Initially, I was going to write a blog post about Chicago in May after I’ve left. But I was in Michigan last weekend and it feels strange to write about Michigan without writing about the 2 weeks I spent in Chicago after Indonesia. So here we are. Those 2 weeks were mostly spent resting, recovering from my cold, babysitting, and spending time with friends.
When I first got to Chicago before our trip to Indonesia, I was a stranger to Luci (Therese’s daughter) and she was wary of me, rightfully so. I told her that we’d be friends soon. When we got back from Indonesia, I babysat her a few days while Therese was at work. Bernie, Therese’s mom, usually does that, but she stayed in Indonesia an extra week, so the task fell to me. On the first Monday after we were back, one of Therese’s friends babysat her in the morning and I picked her up in the afternoon. When I got there, Luci immediately reached for me. That’s when I knew I had succeeded in becoming her friend.
The days with Luci were spent playing with her, trying to get stuff done while she played independently, locking her in her play pen to contain her while I tried to get stuff done next to her, eating, and a lot of contact napping. We started calling her a koala baby because she clings to you while she naps and if you try to put her down, she wakes up. While she napped, I watched Korean dramas since there wasn’t much else I could do.
One of the days I babysat, Luci even went to the airport with me to pick up Nathalie. She was flying in for work and I got to see her the day she arrived. We had deep dish pizza for dinner and an açaí bowl for dessert and then I dropped her off at her hotel and I went to stay with Monica for the rest of the week. Of course, I had returned Luci to her parents after we picked Nathalie up. They wouldn’t have let me keep her while I was at Monica’s.
On Wednesday, Monica flew to Houston. She waited for me to leave in order to visit. Just kidding. She went to support her sister who was doing a hyrox there. Therese was supposed to go to Milwaukee that weekend, so I decided it would be a good weekend to visit Maria Daniela in Michigan.
Before going to Michigan, I got a conch piercing. The lady who did it is also from Guayaquil! When I got my second lobe piercing a few years ago, I barely felt it. I knew that piercing cartilage would hurt more, but I didn’t expect it to hurt as much as it did. I felt like a baby because of how much I wanted to complain about it. Nathalie told me it would only hurt for a day, and luckily, she was right. Now it only hurts if I touch it, so I try not to do that.
On Thursday evening, I drove to Lansing. A blog post on that is coming soon.
When we first booked our flights to Indonesia, we were flying through Qatar. After the war in Iran broke out, the Qatar airport closed and we had to rebook. We flew to Jakarta through Taipei and were going to fly back through Brisbane and Dallas. When the government shutdown started in the US, American Airlines rebooked our flights back to be through Brisbane and LA, with 12 hours in Brisbane during the day. When that happened, I knew I had to take advantage of the layover to explore Brisbane. Getting a visa for Australia is quick and easy for Americans. I had to download an app, fill out some information, and within minutes, I got an email saying my visa had been granted. The rest of the group was planning to stay in the airport and find a lounge to rest in during the layover.
When we got to the airport in Bali and tried to check in for our flight, we were told that anyone with a layover longer than 8 hours needs a visa for Australia. That was a surprise. American hadn’t mentioned anything about us needing a visa when they rebooked our flights. Luckily, everyone was able to get a visa quickly through the app and we were allowed to check in. Since we were going to be forced to leave the airport, Josh and Nicho decided to explore Brisbane with me. Therese, Patrick, and Luci were going to get a hotel room so they could sleep.
Australia is very strict about what they let into the country and there are signs all over the airport telling you to let an officer know if you don’t feel well. I hadn’t been feeling well all week and was hoarse after our flight, but I knew it was just a cold, so I kept my mouth shut and let the others do the talking as we went through security and customs. I wasn’t going to let a little cold keep me from exploring Australia. When they were checking our passports, there was a couple at the booth next to us that had also had their flights rebooked and their layover extended by their airline, but they hadn’t been told at checkin that they needed a visa. They had to call a manager to help handle the situation. I don’t know what the outcome was, but the manager seemed to understand once they explained everything, so I hope they didn’t have any issues.
