(SAN RAFAEL, Calif.) — It’s strange to be on shore leave from my trip. Right now I’m sitting at my parents’ house, an old converted barn in the heart of Marin suburbia, and my trailer and travel life seems so far away. Part of me is anxious to get back to it; part of me is scared to resume it. I have this overwhelming sense that when I get back to North Carolina, I will have to create something completely new. My money situation and sense of daily structure demand it. I’ll still be on the road of course, but it will have to be in some fresh way. So far, my trip has been a string of long, introspective drives, punctuated at times by old friends. Now I don’t know anyone for 2,000 miles — and the money’s running dry.
Time to get creative. Some part of me is excited by the challenge, by the feeling of having to stand on my own. Just like my dad’s motto has been informing me for the last 20-plus years: Whatever it takes.
On an unrelated note, here are some photos from one of the two days I spent in Washington, D.C. recently
Entering the belly of the subway in Bethesda, Maryland.
In the presence of greatness: Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
Rockets, man at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C
Veterans at a Veterans Day Ceremony at the Viet Nam Memorial, Washington, D.C.
