Fulfilling a decades-old wish

A flock of Sandhill Cranes.

Years and years ago, I joined my friend on a short trip to Monte Vista, Colorado. Monte Vista probably doesn't even show up as a speck on most maps but the small town is just a hop, skip and a jump from Alamosa where we went to college. It was getting to be dusk when we pulled up to a huge field that was surrounded by a wooden fence. On the fence was a sign that featured an illustration and information about the Sandhill Crane.
My friend explained at certain times of the year the cranes will migrate to this spot and Monte Vista throws a festival in their honor. Looking at the empty field, I tried to imagine what it looked like heavily populated with cranes. I wasn't having much luck and decided I needed to actually see it. That was probably in 2003. I've wished to see the Sandhill Cranes for over a decade and although it took me a long time, I finally fulfilled that wish.
My parents joined me on this excursion. We left early in the morning - the moon was still a huge, glowing disk above the mountains. Our tour kicked off at a warehouse-looking building. Inside of it, was the beginnings of an arts and crafts fair that celebrated cranes. Most of the booths were unmanned and bare of anything by scattered here and there were bits and pieces of different merchandise for sale: photographs of cranes, pottery decorated with cranes, t-shirts with cranes printed on them.
We boarded school buses that traveled down back roads that weaved through farmland and ranch land. There is no major industrialized areas around Monte Vista, other than the  occasional patch of packed dirt where tossed and abandoned farm and ranch equipment silently rusted and eroded.
The landscape was beautiful. I lived in the area for four years but I don't remember the San Louis Valley looking so grand in all its immense open spaces and vibrant colors.
It is small wonder that the cranes flock to this place by the thousands. We climbed down off the buses and crowded at the perimeter of a field to peek through scopes and binoculars onto the large crowd of cranes. The birds are a sandy, dusty color save for a deep crimson patch on their heads. We listened to them chatter away and watch them perform joyful-looking hops and dances. They glided in and out of the throng using their large wings and currents of air.
When the tour ended and my parents and I ate breakfast, we headed for home. We all congratulated each other for finally following through on our wishes to see the cranes.
It only took 10 plus years to finally see what I struggled to imagine and I've concluded it was better than anything I could have conjured up in my mind.

A few admirers of the Sandhill Cranes.