Day 2 of the rest of my life…

In the morning we head back to the greyhound station and buy tickets to Seattle. We stop at a pharmacy on the way and buy some motion sickness pills – hopefully things will go better today. Tailor ends up being on the same bus as us, and we re-enter the US. Tailor, a German, gets grilled at customs by a confused agent who eventually only lets him through when he sees that everyone else is already back on the bus and waiting for him. My customs agent asks me what my trail name is and waves me through.

We get into Seattle late on a golden afternoon, the kind that no-one in the Pacific Northwest takes for granted this time of year. We’re not sure where we’re going to stay, but I get in touch with 3D, and next thing I know we are all at 3D’s house, grill going, hikers everywhere. It’s like a halfway house for hapless hikers. We revel in the company and then go to sleep on our thermarests in the basement.

I would like to go right back to Tucson. I check for flights – they aren’t that expensive. I could be home tomorrow. J doesn’t want to though, he wants to see friends and family who live on the coast on the way home, take the train. I don’t want to spend several weeks taking buses and trains, and I also don’t want to split up from J. We’ve been together for pretty much every single moment for more than 5 months straight. The trail has been a really beautiful thing for our relationship, and I don’t want to just cut that off… I don’t buy a plane ticket, so I’m along for the ride for a while at least.

So the trip home begins.

New (thrift store) clothes, nights out partying on Capitol hill, friends in Seattle, more friends in Seattle, train to Portland, bus to Corvallis, train to San Francisco, train to Santa Barbara, train to San Diego, family and friends and friends and family…

Three weeks later, Dirtnap and I get picked up from the train station by my sister in San Diego. She hands me back my keys. First time I’ve had keys of my own since we left. Time to go back to Tucson.

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