Once we got our bags and made it through customs, we took an airport shuttle to a nearby outlet mall to have breakfast. After that, Josh, Nicho, and I took an Uber to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where we saw koalas, kangaroos, a platypus, birds, reptiles, and many other animals. There was a section where they had the older koalas who were “retired”. Nicho asked a staff member what their job was before they retired. He said “eat, sleep, poop, repeat”. The retired koalas still do that job because “you can take a koala away from its work, but you can’t take the job out of the koala”. I hope you read those quotes in an Australian accent.
The koala sanctuary is right next to the Brisbane river, so we took a river cruise back to the city. We were all so tired, that we didn’t get to enjoy the views because we were all inside trying to dose off while we sat. The boys had more luck with that than I did. I went outside for a bit, but it started raining, so I had to go back inside. The cruise dropped us off at the South Bank Parklands, a big park that has walking paths, a man-made beach, playgrounds, and different activities. We weren’t able to walk around since it was raining, so we found a Mexican restaurant and had churros instead.
After having churros, we went back to the mall to change and freshen up in the bathroom before our long flight to LA. We met the rest of the group back at the airport and boarded our flight. We flew EVA Air on the way to Jakarta and Qantas on the way back and they were better than all the American airlines I’ve taken on long flights. The food was very good. I was so tired on the flight to LA that I was able to sleep a bit, even though I usually can’t sleep on planes. Even though I slept, I still had time to watch all 3 Downton Abbey movies. I had watched all 3 Now You See Me movies on the flight to Taipei.
We were supposed to have 1.5 hours in LA, but even though we departed on time, we somehow arrived late and only had an hour. This was a problem because we had to go through security and we knew that Nicho would likely be taken in for questioning. He’s Canadian and a few years ago, there was a mixup with his visa and he ended up getting deported while trying to get into the US. That has been resolved and he can legally enter the country, but they told him he’s been flagged and will be questioned every time he enters the country for the next 5 years. That seems a little overkill.
As expected, they took Nicho away, so the rest of us continued to baggage claim. We had to change terminals for our flight. Therese stayed back to wait for Nicho and the rest of us went to find our gate. We had to go through a maze to get there. We exited the terminal, walked a bit, entered our terminal, went through security, walked a bit, went down stairs, walked a lot, went up stairs, walked some more, and finally made it to our gate. Nicho still wasn’t out and we were all praying that we’d all be able to make it on the plane. I’m not usually happy when my flight is delayed, but when we saw that our flight had been delayed 10 minutes, we were relieved. That gave Nicho and Therese just enough time to make it to our gate. It was close.
After a 4 hour flight to Chicago, we were finally home and could get some much needed rest after our crazy adventures. I’ll be in Chicago until the end of April, so I’ll be fully recovered before I continue on my road trip.
We landed in Bali on a Monday evening. Amelinda’s sister, Stella, had hired a travel agency to help plan our trip, since there were so many of us. The travel agency picked us up in a bus and took us to dinner and then to our hotel. On the way there, they told us the plan for the next day. We were going on an excursion and they would pick us up at 2 am. 2 am?! I was convinced that I had heard that wrong. Unfortunately, I had heard it right. They were picking us up at 2 am because we were going to drive 3 hours to a mountain, where we’d get in jeeps and drive them up the mountain to see the sunrise. I like sunrises and jeeps sounded fun, but then I remembered the 2 am part and thought, “hell no”. I was still sleep deprived and still not feeling great, so I opted out of that excursion.
Our hotel was very nice. They had lots of plants, in-room massages, a tsunami evacuation route, a tattoo shop, a pool, a restaurant, and housekeeping left towels on your bed in cute animal shapes. When I first entered my room on Monday night, one of the first things I saw was the elephant towel on my bed. I love elephants. They’re the best animal. That’s how I knew we were at a good hotel.
At 1 am, I got a wake-up call. And then I got another wake-up call a few minutes later where I actually talked to a human and acknowledged the call. And then I got 3 more wake-up calls. I’m glad I never found out who scheduled those calls because I was feeling murderous by the time they stopped. Wake-up calls are one of my pet peeves. If I need to be up at a certain time, I will be up at that time. I don’t need someone waking me up 30 minutes before I have to be up when I haven’t asked them to wake me up in the first place. Luckily, I was able to get more sleep after that.
