the last Sunday in September began with an early trip

to the Springs, specifically COS [not shown], to drop Linda and back

to dubious dogs

who, creatures of habit, were relieved to have their walks

though after a couple of days solo were introduced to Nina, who arrived in Margaret, her van,

[neither shown] to befriend and entertain them as I, oh I, was down the road to Gardner and

beyond early Wednesday.

Well beyond…

As it said above, east on 10 from Walsenburg past windmills

and

and

across the plainess

of eastern Colorado as far as Lamar, then north to Woller’s

where Don himself roared us out [with a small dog] among the llamas [his sheep nowhere

to be seen] to definitively determine that there were no 1945 Chevy tailgates stashed anywhere

on his 82 acres so on I went,

countless miles up 8 to 96 east,

north at Sheridan Lake [no lake in sight],

eventually east on CO 40

into Kansas for a welcome pause if not very great burger in Sharon Springs.

Following that Kansas continued…40 to Oakley then

north on 83 [to fuel where it crossed I-70 north of town]

and on, north, east, northeast

until the country gradually became more configured and then, north of Norton, Nebraska.

As the day wound down I made it to Kearney and soon after, latish for dinner there, the

Alley Rose, closing the place down at 8:15.

Morning, after some floundering around to reach escape velocity, it was two hours forty

minutes of pounding east on the Interstate

to get to KANEKO, where I found Linda still working but as soon as the truck was unloaded we went for her fishy birthday lunch three blocks away at Plank before she had to return to the

fray, so to speak, of preparing for Soireé which, having happened on September’s Final Friday,

no longer has a link to it…so stay tuned here for documentation in a future posting.

It’ll be wild!