The Loaf Love Tour Ends
Odometer reading: Start of the Loaf Love Tour on January 4, 2011--183, 941 miles
End of the Loaf Love Tour on April 1, 2011---197, 029 miles
Total Mileage for the Loaf Love Tour: 13, 088 miles.
It is with some sadness but mostly joy, pride and gratefulness that the Loaf Love Tour concludes. Sadness because we have to resume a life of responsibility and work again. Thankfully, we both enjoy our work therefore making it more tolerable. Joy because we’ve had so much fun adventuring around the USA in a VW Van. We dig the VW community. We had enough time, despite losing 2 months, to really take in the awes of what this country has to offer-historically, geologically, and the differences between regions. Pride because we set a goal and accomplished it. Gratefulness for so much. We had the love and support of our families and friends… and employers who allowed us to take the time to travel and do what we needed to do…with the likelihood of employment on return. We made it through 9 months of our first year as a married couple. We have learned to fight differently…fighting nonetheless! We are working on tolerance and patience with ourselves as well as with each other. Sonia really needs to work on the patience part!! She’s well aware atleast. We had a few rough patches along the way but the commitment to ourselves and to each other has persevered.
We had a few bad days/events: getting our bike tires stolen, hearing the tragic news of Danny Z who passed away in an avalanche, and breaking down in Denver during rush hour. But all in all, the bad days were far out-numbererd by the good days.
We both agreed that Zion National Park was our favorite place where we hiked our favorite hike to Angel’s Landing. Although, the hike up to Yosemite Point was a close match. Mountain Biking the Slick Rock Trail was a thrilling feat. Biking through Redwoods National Park without seeing a single other human was pretty extraordinary too. Having our brakes nearly fail East of San Francisco sucked but we were overjoyed to be alive and not have had the brakes fail us entirely while driving up or down those crazy SF hills. Running out of gas and getting our drain plug repaired in TX was a great experience in the kindness of people. We were inundated with the kindness and generosity of all the brown people all along the East Coast while visiting Sonia’s side of the family, now Jason’s family. We were warmly welcomed into every home given gifts of food, chai and all the comforts of home-showers, beds and most of all good company. We were able to see where many of our friends and family live and, in some cases, get a glimpse of the communities in which they choose to live. We got to ski the East Coast and West Coast Mountains. We soaked in some excellent Hot Springs in NM. And we met some cool folks along the way.
Most of all, we feel intimately connected with life in the Pacific Northwest, primarily Leavenworth. Too bad all you suckers in Leavenworth, you’re stuck with us living there!! Now we can say with confidence we have traveled to many parts of the US but Leavenworth is where we want to put roots down . Not to worry, Claudia (the nucleus, the glue of Mt Stuart Physical Therapy, and also a good friend), Sonia told you she’d come back. A little side note--When Sonia put in her Time Off Notification. Claudia asked Sonia, “Are you coming back?” Sonia said, “yea probably”, Claudia said, “Good then you can go, but you have to come back.”Awwww. But if we had to move, we’re going to the Colorado Plateau.. It’s a really cool place...you’d love it there too.
But for now, we are anxious to get home and get back into the swing of things. Pick up DeWayne, our beloved Mutt. Move back into our house. Take a shower in our own bathroom. Start our garden. Unpack the Loaf. And then start thinking about the next phase of our life….perhaps that will include starting a family. Tulsi. Did we just say that??? If we don’t have a family, we’ve agreed to buy a Sportsmobile with all that extra money and keep on traveling!! Either way sounds good to us.
So, we thank you all for your continued positive vibes, good wishes and unending love and support while we were out on the road—it certainly helped. We hope you enjoyed the Blog as this will transform into our journal and scrapbook in the future. We had a great time logging in our adventures and it was a motivating factor to keep us doing our homework for all of our loyal followers. Thank you again.
This officially ends the Loaf Love Tour.
Signing off,
Sonia, Jason and, of course, The Loaf-1985 Westfalia Vanagon.
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