How the Mind Wanders
Arriving at Fort Riley (a local RV park), I've discovered my water is frozen. Ahhhh hahahahahha, of course it is! I've been driving in arctic temperatures the last 10 hours. And there's snow and ice everywhere. ICK!! Holy moly, I miss the south! "Oh don't worry," says the RV park guy, "it's going to get up to 32* tomorrow." As if that's WARM!? I may have been Ohio bred and raised, but I am SOUTHERN functioning. I can't even breathe up here. I have flip flops on!
The drive. Man, what a forever drive today. I left at 7am and it's a little after 7pm now. We made a lot of stops but I am sore. This thing is tough to drive for that long. Plus it was UBER windy up until dusk. I was able to draft off a truck for about 200 miles until I needed gas. Dang it, back into the winds; phew, exhausting!! What beautiful scenery though (like that cool green bridge) and totally new territory. I've never driven that route before and I went through tons of states! Seriously, in a matter of 45 minutes, I went from MS to TN to AK to MO! But then entered Kansas but then dipped back into MO !? Twilight Zone'y.
I giggled earlier because I thought of what an emotional roller coaster an Ironman is, going from WHY am I doing this!? to, this is the BEST day of my life and everything is amaZING! That's kind of how I felt driving today. One minute I was trying to reposition myself with a death grip on the steering wheel thinking why the EFF am I doing this!? And the next I was like, I live in and am driving my home to WHERE EVER I want right now! and the freedom was exhilarating. <--- did I seriously just compare an Ironman to driving across the U.S. in an RV? (insert MAJOR EYE ROLL!) Ha ha ha!! Oranges and bricks people. Oranges and bricks. But the mind wandering all over the place was similar. And the I hate life/I love life fight was on.
I actually love how the mind wanders. Driving through St. Louis I was taken back to Iraq and Sergeant Baxley, "It's the LOU baby!!" He always made me giggle. I ran into him at the CB gym the other day. If you're reading this Sarn't B, who woulda thought, right?! Suddenly LMFAO is blasting shots shots shots shots shots shots from my radio and I'm high on Red Bull and driving with Vicki snapchatting and Chris passed out in the back, fist pumping my way through Idaho and Texas. Ha ha, that was a life changing adventure for sure! Chris. I miss her. We had some serious <mis> adventures... Remember the raccoon incident? If you don't, go to my search bar over on the left and search "raccoon". You HAVE to read that story. OH MY GOD, I'm laughing all over again! And now some lovey song is on and old flames spark a grin. Ha, good memories. From friendships to road trips, from war to Ironman, from old love to what's next... the mind is so powerful and brilliant. I miss people from my life. I love the people in my life. See, emotional roller coaster!
Anyway. So now I'm here and I've got all that ^ out <--- it's been churning through my head too (among other things). I wish I could get EVERYTHING out of my head that I want out. I can't write as quickly as I think. I kind of need a tag along stenographer (to go with my personal gas pumper and dog potty handler, huh?). <--- carried away!
I need to go get a shower and fix some food. Here's to not freezing to death tonight!!