Here I go Again

Daddy traveled a ton when he was young.  He played ball all over the pacific northwest, when I first moved out west he used to tell me all the towns he'd been through, many of which I was just then learning about.  He hopped freight trains.  He was adventure personified.

Mom traveled with her folks and Margaret and Sandy on vacations, they went to Niagra Falls and other interesting places they could get to by train.  

While I was in high school and for either Christmas or my birthday, Mom and Dad got me luggage for a gift.  I took it to heart.

I've been on the road a lot since then and I'm on the road now.  Again.

What if the road is your home?  What does that make my actual physical home, the place where all my stuff is, in Seattle.  

I feel more at home in St. Pete than I do anywhere else.  I feel more at home in Oregon than I do in Seattle.  I feel most at home when I'm on the road.  

I take a mini-version of my larger life with me.  Every computer convenience.  I'm perpetually packed so there's not much to throw together in the days before departure.  I'm way more productive while on the road than I am when I'm in Seattle and I just love meeting all these marvelous people who don't live in Seattle.  I love seeing different parts of the world and realizing, all over again, that it's all really the same, but different.  

So, here I am, in Chattanooga, staying in the basement apartment of the neighbor of the studio owner who hired me to teach workshops at her studio this week.  The host family, a lovely family of 4 from Germany, said, sure, she can stay with us.  The mom and kids are in Germany for the summer so other than hearing the occasional early morning footfall of Arndt, I feel alone, safe and quite hidden from anyone who might be looking for me.  

After 6 long hard days of teaching here, I'm off to Charlottesville Virginia where I hope to see Monticello before working 4 hard days of teaching there.  I fly back to Seattle 2 hours after I'm done with my last session and before I know it, I'll be back "home."  

But not for long.  Never for long.

I see an Airstream in my future.  Didn't Margaret Ann & Don have one of those a long time ago?

Love and Prayers from Here to There.