Road Trip in Review
Miles travelled: ~ 5800Gallons of gas used: ~ 200 (ahhhh!!!!)Longest distance driven in one state: 498 miles (Tennessee)States passed through: 20 (VA, MD, WV, PA, OH, IL, IN, MO, KS, CO, WY, ID, UT, AZ, NM, TX, OK, AR, TN, NC)Capital cities seen: Columbus, Indianapolis, Denver, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, OK City, Little Rock, Nashville, RichmondLong stretches of interstate driven: I-70 from Cumberland, Maryland to Denver, ColoradoI-40 from Flagstaff, Arizona(woo!) to Greensboro, North CarolinaState parks visited: Wayne Nat’l Forst (Old Man Cave) OH, Rocky Mtn Nat’l Park, CO, Kaibab Nat’l Forst/Sedona AZ, Grand Canyon NP AZ, Great Smoky Mtns NC Couch surfing fun: 2 cities; Oklahoma City and Memphis (thanks ladies!!)Hotels: Super 8(Nephi, UT) and Salina Inn(Salina, KS)…booFriends and family along the way: a priceless addition to an amazing journey***********************************************************************************************************What in life keeps our sanity pieced together? How do we know we’re headed in the right direction after toiling over decisions for days, months…or even years!? Well in this case, it was a compillation of people and events that brought me full circle back to the Old Dominion. I packed up my civic and peaced out on the 10th of January with the expectation of arriving in Kalispell, Montana a few weeks earlier than my job started to meet folks, find a place to live, and adjust to the arctic weather(ok, not quite, but I have yet to make a buckskin outfit, so the idea of freezing my little buns off was a little daunting). I stopped off in Zanesville, OH where my mom and her dad have planted themselves, and really enjoyed lazy hang out time and slumped my shoulders a bit when I thought of all the ’stuff’ I needed to sort through mom’s basement. I’ve moved 4 times in the past 2 years, and give props to anyone that can keep their wits about themselves through this process. Every move elicited a sense of happiness, fear, relief, and sorrow-none of which work very well together when being emitted at the same time. On the other hand, I have met so many amazing people along my journey and have worked out enough kinks in my mental clarity, that when reflecting upon each move, all of them had their purpose and have led me closer to my goal of simplifying my life. I have donated most of my wardrobe to the Goodwill or other various organizations, sold all of my furniture, distributed knick knacks among friends, and still have a good two carloads worth of stuff between Fredericksburg and Zanesville. Amazing really.I left my mom’s with a sense of direction, but no real idea how this trip would evolve. I convinced my brother Ray to come with me to Dayton to stay with family there. My stomach always reels after visits with them from laughing so hard. Good, hearty “family” time doesn’t come around very often these days and I’m determined to change that, even if it means cross country road trips!:) From Dayton, I headed as far west as my numb bum could take: approximately 12 hours to Salina, Kansas. Some noteworthy sites from this ride were the wind farms I passed through out Kansas, Monsato corn fields ( thumbs down) the arch in St. Louis, and the early morning drive after leaving Salina. It felt early morning due to the time change in Illinois the day before anyway. The wind gusts were blowing somewhere in the range of 20-45 miles and hour, but the cold air kept a bluish/purple haze on the horizon for hours! Despite the distance driven on completely uneventful landscape, it was not such a drab experience. I will say it was relieving to catch the tips of rocky mountain peaks in the distance when heading into Denver. I can’t tell you how many times I caught myself thinking, ‘DANG! We live in an amazingly beautiful country!’.Colorado truly calmed my trip anxiety after meeting up with a distant cousin, Lee Skinner, his wife Betsy, and their friend Jo. We chatted about family connections, exchanged life stories, and became instant friends. Within a day, I felt as though I had known them for ages! They showed me around their town of Allenspark, population 300, hidden beneath the shadow of mountain peaks 14,000 feet tall, and gave me a regional tour the second day of my stay. Estes Park had a very ‘chateau’ feel to it. As we drove down into the valley, Betsy and I came across one of the many migrating herds of elk meandering through the roads. She took me to the local thrift stores, we made conversation with folks in line at the grocery, then we topped it off with a visit to the Stanley Hotel where ‘The Shining’ was filmed. The scenery was beautiful, the town was quaint(despite the tourism industry present in the area), but my favorite part about my stay…the people I met and the warm welcomes I received. ‘Home is where the heart is’ resounded this whole trip as I saw myself living in any number of the places that I visited, and this was definitely one of them. Praise be to science for good people in the world.My long haul to Twin Falls, ID was kicked off with a family breakfast a the Skinner household, and a herd of bighorn sheep enjoying the sunshine and road salt as I winded my way back down out of the mountains…sad. My heart jumped out of my chest a few times while driving in blowing snow on I-80 just past Cheyenne as trucks were flying by me and I couldn’t see more than 20 feet ahead! While driving through a snow storm in S. Idaho, I heard my friend’s voices in my head laughing, “Ha! you’re driving out to Montana…in January…?”