I found my third shoe tree of this trip. It appeared late in the day as I was pedaling fast away from soggy clouds spitting fat drops of rain onto the arid landscape. The sun was setting on my right, a glowing ember dropping behind the near hill. The clouds on my left were beginning to capture the final rose colors of the evening. I was in ranching territory so I was in a hurry to find unfenced land or an unlocked gate to get away from the road. Then it appeared. Like a tiger from the mist it was upon me before I realized what it was. Shoe trees are sneaky like that.
I stopped to take it in. It was alone on the side of the road. It looked worn. The shoes dangled, its bark was covered in graffiti, the leaves fluttered in the wind and the branches creaked. A light rain caught up to us both, the tree and I. Then, because shoe trees are magic, a rainbow appeared which seemed to grow brighter even as the sky grew darker. The tree and I had a moment, standing there dripping under the vivid rainbow, before I finally left to find that unlocked gate and sleep in the barrens amongst the wandering cows.
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