Hey now,

It is 11:17PM, 22 August, 1996. We are home.

My dad arrived in Clovis, NM yesterday morning from Spokane, and got to meet his granddaughter for the first time. Elaine (my niece) was tired and a little cranky, so grandad will just have to wait a bit... Amanda made a great meatloaf for all of us, and Sam made herself some grits-meat free. I went out to get gas, and the gas station had a deal-buy more than 10 gal. and get a video free from a local video rental place. So we got Blazing Saddles. Funny movie, I'm glad to have finally seen it, after all the talk of it during the Inuvik trip. We loaded up the bus yesterday evening, in preparation for this morning's journey.

We left Clovis this morning at 9am, and promptly lost an hour to the border crossing at Texas (central time zone). The drive through Texas was uneventful, and a good portion went through the scenic Hill Country, nice area. About 100 miles out from Austin, it began to rain. It's still raining outside as I write. Around the time we hit Leander, it got so heavy it became very difficult to see the road. We even hydroplaned once. Great fun.

Texas is humid. Very humid. I was sticky, and icky. I really dislike the climate here, and an old aircooled bus doesn't lend itself well to air conditioning... :-( Anyway, we sweated it out, and stopped in north Austin at HEB (a local grocery chain) for milk and cereal. The final leg through Austin was the hardest. We were finally home, but not yet home, if you get my drift. The spedometer kept creeping up to 80, then I'd regain self control and back off, only to repeat the process again. Finally, we pulled onto our street. Indra smelled something different, and began to look around. We parked, and went inside, and got to see our cats for the first time in 7 weeks. In typical cat fashion, they hardly acknowledged our presence at all, other than to ask for dinner. Cats are cool... Tosca is fully recovered from his bladder stone surgery, and is his normal self, while kitty just wants to sit on our laps like usual.

The chores remain. We have unloaded the bus, and the living room is a mess. It's amazing how much one can fit inside a VW bus. Because of the rain, I will not install the spare engine back in the bug until sometime this weekend. The stack of mail took half an hour to go through, just to sort junk from real mail, and now the 'real mail' stack awaits further attention. I emailed my employer from Clovis, and they left a message on my machine, I work tomorrow morning at 9am. Austin Lyric Opera also called, so I must return their call as well. There is a bar on my financial aid package, so I will have to clean that up as well. And of course, school starts next Wednesday. Joy. I think I'd rather just keep on driving.

So it all comes down to this. We've come 11,455 miles in just over 7 weeks, consuming 530 gallons of fuel. We travelled through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, North West Territory, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. We visited 5 national parks, countless national forests, and several state and county parks. We've seen some of the most beautiful scenery Western North America has to offer. We had the pleasure of meeting droves of wonderful people, both in the USA and Canada. We had our share of problems, both personal and financial, but we survived. The bus performed admirably. There were 2 problems due to my negligence, 1 mechanical faliure (the aftermarket CDI ignition I installed for the trip), and 2 problems due to the wonderful surface of the Dempster Highway. All in all, an excellent record for a 26 year old vehicle.

Now we're back to the rat race.

There is a road, no simple highway, between the dark and the dawn of time. And if you go, no-one may follow, that path is for your steps alone.

J. Garcia, R. Hunter

Peace,
Eddie

coyote@vanagon.com
Copyright © 1997-1999, Ron Lussier. All rights reserved.