Walking on Bennett Hill on this blustery Christmas Eve 🌬️ 🚶

At times it’s mad cold and it will be even colder camping tomorrow. Noticing and admiring the low sun angle, light smells of cattle on the air. You know how much I love the country on a clear winters day without snow and a low sun angle. I like the rich brown colors and how everything is so crisp.

Realizing that this will be the last time likely hiking here until spring as I won’t have a vehicle once Red retires in little over a week. Every time I get behind the wheel, it’s a flood of memories. The many small towns and back roads. How fast the time goes. Can you believe that next week will be 2026 and the second half of the decade?

It seems like such a loss, sadness to be leaving the countryside behind. No more drives to just see the back roads. But it’s temporary. I know I will get another truck after Red. I did more studying of dealer inventories and there is more options for regular cab long bed 4x4s then I saw at first. And if that’s the truck I decide to get it’s fine to get a ride to wherever the truck is or even have the truck shipped. It’s likely what I’ll be using to see America prior to retirement.