Route 66: Detour #1
Probably spring of 1981 was the last time I woke up, listening to the birds and insects of Missouri as I mentioned in a previous update. I lived in St. Louis Missouri for six years as a child; from age 6 to 13 years, full of joy and lots of heat.
With three older siblings and two very committed parents, we jumped around that city for sports, marching band, jazz band, yearbook, plays, astronomy.. you name it. With four kids in the house both parents working, at times both parents also going to grad school. There was always something going on.
As the youngest child, I heard a lot of “what did you do? You shouldn’t have.” You see St. Louis, Missouri then and now is not the safest community to be a parent or a child
All those memories flooding in made me reach a decision to take a small detour to see a few relatives and siblings in Colorado. Being so close and with all us not getting any younger, I felt it was important to take this little detour
The small detour ended up taking almost 2 weeks. I arrived at my sister‘s ranch up in Silt Colorado only to be asked to oversee it while she and her partner Ralph headed to Virginia for some family obligations. When asked, I was flattered, scared, confused, and overwhelmed. It included communicating with the new ranch hand, who doesn’t speak much English, but way more than my Spanish..
Not knowing Colorado very well I ended up spending most my time in the western slope and more particular the valley. What I saw during that time impressed me.Tthe people work long and hard days, often have a day job then come home to ranch at night.
Late at night, I would hear the sound of an ATV or boom of some unknown ranching device, tool or perhaps just 150 being tuned for another day of work.
Thankfully, the horses and chickens, cows and goats, coyotes, and bears all quieted down to allow me to have peaceful sleeps.
It is time to get back to where I left off on route 66 in the middle of Missouri. I am looking forward to this next stretch into land, familiar territory, difficult history for America, and all the art and architecture that has grown around it over the years.
