley, our traditional dogwalk up the Trail Through Time

before finally finding, after decades of this, a decent breakfast…in Fruita! Camilla’s Kaffe on the quiet main street sitting on the patio next to three midlife dudes in shorts talking bikes, hikes and four-teeners before heading off for work in an F-250 with a toy poodle in the backseat.

After that Grand junction where now that the change they seemed to want has come all the

impressive “President Trump” graffitti and giant flags have strangely vanished though things

seem quite strangely unchanged, for the present anyway.

Delta, then Montrose [not shown]; through the Gunnison and over Monarch to the Salida Safeway for a week’s provisions, a parking lot lunch of leftover omelette and,

although the Fourth was nowhere in sight, intense recreational traffic down the Arkansas

to finally abandon 50 at Cotopaxi for Westcliffe, last gas, Huerfano County and home…

Grasses rampant, smokey air, unaccustomed allergies, but quiet.

awaiting rain

later…