We finally made it into Florida and, I tell you, crossing that border felt like an accomplishment. For all the stupid fretting I’ve done about the ways I’ve mentally divided up this trip, all the times I wondered if we’d ever even get out of California, that arrival was a meaningful one.
Clear across the country; from one coast to another. I think back to those weeks spent on the Pacific beaches of Southern and Central Oregon and, although only a few months have passed, they seem ages ago now. A different trip, even, another time altogether. What even was this, then?
Google said, “Welcome to Florida,” over the Bluetooth and it instantly set me thinking. We’ve already come so far, seen so much, and it’s still just the beginning. I got a shot of energy then, thinking about all the unknown things to come. For a moment I felt like we had forever – that if these three months already feel this substantial then how much more will the next three, six?
It’s been two nights here near Pensacola. It’s cold, doesn’t much feel like Florida yet even if the white sands and flatness give it away. And each night when I’ve climbed into bed I think how much I’m enjoying this, how I don’t want it to ever end. I miss my mom and our friends and a select set of my coworkers, but all I really need is right here in this little box on wheels.
And there’s so much more to come.
Also written on this day...
- just me, huh? - 2008
- silky smoothness - 2003