rain!

After leaving Monte and Sue B.'s place, Walter & I headed back up a
mile to the highway. There would be no alternative to 86 today. But
the shoulder was good riding, traffic was light and we had a lovely,
cool, overcast sky.

By midafternoon the clouds had gathered into a looming dark mass above
us. We found shelter at a farm with horses and pens just in time. The
farmer, Gary H., led us to the pens with covered run-ins. The rain
began as I unpacked Walter. By the time I fed him it was pouring
steadily, and continued in ebbs and flows for a couple of hours. Gary
said it was the first rain they'd had since July.

Later Gary brought melons from the farm garden. Ryan and April, the
farmhand and his fiance who live in the little house next door,
invited me over for supper. I contributed a melon.

Tonight I am looking out across Walter's pen at a classicly beautiful
Western sunset, deepening dusk. A lone star hangs in the sky at the
edge of the red and orange streaks. Crickets singing. Walter
munching. My tent in the pen here next to his. Cornfields all around
us. Sigh of contentment. It doesn't get much better than this.