Almost exactly a year ago we locked the front door of our just-sold house, hopped in a tiny U-Haul and dropped our few belongings at Serena's (Sam's mom) barn before
flying to Greece. Six months into our trip we said to each other that we could do this for years, easy. We've met so many nice people, seen amazing things, and learned a lot about other cultures. We never would have predicted that we'd be back in the States now. But like, say, all sensible humans, we've had to change our plans this year to protect ourselves and just as importantly, others. So instead of being back in Greece now as planned for a glorious Greek fall, we're picking the last of the wild blueberries on top of Mount Pleasant in Maine. Definitely not bad, but not as we intended. We still feel lucky that we are not rooted to a particular place and we continue to be glad that we don't have many possessions weighing us down. There's a lot to feel thankful for--despite some significant personal loss--amid worldwide agony so far this year.
Time has moved in fits and starts this year and it's tough to not be able to plan for the future. Add in the general sense that our country embraces ignorance and anger over knowledge and empathy and it looks to be one of the most foreboding periods in our lives. Embrace of hate and ignorance isn't new here and is why we hatched our nomadic escape plan in the first place, so it's doubly perplexing to be essentially forced back here. We try to focus on the day-to-day, which offers lots of pleasantness, but it's hard to avoid the big picture of gloom (
and life feels sort of like this New Yorker cartoon!). We've talked with a number of people who feel optimistic
because of the open wounds here and say that our country is at a necessary friction point before positive change happens. We hope they're right.
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Last year, August 29th, hitting the road
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Eating a few wild blueberries atop Mount Pleasant; with pandemic-length hair!
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Rockland sunset and looming rainstorm that soaked us and our air-drying laundry!
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A rough map of the flight, train, ferry, bus, and camp van routes for our travel year
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