chasing rabbits stateside

Our final full day was spent on the beach, at first glance it was overcast but it was wonderfully warm and I read (Wanderlust-A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust being close to my heart !), and didn’t notice that I was being slowly cooked and in the process was developing the most luminous tan lines.

I had a chance to check my e-mails and was relieved to discover that there was work waiting for me back at the city council when I went home. Brain numbingly dull work, but at least I would be able to start paying off the no doubt monstrous credit card bill. That was a huge relief, my shoulders were starting to wrap themselves around my ears at the thought of the ‘real world’ waiting for me and how awful it would be to find myself out of work and free to do nothing but wish I was still travelling, so, a big sigh of relief.

We rounded the day off with more food and drink and more than slightly tipsy I sat in bed and wrote:

My god, the things I have done. I can’t believe it’s almost over. I have been to Las Vegas, the Stockyards Dallas, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, I’ve listened to Jazz in New Orleans, survived 18 hour journeys on Greyhound buses, been to Alabama (of all places), stood outside Capitol Hill and the White House, and so much more. I remember those days when it had just started and the trip seemed endless. Now I will be home in less than a week. It’s bizarre, crazy, unreal. I’ve met the most wonderful people and seen the most spectacular places. I’ve lived out of my backpack for a month (I know that’s nothing compared to those who travel the world for a year or longer, but for someone who considered herself a bit of a homebody that’s not bad going), and worn my clothes to death. I’ve eaten the most amazing food and the most appalling, I’ve met people with more money than sense and those with practically nothing but hearts so big you couldn’t put a price on it. I will never forget Justin, the young lad on a Greyhound bus, with most of his family in prison; he wanted to be James Bond, or a missionary. I’ve climbed hills in the most spectacular locations (Cathedral Rocks was one of the happiest days of my life), and arrived at Greyhound stations in the roughest parts of cities. I am aware that I have been to more places in America than many Americans, I’ve seen the country at its best and at its worst, and you know what ? I love it. I love the people and the geography, the food and the buses, the weather and the animals (ok, not the mosquitos). I’ve never been happier. I’ve never been more proud of who and what I am, an English, gay woman. It might seem strange that I had to leave my country to achieve this, but I have and I know I won’t lose any of those things.

You can tell I was tipsy but it gets the point across !!!

posted by KP @ 12:04 AM