Not at the Cheda Ranch

May 31, 2007

I missed the road that goes to the Cheda ranch house. Instead, I passed the rail road structure- which was breathtaking. The scale of the structure was beautiful – the scale itself made me want to stand under it or near it, or faraway from it, to enjoy its presence in the surroundings. And how the structure has aged with rust and the size of bracings that are placed to make the grand structure stand up was mesmerizing. So past the structure, I kept on going for a while. I was waiting for some kind of ranch hose to show up but the road was without any apparent human dwelling for quite a while. I finally got to the lodgings situated beneath the road surrounded by hill and trees, at the right fork of the road where it started to divide. I walked in to the yard and asked a man for the direction, yes, I had missed the Cheda ranch quite a while ago. So I turned back, little disappointed that I missed it so long ago, but nevertheless quite content that I had a nice walk. I started to walk back down, and at one point of the dirt road felt urge to just sit down. The road was very dusty! Blue sky above me is dusty light blue. It is probably dust rising from the road that veils the blue sky. Or maybe it is golden afternoon sun that gives the sky the dusty hue. Actually, the road side dust is not too bad either – they are generally settled down except when trucks pass by and arise them. Color here is greenish gold. The trees, their leaves softly lit from slowly setting sun, lines up the dirt road. How nice it is that this road takes up people into the mountains. Roads interest me, that how it is formed by people to get to places in most strategic way. And how people years and years after, not if generation after generation, follow that road, and how the road ages. Nature around the road becomes part of the road, aging with the road. Another appeal of the road is that it has an ending point, a destination. The reason I followed the road today even I didn’t see any lodgings for a while is because I thought if there is a road, it has to be leading to somewhere.