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.

The End

Chelsea and I had an awesome time in Yosemite! The rain eventually stopped, the sun came out, and we moved out of our friends' house tent and into Camp 4, the notorious climbing campground. In Camp 4, we made approximately 438 new friends, and proceeded to do all kinds of fun things with all of these friends. I know I'm leaving out some stellar ones, but some things that come to mind are The Alcove Swing, the moonbow, and, well, climbing, of which I'm quite fond. The Alcove Swing is a 200 foot rope fixed to the wall above an alcove. You clip in and run off the ledge only to swing way out over space, catching big air, and a fantastic flying sensation. Chelsea was the first on this one, as I was busy being all, "Oh, I don't know..." But then I did it many times, and am uber-glad I did. We also got footage of our first swings. On later swings, we turned all about, upside-down and what-not, and had a grand time of it.

The moonbow is a like a small rainbow formed in the mist of Lower Yosemite Falls during a full moon. We wandered out to the bridge over the lower falls in the dark, got sprayed by the strong springtime falls, and could actually pick out the colors of the moonbow, which arced over the river. Amazing.

Climbing, was, well, climbing. Chelsea did a little, but mostly played with other friends. I'll let her fill you in on those activities, because I know she did a lot of fun stuff while I was clambering up rocks.

Overall, this last week together has been amazing, and yesterday morning, when Chelsea left, it was pretty sad. But it also felt, for me, like this trip was completed, and it was the right time.

So, what next? For me, I've been keeping an open mind throughout this trip. I started out with a complete lack of plans for after the trip. Shortly into the trip, I thought I might stay in Yosemite for a month or so afterwards, which has become the plan. All across the west, I saw all different options and opportunities appear, from job offers in an ice cream shop in Denver and a Mexican cafe in Escalante, Utah, to ideas of grad school or an internship with National Parks or working and living on an organic farm on the California coast.

Funny enough, all of these seemed like pretty good options. But what I've settled on for now is this plan: In Joshua Tree, I did some guide work for a local company. I really enjoyed the crew I was working for, and then found out that they worked right near Yosemite during the summer. So I asked about part-time work in the Eastern Sierra, and it looks like I'll at least pick up a few days of work. So right now, I'm settling in for a season in Yosemite. I'll drive out whenever there's work, and live here and read and climb and make new and awesome friends when there's not. And the first big move in my settling in? I just bought a cheap bike! I'm really excited about spending a season here, and about this next portion of my trip. And I'm happy to see how the transition, the growth, and the ceremony of the trip with Chelsea is not complete, because I've started realizing that it shouldn't be complete. I don't know what all I will learn on this portion of the journey, or who I'll be afterwards, but I'm excited to find out.

Thanks to everyone who was part of this trip, from the people who gave us their blessings from back home to the people we met and were taken in by along the way to the people who traced us on this map with this blog. And a super special thanks to Chelsea, because I probably wouldn't have had the courage for this trip without her, and even if I had, I would have missed out on a lot without her. It was a great trip, and the only thing I would have wished differently is that we could have picked up all the new friends along the way, just adding them to the car the way we added them to our address books and memories. Thanks to everyone, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.