Back in the Saddle

Rocinante, at a turnout on the road from Valdez to Tok, Alaska, July, 2012

We've had gorgeous weather in New Hampshire for the past two days.  That fact and the intense work schedule (as our fall semester has begun here at Plymouth State University) have helped me to get out of the blue funk I have been in for the prior two months.

It is not fun dealing with the terminal illness of a great friend.  Death brings grief, and grief plays havoc with one's emotional health.  I am not over it yet, but I am feeling more myself, now.

Friday, under blue skies, I mounted Rocinante and rode him to Boscawen, NH, to stand a flag line at the New Hampshire Veteran's Cemetery with my fellow members of the NHPGR to honor the recently departed Marine Cpl. John Marcum, who served during the Vietnam era.  May he rest in peace.

Boscawen is about an hour's ride south on I-93 from home.  It was great again to feel my old 1982 Honda's solid gait on the Interstate, and to feel the 70 mph air rushing past under a cool, bright blue sky.  In many ways, it took me back to memories of our long ride of last summer.

This was not Alaska, nor the Yukon Territory, where buffalo roam, but it was a slice of heaven, and good for my soul.
 

Bison grazing along the Alaska Highway, Yukon, Canada, July, 2012