I’ve now been home for a few days and am over the Jet Lag. I went back to work yesterday to a world completely removed from my trip. I work with computers and things had gone horribly wrong the day before and I walked into a maelstrom of conflicting priorities with many systems down and everyone claiming ‘their’ system needed to be up ‘now’. Hopefully that is all resolved now,

Many colleagues have asked about my trip and I’ve told them all how much I’ve enjoyed it, and how good, and positive, it has been for me. I’ve been asked to create a slideshow of pictures and present these to my colleagues, so will be doing that over the next few days.

America, Route 66 and PCH seem a world away, and geographically they are, but they are still alive in my memory, and will be forever. I’ve been asked many times what the highlights of the trip were and there are many. Here (in no particular order of priority) are some:

• The kind people I met
• Santa Domingo Pueblo
• Chicago Blues
• The 9′ alignment
• The kind people I met
• The Elephant Seals
• Whale Watching
• Half Moon Bay
• Grand Canyon
• The kind people I met
• Seligman and Angel Delgadillo
• Big Sur
• Hurst Castle
• ‘Sky Deck’ in Chicago
• Seeing Bob again
• Oh, bugger it! ALL OF IT!

I really got used to, and enjoyed, the life of getting up, getting on the bike, travelling according to my whim and then stopping for the night. I want to do more of this

I met some great people, not ‘great’ in the sense of ‘save the world’, but great in the sense of being gratifyingly human, people prepared to befriend, and help, a fellow human being. People interested, and intrigued enough with my accent to take the time, and trouble, to ask about, and engage with, my story. People of dignity, happy to share their lives with a person from another culture. Lastly the people enthused enough, and motivated enough, to promote, maintain and support ‘The Mother Road’.

This journey, for me, has been more than a trip down an old road clocking the sights as I go. It has been a major step forward in my life. It has enabled me to gain a greater closure and acceptance of my current circumstances and has shown me that I can move on without guilt from the past.

Now I have completed the trip I can show my actual route (I told you in my initial ‘Itinerary’ post I wouldn’t stick to it, and I didn’t!):

You can see it in more detail HERE

Please feel free to comment via the ‘Leave a Reply’ section, If that’s a question, I’ll do my best to answer. The comments I have received so far have made the effort of creating this blog well worth it. I thank you for your feedback.

Thanks for reading 😀

Chris

Today has mainly been about getting ready to go home. I’ve managed to get everything in my roll bag, so didn’t have to buy another suitcase. I spent most of the morning catching up with my blog and chatting with friends and family in the UK, both by ‘phone and via Facebook. The shuttle I’d booked arrived on time and I was soon at the airport.

I’m currently writing this at the boarding gate whilst waiting for my flight to be called. I’ve spent an hour and a half in the bar having a couple of drinks and a pizza for lunch. Once again the Brit accent worked and I spent most of the time chatting with Jacqueline, a businesswoman from San Francisco on her way to her family’s Paris holiday flat for a couple of weeks holiday.

All to soon I’ll be back in the UK!