Following Water, The Start - CC Road Trip Day 1
“Today,
I begin my drive across the country
From Colorado to New York
to start a new life chapter”
Earlier this month I began my trip to fully cross the country by spending September 1st at the home in the woods where I grew up (See this post and this post about it to read / see more), and now I leave this house which has formed so much of who I am and will be in my 30’s.
Our house here in Greeley Colorado is situated a little east of the Continental Divide,
Which I consider to be one of the greatest living metaphors in the country
This long ridge that runs thousands of miles North to South acts like a backbone
for the continent, as well as a threshold
All water that falls to its West will ultimately end up in the Pacific Ocean,
All water that falls to the East, to the Atlantic
Like the surface of our Planet, my own body is 70 something precent water,
so like that rain that falls in the Rocky Mountains,
I will flow East on my long journey towards the Atlantic
Today I will drive parallel to the Great Platte River for nearly 9 hours as it gently glides across Eastern Colorado and the full width of Nebraska, the road never getting to far away from it.
It’s full of the history of the water, of bison paths, and of human culture following those paths.
I stop and swim in its low, end-of-summer flow and float on my back, watching water reflect on the bottom of a bridge, my eyes pointed towards the sky
Carp, Great Blue Heron, White Tailed Deer, Sparrows, Golden Rod, Prairie Grass
I find stones in the river the color of my own blood, and place them in my hand
smallest to biggest, and point them East to West like a compass
I find other stones and skip them upstream against the current towards where I’m coming from, and watch the ripples drift towards me in the direction I’m going
I pick up my friend Ryan along the way and we meet up with other friends in Lincoln, NE.
We go night swimming and see the moon rise and sink, the color of a corn kernel as it sails past the milky way and dips below the horizon line of dark trees.
The day was quiet as I watched the light change in the endless open space around me,
replaying everything and everyone I was driving away from, and wondering what I was driving towards.
Tell me a story about a road trip you’ve taken and the connections with landscapes and places along the way in the comment section below. Or send me photos, playlists, or whatever else road trip related you want at wes@livethecuriouslife.com