I wasn’t the only one who opted out of the excursion on Tuesday. Therese, Patrick, and Luci stayed too, so we spent the morning at the pool, complained about the wake-up calls, got in-room massages, and then ventured out to look for lunch. We found a Vietnamese restaurant with a menu that was an inch thick. Most of the menu was pictures, but they still had so many options. As we went through it, we had to keep our fingers on different pages to remember the options we liked the most. The food was delicious!
The group that went on the excursion had offered to pick us up for dinner. I was exhausted and was full from our Vietnamese lunch, so I stayed at the hotel, saw the sunset, and went to bed early. When I was at the beach waiting for the sun to set, a lady selling bracelets approached me. I tried to tell her that I didn’t have any money and didn’t need any bracelets, but she said that she knew I didn’t need bracelets, but that I should still buy some to help her out. Business hadn’t been good in the last few weeks. Because of the war in Iran, the larger airports in the Middle East are closed and Europeans who usually get to Bali through those airport haven’t been able to make it. This lady really knew what she was doing. She sat next to me in the sand and told me about her kids and finally convinced me to buy bracelets when I realized that she wasn’t going to leave and I was about to miss the sunset. At least I haggled.
The next day I learned that I hadn’t missed much the day before. The jeep ride was pretty bumpy and the sky was overcast, so there wasn’t much of a sunrise. Dinner was seafood that you had to spend a lot of time taking apart in order to eat. I like crab and lobster, but they’re not worth the effort, in my opinion. I was happy with my decision to skip the 2 am wake-up the day before.
On Wednesday, we had another excursion with a more reasonable pick-up time, so I went on that one. We went to the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park. It has many statues and performances that showcase Balinese culture. Most of Indonesia is Muslim, but most of Bali is Hindu. Most houses in Bali have temples at the front and people leave offerings for the gods every day. Every year, Bali has a Day of Silence to celebrate the Hindu New Year. The entire island shuts down on that day, even the airport. The airport in Bali is the only international airport that closes for 24 hours every year. This year, they celebrated it on March 19th, so we just missed it.
After visiting GWK, we had lunch and then went back to the pool at the hotel. The food in Indonesia is interesting. It’s either extremely flavorful or very bland. When it’s flavorful it’s usually also spicy. Since I can’t tolerate spicy food, I mostly ate the bland food. There were times when only a small part of the food wasn’t spicy or was mild enough that I could eat it, so others in our group would kindly eat my spicy food and give me their mild food. By Wednesday night, we were all a little tired of local food, so after watching the sunset, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.
The next morning, most of our group flew back to Jakarta. Therese, Patrick, Luci, Josh, Nicho, and I were flying out in the evening. Since we had a whole day, I was originally planning to go to the Uluwatu Temple. It’s a temple on a cliff by the ocean and there are free-roaming monkeys. However, I still wasn’t feeling great and we had a surprise 12 hour layover in Brisbane the next day, so I decided to take it easy so I could explore Brisbane. I mostly napped until the evening.
My time in Indonesia wasn’t what I expected it to be. I expected to have more energy to go out and explore, but my body decided otherwise. I learned that if I’m going to go 24 hours without sleeping, I need to give myself a few rest days before trying to do too much. Even though it wasn’t what I expected, I still had a great time. I was able to find ways to enjoy my days even on the days when I felt the worst. I got to Indonesia thinking that if I’m flying to the other side of the world, I need to see as much of the country as possible. But I learned that flying to the other side of the world to spend time in the pool with friends is also a great plan. Maximizing my time in a place doesn’t mean seeing all it has to offer. It means enjoying myself as much as possible, while listening to my body and taking into account its capacity. That’s exactly what I did.
I’m back! I’ve been back from Indonesia for a week and a half, but I’ve been recovering from jet lag and a horrible cold. The cold isn’t fully gone, but I feel human again and I’m able to think about writing a blog post.
