Greetings from sunny South Lake Tahoe on the first day of the Lincoln Highway 2011 Conference! While it there were a couple bumps getting here, I am here, and so glad to be here. If you haven’t been to Lake Tahoe ever, you must put it on your bucket list. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in this world.
The weather in-flight was quite good once we hit the badlands in South Dakota. As we got closer to Wyoming my heart started to beat a little faster. I would see mountains again soon. I watched the Bighorn mountain range come into view, and I let out a huge sigh. The clouds and the mountain snow blurring into one another at times, it was a sight I didn’t think I would see in late June!
We passed over the continental divide, and another level of “zen” came over me. In my previous years living out west, I always felt a unique peace in and around the divide. It’s always a “Kodak moment” around the divide. What I mean by “Kodak Moment” is that time stops and you want to capture all five senses of that moment.
Time stopped on the plane as we passed over the divide as I thought it would, and I reflected and reveled in that moment. I didn’t feel “divided”-I felt united and whole. All of the good and bad of me and my life sat next to me on the plane in that moment, and it was beautiful.
In the short time I’ve been here with people from the conference tonight, the Lincoln Highway represents so many things to the 100+ people present, but all of these people still manage to come together to celebrate a different part of the road. It’s clear this road has some spiritual meaning to many veteran conference goers, and I look forward to seeing how many on this trip moments “stop time” for me and for others in the next week.
