Simmering away.

Well…crap…we kind of dropped the ball.

We wandered to the edge of the earth, failed to stop, and kept trudging along, stepping almost mindlessly into the atmosphere, floating away into the ether. Though not physically tired (thanks to our many, many hosts who kept us well rested and well fed), our minds quietly turned the switch to “off”, before slipping into a daze and refusing to snap out of it. Which has been, needless to say, frustrating. I imagine we have had the look of small children glued to a cartoon television show, but instead of brightly colored pictures, we have been watching trees, the sky, blank walls. There were a few “what the hell is the plan now” moments, but over all, I’d say we are just pleasantly shell shocked.

But, I guess that is normal after completing something that consumed you for the better part of the last six months.

Tim and I have been talking through this experience, trying to distill it down, concentrate the happenings and learnings into something more compact and less bulky than our current explanation (it is back-breakingly hefty). I would share this “summary” with you, but is very long and I am fearing that if I type it out, you would recoil in horror that we have been regaling unwitting subjects with this conversation squelching monologue and never come back to visit us again.

But we want you to come back – to stick around for the remainder of the trip (yes, it is technically over, but the boil has now reduced to a simmer, and our summations, ideas, feelings, and experience has begun to thicken, coming together in something a bit more smooth and cohesive. I’d say we are now making beurre blanc; before we were making coleslaw). So, here’s the deal: Show up every four days and we will have another story to tell. Keep us accountable - Every four days! Who knows, we may get crazy and (gasp!) start churning posts out everyday or every three days, but we aren’t making any promises.