I went to Indonesia with the Chin Lees. Bernie and Chris are the parents. Rebekah, Therese (Tez), Simon, Jc, Josh, Mikey, and Nicho are the kids. I met Therese when I lived in Boston and since then, I’ve spent a lot of time with her family. So much so, that they’ve now adopted me as their daughter and sister and they invited me on their family trip to Indonesia for Simon’s wedding. The Chin Lees are from Trinidad and Tobago, though most of them now live in the US. Simon is currently living in South Korea and he met his wife, Amelinda, there. Amelinda is from Indonesia, which is why the wedding was there.
I flew from Chicago to Jakarta with Therese, Patrick (Tez’s husband), Luci (Tez’s 9-month-old daughter), Josh, and Nicho. Everyone else arrived before we did. We had a layover in Taipei and thought the airport was very cool. Each gate had a different theme. There was a movies gate, a birds gate, a music gate, and many others. Our gate didn’t have a theme, but it did have wonderful massage chairs. The massage felt really good after being on a plane for 15 hours. After a few hours in Taipei, we boarded our 8 hour flight to Jakarta.
We arrived in Jakarta at around 1 pm. Jakarta reminds me a lot of Ecuador, which makes sense since they’re both third world countries on the equator. By the time we got to the hotel it was 3 pm. We had an hour to eat something and change before we had to go to the Sangjit. A Sangjit is like an engagement party. It usually happens months before the wedding, but they did it the night before so the Chin Lees could be there. When we got to the restaurant where it was happening, the Chin Lees had a family photo shoot, so I waited in the Sangjit room with the rest of the guests.
During the Sangjit, the groom’s family presents gifts, such as jewelry, clothing, and household items, to the bride’s family. Later, the bride’s family gives some of those gifts back to the groom’s family. There were lots of pictures taken: pictures when someone entered with a gift, pictures when they’re handing over the gift, pictures after receiving the gifts. As you’ll soon realize, pictures are a key part of Indonesian weddings. After exchanging the gifts, we had dinner, and then Simon and Amelinda introduced all their guests and gave out gifts. Then there were more pictures taken, and finally, we got to go to the hotel at around 10 pm.
At this point, I think it’s important to remind you that we had traveled for 24 hours, so we were all exhausted. In addition to that, I’m incapable of sleeping on planes, so I had only gotten a few minutes of sleep during the flights. Thankfully, I’m an adopted Chin Lee and I’m not related by blood. Otherwise, I would have had to get up at 3 am the next morning to get my hair and makeup done before a family photo shoot. Instead, I was going to have breakfast delivered to my room at 6 am, so I got to sleep a little more than everyone else.
Everything on the wedding day ran early. My breakfast arrived at 5 am instead of 6 am. I had been told to be downstairs at 8:30 am to head to the church, but Therese texted me at 8 am, saying they were being sent downstairs. They had to wait for me, because I was there right on time at 8:30 am. They had a woman in charge of shuffling the family from one place to the next and making sure everyone was where they should be when they should be. When I got downstairs, she was looking for me frantically. Fine, she wasn’t frantic, but she did look at me like I was making everyone late. I was right on time though, so I didn’t feel bad about it.
We got to the church with plenty of time to spare. We had about an hour before Mass started that was spent taking photos and rehearsing the bridal party’s entrance. Mass was beautiful! It was in English, but the choir sang in Indonesian. My favorite part was an Indonesian tradition where, after the bride and groom say their vows, they kneel in front of each of their parents and get a blessing from them. After Mass, there were more photos and then we went back to the hotel for lunch.
At that point, I realized that I didn’t feel well. After lunch, I went to my room to take a nap, hoping that I’d feel better after sleeping. The family had a tea ceremony and more photo shoots to attend, but I had a few hours to rest before the reception in the evening. After sleeping for a few hours though, I felt worse and I knew that if I went to the reception, I’d be miserable the whole time, so I skipped it. I ordered some ramen for dinner and I went to bed early.
