Hitting the road!!

September 9th, 2021


The time is now!! I leave tomorrow!!

I am at a loss for what to say here. I want to acknowledge the beginning of this amazing journey—a year in the making—but I’m a bit speechless.

As I type, I’m sitting in my condo in the early evening, on my wonderful sectional couch. This is the couch I got with the insurance money after the flood. The flood that started all the cascade of terrible things that happened in my life in 2020. The cascade of terrible things which then ultimately managed to rearrange my life in such a way as to bring the idea of this trip to my mind.

Life is strange like that.

Everything is packed up. Many wonderful friends and neighbors helped me to get most of my belongings to my storage unit. Other wonderful neighbors took some of my “treasures” into their own homes, lightening my load. Others took treasures with a willingness to gift/redistribute them after I leave. (Huge shoutout to the Buy Nothing Project, which has transformed my life way more than words could ever convey. I highly recommend that if you haven’t joined your local Buy Nothing group, you do so now. It’s so much cooler than you could ever imagine, even if you already think it sounds cool.)

I don’t have a tenant lined up yet, but I trust that my property manager will find one for me soon. It’s been a relief, actually, not to have had people coming through and touring the place while I’ve been living here and preparing to move out.

I had my last day at my job of the past 18 years, this past Friday. My coworkers sent me off with vegan pizza, cake, and ice cream, a lovely card, and even a Visa gift card to help me on my way. It was a good sendoff.

I’ve been spending many hours contacting various hosts in the various places I’ll be staying in the next two months, and it’s been so lovely to connect with such great folks! (Hello to any of you who may be reading!) I’m feeling the abundance of my human-family network, between friends, friends of friends, and Warmshowers and Servas folks. I’ve got most of my lodging for the coming month and next worked out, in Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. (Although if you know people who might resonate with me and wish to host me in any of those states, do feel free to put us in touch! Having multiple options is always a good thing since circumstances can change quickly, and it’s also just great to meet cool new people.)

I’ve been soaking in the support and enthusiasm from so many of you over the past few weeks as well. I’m honored and humbled to hear how my own path of following my own dream is serving as inspiration to many of you. I can’t wait to see what you all end up manifesting in your own lives!

Tomorrow morning I will head to Salem, Oregon—a bike ride that’s familiar to me from many summers of visiting my then-sweetie who lived there. (I had hoped to visit him on this trip as well, since we remain close friends, but sadly the prison has closed visiting again in the wake of the delta variant.) I will stay with one Warmshowers host couple, as well as one long-time friend, during my two nights in Salem, and in the intervening day I plan to have brunch with a friend at Infinity Room—Salem’s only all vegan restaurant—and then go hiking at Silver Falls State Park, which I have never visited! Then, it will be on to Corvallis.

I’d better publish this now, so I can pack up out of here, and go get dinner. I will do my best to keep you all posted on my journey, though I suspect it will take a bit of time for me to find a rhythm of when I can make posts.

See you soon!

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