Comfortable places

Ready to go home to the cat.  We will drive past the orange moose in Black River Falls.  There is comfort in familiar things.

Back in my comfort spot

Away from home.

Writing again.

Soon we will return

By way of the orange moose.

He will wave us past

With his antlers.

Moose are like that.

Certain landmarks

Are vital to existence.

To me adventure feels best

When it sets off

From comfortable places.

Orange Moose

Seeing the orange moose in Black River Falls lets me know I*m half-way to Minnesota, or half-way home to the western suburbs of Chicago.  No matter the weather or the road construction, or anything else.  It seems good to have such markers.

I have yet to figure

How all this works.

Chicago to Minnesota netted

At least four season changes today.

I am now in St. Paul.

The weather here is exactly

What I left behind.

Maybe Wisconsin

Has its own gauge.

Still

The three states share the same

Road construction season.

Despite the snow

Road construction is well underway

Everywhere:

Single lanes with semi-tractor trailor trucks

Squeezing for space,

One slow-moving oversize load

Which I re-found and passed

After every rest stop.

The orange moose still marks midway

At Black River Falls.

There are some constants.

I don*t know what I would do

Without that orange moose.