I was never really excited about returning to my bike, but I did it anyway, because I thought maybe once I was back on the road, I would dig it again, and I wanted to get into and out of Arizona before it got too hot. There was a brief period of excitement, but it didn't last long, and the dog bite killed any hope I had of regaining my love of biking. I became increasing paranoid and negative-- even getting out of Louisiana didn't help enough. The only thing that gave me any happiness was looking forward to meeting my friend in Austin, and that day just couldn't come fast enough. Over the last few days, I had reached the decision that I would probably ship my bike home from Austin, and if that proved to be too expensive, I would sell the blasted contraption. Yup, that's how much I hate my precious Surly LHT right now.
Today, after another hilly, windy ride, I reached a really nice clean trailer park in La Grange, TX. I set up my tent, had a lovely shower, then returned to my tent to fetch my laundry. The tent zipper exploded. I tried in vain to put it back together. I ended up taping the thing shut-- no easy task. There is a lot of tension in that system, and stuff doesn't stick to mosquito netting so well. I noticed that my friend's mom, who lives not too far away in San Marcos, had called, so I returned her call in a sorry state. We laughed that my equipment had failed right around the same time as my fortitude, and she offered to come pick me up in the next day or two. Sweet! I love moms...
So anywho, the biking portion of this trip is done, and the blogging will be fairly infrequent from now on, since I don't have much to say to the public when I'm just hanging with my family and friends. I won't subject you to any more Trivial Pursuit reports. My flickr will probably get more action than this blog. I'm still planning to travel for a few more months, but at this point am primarily interested in spending time with my peeps, not seeing the sites. If anyone would like to petition me to come to their town, or meet them somewhere random, have at it, I'm footloose and fancy free. Have credit card, will travel.
5 comments:
Sounds like you followed your dream and took it as far as you wanted. In my book that's one BIG accomplishment! Enjoy being footloose and fancy free for a while before heading back to the "real" world...I'd put that part off as long as possible.
jo
Thanks for letting us share in your life this past year. You knew the trip would end at some point. Jo tells me sometimes you have to go with karma, or karma takes you along for the ride. Or some shit like that... LOL
You've had an inspirational ride. Many people feel blessed they have had the opportunity to spend time with you. We certainly were touched by your story and then to meet you in person was a karma thing all in itself. People want to be with souls like you, as we did during your visit. You don't take, you share a part of yourself and you leave those who have met you in a better state of being.
The door is always open and I promise you can sleep within close proximity of modern plumbing, he he.
Sincerely,
Bill
And to think Nanette, Faith, Steve and I are just planning to celebrate the year of friendship we've had that started when we all went to your going away party at Big Time!
Get back to Seattle soon and you can join us (and assorted significant others!
I'm so close to the one year anniversary of traveling! Thank you all for your support and kind words. Jo, I'm definitely putting off the return to the real world for as long as I can...
It's raining like mad here, and I got soaked packing up my tent in the storm, but my latest in a long line of benevolent saviors is on her way to whisk me away to walls and a roof!
(And Tim, you know the party was at College Inn. Collagen! The Big Time stinks.)
I hope you keep in touch. I really enjoy the Blog. I'm with Jo and Griz it has been really nice getting to know you and maybe we will see you again someday.
Susan
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