I'm comin' home

[Ninurta]

And so the search has officially begun. 

Somewhere out there in that vast expanse of 97,914 square miles called Wyoming is a ranch where I will spend the rest of my days 'out to pasture' on this blue orb.

I spent nearly 4 decades criss-crossing this globe, and not so long from now, that aircraft door will close one final time...and I won't be onboard!

I never thought I would see this day, but I can see it now...Mama, I'm comin' HOME!!!

My heart never left the place that made me the man I am today, the place that shaped every single tenet by which I live and believe in.  Wyoming is, and always was...my HOME.  Life being what it is, sometimes we can't always stay in the place we love so, but I made a promise to my Wyoming...I'd be back.  And, be back I will.

Later this month we will begin a series of forays up into Wyo researching suitable properties, meeting with friends, colleagues and agentgs to relocate all of.."this"...all this life.  We gave Colorado our very best shot, but Colorado will never be home...and each day it gets further away from home.  We, as a community, as the largest portion of the state, the biggest land owners and the ones true to the roots of this state held them off as long as we could, but "woke" is now creeping, no "encroaching", further and further into our once peaceful 'live and let live' lives.  They can assimilate this place (maybe...someday), but they can never assimilate me, or us.  The time for me here is over.

And, as I look back, I never really could call this place home, not in the true "home" sense, despite how hard we worked to try to make it be...all of us.  I don't harbor any anger really; sadness more than anything, for those less fortunate than us (for which I am thankful to be so blessed, but make no mistake we worked awfully hard for it too, and sacrificed much).  Somehow, in my heart, I always knew this would be the final chapter, don't ask me how.

It seems almost unimaginable to me this day is upon me.  No longer is it some distant dream, some fantasy.  I no longer have to wish for all the stars to align, and some genie to pop out of some old relic of a bottle.  No, we already have a list of properties, and so our first trip in mid-July, just a few weeks from today, will be to survey the ones we can, and to prioritize the ones we can't get to.  In addition, we are now working with brokers state wide, and the list is growing faster than I had expected.

The thought of building another home is daunting (Gawd knows, I've built too many).  Just establishing another ranch is pretty daunting in itself, but maybe it won't be as difficult as what we had to do here (which was start from bare earth).  Unlike then though, there will be no rush, and we've learned many things along the way which will make it so much easier.  So many things I wish I would have known when we first started this place.  No, this time will be a labor of love...even though I know the trials and tribulations involved even knowing what I know now.  And though the road is long and hard, I would have it no other way.

Mama...I'm comin' home!!

I know the feeling.

I spent decades thrashing around the world after I left home - but note that while I left home, home never left me.

There was always just one more thing to do, and after that was done, there was still just one MORE thing to do before I could go home. I reckon Grace could see it in me, because one day in Kansas City she said "Nope. No more things to do. Pack our shit in the truck, we're going home"... and she was a midwesterner, had never even seen these mountains to call them "home", but there it was.

So I packed up the truck, and spent my birthday of 2014 driving 19 hours straight through to get back here.

And here is where I will stay. I'm home.

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