back to the keys

He says, "The best times were when life was the hardest."

And I'm still confused as to if that's a good thing for a parent to hear their child say.



Today I am grateful for the drive to and from Cottonwood Gulch, how the kid with me had some unnatural ability to sleep, the lushness of Arkansas, the poshness of Texas rest areas, Oklahoma's interstate exit/gas station/casino combinations, and the orange landscape of New Mexico. How I thought the school wanted him to go and how absurd it was I would drive all that way with him, for my dad's truck, Cool Hand Luke. For those cabins, for the air we were breathing, even for the outhouse and the stink.



There will be a point seven miles into the trail when I will get to choose. Take a left and do the hardest eight miles of my life. Take a right and end up in the same place but possibly with regret that I took the easy way out.

I tell him that I hope I go hard, and he laughs.