On Sunday morning I was feeling better. I heard all about the reception at breakfast. The family had to learn a dance for their entrance 5 minutes before they entered the venue, there were speeches, first dances, a buffet dinner, and a lot more photos taken. Everyone was surprised that there was no dancing, but all the weary travelers were happy when they got back to the hotel by 10 pm. The entire wedding was very performative. It seemed like it was more about the pictures than the actual experience. The pictures did turn out beautiful though.
Now we need to talk about breakfast. It was a buffet and there were many different stations. There were Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Western stations. There was an egg station. And there was a bakery station where you could also get crepes and pancakes. I had breakfast there two mornings and it was a delicious feast. I tried to get a little of everything because there was so much variety and it was all so good.
After breakfast, we went to Mass. It was in Indonesian, but we went to a Japanese church, so we had to take our shoes off to go in. At first, it was weird to be barefoot in a church, but then I got used to it and enjoyed it. In Indonesia, instead of ringing bells during the consecration, they strike a gong. I didn’t know Mass would end up being such as interesting cultural experience.
That night, we had dim sum for dinner with Amelinda’s familt and then got ice cream for dessert. We went to the grocery store so people could buy goodies to take back home. I went in not not planning to buy anything and came out with tea and herbal medicine. They had little packets with a strong herbal concoction that tastes like peppermint. When you take one, you feel like your sinuses are cleared immediately. I asked Simon where to find them since I was still feeling under the weather and he ended up loading my basket with different versions of the medicine and some cough syrup. Little did I know that they’d come in handy in the next few days.
That’s it for Jakarta. On Monday, we flew to Bali, but I’m going to leave that for another bog post.
My car made it to Canada! I did too, but I’ve been to Canada multiple times, so that’s less exciting than my car being here. The officer at the border seemed surprised that I had driven all the way from Texas. Luckily, he believed me when I told him I didn’t have any guns in the car and let me in. I was a bit offended that he would actually think that if I owned a gun, I’d be dumb enough to drive across the country and into Canada with one.
I arrived on Wednesday evening and I’m staying with my sister, Nathalie, her roommate, Mari, and their 2 cats, Junie Bitch Jones and Fatso. The cats are actually named Juniper and Smoke, but those are my nicknames for them. Nathalie and Mari call Juniper June or Junie, so I started calling her Junie B Jones after the main character of some of my favorite books from when I was 7. June is kind of a bitch to me sometimes, which is how her middle name became that. Smoke is overweight and constantly rubs against my legs when I’m in the kitchen because he wants food, so he got the nickname Fatso. Yes, I’m fat-shaming a cat and I don’t feel bad about it.
On Thursday, I had lunch with Chris and Dianne, more Runkeeper friends. Later that day, I helped Nathalie siphon wine she made into a couple of wine bottles and I also helped her taste test it. It was really good! That night, Nathalie made cookies and she, Mari, Shaye (Nathalie’s boyfriend), and I had a 3 hour conversation about morality, religion, and whether men and women can be friends while we had dinner. On some of the topics, it was them vs me and on others, I had one or two of them on my side. While we touched on some intense topics, I really enjoyed the conversation. I always enjoy having respectful conversations with people I disagree with, where we’re all just trying to understand how others think and where they’re coming from. The cookies and wine also helped.
On Friday, I mostly stayed in bed. While Nathalie and Mari worked, I read Eat Pray Love. At lunch time, Nathalie made us lunch and said that I shouldn’t feel guilty about reading while she cooked for me after she had been working while I was reading. I felt a little guilty anyway. For the first 32 years of my life, I trained myself to believe that I always need to be productive and helpful. That I always need to give of myself. That if others are working, I should be helping them. That I always need to serve others and it’s not ok to let others serve me. This conditioning is even harder to break when it comes to my siblings. With other people, it’s easier to let them take care of me. But with my siblings, there’s additional training that happened over the last 32 years where I made myself believe that I always had to take care of them, be there for them, have my shit together, be a good example to them, and give them all the answers that I had to figure out on my own. Luckily, I have wonderful sisters who are forcing me to let them take care of me. These days, I think I learn more from them than they learn from me.
