The last few months have been full of wonder. This world is a big and interesting place, the opportunities for adventure are endless. So much of this trip was not about a specific place or a GPS coordinate. It was about what I would find along the way.
The trip quickly filled with experiences I would never have had if I stayed home or took the road more traveled. When I was driving to Riverton, WY I drove through a town with the official green city limits sign outside the town telling me the population was 10. There was a street in Roundup, MT that I would love to know the origin story of named "Horsethief Road". There was a park in Arkansas named "Toad Suck Park". There were roads in Georgia named "Asbestos Road" and "Jot Em Down Road". Life is full of funny observations which I may remember far longer than the countryside I saw.
There was the hotel manager that gave me a microwave that did not work, or the one I walked in on possibly having an affair. There was a hotel manager that introduced me via Facetime to his wife in Thailand (for the record, this was the same one that I may have caught with someone else). There was the hotel that had a broken shower faucet that spun when you touched it, but when I had the hotel employee come show me how to turn the shower on, he had to use both hands and push his foot against the shower wall but denied that it was broken.
There was the Airbnb host that entered the house without telling us first and the one who did not have beds made when we came hours after check in was allowed. There was the Airbnb host that came by the house to show me where stuff was but then invited herself to sit down and continued to talk to me for an hour.
There was the hotel that made a different breakfast entree everyday for their free breakfast and the one that gave me a "grab and go" breakfast bag with mini donuts and a nature valley bar for theirs. There were hotels that disappointed and plenty that pleasantly surprised.
There was an Airbnb that said they had a free washer and dryer and they did not and one that said they did not but they actually did. There were Airbnbs that were amazing and one that I had to move out and fight for a refund.
There were cities surrounded by history and ones shrouded in mystery. There were sunsets that encompassed the sky and jalapeno cheddar pancakes that rocked my world. There were two whole states that touted famous huckleberry treats but to Alex and I they just tasted like blueberries. There were lovely people I got to know doing lovely volunteering things.
These experiences of the good and the bad made this trip the adventure that it was. Life is never all good or all bad. But life would be boring without twists and turns. Sure, some of them were miserable at the time. I cannot even tell you how many times I had poor sleep due to some of the accommodations I was in. But honestly, I am not going to remember the sleepless nights. I will remember those pancakes though...
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