Awoke around 6:00 this morning to the sound of rain on the roof. It sounded nice of course and the air was deliciously cool, but not what you want to hear on the day you need to be outside hooking a trailer up.... so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

   Didn't help much as it was still raining hard at 8:00 when I woke up again... damn bladder, so there was nothing to do but get up, shower and pack up all my stuff. Really hard to say good bye to my friends Tom and Donna, they are just the best. Must be, because they even invited me back next time I drift through.

    The rain and grey skies perfectly matched my mood as the truck headed north on the highway towards Longmont and my trailer. Sad because it is finally sinking in that I won't be seeing all these friends and family for at least another 10 months. This summer has just been wonderful and now it is over..... On the other hand; a whole new adventure is now starting with lots of new places to visit things to do and people to meet. Plus there are now many people in the east that are already known to me and that I can reconnect with and get to know even better.

   So after collecting mail one last time, gassing up the truck and hooking up the trailer I have now officially started my next round of travel that I am dubbing my 'Carefree Highway' tour.   

    Hit the road around noon and headed east on I-76. Still grey and rainey, but already starting to clear to the south. Made it into Imperial Nebraska and my sisters place around 4:30, just in time for her to get off work and join me for a beer while we waited for her husband, Mark, to get. A pleasant evening of conversation and a nice meal out at the only restaraunt in town. Now it's time to hit the sack myself. It will be a long day of driving tomorrow and Friday if I expect to be in Vermont by Friday evening. Will just have to play that part by ear since it's a long, long ways away. Will try to post more photo's tomorrow if I get the chance.

ps Talked to Tom this evening and he gave me a short update on our friend George who went into the hospital yesterday with a collapsed lung. Seems that they got it inflated again yesterday and then this afternoon decided to try to affix the lung within the chest cavity a little better so that it wouldn't be as easy to collapse in the future. Not sure exactly what they did of course, but from Tom's discription it sounds pretty much like they 'glued' the outside of the lung to the inside of the ribs. They even had George rolling over periodically so it would stay semetrical. Sounded like they needed to just stick him on a big spit for an hour or so while the glue was drying. Will try to find out more about what really happened tomorrow, but that's the story I have at the moment.