Traveling Cargopants

Only a month away… still a month before I embark, but it’s ONLY a month. So much to do in so little time. Lots of errands and other loose ends to tie up, a handful of things to buy. So many things to prepare for.

I’m already very excited, and still the excitement continues to build! Oh, wait… I forgot to tell you what I’m excited about…

Well, starting in about a month from now, I’ll be heading out on a journey, an odyssey, a pilgrimage into the self… a road trip to see ALL (well, most of) the west coast of the USA!

Envision a map of this country, then place your Monopoly token of choice at GO in the zip code 87532 — it’s about 1/2 an hour north of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Now start sliding that token up north to Montana, west over to Washington, do a small arc up into Canada, then all the way down the west coast to Tijuana, Mexico, pop back up into Estados Unidos and slide along the south until you get to Carlsbad, New Mexico, and then head back to the starting point to collect your $200 (approx. $3,147.45 adjusted for inflation). Now that you have the basic path, erase the lines you just drew and redraw them with lots of sideways lines and detour lines and pitstop lines. Make sure that your lines cross over all the famous nature places on the way like Yellowstone, Glacier Nat’l Park, Mt. Olympus, the Redwood Forests, etc. And you can even include some not-so-famous places too. Your lines should contain plenty of side trips to natural hot springs, and there should be lots of circles around many well-known (and lesser-known, but still very cool) cities along the way.

This trip will take about two months, and although I’m sure I won’t see everything I want, I’ll see everything I need to. There are many purposes for this journey, too many to list in full, but a few of the main ones are (in no particular order):

• Become a better writer and storyteller (starting with this post!) through this travel blog and a private journal
• See much of the western half of America, some of Canada and a little bit of Mexico, nearly all of which is totally new to me
• Meet many new great souls, experience the richness of many cultures, taste many delicious foods, and bask in the life-giving energy of nature in many new places
• As I travel across the earth physically, also traverse a parallel journey within to learn more about the self and strengthen my connection with the divine
• Find the next place that calls to me to live, be, learn and grow

I’m doing my best to plan for this trip so at least I have a bearing to follow on the compass of the universe. But I’m also opening myself to unknown possibilities and letting the divine be my tour guide. There’s one thing I know for sure, and it’s that God always has our back. When we open ourselves to being a part of the infinite, then we begin to see that what we perceive as coincidences are just pieces to the larger picture of serendipity.

So I welcome you to be a part of my journey in any form that you can manifest. You can read the stories and view the pictures here to travel vicariously through me. You can come on parts of the trip to go on a new adventure, or to lead me somewhere that’s already special to you. You can offer a place to stay or just some good company as I’m traveling through. You can even just call, email, or post a comment here if you’d like to share something.

In closing, here’s a fitting song of parting that I learned when I was a kiddo…

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin’ until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, ’till we meet again.

“Happy Trails” by Dale Evans, Queen of the West (story & lyrics, story)

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This entry was posted by Hargobind on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Journey. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.