On Saturday, we went to London for the day. No, not that London. The London in Ontario. I met up with more Runkeeper friends (yes, I have a lot of those). I had coffee with Besat and then lunch with Besat and Rodrigo. In the afternoon, Nathalie, Mari, and I spent time with Dusya, my godmother. We were going to ice skate, but it was an outdoor rink and it was cold and windy, so we opted to catch up at a coffee shop.
Earlier this week, we declared that Sunday would be our “do nothing day”, so that’s what we’re doing. Technically, I did laundry and I’m writing this blog post, so I’m doing things, but mostly, I’m resting. Tomorrow I’m driving to Chicago and on Wednesday I’m flying to Indonesia for 10 days. I won’t take my laptop, so I likely won’t post again until I’m back in Chicago, but you can rest assured that I will be having a lot of fun.
On this leg of the trip, I managed to exchange a potato for a hot chocolate maker and a magnet. I had a potato left over from when I went grocery shopping in Asheville, so we used it for dinner a few days ago. Mari has a hot chocolate maker. It’s a little stainless steel bowl that you put the chocolate and milk in and it heats it up and mixes everything together. I was so excited when I saw it because I make hot chocolate and other warm milk drinks all the time. Since Mari never uses it, she gave it to me. Nathalie and Mari also have a Hamilton magnet on their fridge. I buy a magnet everywhere I travel, but I wasn’t able to find one here, so they’re giving me theirs. All in all, I think I can safely say that I got the better end of the bargain.
Today marks one month since I started my road trip. It was the shortest month of the year and I’m surprised by how much I managed to fit in and how much I’m already feeling myself change (in a good way). I can’t wait to see what the next 5 months of road tripping bring!
I made a lot of plans for my days in Boston so that I could see as many friends as possible, but Mother Nature had other plans. It started out well enough. On Saturday morning, I went to see my friend Scooter (her real name is Mary Beth) and her family. I had a lot of fun playing with her kids and catching up with Scooter by telling stories about our lives using grapes, carrots, and celery to keep the kids entertained while we chatted.
That evening, my sister Vanessa had her engagement party. She made beautiful charcuterie boards and Logan, her fiancé, cooked up a feast. We had porchetta, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, and brussels sprouts. Vanessa made a tres leches for dessert. That night, I finally understood how parents feel when they see their kids happy and loved. It was very heartwarming to see Vanessa with her fiancé and her friends and to see how much they love her and all her quirks. It made me so happy.
On Sunday morning, I went to Mass with my friend Hijung and her family. Then we went to her house for lunch and games. I hadn’t seen her in 6 years and had never met 2 of her kids. Spending time with them was so fun! The two older kids were very excited to teach me how to play Sequence (the kids version) and Ruckus. They got very competitive!
After that, Mother Nature started messing with my plans. I was going to have dinner that night with my friend Morella. We decided to meet a little earlier than originally planned since a blizzard was going to start that night. We went to Petit Robert Bistro and had their unlimited steak frites. It was delicious!
Up until that point, I still had hope that the blizzard would end up being only a little bit of snow, but the next morning it was clear that I was wrong. It snowed all through Sunday night and all day on Monday. That meant that all my Monday plans were canceled. It wasn’t so bad though. I never got to enjoy snow days while I lived here because I could always work remotely. Now I’ve finally experienced a snow day where I had no other responsibilities! I read, had a lot of warm drinks, and Vanessa, Logan, and I (but mostly Logan) spent a few hours shoveling out our cars and playing in the snow.
Originally, I was going to head to Hamilton yesterday, but I decided to stay one more day in Boston so I could see my Runkeeper friends, who I was supposed to see on Monday. We went to a brewery and caught up. We talked about how special the people who worked at Runkeeper are. You don’t often work at a place where you make good friends, who you enjoy hanging out with even after you’ve left the company, and who support you in anything you need. I was very lucky to work there for 6 years.
