Deadzones and Difficult Decisions

A brief update from the American hinterlands

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I am sitting in a hotel in Wyoming trying to write a travelogue, but the internet is so bad that to upload a single small image into the post takes over 30 seconds. Uploading a bunch of big, high-quality images like the ones I use in these posts will take forever. And I’ve got driving to do.

That’s no way to write about and share the beauty I’ve been seeing with you at the level of quality I aim for. Not yet. Not from here.

I’ve been out in the wide-open, no-signal West for days now, and this is the part of the trip where driving to and gathering the experiences takes all the time I have. Most days I get into wherever I’m staying fairly late, and writing in the morning risks getting on the road later than I can afford to get to the next stop.

I’d originally planned on pushing the trip all the way to the Pacific before turning around to go back, but I’ve been having car trouble and trouble figuring out why it’s worth pushing another couple thousand miles West and down the coast, only to have to turn around and come back.

So yesterday I agonized for hours until I finally made the difficult decision that this particular edition of Manifest Destiny has reached its outward limits.

There were some people I’d planned to visit, some things I’d planned to see and do, but something in me keeps saying, “It’s time to head back.”

I actually woke up yesterday morning with that thought clearly in my mind.

I don’t know where that’s coming from, but I’ve decided to listen.

Time to start facing the next version of my life, find a place of my own, figure out what any of this is supposed to look like going forward. This is the part I haven’t wanted to even look at.

But again: it’s time.

I’ll be writing more about that as time (and internet access) permits.

I also have several posts worth of adventures and images and videos to share with you, so I’ll be getting those posted just as soon as I can.

Thank you all for coming with me on this weird, often wonderful trip.

More soon. For now I need to get some grub and get back on the road.