The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Etymology of "Vacation": "Freedom" or "release", from Latin vacationem, "leisure, being free from duty", from vacare, "be empty, free", or "at leisure".

There is a theory that the mind, in preparation for a vacation becomes absent long before the body... whether it's true for all I won't speculate, but it's true for one, this one :-) Being the restless type in general, the advance knowledge that I get to drive hundreds of miles through largely unknown territory and spend my days exploring at will for three weeks...it's nearly unbearable. With 3 days remaining until I am officially unleashed, I'm practically levitating into the car.

I asked myself a question last night, while hunting through my garage for the hiking gear I've neglected to use for the past year, why I hadn't taken a trip like this much earlier and it wasn't until a dozen or so boxes and ultimately breaking the latch on a locked trunk later (which I might add did ultimately lead to finding the aforementioned gear) that the answer came to me. It simply wasn't the right time. As those closest to me know, in my mind an escape route is always at hand, I've been the girl who knows where all the exits are located since as long as I can remember and I'll admit that my suitcase has been packed over and over again as events in the recent past unfolded. But, having fought the instinct to flee (with no little thanks to my dear friends, even if you didn't know it), and though I will find some satisfaction in the view of my rear view mirror, there is a new sense of restlessness that has arrived with this journey, a feeling of balance and of a strength in knowing that this trip is not an escape from anyone or anything, that instead of running away under the cover of darkness, I'm walking out the front door, in the fullness of the light, to go and do and see, to escape into instead of away from.

I'll try to post as often as I can, but I'm intentionally positioning myself in regions that are not known for their rampant wi-fi connections, so if I'm absent don't worry...call the cell, I'll answer and politely ask the dark, mysterious stranger I picked up along the road to stop the noisy task of sharpening his knives in the front seat while I talk to my friends :-)

I'm JUST kidding Sharon, no hitch hikers, I promise! :-) Unless they look like Brad Pitt in Thelma & Louise... or Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It...or Brad Pitt in Troy...Or Brad Pitts second cousin...

xoxo