road trippin...

Again, as I mentioned in my previous post, I am playing catch up.  A couple weeks ago now Christine and I made the road trip from Utah to our hometown in Wisconsin.  We were slated to be married the following weekend, and we opted to drive across the Great Plains of America rather then fly.  Our golden retriever, Murphy, costs a small fortune to fly.  Even if your a company employee.  Therefore, we packed up my Subaru Outback and trekked it over I-80 eastbound.  

^Somewhere in Wyoming we passed a wind farm that was pumping out the electricity.  Nice to at least see some signs of the greening of America.  Lord knows we have a ridiculously long way to go, but small wins like this one do tend to make my day.  Time to make a change (...as I drive passed in my combustible engine vehicle. Irony? I do what I can.)

^I drove through the night. Christine and Murphy were navigating and taking turns napping.  This photo shows the two of them in a classic cuddle moment.  Murphy would periodically awaken from a nap and come up to see how everything was going up in the cockpit of the Subaru.  She'd also take the opportunity give her momma a little kiss on the cheek.  She is such a lover.

^Of course, after a good twenty hours in the car, and after my own sixteen straight hours at the wheel both Murphy and I were over it.  Notice here that the exhaustion you can see in my face is shared by my four legged little girl.  I was beat, but it seemed that Murphy was right there with me.

^It took us twenty-three and a half hours to drive fifteen-hundred miles, but the warm wood stove fire and ice cold Miller Lite felt like the kindest welcome I'd received in years.  Murphy and I took a collective long deep breath, and I had some long slow swills of my native land's nectar.  Before I knew it we were both sound asleep with an empty beer can delicately balancing in my lap.  I woke up, had another cold one, and gave thanks for our arrival back in the dairyland that Christine and I will always call home.  No matter where we live.  Cheers to it.