All Good Things...

Saturday, 18th, September – 2010. One year ago today, I think I was in Oslo. With a whole world still ahead of me. Every day an adventure. Even free hostel breakfast a surprise.

I think I was sharing a room with three big Scandinavian construction workers, and there was a weird cold fish in mustard sauce for morning meal.

I think there was a Frisbee golf course out on the field I had to cross to take the train into town.

I think.

So much has happened. Some memories seem fresh, others faded – the ones truly forgot I wouldn't even remember ever knew. So much has happened, an while I'm sure re-reaig, and watching videos, and flipping through pictures will help bring it back – it will all just be an echo of what was. A life once lived.

Tomorrow – tomorrow I'll have to get on the internet, and see if I have work. Tomorrow I'll have to start e-mailing everyone and thank them for helping make my trip what it was. Tomorrow I'll have to get Combo C! Wait, tomorrow is Sunday. There is no Combo C on Sunday. Just Monday to Friday, eleven am to two pm. That is, if it still even exists at all.

Tomorrow...

I might even pick up an X-Box 360. I might buy a new computer to deal with all my pictures. But that's tomorrow. I'll need to pay off my credit card, check my bank balance. Tomorrow.

But that's all in the future. That's once my trip is done and over with. Today, it's still on. It's still on.

I can feel the world rushing back, and to be honest, I'm not really liking it. I know I will once I'm back and everything is back to normal (it bothers me how quickly I'll adapt to living back in the 'real world.' But once I adapt, I'll be glad for it.) There's not much to do today. Just drive through Michigan, cross a final time zone, and then head back up into Canada. A country my presence has not been felt in for over twelve months.

Texting with my mother, she plans dinner and says she wants to hear stories when I get back. Having read half a million words over the course of this year, I'm not sure what stories I have left, but I'll be able to field questions.

I can already feel myself retreating to the computer room, and locking myself away on the internet. And I don't like it. While at the same time I do want to play video games.

It's strange – using computers while I travelled felt like filling time, or staying connected with people. Now? Now it will feel like wasting time.

Ah – but never mind that. As I sit in the car, I try to type up the last few nights worth of blogs. And in doing that, I feel disconnected from katherine, with whom I'd spent the last seventy five nights, far and wide across the country. Tonight we'll return to seperate houses, and have to say good-bye for the first time in a long time.

That she'll be thirty minutes away, on foot, means nothing. I can't think of a tie we'd been more than ten meters apart in the last ten weeks. Maybe once, in a Wal-Mart, or some other shop, where we tried to secret away gifts for one another.

So i'll close my computer now, and start to read Jack Horner's How To Build A Dinosaur. After all – time is running out. Only six and a half hours remain.

Six hours and fifteen minutes remain, never mind that an hour has gone by. Sitting on the I-94, around mile marker 89 a tractor trailer had gone of the road, cab completely crushed. Because of this traffic was not moving. Of course, the moment we passed it people were back up to seventy miles an hour, and then some – but the damage to our time was already done.

While I don't want this trip to end, spending time in a car while people gawk at crushed cars – that's not really my thing either. Just as we decided to pull out the laptop and watch some Archer, since we were practically in park, the speed picked up again and we were off.

More traffic. Michigan reminds me of – of – New Jersey. A grey hell that one is unable to ever escape. It's true, that's what's happening. We're being sucked in. I know it.

Ann Arbor provided some escape, as I now sit in Great Lakes Chocolate and Coffee (I like both those things!) A giant five dollar smore sits beside me, as Katherine ensures I eat my share of her giant caramel pecan... thing.

Five hours still to go, but soon enough we'll have crossed the border and that will be that. World travel: Over.

All good things...