Home again, home again - reflections

From Nashville we drove the rest of the way across the Blue Ridge back to Charlotte. It was a pleasant trip back, though with a sense of sadness in the air. We certainly had our ups and downs - being trapped with 3 relative strangers for six weeks solid will always yield some hardships - but overall, it felt like the end of an age. Even more so, looking back from where I am now: full-time job with no lengthy future trips on the books.

In many ways, it was the perfect summer. Much like the one before in Europe, but with a whole different basket of experiences. In some ways, it was much harder than last summer. Constant driving takes its toll, and in Europe I was mostly alone, making my own schedule and decisions. Trying to coordinate 4 people's plans and accommodate culture differences was challenging. However, it was a growing experience for all of us. We all grew up a little bit. We learned what it was to compromise and to forgive.

The coolest part of this shared experience would have to be that it was SHARED. I have some amazing memories from Europe, but in many cases, I will be the only one who stores those moments in my head. For the rest of our lives, Carmen, Theresa, Enrique and I can call each other up and say "Do you remember when...?"

People keep asking me what my favorite part of the trip was. That is a hard call - America is so much more beautiful and amazing than I could have previously imagined. Pictures cannot do these places justice. You can't impose a feeling of majesty when showing someone a photo of a redwood tree. You can only get that from standing there, amidst them - realizing how small you are in comparison.

I believe my "favorite" places would have to be the national parks and lands. Big Bend, Grand Canyon, Sedona, the redwood forests, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and the Badlands. But you know, just driving through the west, seeing the strange sight of plateaus rising from great plains, the red soil of Sedona and parts of Wyoming (or was it S. Dakota?), the trees and mists of the West Coast, the oil rigs pumping the flatlands of Texas - that was what made this trip what it was.

And even though I'm sad it's over, I sit at my office desk and look at the photographs I have taped all over the walls around me, reminding me that I am one of the lucky ones. I got to see - really see - America.