Sunshine on my shoulder

I woke at 6am with sunlight streaming in between the blinds of the little log cabin. Glorious sunshine. Makes the world bright and shiny and puts a grin on my face. With hundreds of miles of rough road and construction coupled with lots of wind and rain, sunshine just wipes it out.
The little cabin has a loft and the other three slept in the loft while I opened the two little windows and put the cotton mattress on the floor and crawled into my sleeping bag. Great night sleep and a gorgeous morning. Off to the showers with plenty of hot water and then to the restaurant next door. I have to wait for them to open the door…
Around 10:30 we’re all up, clean, dressed and fed. Most of us are packed and ready to leave. Here’s Matt putting on the finishing touches for departure.
We’ve only got about 150 mile today to get to Palmer to visit Matt’s childhood friend Kelly so we’re in no hurry. Except me; I’m almost always in a hurry. Matt’s more into the Zen of the experience so we have to negotiate to keep balance. I’m workin’ on chillin’-
The snow capped mountains are wrapped in glaciers and fast flowing rivers. The water is a frothy silvery brown and the snow melt gorges the wide shallow stream beds movng tons of rock and silt as we glance at them in passing. So much power in the cycles of the seasons that it almost looks as if the earth is angry right here. But it’s hard to be angry in this great sunshine. What a beautiful day!
Along the winding back road that is a major highway, we come across a small espresso shop with flags and whirly-gigs. There is a lot of charm about this place with its art work and great coffee. We like it so much that we all buy a logo tee-shirt and take pictures. We stop several more times for photos, looking for that poster shot we’ll treasure in the years ahead. Here is one of the poster candidates: