The other day I met a girl in the coffee store who had just bought a one way ticket to Africa. Her family lives there and she had decided to go back to them. A few days later I met someone else that had decided to buy a one way ticket to Australia and both got me thinking about the idea of buying a one way ticket.
Travel
Why you should buy souvenirs
You might think that souvenirs are a waste of money, but I think otherwise. It’s not that I always buy a lot of useless stuff every time I’m traveling, but I like to to buy something when I visit a special place. It’s nice to have a reminder of a good memory. Recently I discovered the importance of souvenirs again.
Since a couple of weeks I’m working two jobs.
Adjusting to being back home
It’s Friday morning and I’ve been back in the Netherlands now for almost two weeks. When I was traveling I hoped to be able to continue writing each day, but as expected that turned out to be harder while being back home. I wrote some pages on the first days that I was back, but I didn’t post them because it felt like it was quite mundane. Now that I quickly glance over the stories I realise that it could have been interesting to post them, but it’s okay. When I was traveling I wrote about what I did each day and that was great, because I could share my adventures with the world. If I write about my days while being back home, it feels more like a diary and since most people are quite busy I don’t think many people would have the time or interest to read it anyway.
Talking about being busy, that’s one of the first things I had to adjust to coming back home. People here are so busy. In traffic and in public places, everyone seems to be rushing. Coming back from high mountains, big forests and wide open fields, it takes some time to get used to living in little Netherlands again.
Going home
When I have a flight to catch I usually set three alarm clocks in the morning. I wake up before they all go off and for a second I don’t know where I am. Then I know I’m in the hotel room near the airport. I wake up and post my blog of two days ago. The nice thing of being a little behind with blogging is that even when I’m back home, the story will go on for at least two more days. When I’ve finished the blog, I take a shower and go downstairs for breakfast. I always like to be early at the airport, but I still have plenty of time. I get my bags ready, go for a second breakfast and then make a planning for the week in my bullet journal.
Around ten o’clock I check out of the hotel and return my car to the rental company. I will miss this fine ride, my mobile home for the past six weeks. When I arrive at the airport I realize that I’ve forgotten my jackets in the car. I quickly get back into the shuttle bus and fortunately they have my jackets at the rental company.
A day in Denver
At sunrise I wake up again. It’s five A.M. and I think I’ve slept about half a night. I woke up a few times and had to turn on the heating because it got too cold in the car, but other than that I slept quite well. I get myself a cappuccino and continue driving. After about half an hour I stop at my favorite grocery store to get food for breakfast. After having eaten something I drive further to Denver. I stop at a big outdoor store which looks a lot like the one in the tv show Last Man Standing. I’m super excited to go here. It opens at ten and it’s only nine o’clock, so I’ll come back later. I drive a little further to a Best Western hotel close to the airport and ask if I can check in early. They do that and I get a great room with a large bed and a nice desk. I place all my luggage in my room and drive back to the Outdoor Store.
The store absolutely exceeds the expectations. It’s huge! You can find here everything you need for camping, fishing and hunting. There is a big waterfall in the middle of the store and there are many stuffed animals like bears, mountain lions and elk.
A long lonely road
I went to sleep sad last night and so I’m surprised to wake up feeling quite ok. Maybe it’s because I slept well or that the sun is shining, but I’m feeling better than I would expect on a day of leaving. I’m also surprised to hear upstairs that my grandparents are already awake. It doesn’t happen often that they wake up before me. I take a shower and pack the last things. Then grandma makes breakfast for me one more time. While I’m having breakfast she has to leave for an appointment. I think she likes it better like this way, that she doesn’t have to wave me goodbye. I think I do too, it’s hard enough already. I say to grandma that the hardest thing is that I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. She tells me not to think like that, but to know that we’ll see each other again and that’s what is most important. I agree and give her a big hug.
I stay behind with grandpa and finish my breakfast. Before I leave we sit down at the front porch and talk for a while longer.
Packing my bags
It’s Friday morning and it’s the first of the month, the day on which I always have to do some work. Administration to do and bills to pay. I wake up five minutes before the alarm clock and start working straight away at six o’clock in the morning. I work for two hours and then my grandma comes into the living room and tells me we leave for garage sales in half an hour. I quickly finish my work and then jump into the car and we drive to town.
First we pick up her friend Sharon and then we drive to the houses that have sales. Grandma and Sharon seem to be professional garage sales buyers.
Driving in Montana
I don’t know if it was the excitement of the long road trip or the lack of physical activity today, but somehow I can’t sleep. It’s quite annoying when you’re tired and cannot sleep. Fortunately that doesn’t happen often to me, but I don’t sleep much this night. Fortunately Starbucks opens at 5.00AM here and I’m in the Colorado timezone again, so it’s one hour later than on the west coast which makes the night an hour shorter anyway. I get up and start the day with catching up on e-mails and doing some work. It feels nice to catch up with things and being up to date again.
At noon I drive to Downtown Missoula. I can feel that I didn’t sleep much last night and decide that I’ll take it slow today.
Seattle
It’s Saturday morning and I start the day with watching the highlights of the marriage of prince Harry and princess Meghan. I wish I had seen it live, but I didn’t think about it last night. Still it’s nice to see this real-life fairy tale. I check the ferry times to Seattle and update my blog. Angie makes a breakfast for me while I pack my bag. When the kids come out we play some more chess and watch television. I really don’t feel like leaving, but I know this time has to come. It reminds me of when I visit my family back home, I almost always take a train later than planned. So also now I check the ferry schedule, but then decide to forget about it and just hang out a bit longer. I plan to leave at ten thirty later this morning. I shouldn’t make it much later, because I still want to spend some time of the afternoon in Seattle. As I drive away, they yell at me “See you tonight!”. I laugh and wave goodbye. It’s really hard to leave again. I really wish I could come back tonight or just could stay longer, but this journey has to go on.
As I drive to the ferry I eat one of the cookies that Eva baked last night and they gave me for the drive. I think again about all the wonderful people I met during this journey and for a moment wish I could go back in time and do it all again. Then I remind myself that it’s not over yet and that I have one-third of the journey left in front of me.
Portland
I learned my lesson yesterday and don’t check my phone when I wake up. Instead I walk into the Walmart store and do some groceries. I’m out of clean socks and don’t know when I can do laundry yet, so I’ll get some new ones so that I’m covered for another week. When I’ve done my groceries Ana is sitting behind her laptop at a table by the food corner to upload some pictures. I get my laptop from the car and join her to update my blog. Then we drive to a campsite and have breakfast again at the backside of my car.
Starting the day by having breakfast with a friend is a great start of the day. We continue driving along the coast until the point where we planned to go east again in the direction of Portland. I decide to make one more stop at the ocean and we walk together at the beach for a moment.