This Land

It was the '60's
we took our folk music seriously
Joan and Bob, Pete
and Woody
This land is your land
he sang out
and I believed it
The words resonated with me
Didn't need to turn on or drop out
I was tuned in; I GOT it, I Believed for all those years
and never really doubted until July 27 2010
A road trip from California to Cheyene to attend th " Daddy of 'em all",
 Frontier Days!  That's a rodeo.
On the advice of an old Navy buddy
who used to cowboy up in Wyoming back in the day
and the daughter of his high school coach who still lived in the area
my decidedly non-Indian faithful companion Dan and I took a detour off I-80
through Medicine Bow National Park
south to Saratoga where the speed limit reduces to 25mph
and you feel like you're speeding, 
should have to turn off your engine and let a draft horse pull you through  
 town
Here is where the rubber should never meet the road
there should never be rubber or a road for that matter
Woody was wrong.
It wasn't meant for you and me
belonged to someone else 
Revelation
Everybody knows God resides in heaven;
he has a cabin in Wyoming on the Snowy Range
no roads, no cars
we are interlopers, as is the highway
You want to go from Saratoga to Centennial
go on horseback or mule
This is hallowed ground
I mentioned this to my cowboy friend and he told me
Yes, this was indeed sacred land to the Arapaho
I now knew that for an hour two we had been guests
uninvited to some else's home
humbled but grateful. We tried not to leave footprints
As we were leaving  the "Range" a car full of folks stopped to take pictures
of this majesty
they all thought it was OK to light up a smoke as they left their car
Did they know they were in someone's church?