Departure (long gone daddy)

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Listen to: Long gone daddy - Hank Williams.

I say "long gone" because it's been a long time since I left. This trip has seemed characterized by false starts. I decided for myself that it had began a few times. Last June, when I left Vancouver to go start amassing funds for the trip in Calgary, for example. I drove to Canoe, BC., on the Shushwap and hobo-ed it on Canoe Beach, camping illegally, whiling away the hours in solitude and worrying about rain. I still sort of think of that as the first day of the trip. Then there was my return to Van, a respectable chunk of cash in the bank and a dream. Then there was the day I learned to ride the damn bike. What a mess. The battery was dead so I had Wiggy, my moto-mentor, dropping the clutch as I pushed the bike up and down a busy alleyway off 4th Ave, letting me on to try an ride it... Stall and repeat, ride the length of the alley, try to turn, stall and repeat. It was a pathetic sight. Even then the goal was Ushuaia and even then I believed I could make it - if i could only make it out of that god damn alley, that is.
And of course, there was the WEEK I spent saying goodbye to my roommates as I tried to solve the nightmare of nightmares - my oil leak. I can't help but wonder where I'd be right now...
Then there was the day I left to Seattle in November...
Then there was the next time I went to Seattle on April 26th. - for which this entry is dated and when the picture was taken.
But what about the day I finally left Seattle, found my way over that hurdle and kept running until I got to San Francisco.
Or the day that I left SF and had no more friends to stay with (yet...) or even a planned route.

Now, I'm writing this from Tucson, AZ. The Trip has been on hiatus for days. It will begin again soon. So I suppose that the way I should look at it is that every step I take in the direction of my goal is a new beginning...

Embarrassing as many of the details may be, feel free to ask whatever questions you might have regarding the above. I just don't feel like getting into it now.

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Photos

Finally...
or should I say again...?