"on the road",loving it,and still missing it...

this is one of those nights that i can not sleep too well... right now,i am listening to some great blues music(one Rev. Gary Davis,with Hesitation Blues),and remembering two 100 mile walks that i did in Colorado,and Nebraska,in August,and September,1998... i still remember one day near the end of the walk in Nebraska,in which i walked past a pond,in which i saw a huge group(about 1,000)of blackbirds,or crows doing circle eights around this pond,and i just stood there watching the birds for a few minutes,and just wondering why they were doing that... just simply amazing!!!!!! i walked from Boulder to Craig,Colorado,in August 1998,and then after four days in a semi(being a trucker)from Reno,Nevada,to outside Cheyenne,Wyoming(going through Nevada,Idaho,Utah,and Wyoming),and then being stuck at a rest area,on the Wyoming/Nebraska border,and getting nowhere for a weekend,i decided to walk up US-30,in September,1998,which parallels north of I-80,and for your information,US-6 parallels south of I-80,in Nebraska... in August and September,1998,it was simply gorgeous in those two states,and walking in those states was simply breathtaking,period... there is one thing that i truly miss about my time "on the road",and that is the traveling of this country,because i remember some simply spectacular days of putting my thumb out on the road and then not going where i would be at night time,and again,being stuck in places,like three miserable days outside a truck stop,on State Route 99,outside Bakersfield,and that was after being stuck thirty miles outside Barstow,on SR 58,on one Memorial Day weekend(1995),in 105 degree dry high desert heat(i have a scar of a third degree burn on my left arm near my shoulder,from that day)... simply miserable!!!!! that day,i absolutely drank a six pack of soda,in exactly three minutes,if that long... when you have had no water in six miserable hours,and you are thirsty,that will happen... in the ten years of being "on the road",those days going from Las Vegas,through Barstow,and Bakersfield,to Sacramento,were the most miserable of that time,because that is the reason that i call State Route 99,"the highway of death",because i almost died during those days,literally... remembering those days "on the road" is a memory that i will never,ever forget,and yet,those days toughened me up no end,because you know that you are tougher than nails,when you survive that time... you also know that you have seen some country that others take for granted,and you are appreciative of that time "on the road"...