Colorado Bound - Day One

September 24^th, 2018

This is the first time we have arrived at the Pioneer Trails office in the dark to leave on a trip.  A sign that Autumn really is here.  Summer has been extra warm and long this year and I’m actually ready for my favorite season to show up.  The past day or two has been cooler but the leaves have yet to change color.  I’m guessing by the time we get back home they will be making a lot of progress in their annual metamorphosis.

It’s a smaller group this year; only twenty-four of us making our way toward Colorado to enjoy the aspens we’ve heard so much about.  The truth is, I enjoy the journey as much as the destination on these trips.  It always takes a day or two to unwind and shed life’s stressors – a process that is vital for me.  I do not understand how anyone can rejuvenate without getting away, literally as well as figuratively, from work and normal life for a respite now and then.

Most of the day was cloudy as we journeyed toward two more friends planning to board in Indiana.  We soon left the hills of Holmes County and reached Fort Wayne, where we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and to pick up our tour guide, Anna Mae, and the two Michigan travelers who met us there.

Anna Mae, is from Topeka, and it was evident rather quickly that she will fit right in with the rest of us.  It was also obvious, immediately, that someone was telling her tales about former trips because she questioned me on whether I had pilfered a TV remote from anywhere yet.  I told her I thought what happened on the bus stayed on the bus.  Anna Mae shot back that she “is on the bus.”  Yes, she’ll do just fine.

Since we had a late breakfast we skipped any formal lunch stop but had several rest-stop breaks.  Several of us tried the coffee machines at each one and therein lay the only snafus of the day.  The first one produced a weak, watery brown, sweetened drink no matter what button was pushed.  I finally tried the Americana which should have been so thick with coffee one practically needs to chew it, and I was rewarded with a weak, watery brown UN-sweetened concoction that bore no resemblance to the hearty burst of caffeine I was needing.  I drank it anyway and reminded myself that this is just a First World Problem, so suck it up, Buttercup.  I should have been more thankful because things took a downhill turn.

Several hours later, our bladders being less compliant with each passing year, we pulled into another rest stop and, not having the courage to attempt coffee again, I tried optimistically for a cup of hot chocolate from the vending machine.  Sam peered into my cup and stated the obvious.  “Too watery.”  Smart man, decided to save his dollar. 

“How does it taste?” someone asked so I took a teeny sip or two and pronounced it hot and not too terrible.  Not too good either but I didn’t mention that.  Sam peered into my cup again and informed me that there are “micklein floating around in there!”

I took a closer look and to my great dismay I saw that there were indeed tiny little ants doing the backstroke in my drink. Pardon me, but I’m thinking this is fast losing its status as a First World Problem. No matter how many times I said “bleh” with my gag reflex barely held in check, I still felt like I had the little critters lodged in my teeth.  Realistically an impossibility since I immediately pitched it into the bushes in disgust. 

JR, the only other soul brave enough to try his luck at the machines found them in his cup as well.  He marched into the building and pounded on a door that looked official and managed to rouse up an employee to whom he showed the squirming evidence of wildlife in the drink dispenser.  She promised to “put up a sign,” but made no offers to give us our money back or to pay for my therapy.

I guess I’ll stick to bottled water for the rest of the day.  And praise the Lord that He hasn’t called me to the Foreign Field.  But what fun would life be without a few complications thrown into an otherwise uneventful day to provoke some shuddering jokes and good-natured ribbing from the less-easily-grossed-out?

We arrived at our hotel, a fairly new and very nice Best Western Plus (Pablo claims the plus indicates it is for larger people, a category I’m well on my way to reaching if my current level of intake is any indication,) in Arcola, Illinois.  Bordering the parking lot are cornfields stretching as far as the eye can see.  Cornfields play heavily in the landscape surrounding this beautiful countryside.  Even the local Subway eatery is bordered by endless cornfields.  And everything is level as a tabletop.  Coming from the hills back home, this flatness makes me feel small and insignificant.  These days anything that makes me feel small is okay by me.

After a bit of freshening up we met four more of our fellow-travelers who took us on a tour around Arthur, where they all live.  It was fun to see their home turf and hear a bit about their lives and their growing up years.  Fred took the microphone and that was an adventure in itself.

We were amazed with the sheer vastness of these fields, and Fred told us that some farms are upward of 10,000 acres.  There is a large Amish community here, but I’m guessing the farmers with mega fields are not bringing in the crops with horse-drawn equipment.  Even the huge tractors we saw looked like toys as they crept along, cutting corn.  And the grain silos!  Massive and a reminder that these hard-working men and women who work the land are feeding us; they are the unsung heroes who battle the unpredictable and uncontrollable elements to provide food for the rest of us.

We ate supper at Yoder’s Kitchen, courtesy of the Illinois people, where all of us definitely did not lose any weight.  No one makes mashed potatoes and meat loaf like the Amish cooks.  I’ll stand by that statement without any fear of being proven wrong.

Back to the hotel, I plan on falling into the very large and very comfortable bed by 8:30.  Tomorrow will be an early day and I had very little sleep last night. I’m going to make it up right here, right now.  Good-night all.