Today, I drove to Hamilton and experienced winter driving complications. Either my windshield wiper fluid or the fluid lines froze, so the fluid wasn’t coming out. It was snowing when I left Boston and the combination of snow and salt from the road made my windshield very dirty. At times, it was hard to see and I couldn’t clean the windshield because the fluid wasn’t coming out. I kept waiting for enough snow to melt on my windshield so I’d have enough water on it for the wipers to clean the windshield. Every time I stopped for gas, I poured water on my windshield to clean it. Luckily, it stopped snowing pretty soon and the rest of the drive was fine. Now I’m safely in Hamilton for a few days and I’ll see my sister, more Runkeeper friends, and my godmother.
Two days ago, I drove from Ponte Vedra Beach to Miami and made 2 stops along the way. First, I saw my cousin Ana Belén, who I hadn’t seen in over 15 years. Then, I saw my friend Isabella. She’s a friend from high school who I hadn’t seen in 4 years. It was great catching up with both of them!
In Miami, I stayed with my Aunt Lali and Uncle Hernán. Yesterday, we had lunch together and then my aunt showed me around Miami. In the evening, she made us mangoritas with mangos from a tree in their backyard and we watched the Super Bowl. I was rooting for the Patriots, since I lived in Boston for 8 years, and was disappointed by the game. But the mangoritas were delicious and made up for it!
Now I’m back in Georgia for a few days. I drove to Savannah today. It was an 8 hour drive, my longest drive so far, and I’m really starting to feel it. I’ve started looking forward to stopping for gas so I can stretch my legs. I never would have thought that I could be excited about getting to a gas station.
I’ve officially been on the road for a week and it has been better than I could have imagined. I have felt so loved and spoiled by all the people who have taken me in, made time in their busy days to see me, checked in on me, kept me company on phone calls while I drive, and by all of you reading and commenting on this blog. Thank you!
Yesterday, I drove to Ponte Vedra Beach. I’m staying with Lou and Joe, my friend Anne’s parents, and their schnoodle, Rocket.
Today, Lou and I went to St Augustine. We met up with Sofia, a friend who I met in Austin. They showed me around the city, which I learned is the nation’s oldest city. We got lucky with the weather. Yesterday was gloomy, but today was a little chilly and sunny. We also went to the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. It’s the oldest shrine in the county and was beautiful!
This stop was too short. I would love to stay longer, but I’m heading to Miami tomorrow, with one or two stops to see people along the way.
Two days ago, I drove from Biloxi to Atlanta. This time, instead of feeling a mix of excitement and nerves, I kept thinking about how cool it is that I’m driving around the whole country. I’ve only driven through the Southeast and it’ll be fun to see all the different landscapes the US has to offer.
In Atlanta, I’m staying with my mom’s cousin, Marion, and her family. We kept trying to figure out what our relationship is and found a chart that told us that she’s my first cousin once removed. (Tez, I know you taught me all the relationship stuff a few years ago, but I had completely forgotten all of it. I did have a feeling that there was a once removed involved, so don’t be completely disappointed in me.) That makes Marion’s daughter my second cousin. And Marion is my niece’s first cousin twice removed. It’s all very confusing.
Yesterday, Marion and Marcia, my great aunt (not removed), took me to Stone Mountain. We took the cable car to the top, saw a cool but controversial carving, and enjoyed the nice view. We also went to the Civil and Human Rights Museum. Every time I tried to pay for something, Marion would tell me that I couldn’t pay because I’m an unemployed vagabond living out of my car. She’s not wrong, so I really couldn’t argue with her.
This morning, I went to the YMCA with Marcia to play pickleball. It was my first time playing and it was a great experience. The people who were there are mostly retired and are so kind! I didn’t win any games, but I had a lot of fun and I learned that I’m not as bad at pickeball as I thought I would be.
In the afternoon, I went to the aquarium with Micol, a friend from high school. We hadn’t seen each other in 8 years! It was really nice to catch up and meet her two kids. I loved the aquarium! It was big and a lot of fun, especially with the kids looking in wonder at all the animals.
The day ended with dinner and ice cream with the family. Atlanta has been wonderful! I’m really glad I got to spend time with this side of the family. I always see them as part of larger gatherings with extended family. In this visit, I was able to get to know them better. I will definitely be coming back to Atlanta!
The Scenic In-Between 