Not too long after the clock struck 12 to ring in the new year, with my head pounding from an awful migraine, I decided to swing by the Walgreens that had been open on Christmas to see if maybe, just maybe, it was also open for New Year’s as well.
But there was no such luck. 😞
The migraine was bad enough that it was going to keep me awake and absolutely miserable, so I figured that if I was going to be up and miserable anyway, I might as well get my little butt pointed east and headed home and at least make some progress in my miserable state.
So I punched my destination into Google maps, and it told me that I-70 was closed eastbound, so I decided to drive up Provo Canyon and give it a shot again, and if it still had issues with i-70 East, then I would just head north up to i-80, and take the less risky, but slightly slower, route.
After making it to Heber, I rechecked the maps, and Google was still relaying the information that i-70 eastbound was closed. It gave me a route to go ahead and bypass the section of i-70 that was closed, and that bypass route was something like 11 minutes faster than taking the Northern route using i-80, but it took me out into the middle of nowhere, and I wasn’t so keen on driving hundreds of miles through back roads to save 11 minutes.
So when I got to Heber City, I pointed the nose of the car northbound and settled on i-80 as my chosen route.
I wanted to get at least to Wyoming before I crashed for the night, and I did, stopping for the night somewhere just east of Rock springs, I think. I forget exactly where it was. I found a little freeway on ramp where I bed down for the night, or at least where I thought I was going to spend the night.
I slept for about 2 hours, or so, before cars started flying by me at probably 70 mph on this back road that merged into the on ramp for the freeway. I was parked off the road itself, but if a driver lost control or wasn’t paying attention and veered out of the lane, I could have been broadsided, t-boned, with my head taking the initial impact of the accident force.
So I decided I wasn’t too keen on the spot that I had originally chosen 🙃, so I pulled back onto the freeway, drove down the road another hour or so, and just as the dawn arrived, I found another little place on an on ramp to bed down where no one would be able to get up enough speed to cause me harm if they weren’t paying attention.
I slept for probably another couple hours before waking up for good and heading out on the road for the day.
3 gas stops, with a Walmart run attached to one of the gas stops.
Through Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and now… home. 🥳
Will I miss my family and friends? Definitely. Will I miss the mountains? For sure. But if I thought Utah was crowded enough and hard to find a place for my soul to breathe during the warmer months, multiply that by 15 to 20 times in the winter months.
There are just so many people in Utah that you’re crammed in like sardines in a can, and the only way to get away is to drive for a long time, and it takes forever to just get to a place where I feel like I can breathe–forever.
I’m definitely spoiled living where I do now where I feel like I can breathe at home.
Do I like it that I can hear the highway from the property here? No. That’s probably the main thing I would change civilization wise… But you don’t always hear the vehicles on the highway, and if you’re down in the lower field by the creek, I don’t think I can hear them at all? And here I can just… breathe.. 😊
I didn’t expect to make it all the way home this quickly, but I didn’t get sleepy pretty much at all, and somehow, the 19- our drive without stops, 25 and a halfish with the stops, I think went by faster than any other time I’ve made the drive, even though I’ve made the drive in much quicker time chronologically before.
So that was really nice!
It feels so good to be home.
So good. 😊
Soul relief.
I know there will be plenty of things that I won’t like about being back, how cold freezing temperatures feel with the jump in humidity, the lack of towering mountains in the background, family and friends from Utah who are not present…
But for now, I’m going to focus on what I love and am grateful to be back with.
Space to breathe.
Oh… space. How do I love thee!
And with that, Love and hugs to all y’all! Happy New Year! 🥳🥳🥳
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 