Another long day on the road, the longest one yet. Today we drove from Salt Lake City, Utah to Lincoln Nebraska–a distance of 882 miles. We left our hotel at 7 this morning and arrived in Lincoln after 9:30 p.m. My brother drove for all but two hours–I drove through part of Wyoming. It has been a good two days. I have received many messages of well wishing, phone conversations with and text messages from various siblings wanting to hear how the trip is going. It has been good.
I am weary but grateful. Still many things on my mind, but overall life is good. What I am most grateful about at this moment is the time I’ve spent in the company of my brother. We’ve talked about a lot of things: our families, our siblings, our individual hopes and dreams. He has been rock steady, calm, and kind throughout the trip. We’ve had many hours in conversation, laughing, serious, enjoying the scenery as we drove along. We were continually amazed and in wonder at the mountains, red rocks, salt flats, high desert, and at the wildlife we’ve seen as we’ve driven along.
Tomorrow we will make the last leg of our trip together: I will drop him off in Indiana and keep going by myself on to Maryland. It will be nice to be back in our hometown. Our other brother lives there, so I’ll get a chance to visit with him and his wife before I head out on Wednesday morning. I could myself as very blessed to have the love and support of my family; it provides a strength that so eases any difficulties I face and I find myself brimming over with love for each of my siblings as well as my children and various cousins and other relatives. Without them I simply would have completely come unglued.
It is time for me to take y rest for the evening. We’re getting an early start tomorrow and it will be another long day. Still, I am grateful to be spending another day with my brother. That indeed is a very good thing.