. No worries…I made it through to my dad’s house with my wits and enough energy to say hello, shower, and PASS OUT. Living in a tent is great fun and my hammock has treated me well, but sometimes, a warm, firm bed just hits the spot. This was one of those times. I spent a few days at my dad’s cooking yummy, experimental meals, reading, watching movies, taking bike rides, and touring around Twin Falls, while thinking about how I was going to make it up to Kalispell as winter storms approached and highways closed. This is where my path takes a sharp turn. My dad and I have a unique relationship, most of it being based on a long distance correspondence. He is a smart, connected and curious individual that is very supportive of my life decisions and pushes me to follow my heart. The voice in the back of my tends to be louder when I’m with him, and during this particular visit, the voice was screaming. My dad doesn’t hesitate to express his opinion and sometimes listening to him feels more like a chore, and a strong opinion feels more like a personal attack that takes a sword and slashes all of your preconceived forms of reality and leaves them in a little pile on the floor for you to sort through. In this particular instance, the pieces of my reality that had been ripped to shreds almost immediately formed into a picture of picture of my ‘home’ in Virginia. Some of this could have been attributed to dealing with sadness, frustration and confusion without anyone close by to confide in, but as I went over scenarios in my head, the desire to pursue the path I was developing in Virginia became overwhelmingly strong. New love, old and new friends, close proximity to family members and a stronger sense of direction in my field of work(for once) is worth sticking around Virginia a bit longer.Once my mind was made up, my dad and I made amends, and I started the trek back east. I landed in Flagstaff, AZ, a dormant volcano, to catch up with Elena, a good friend and past co-worker, which was a feat in and of itself. :) I hit the thrift stores with her roommate Katie, ate late-night hot dogs, took a driving tour of Sedona and the surrounding red rocks, was blown away by the Grand Canyon, and worked on puzzles until my eyes bugged out of my head. Amen! Before I was fully convinced to get a job and stay for a few more days….or years, I thanked my hosts with loaves of pumpkin bread and hit the road again in hopes of making it at least to Oklahoma before the days end. I did in fact make it to OK City where my friend Tim had found a couch surfer that would host me. After 14 hours of driving, I wasn’t very social, but enjoyed hearing about all of the fun things to do in the city, if I chose to stay for more than a night. If anyone heads down that way, ask locals about a 30 story indoor slide!! Another surfer in Memphis gladly took me in and again, made me feel as though the world is my home. We ate at a local bbq for dinner (oooooo…a taste of the south), the civil rights museum (the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot), met a crew of other couch surfers/hosts in town, and winded down the evening playing guitar and chatting about life….the story goes on.Bell Buckle TN is a unique place on the globe. No matter where you go, it always seems to be on your way! It may also be the magnetic force that Tim Hetrick has, or the smell of freshly baked pizza, or the distilleries just down the road. Whatever the draw was, I’m glad I stopped in, and anyone reading this should consider visiting. Really. Then there was Ashville…oh Ashville. Good beers, good laughs and time with Spooner..always priceless. I was restless that night and ended up hitting the road super early, but found myself smiling as I drove across the Virginia border. After all was said and done, I felt home just crossing the state line.I have always told myself that I’m missing something by not living in another state, or that I’m limiting myself by committing to one field of work or one job. Being frustrated by the limitations I set for myself, I dug deeper into the cosmos, connected with myself and my surroundings on a deeper, more meaningful level, and have adopted a sense of appreciation for the people and places around me that is hard to express in tangible ways. My heart brought me home and I look forward to seeing where it takes me from here.
Filed under road trip '08 | Comments (3)Changes and new beginnings
Who knew…when I caved in and joined myspace, I figured, well hey, I’ll get to see what people are up to on a more regular basis, I can keep people updated with pics and such, and that’s that. Then this fall, along came facebook, and yet again, I figured I could keep up with the people that didn’t use myspace very often… and I was bored one night, what can I say. All is well thus far. I have done my best to keep up with both sites, updating my status, adding new pics, and sending messages to folks whenever I can and have actually had a lot of fun with it. The newest addition to my online family is this blog. I really never thought the day would come. It happened on a snowy day while I was visiting some friends in Flagstaff Arizona. I gave my good friend Tim a call to let him know I was traveling back to VA on an intuition I had and would be passing through Tennessee…who knew! (For those that know Tim, Bell Buckle, TN is on the way to anywhere in the world:) )I didn’t have a place to crash and was going to suck it up and pay a little $$ to stay at a local inn along the way, but while I was doing lots of thinking, Tim was busy creating me a second couch surfing profile (since I couldn’t remember the login info for mine) and found me a place to stay not only in OK City, but in Memphis, TN as well. Woo hoo! Along with creating me this profile, he plunged me keyboard first into my first ever blog. Here we go!
Filed under road trip '08 | Comments (2)