When Motivation Wins

One week of not posting quickly transforms into four. After leaving New Orleans there was an enormous number of miles to cover and unlike the rest of the trip Ashley and I did not have a several day basecamp where writing came easy. But that fails to explain why I was not able to motivate myself into posting in the past two weeks while things have settled.

I arrived in the Bay a couple days into March and burnt a week helping Ashley with some work-related events and avoiding flash floods while playing tourist in San Francisco. I pulled into Portland a couple days ago and have been staying in the guest room of the ever so gracious Rosie. I plan to leave at the end of the week, tentatively. I am spending this time planning and putting more in storage before I set out on what amounts to about a year of travel.

I am intentionally homeless right now. And being here feels less like home than it ever has. It is not a bad feeling.

New Plans

When I set out two months ago I had a very set and romantic idea of the next year. A trip across the United States followed by the purchase of a vehicle that I would take as far south as possible. During the trip across the United States I learned definitively that I would rather spend four days in one place than four days in four places. That coupled with the additional costs and logistical hurdles posed by border crossing made me reevaluate. I would still like to do it but the level of planning needed would require a different sort of travel than I enjoy.

In one week I am driving down to the Channel Islands for a backpacking trip. After that trip I will head back up the Bay for a week to spend time with Ashley before flying to Mexico City. Once in Mexico City I will explore for about two weeks before I start at a language school in Guanajuato City, Guanajuato to polish up my Spanish for three months. It is cheaper than I expected.

The bus system is good, so while I may not be able to take all of the adventurous outings I would with a vehicle occasionally renting a car and splitting it with newly made friends should balance it all out. I toyed with the idea of a motorcycle but my better judgment and pocket book won out.

I plan to play it by ear. I may dislike the school and head out after a week.

Events Not Documenting

I am skipping over a large swath of the trip as I’ve waited too long to turn it into a good, cohesive narrative.

• Swimming with Manatees in Crystal River, Florida by rolling off a kayak into water.
• Ashley’s friend Ben giving us a tour of his retail shop in Downtown Memphis only to walk a few blocks to show us the location where MLK was shot. We later visited the Civil Rights Museum that now occupies the area.
• Driving through Southern Mississippi during tornado warnings and hunkering down in a gas station while the power went out. I eventually convinced Ashley the tornado was far enough away we could proceed only to have the gas station workers say, “You’re goin’ die if you go out there.”
• A terrible customer service experience at Duplin Winery in North Carolina that convinced me to just drive south until we hit Florida.
• Going to the Dollywood job fair and wandering the grounds. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is compelling.
• Learning that a chicken biscuit is a holy thing that I will miss dearly until I return to Greensboro, North Carolina.
• A coupon for $40 of BBQ for $20. I still somehow managed to lose weight on the trip.
• Staying an evening at Ashley aunt’s in Las Vegas and listening to her stories of busting prostitutes in casinos while she worked as security. I wish I could forget what she euphemistically referred to as the jewelry box.
• While cleaning my car in a Berkeley suburb I ran into a friend from high school who happened to walk past.
• Passing through Death Valley and experiencing a rare super bloom. Perhaps the most beautiful area of the country we visited.
• Driving through the Eastern Sierra to be struck by Mono Lake. Wading out into the mud flats amid a sulfurous smell only to watch Ashley almost lose her shoe in the mud.
• Sitting on the ground for two hours in a Tyvek suit shoving phones into burlap cubbies for UnplugSF.

Now

Regularly scheduled trip programming will return. Expect a write up on backpacking the Channel Islands and adventure in Mexico City. I have some other projects in the works I hope to post about in the coming months that are more technology and data analysis related.

I am always looking for travel suggestions!