Home

After my really late night (didn't get to bed until midnight) with really good company yesterday, and after seeing storms predicted for Yellowstone today, it seemed to only make sense to take a rest day today, and prepare for a tough day tomorrow, considering how exceptionally accommodating my hosts have been. It's good to enjoy easy living when you can, when you've got hard days ahead.

And it really does look like tomorrow will be one of those. It's over 80 miles to my campground in Yellowstone, the closest available (where I am now reserved, because the idea of getting there and not having a place to camp is just too scary), and that's with a lot of mountain to climb on the way. The pass is a 1000 feet less than the one in the Big Horns, but I'll be going considerably farther and on a narrow road with minimal to no shoulder. And that's all just to get into the park tomorrow, who knows how tricky things might get from there.

But hey, face tomorrow when it comes (I.e. procrastinate), right? Today I have a nice house where I feel welcomed, a warm bed, and the promise of homemade pizza tonight. Life is good, very good. My host, Robin, told me that she did this largely because she wanted to know that young people the age of her own children would have a place to stay on the road, and that she wanted to give a taste of home away from home. And that really is what she's done here. Today, right now, I feel home. I get to have a home, and be home, warm, safe, comfortable, and familiar, for this short time, before I set back out into the crazy, wild, adventurous world out there. It's really great.

I realized the other day, that despite doing this trip solo, I have felt more connected to people than ever. I'm on my own, in so many ways, the only one pedaling my bike, stuck inside my head with only my own company for hours and hours on the road each day, the one making all executive decisions, the one who ultimately has to handle any crisis that comes, with no one to defer to or turn over the the reins to. ...And yet, I'm also not alone at all. My friends and family are a call or text away for moral support or advice and I meet helpful strangers who I connect with basically every day. I'm making new connections with so many great people out here at every turn I make. And I'm carrying everyone from back home with me everywhere I go, in every sense of the word. Even in a literal, physical manner, I'm carrying with me so many things given to me by my friends and family, that something of them with me wherever I go. My tent from my brother, my sleeping bag from my best friend, med gear from my parents...and the list goes on ever on. I'm not alone out here, not at all. In a way, far as I travel, I've always got home with me.