Old England

We have just passed exit 1 on the Massachusetts Turnpike signaling our departure from New England. Niskayuna, New York will be our first stop on this world adventure. Most likely Old England will be our last.

I wonder how I will feel as I board that last plane home? Will it feel like I am leaving a new life and returning to an old one? Or will these next 18 months be more than a vacation, changing my life so that everyday from then on will feel like a vacation as well? Friends and travel books have warned me about the three-month-wall, that point when the desire to sleep in your own bed in your own home is so overwhelming that it ends the trip. I wonder if this will happen to me? (Of course, in my case, I have no home and my bed is standing upright against the wall of a storage bin).

In the next several months we will become seasoned travelers. I am looking forward to that and being free from the pace of the everyday rat race. But mostly I am looking forward to being stimulated by the richness of the different cultures we will sample. In understanding how other people live, I hope to find a better understanding of myself and where I belong.

We have just passed the sign to Albany. Loreena McKennit on the tape deck is singing of Old England. Despite my enthusiasm for this trip, I am already missing New England and the friends and family I am leaving behind.