The GeekHiker

So, here it is, the day of departure.

I feel like I should be typing something deep and profound.  Like all those speeches they used to give before people began on long expeditions.

Truth is, though, I’m just flat-out exhausted.

The last couple of weeks have been more tiring than I would have thought possible.  First there was all the packing, last minute packing, putting it all in the truck, etc.  Then there was the long process of going through stuff and throwing out or donating a lot of it.

When you have to pare down your belongings to fit into a 75 foot storage space, it forces you to cleanse your life of a whole lot of stuff.  This is a good thing, I suppose, as I was holding on to way too much junk.  Still, it meant a week of non-stop decision-making about, literally, hundreds of items.  Not that any of the individual decisions were difficult, but taken en-masse?  Bloody exhausting.

After a few days of doing that, there was the shopping and preparing for the trip. Buying storage containers, selecting which clothing and cook gear to take, picking up a new sleeping bag, etc.  I even got a new tent, a big huge 10 x 10, and an air mattress.  My feeling is, if I get to stay anywhere for more than a few days, I might as well have decent sleeping accommodations.

Anyway, several days of that and I started to feel myself getting down.  Between all the decision making and the spending of money (something I’ve never been too good at), my mood was starting to sink.  So, finally, I called it: it was time to go.

Was there more that should have been done?  Sure.  More preparation?  Yep.  More selection of goods and equipment?  Yes, indeedy.

But I needed to leave.  It was time.

So, now I am heading north.  I’m at Lake Siskiyou, a good overnight spot to bed down for the night.

August 7, 2011. The day I decided to hit the road.

It’s also my 38^th birthday.

Which, although purely coincidental, is pretty damn poetic by any measure.

Tomorrow, I’ll be leaving the interstate.  It all feels so surreal.

Or maybe *yawn* it’s just been a long day of driving.