Friday dawned cold and wet. We were all up early and ready to go. We’d had a good three days, but there was one more day left. We had caravanned up. I rode to Ozona with my Canyon Lake friend, where I changed vehicles and rode with my Ozona friend. She then followed us to the campground, but we were pulling a trailer and 65 is about the safest speed. Heading home it was decided she and I should pull out when ready and take off. Her camper could do closer to 80 and we had the longest drive.

It was raining when we said our goodbyes and set out. We left the campground, turned right, and headed home. Or so we thought. As we drove and talked and I looked at the scenery, a question began to nag. I’d just seen a sign to the salt dunes. I didn’t know they were there. Which means I hadn’t gone that way before. I asked my friend if she had her GPS on. She said no. I said, oh, then we should check where we are. I did. We were off track. As passenger and de facto navigator, I’d erred. Not a cardinal sin, but I’d made an assumption that proved wrong. When I thought she was navigating at the start, she was actually selecting the music.

But I got the navigation on while she waited, we adjusted and got going again. It rained on us most the way home, but it began to clear as we headed further east. We stopped in Fort Stockton for lunch. I now have a fondness for hamburgers from Carl’s Jr. having stopped there on previous occasions after leaving Marathon. As we drove, I realized I’d fallen in love with the wide open spaces of west Texas. I’m going back to see those Salt Dunes. I may even go back just to walk up to the notch on the way to the Peak simply for the view. I mean, why not? A new day seems to be dawning for me, and I might as well make the most of it, and I can go by myself because maybe that’s part of the new me.

At home, after getting my gear into the house and safely stowed, I sat in my chair and marveled at the week and the changes I experienced. I was sitting in the same house I left, but now it felt different as though I’d stepped through a clear screen into a different world. I was ready for new adventures, but I wasn’t really leaving anything behind, going anywhere. Yet from the day I came down off Guadalupe Peak the feeling that something new was coming had crystallized in me as it had all the other times I entered a new life phase. And it feels right. One thing is done. Another is beginning.

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