Fragabond

No wonder Dorothy was so surprised to have been transported out of her home state. Even the most wicked tornado could not fling you far enough…

We actually threaded a weather needle that led us in and out of 7 states, but it seemed like all of it was Kansas, which you can envision, but just for fun:

…for 6 straight hours, which when I write this now seems like such a small portion of the total trip, but it felt like an eternity.

Everyone will be glad to know that both our marriage and our lower backs survived the 28-hour drive. We did it in two chunks: 15 hours from Brevard, NC to Topeka, KS on Saturday; 13 hours from Topeka, KS to Ouray, CO on Sunday.

Topeka, Kansas was dead. We barely found an open place to eat dinner on Saturday night, which seemed weird. I haven’t decided if it was sad or just quiet. We did end up at a funny burger bar with a live band and, to our relief, other humans. It did the job.

Zack had a stronger “we will never return”-type of opinion of Topeka, but I think it mostly had to do with the last-minute Hyatt, which had a musty smell that you didn’t want to think too hard about after noticing the water damage on the ceiling in the hallway…we tried 2 rooms, then decided to just sleep a few hours and hit the road again at 4am. I think Zack slept 3 hours, max. The silver lining is that we did not waste any time getting to Ouray!

We tried to capture all of the “Welcome to [insert state]” signs, but we failed, so here are just a few shots of sights along the way:

We listened to MANY Spotify playlists (thanks for the custom playlist, Mo ♥︎) and podcasts, sometimes welcome silence, and 1.5 audiobooks. C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet is a curious sci-fi novel that I am not sure I loved, but I might finish the trilogy at some point, giving Clive the benefit of the doubt that I know he deserves. I am still finishing Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, and it is very inspiring. Not-so-much-of-a-spoiler alert: I have already tackled a chunk of miles on my feet out here in CO (which I was dying for after the long drive), and Born to Run is making me feel and think differently about my running goals. It is my first favorite book of the trip. Highly recommend.

Anyways, we survived the trip, the car is parked out back behind an Airbnb that far exceeds expectations, and we are settling into our August home effortlessly. It has only been 2 days, but I feel like I might never want to leave this beautiful, picturesque town…here is the view from the back porch this lovely Wednesday morning:

-Katie