Things Have Changed

Janice and me inside the Springfield, Missouri Greyhound station.

Why were we at the Greyhound station? Well, as some of you may know, Janice needed to leave the tour so she could go to her friend Laura's wedding. (Janice is going to be one of the bridesmaids.)

We talked about many possibilities, but Janice's final decision was that it would be better if she stayed home after the wedding. Staying home will mean that Janice can go to Ireland with her boyfriend Chad and Chad's family. And it also means that Janice will be able to spend more time with family and friends before she goes to Spain in September (Janice will be living in Madrid and teaching English for 9 months starting mid September). It was hard for Janice to leave me--and to leave the tour--but knowing that we had 2 awesome months of traveling made it seem ok. Adventures are good and important, but Janice was wise to give family and friends the higher priority. Besides, Janice can always ride the last 1,300 miles another summer.

So now I'm traveling solo. It's different, and I knew that things were different the moment we said goodbye at the Greyhound station. The tour just wouldn't be the same without Janice. All the conversations, the meals, the jokes, the photographs, the smells and sounds of the road--we shared so much for so long. So instead of missing Janice, and missing what we had, I knew I needed a new outlook. A new attitude. A fresh coat of paint, maybe even a new color. I decided to view the remainder of this tour as a new tour, a completely different adventure, because that's exactly what it will be.

In future posts I will write about traveling solo. But to finish out this post, I want to go back and remember some of the good times Janice and I had.

If you know Janice, you know that she is a soft spoken person. Out there on the road, with the wind and sounds of passing cars, I couldn't always hear what she would say. I said "What?" quite a few times. Early on, this would cause tension, but as time went by, the "whats" became a thing of beauty, a springboard for humor. Sometimes I'd repeat what I thought Janice said. "Did you just say: 'French fry master'?" I'd ask. "No," said Janice a little louder, "I said let's ride faster."

And then there's Janice's tree identification skills. She was quite good at IDing new trees (probably because Janice is very determined and very patient). And when we were out there in the forest, sweating and swatting mosquitoes, it was a big help to have Janice pull though with the right tree at the right time.

And then there were the nights where we huddled in our tent and watched The Office on Janice's iPod. We'd chuckle quietly as the crickets and cicadas sang their nightly song.

I could go on and on remembering the golden moments and writing about how great it was to travel with my sister, but I think you get the idea: it was pretty great. Over the last 3,000 miles we digested a large portion of America. The West Coast and the Pacific Ocean. The Cascade Range and Oregon. The Rocky Mountains and the wide open valleys that run along beside them. The farms and fields and friendly people of Kansas. Thanks Jan! We had an incredible journey that we will never forget! It was a privilege and a joy to ride with you. I know we'll be out there again, in the not too distant future, but until then we will have all the wonderful memories from this summer.