After traveling through three countries, over 3,000 miles, and through around 20 states in the USA alone (we stopped counting after awhile), it feels good to have a place to finally settle - even if it's only temporarily. I realized that over the last five weeks I only slept in a bed once. Every other night was either spent lying on the ground somewhere or sitting in our car by the side of the road as the headlights of other travelers passed gently over us. It's difficult to find a way to explain the events of this last summer except to say that they will be hard to surpass and quite possibly impossible.
It wasn't so much the concerts that made the summer memorable (although they were all truly epic!), but other moments that will be difficult to forget. Such as being woken up at 2am by a police officer in Massachusetts who instead of telling us to move on (we were asleep in our car) merely told us he was checking to make sure we were okay and that we were welcome to stay. There was the conversation in Pittsburgh we had with a married couple in their 40s who talked about music with more passion than anyone I have ever met and showed us that kindred spirits come in all shapes and sizes. There was a young Canadian couple that camped next to us in Moncton who discussed how at ease they felt behind the wheel of a car and how traveling 15 hours a day was not out of the ordinary. There was breathtaking scenery in Canada which rivaled anything I have every seen and reminded me of how small we truly are. We watched Niagara falls dump her fury into her river and lay on the beach of Lake Michigan. We got lost in New York (twice) and had trouble starting our car at 2am an hour outside of Chicago. It rained practically every time we camped out and for every single concert except for one. But even that was wonderful. We stood in the rain for ten hours and made friends because we were all in the same wet boat. I watched the moon trickle over the lakes in Minnesota by night as they lay like so many yards of dark velvet by the roadside. And finally we saw hues of green, orange, yellow, and blue streak across the sky and collide like comets over the Texas horizon as sunset filled the desert and we made our final journey home.
I learned things too, like how to let go of a grudge, to avoid fighting with the person you will be in the car with for 8 hours, how to cook over a fire, and how to let go of fear. What struck me the most in the end was the unique relationship I have with my brother. Not a single person we met on this long journey assumed we were brother and sister; we were always asked first if we were either married or a couple. Then when we said we were siblings people couldn't believe that we got along so well that we would actually be able to take that kind of trip together (although I can't imagine attempting that trip with a significant other - I think I would go insane). So I learned how lucky I am. I'm lucky to have a brother who is also my best friend, someone who proved throughout our trip that he would stick with me through thick and thin and most of the time just laugh at our predicaments. Someone who will work for 30 minutes to start a fire in the rain and who gamely goes to an Eminem concert just so I can sing to at least one song. Therefore, the most poignant part of the trip for me was the end; when I had to take Eric to the airport to catch a flight back to Minnesota and I realized that it was really over. He had hung around for three months - and now the end was in sight. And I cried all the way home from the airport. :)
