6:40 a.m. and nearing two weeks since we arrived back in the Great NorthWest. I still get up naked and join my buddy Jack in our good morning ritual of stretch, morning voice trilling and a watering of the grounds /marking of our territory. Next there is breakfast for my appreciative brother, and after stoking the slumbering coals in the wood stove , I turn to making the coffee and catch NPR Morning Edition. ---oh yea and put my well worn velour sweat pants on. This routine hasn’t changed much since we ended our journey to see the Northern parts of the U.S.A. and SE Canada.
The grandeur of Wyoming , the Tetons and Yellowstone are slipping behind the mist of my own personal geyser (my brain). The embrace of daughter Elena when she greeted us outside her Seattle home on Oct. 21st still seems fresh—there is such joy for me as a dad in seeing my beautiful, intelligent and loving daughters! I still make the morning coffee, but instead of the French press, I have my Krups coffee grinder for the freshest of grounds, as I pour hot water through the #6 Melitta paper filter.
What have I learned? What do I miss about being on the road, and what is good about being back in our island home? Just a few words on each of those topics:
I learned again about the beauty of this great land of ours, and that of our wonderful Canadian neighbors. All of it, from the plains to the mountains and river valleys , Great Lake’s Basin, and ocean shores. Its good, strong, productive land peopled by hospitable, kind, hard working , and fun-loving folk. I also was reminded of how much fun it is so get up without the nettlesome bill paying and paper work of the staid life, and head out into a new horizon without any real cares and no itinerary. Next time around (should there be one) I would like to travel with no time restrictions what-so-ever; just keep traveling and working part time jobs till we had our full! Lastly I found out again just how tough and resilient my mate is, and despite our regular sparring matches over some minutia, how much I like and respect her. Oh and Jack too was a super star that was a great travel mate, despite his occasional chasing of squirrels along the way (we don’t have squirrels on San Juan Island, so this was a new quarry for him).
As for being ‘home’ (the road actually felt pretty much like being home) my ‘gizzard’ was warmed through by the greeting we received as we arrived on the 7 pm ferry and into the arms of our ’friday nighters Club’ seated around a large table in one of our favorite watering holes, The Cask and Schooner. Our family of friends as always, is the bedrock of our life. I am happy to be back to our hot tub (even though it has a leak somewhere that is nettlesome), our nice big bed, our bidet, and the freedom that Jack has with the run off our 5 acres.
To all our ‘Road Angels’ I give thanks! You made our journey safe and fun. To our trusty B150 Econoline Travel Time conversion van; you were terrific! A more comfortable, safe, and trustworthy rig, I have not known. We averaged about 16.5 mpg for our 10,500 journey…not great fuel economy but its other attributes compensated. We could (and did) pull into the smallest and most unlikely of ‘camping’ spots and were able to blend in. The head space, while I couldn’t stand upright, felt workable and I never did bang my noggen. The power of the V-8 was great to have, although next time around I will look for a V-6. The biggest issue with it (small potatoes) was the directional /signal lights on the dash aren’t easily visible, and so Shann often had to remind me to turn them off as we cruised easily at 70mph (of course only if permitted by the law!). We will probably sell our van ‘Roosevelt’, and take the moula and stash it for our next go-around---any takers out there?
Thanks for following us on our meanderings and if you are open to a bit of advice here it goes—‘carpi diem’---don’t put ‘IT ‘ off, go do ‘IT’!
steve
