A Soul With No Substance



Edward and Margaret Gehrke in the Rocky Mountain
National Park



En route the Zephyr. Here I am this mid-July afternoon going home, and glad to be going home.

Surely I care little about home. I never have. Back to Nebraska to the hateful heat of summer to work day after day, to monotony, most would say, but glad. This long, silver train makes swift passage. It is streaking across the flat Colorado country as I sit here, alone.

Why should I be so near to tears? The whole trip to Colorado like a dream now. The whole thing drops from my shoulders now like a jeweled coat, and I lay it aside, feeling I've never worn it at all.

Margaret Gehrke

Lately thats how we have been feeling.  Not for snow, or winter cold, but just to feel a mountain air, or suck in a salty taste of an ocean breeze.  Maybe spend a day hiking thru Yosimite, or perhaps take in Yellowstone.  Unfortunately we do not have any of those things here.  The frozen fields that surround our home only serve to further our desire to be amongst the scenic areas of the West. 

I believe that Margaret Gehrke has captured our feelings about parks and mountains well.  She kept journals of her travels west, and they represent a true love affair with the Western United States, with our National Parks, that both her and her husband Edward shared in their many years of marriage.  She kept her scrapbook well maintained, and today it is part of the Nebraska Historical Society's many archives and records.  Her observations are very unique and surprisingly accurate. These scrapbooks date from the early 1920's until about 1953. 

As Mary heals, we are discovering how much we miss the West.



My Pre SuperBowl Attire