Thursday, March 15, 2012

miles and hours lost under tire tracks and across windmill populated plains


We arrived in Port Angeles on a see-saw of a ferry ride, enough to make me feel drunk with out a drink. We got in late and pulled into an old house close to the coast. Seqim was the name of the actual city we stayed in just east of Port Angeles and safely away from vampires that sparkle. We stayed with Joe, one of Caleb's corps members this passed year and I happen to be at least 2 years if not 4 years older then everyone there. Needless to say I felt old, I just wanted to sleep, catch up on my television, hadn't had it since Seattle you know. It's a funny thing but since AmeriCorps and even up til now, being around television when you don't have it regularly, it steals my attention right from under my nose. I'm not a huge fan and I always feel better after being active vs watching television but lately I just sit in front of one and soak it up. Even the horrible shows that come on late night. I didn't get very good sleep that night, for whatever reason but we had a long drive to Boise ahead so we got up early to head out. Before we did we ventured down to the actual water, maybe a half a block down, and no wonder Joe's home had to be built to withstand persistent hurricane force winds, it was windy enough to lean into and push us back up the hill to the car. On our way to Boise we stopped in Seattle to check out their three story REI store, maybe to find something good. Nothing was that good we couldn't leave without it so we left empty handed. It was a solid day's drive into Boise but we had Richard Dawkins and evolution to keep our brains firing away into the night. Megan was a sight for sore eyes. Her face just can light up a whole room. We talked about our travels and her upcoming ones to China with Bradley and this and that for a couple hours or so. It was lovely. Caleb and I spent the better part of the next day in our pajamas, laying on Megan's floor, watching..yup, more television! CSI Miami is just as bad as I remember. When Megan and her parents got home we sat around the table for dinner. Since we were in Boise, a capitol city, we should have probably gone hiking during the day or toured the city, but instead it came down to Megan driving us through the downtown, all of us in jamas, and stopping at a redbox to pick up a movie to snuggle to. 50/50 is a wonderful movie, made all of us cry. Megan and I stayed head to foot, mostly because I was too lazy to leave, but the snuggle factor was part of it too. Megan had to work again, it being a normal persons workday and we had yet another day long trip ahead. Our driving has turned from easy evening driving to all day and soon to be all night driving. From Boise we headed east. Wyoming, another state I never thought I'd end up in we wound up driving pretty much straight across. Too far south to hit Yellowstone but just close enough to drive through Mormon county. I married my cows a lot. Into Denver, right around 10 on a Friday night. George and Jesse were kind enough to let us take up some of their floor space again. We spent some time catching up on what was new over the passed month since Alysha and I left. The next day, my car threw me for another loop. The check engine light came on and I could have cried. Caleb had a friend who was uber sick and in the Denver campus of NCCC. We got some groceries but really aimed to get soup for our sick comrade. I went to see if my car would explode but no one could tell me anything for free so from miles away between the my mom, dad, and me we diagnosed it and came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't blow up on us in the middle of Kansas. From Denver our trip just got longer. We left around 3 in the afternoon and drove straight. Straight in every sense of the word, without reference to sexuality if you use it for that. Salina and Topeka, Kansas while I was sleeping or trying to; southern Illinois and St. Louis Missouri during my graveyard shift, right on through to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Blowing right through central time noting that now all my time telling devices say the same thing. It feels closer to home, but also I'm kind of sad. I know I'm near the end, if not for the amount of time I've been gone but the amount of money I have left, which isn't a lot. But we made it that far..

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