Ault,
Colorado
Switching
Roads
“Do
you sleep in the ditch?” was his question.
“No,
I’m not that austere. Someone sponsored a room for me and my supporting team.”
The
man with the query was actually a police officer, who along with his companion,
heard my explanation for being on the highway at such an early hour. I imagine
police meet walkers like myself, from time to time—drifters, marathoners, maybe
a monk, once in a while.
They
did express to me concern about the speedy traffic and the meagre space in
which to walk on Highway 14 in Colorado.
Traffic
wasn’t the only challenge. 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. is mosquito hour. Aggressive!
Here’s where the big trucks do work in your favour. The gusts of wind they stir
up send the little pests off. Still, traffic was too much. It was for the
possibility of road rage that we transferred to #14 Highway and entered the
state south of us. The Highway 30 which we were on merged into Interstate 80,
which is un-walkable. At times we have to ‘jump’ to a parallel road.
Rd
86, a gravel road, became my new path. Here,
I could hear hundreds of prairie dogs in full chorus. They do not bark at all. They
sound like those squeaky toys that you squeeze. I also saw elk in the distance.
A
regular program at an inter-faith centre at Colorado State University gave me a
break from walking, to talking, chanting and dancing. I asked one of the
attendees about his take on Krishna.
“He’s
the ‘party’ God, isn’t He?”
Not
quite, but we partied nevertheless. No drugs. No booze. Just good clean fun!
May
the Source be with you!
19 miles
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