Dana and Jon arrived yesterday in the early afternoon like refugees from a distant war zone. As they and their four dogs piled out of the cab of the U-Haul truck, I could see they had all gone through four days of hell.
Contrary to what I reported a couple days ago, they had not checked into a motel; they had merely pulled off the road and slept in the cab of the truck… the tiny cab of the truck, all six of them, packed like sardines.
I cannot imagine how awful it must have been. These dogs are not small animals. They’re large pit bulls–three stout brothers and their portly mother. Poor Dana is covered with bruises from the experience and Jon’s feet are swollen like balloons from sitting upright for four days. Dana said that Jon was in so much pain that he cried through most of the last four hundred miles.
It is a credit to all six of them, and a surprise to me, that they were in such good humor. If I were one of them (and not just one of the dogs), I should have been snapping at my companions. They were clearly all so relieved that their ordeal was over and that they were now surrounded by so much endless, expansive space.
And yes, happy too, that they had finally arrived at this place they have been calling home. “Everywhere you look,” said Jon, “the views are so beautiful.”
We left the truck and their towed pickup at the storage units up at the head of the road and came to Estrella Vista for a light lunch. Afterwards we drove to their new homestead, an Airstream trailer about 8 miles away. Happily, electric service had been restored in time, so they at least had light (but little else) their first night here. No one seemed to care. It was enought that they could all pass out in a horizontal position.
Today they will come up to Estrella Vista for breakfast and we will all go back to the storage facility, unpack the truck, and then move their things into the Airstream. It will probably not be an easy day, but a homecoming nevertheless. Based on first impressions, it is already proving to be a joyous one and the fulfillment of their hearts’ desires.
Today’s Groove is one of my favorite German Volkslieder. Although it is is a song about being separated from where one’s heart yearns to be, it seems to be an appropriate piece to mark the arrival of our first flight of Wandervögel to what will one day be a community of freedom, hope, and renewal.
۞
Groove of the Day
Listen to the Mädchenchor Wernigerode performing “Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär” (Der Flug der Liebe)
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