Gary ~ May 17

 

This'll Be The Day That I Die

 

We were driving back to the Chatauqua in Boulder from the Denver International Airport along Highway 70, or maybe it was along Highway 36, when the back rear tire blew out.

 

I was in the center lane going about 80 miles an hour when we heard a strange noise coming from the rear of the car.

 

"What's that?" Eddie said.  I had no idea. "There may something caught under the car, it's really weird," Eddie continued. I just shrugged my shoulders. "How could something get stuck under the car," I said, "we're on a smooth highway going about 80 miles and hour, there's absolutely nothing on the road."

 

Then a yellow warning signal appeared on the dashboard of the blue standard size Ford SUV that I rented from Enterprise Car Rentals for transportation purposes during my 5 day stay at the Boulder Chautauqua where I came to meet about 30 or so of my spiritual friends from the Perfectly OK (POK) organization whom I have known online for 10 years but whom I have never met in person before.

 

We heard more flapping sounds coming from the rear of the car, only this time a LOT louder and sounding a lot more DIRE.  The SUV started to shake.

 

"You'd better pull over, man," said Eddie, sounding just a little alarmed." "I can't," I said, "There's a big fucking truck that coming up on my right."  The truck coming up on my right was really hauling ass and was going to pass me, now that my speed was down to about 75 and I was looking for a way to pull over to the side of the road. Luckily it was a straight highway with as pretty wide shoulder so I figured we'd be OK if I could just make it over to the side of road.  It was about 6pm and the highway was really busy with lots of cars and trucks just barreling down it at about 75 or 80 miles per hour.

 

That was my second trip to the airport that day and I was a little tired and definitely not in the mood for this.

 

I had left the Chautauqua at 9am that morning to drive to the airport to pick up Eliza who was flying in at 10:30. Then we were to have lunch at the airport and wait for Onnie and Sari, who were arriving on different flights around 2pm.

 

Eliza and I had did just that, both of us eating Southwest salads at the Boulder Beef House or whatever it was called, and then hung out in some seats by the baggage claim area until we met Onnie and Sari and then all of us headed back to Boulder, where I  dropped them off and then I turned around and headed back to the airport to pick up Eddie, who was coming in on a United Airlines flight that landed at 6pm.

:

The whole day went pretty smoothly and was really LOTS of fun, until the rear tire blew out, which caused  the SUV to shake and shimmy like a motherfucker and which made  both me and Eddie more than a little nervous, to say the least.

 

I eventually managed to make it over to the side of the road although I wasn't exactly feeling safe and out of danger as the cars and trucks continued to whiz by us at 80 miles and hour and coming way too close for comfort.

 

But, as I looked at the magnificent snow-covered Rockies that gloriously glowed on horizon,  it came to me that the Chief who said, "Today is a good day to die," really knew what he was talking about,