So grandma will be going into the ground very soon. Unfortunately, due to all the rain, the hole is filled with water, and while it doesn't really matter that much to her, it seems to matter to us living. Funny how that works really. I know mentally it doesn't matter, but still. Ick. One of these days, after my cousin sends me a disk of all the pics I took, I can post what it looks like. (My camera battery was pretty much dead when I arrived. Not only did I stupidly not charge it, but I didn't expect to take any photos really. Mikka kindly let me usurp use of her camera yesterday and I took a lot of photos on our scenic tour of the back roads so we could see where a lot of our family used to live.)..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I have to say that everything other than not putting her in the ground went quite smoothly and it was nice getting to visit with people who knew my grandmother as well as meeting a cousin that I had never met before. I also got to hear more of the family dirt that I was never privy to while my grandparents were alive and my dad just either doesn't know or doesn't talk about.
Oh, and a bit of digression, if are passing through Kansas and are near Cottonwood Falls, and if you need a bit to eat, I highly recommend stopping off at The Grand Central Hotel. It really made the stay quite nice and Gus, the head chef, is a gem among men and his food is superb. I think I gained 10 pounds from my three dinners during my stay and I am still full from my end piece of prime rib last night that was no chincy cut probably weighing in at a good two, you got that two, pounds of mouth watering able to cut with a butter knife bit of meat.
But back to the matter at hand.
I got up earlier than anyone else at the hotel. In the evenings, all the staff goes home and you have a key to the front door to let yourself in and out. I settled up my bill yesterday so that I could just be on my way. The owner (at least I think she is the owner), Sue, allowed me to leave grandma in her office until the other Sue from the mortuary could pick her up to plant her. I cleaned up my room, grabbed my leftovers (thank you very much Ross), and was on my way.
6:30am is a time I rarely see the outside of the house let alone driving along a deserted highway with only a couple of sparse cars for company. I needed to pay attention to the road because I was still tired, but in the same right, I was trying to take in everything because the next time I come to Kansas may be to be planted myself (which is hopefully a long long time from now). And, for the first time, I really saw how beautiful that the countryside is.
Sure, I still attest that there is something wrong with a place that has tornados, floods, droughts, blizzards and hail that can kill you, but the colors of the morning were so extraordinary that I don't think there were names for all of them. I am hoping that the photos I took on my cousin's nice camera will do the artist's palate of colors some justice without having to fuss with the filters.
Ron and I were watching CSI Miami recently and he remarked that they must enhance the colors that we see because they are all so vivid, the kind you don't see in nature. But this morning on the way out of Cottonwood Falls on my trek back to the airport, I saw colors so vivid that I am not sure I will ever forget how they look. I feel lucky to have seen them and think to myself that it must be the reason that some people love living here and don't want to leave. I know the picture I am going to post won't even begin to do justice to what I saw this morning, but I had to share my photos as I was speeding down the highway at 70. I just hope that other ones will be better so maybe I can share a little piece of the beauty.
Some how, sitting here waiting for my plane to whisk me away from the "heartland", I feel like I am leaving a piece of my heart here with my grandmother. Will I ever come back here?
