Travels with Chelsea: Full Circle

Map Key

I had to use the different colors, because our incredibly direct line of travel intersected itself so often. For those of you wanting to figure out what order these all go in, here's the key.

1) Blue "Initial Westward Push": Springfield to Vegas
2) Red "Back Tracking East": Vegas to Albuquerque
3) Green "West Again!": Albuquerque to Santa Rosa to Joshua Tree (second time in Josh)
4) Purple "Gone North" (and back south): Joshua Tree (second time) to Portland, and back down to Yosemite

Where are we now? Yosemite!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Full Circle

for the first time in ages, the rocky mountains were breath taking.
the journey home took me through the places i came to love as amanda and i traveled together, but also through the places i was most familiar with. for a long time, driving through the rockies is just what you do after visiting with marko- they became part of the 6 hour drive to moab, nothing more. but yesterday, when i saw the sharp jagged peaks of the huge mountain range, i couldn't help but smile. it was beautiful and i had forgotten.
i feel like my eyes are open again and are absorbing all the small details of the beauty that surrounds me each day.
so- i leave this segment of the journey only to begin a new one. amanda and i have finished traveling together, but (as amanda already mentioned) we have not quite finished the ceremony. it is a process that we will hopefully never complete. it is a process of change and movement and learning and teaching. it is constant. it is life.
amanda came on the trip looking for change and that is how the trip has ended for me. i didn't know what i was looking for when i started the trip. i just wanted to go on the road for the sake of being on the road, but it has turned out to be much more than that. now, being home, i realize i am not the same person i was when we left and that makes me happy. i feel at peace- like i am one step closer to the place where i am suppose to be.
my journey continues and as i come to a new fork in my path, i embrace it with the excitement of the unknown. life is good.
happy travels.

1 comment:

AmandaMay 15, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Yeah, yeah, Chelsea!
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leather bound book

Chelsea:

since coming home, i have wanted to draw silhouettes of birds on everything - on walls, on journals, on benches... the freedom of flight and the ability to move on a whim has been trapped in my mind, making the taste of road trip well stuck in my mouth.
there is a time for everything and now, i feel, is the time to cross the grand road trip off my list of things to do. i want this trip to be air under my wings. i want to run and explore and read leather bound books while sitting in the sun. i will lay in the sand and dip my toes in the water, sleep under a tree and not shower. i want these things to be my choices and not just the habit of every day life.
i choose to have choices, i wish to make wishes, and i live to be alive.
instead of sitting around with the empty time i have, i want to be alive with joyful energy and a road trip is the perfect motivation to do just that.

last night pre-flight zero hour nine a.m.

Amanda:

OK, it's not the last night, or even 9am, but I am a rocket man. Rock it man.

Anywho, for me this trip, and this blog, starts with a break-up with my super long-term boyfriend (my apologies to those finding out this way), which I won't be writing much about here, but that's what this trip starts with for me, because before the break-up, I had a plan. And now, there's just white space. This whiteness--this gap--it's emptiness, but I'm starting to see that it's also openness, and what happened to fall into this first gap is a spontaneous road-trip with my friend, Chelsea.

My goals for the trip include lots of writing, and reading, and thinking, not the least of which concerns what the heck I'm going to do with my life. I also want to break out of the mold on this trip, which will require climbing to be something other than the main thing. There will still be climbing, but the plan is for it to be at least the 2nd most important aspect. We'll see how that goes.

Instead of climbing, we intend to be "road-tripping," by which I mean we will stop and see things along the way, and take our time. You know, see important cultural sights, like giant balls of yarn and the sort.

Travels with Chelsea

Where We Actually Done Been

Map Key

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Full Circle

1 comment:

leather bound book

last night pre-flight zero hour nine a.m.

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