The Way Back Home

     I decided that I needed to get away. There's just an unhealthy amount of bad news and there's nothing I can do about it. So I decided to load the old Nissan pickup with hiking and camera gear, round up Cheyenne and head off to the old family cabin in CrowMac Creek.
     It had been a long trip from Kansas, but I enjoyed driving the road between Payson and CrowMac Creek. I thought of the times I'd slipped along that same old road in my younger years. A turning lane is available just as you enter town and Hardscrabble Road is the second turn. I love the scent of Ponderosa Pine that permeates Pine Valley, and I look forward to my spending my first night on the Rim.
     I took a right at Edna's Cafe and an immediate left up the road to the OD green cabin with dark brown trim. I turned onto the driveway and pulled up to the pine tree and stopped the truck.
    Cheyenne jumped out of the camper shell and began to sniff out all of the old places, a few of which had to be re-marked and when she was done, I let her come in.
     I glanced around to make sure nothing had happened in my absence, and that everything was where it should have been, where had always had been kept. Mom and Dad's bed was a bit dusty, so I took the bedspread out and shook it clean. I wiped most of the dust off the furniture and began cleaning my camera equipment. First I worked on the lenses, starting with the Sigma FX 150-600mm zoom, then the Nikon 18-400mm zoom, then the Nikon 50mm FX lens. The lenses didn't need anything but to be blown off and both cameras needed little work as well.
     When everything looked right, I attached to 18-300mm zoom lense on my 7200, and the 150-600mm on the 750. I looked at them and smiled. Everything was working well and I felt excited that this time, I was ready for just about everything.
     I walked to the door of the cabin to see what light there was for shooting. I had wanted to get a sunset shot, but the sun was too far down and I didn't have the time to make it to the outcropping that overlooks all of CrowMac Creek. I'll get those shots tomorrow... or the next day.  I smiled... I am going to become a good procrastinator.
    "Laura is supposed to come up tonight," I thought, "and she is bringing Huey. I need to find a couple of night lights for her." Laura doesn't enjoy sleeping in total darkness. I found one in the cabinet outside the bathroom and checked it. "It works. Good."
     "Tomorrow, Linda will arrive early and I think I'll show her around a bit.
     I looked at the computer screen for the time. It was 9:30 and dark outside. I let Cheyenne out. I was worried that she'd find that skunk again, but she took care of things and ran back into the cabin. I am ready for bed, I thought. I sat in the orange chair and gazed at the old photo of the cowboy who looks as he will wake up in heaven. Cheyenne lay close beside me. I closed my eyes and drifted into my imagination. My eyes opened briefly as the thought of dealing with Howard at the Chronicle