Mile 10,103 – Best Part of the Trip So Far…
Fort Collins, CO – October 27
We appreciate all the inquiries as to how we’re doing. It means a lot. We have plenty of travel stories to share that will come in blog posts once I hit my stride and Liz decides to quit slacking.
But I do feel some urgency to answer a common question.
What’s been the best part of the trip?
And that is easy.
Seeing old friends.
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I mean it has been really, really great.
I thought I would write about this at the end of reconnecting opportunities, but this rekindling will be going on steady for the next few months or at least we have it planned that way. I am going to met a cousin I’ve never met next month!
As of 10/24 the number of years that have past since we have seen the friends we have been fortunate enough to reconnect with on this trip equals 157.
Weird stat I know.
But I just saw one of my very best friends in Denver who, due to distance, work and parental duties I haven’t seen in 10 years! So I hadn’t seen his wife or any of his three kids in that time. That sucks. It was great to end that stretch.
I saw an old high school teammate I haven’t seen since 1987! 29 years. I got to hang with my best buddies boys in Texas. And so on. Liz reconnected with some high school friends in Albuquerque New Mexico as well. It has been really heart warming.
The real heart charge is seeing my kids playing with my oldest friends’ kids. I went through elementary school and middle school with these folks and now, due to our travels these kids have been able to hang out together. To see the kids take off to play hide and go seek and hear them laughing and doing simple kid stuff, without having there noses touching something Steve Jobs dreamt up is icing on the cake.
It also has positive ramifications on our kids abilities to communicate and quickly make new friends I am hopeful. The oldest is becoming a bit less shy, and the youngest one is quick to latch on to a similar aged kid and start scheming, 2 heads are better than one, and less apt to be caught.
From only a year or two to 29 years the ability to see folks in their homes, and in their chosen locations of residence has been interesting, and a real blessing in all cases.
And the fact that many of these folks have invited this filthy nomadic crew to stay in their homes immediately shows that either they feel sorry for us, or they are still genuinely great people.
Here’s to more reconnecting to come!
( And warm showers, with proper water pressure so that we may wash away the road grime!)