For no apparent reason and in the dead of winter...

Yes its true. I have completed over 4000 hours of national service in the last two years and spent countless hours driving up and down 95 and the intricate state roads of our Atlantic coast states, and a few others. It started as simple idea, I have all these people I had the chance to meet but now we live far away from each other, so Ill drive to visit them... So I've graduated from my NCCC experience, and ahead of me is a horizon as blank and full of potential adventure as the plains of Kansas, maybe we'll have to see about that later, but for now I'm assuming. Money has been saved, a plan A, B, and C have been established as mere guidelines to what may actually happen, and my stuff is packed (in a red suitcase which I get a kick out of). Now, being that I am used to traveling with my beloved B3 and all of our issued red bags placed like tetris blocks in the trunk of our 15p (whose name was never really decided upon because I was never sure how to feel about “Stanky Marlee flame”... ) I wasn't ready to spent another set of countless hours driving solo through the great expanse of the US. I am lucky enough to have friends who love traveling and adventures as much as me, so for those who may be concerned, I won't be alone on this adventure. As a side note, I have done a lot of traveling by myself and although there is more to come, for now while I have them, traveling with great company should never be refused I think. Plus nothing beats having a partner in crime who can stand being around you for hours, literally just sitting next to each other :)

I could begin the adventure from when I left Maryland, a place I never thought I'd call home, crying because I no longer had two phones to keep track of, never mind a whole team. From there, I went on to visit my corps member who is incarcerated and who I hadn't seen in 6 months and probably won't see again for a long time, but hopefully it'll be because he is off on his own adventures when he gets out. There was also the pit stop in DC and Richmond, love you all! I could pick up again at my dad's in North Carolina, where I spent a couple days sleeping in way too late, watching too much discovery channel and spending time with my family that I never get to see as much as I'd like. Then jump to visiting with my little brother and my nephew who is far from anything terrible as a 2 year old, and then back to Sunrise, FL, where I spent the last three weeks, planning my next happenings. Or, I could just start here, in Tampa my home away from home. It was here that I did the most growing up and finding out about lots of things, and there's something about the way Spanish moss hangs in trees made for climbing and feeling closer to the sunset that makes me smile when the wind blows warm even in mid January. Tonight, in a few hours, Alysha and I head onward and upward to something old and something new. We are two years older then the last time we had a road trip but you can't shake a travelers soul, no matter how many wrong turns, flat tires and bad food you come across.