The road warriors I’m traveling with are a bit averse to sleeping in, it seems, so we were up, fed, with teeth brushed, in the car, and headed west toward Denver by 8:30. The day was sunny and warm and the landscape flat as a pancake. We passed cattle, small oil rigs, huge white windmills, fields of sunflowers, horses, countless acres of yellow-brown pastureland, silos, hay bales, and the odd ribbon of train cars heading nowhere. I was tempted, of course, but did not succumb to the signs directing the curious to the Fossel Museum, Prairie Museum of Art and History, and Boot Hill in Dodge City.

We had enjoyed such a hearty breakfast that we decided to snack in the car for lunch instead of stopping for a meal. Thank you Heather, Lexi, and Landon.

We skirted Denver on the east side and arrived in Greeley mid-afternoon. First stop: Linn Grove Cemetery to see the seven headstones Cyd, Si, and I had installed in the family plot after Jim’s burial. It was the first time for any of us to see the stones and they all looked beautiful. Why seven stones? It had always been Jim’s intention to install stones on the graves of family members whose graves had never been marked. We decided to do it on his behalf and are so pleased with how they look.

Greeley factoids:

• Jim was born, earned two college degrees, lived here three times for a total of 15 years, and is buried here.
• Cyd and I were born in Greeley.
• Mother met Jim here 75 years ago last month at a college dance.
• William Woodruff, Jim’s great grandfather, came west from Illinois in 1870 and settled here. As a pioneer settler he received a small farm as well as city property. He was the one who bought the family plot in 1882 to inter one of his two sons, Felix, who had sadly committed suicide.

Dinner tonight was a picnic in the hotel room that Cyd brought from home. A relaxing way to end a full, perfect day.