A Trip Remunerative

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A friend dropped the word “remunerative” into an email today, and after looking up its definition in the dictionary, I thought that it’d make an appearance in today’s, sniff sniff, final blog entry.

Webster’s defines remunerative as “Yielding suitable recompense; profitable.”, and I think it makes a good adjective to describe our trip. Of course, Sherry and I spent a good amount of money on the trip, but the journey was profitable to us in many other ways. We had so many experiences, memories, it’d be just as hard to summarize the trip here, as it was for us to document via this blog as we went along. For example, after showing off a fuller set of photos to some of her relatives here, Sherry heard comments like, “we didn’t hear about that on the blog”, or “why didn’t you tell us about this?”. Of course, the simple fact is that there was just too much to tell, too much to show in photographs. So, you all got pieces here, and pieces there, and hopefully enjoyed reading almost as much as I enjoyed writing! Perhaps also you enjoyed “taking the trip” nearly as much as we did…

We are both back in Atlanta now, so we’ve now both officially made it all the way around the globe. Put another way, to quote my friend Jon from his comment posted to an earlier entry: "Always make sure that (number of takeoffs) = (number of landings)". Well, mission accomplished there, thankfully!

I did experience several strange sensations as I came back “home” to Atlanta via Chicago, and no, none of these have to do with my legs being numb, or my lower GI twisted in a knot after a 15+ hour journey:

First, within the first few hours back in the country, I found myself barraged with questions from fellow travelers. I thought to myself, hmm, do I now have some kind of “experienced traveler” tag stamped on my forehead? Or, perhaps I’ve been so long in non-English speaking countries that I’m not used to speaking to strangers? Either way, it was downright weird. For example, in Chicago the ticketing gate agent asked me if I knew the telephone area code for Atlanta. Well, I didn’t try out for Jeopardy three times without along the way memorizing this fact, it’s 404 of course.

Next, when I got off the plane in ATL, a confused woman approached me, concerned that she wouldn’t know where to go to get her bags… Second easy question for this amateur PI. I related to her my strategy of carefully reading _signs_. My tip to her, look for the big ones that say “baggage claim” with the little picture of the suitcase. Minutes later I spotted here by the carousels, so I know that she made it through the labyrinth… didn’t see any minotaurs however.

Finally, minutes later an even more confused gentleman minutes want to know if he should go through the baggage claim area, even if he didn’t have bags to claim. His concern was, it seems, that he might get trapped (?!) in this area. Strange questions from some strange people that night.

The second strange sensation I experienced upon my return was wardrobe related. Sherry and I had left some clothes in Atlanta, and I had the strange experience of putting on a pair of jeans that fit absolutely perfectly (after all they were mine), only I couldn’t recognize them as mine. The same thing happened with a pair of shoes that I wore the 1st day back here. I have been wearing the same pairs of pants for months, and the same pair of counterfeit new balance sneakers since Beijing nearly 3 months ago. Putting on my old, favorite pair of shoes when I got back was just strange.

So, last night Sherry and I and her friends Nicky and Lisa went to see a musical performance, a “show” as some call it. The performers were a two-girl outfit called Tegan and Sara. If you follow indie music, or watch the TV show Grey’s Anatomy (several of their songs have been featured), you may have heard of them. The show was good, and for Sherry and I it brought a strange set of closure to our trip.

Back in July as we made our way down the East Coast, we noticed that we kept missing Tegan and Sara as THEY made there way down the coast on their east coast tour. In Washington DC we were just a few days ahead of them, and then again in Chapel Hill, NC we were only one night ahead of them…Even stranger, fast forward a few weeks to Sydney, Australia. There we were, seeing a poster of theirs realizing that we had once again missed an opportunity to see them perform. This time we were in the same place at the same time, well same city anyway, but we just didn’t know that they were playing. This happened one more time in New Zealand, as we found out when were in Christchurch on the S. Island, that they had just played Auckland (where we just were) on the N. Island.

So, it just seems fitting that we finally got a chance to see Tegan and Sara do their thing on stage, at the Variety Playhouse in “Little Five Points” Atlanta, Georgia. The show was great, and so was our trip. Next stop, Denver, Colorado.

Thanks for reading!

-Cory and Sherry

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Comments

[DaveB]

thanks!
Thanks for sharing your travels with us. It was fun and interesting. :-) Good luck with wherever life takes you from here!

[Tom B]

When does the documentary come out?

[Rawley]

my turn?
Cory, I'd like to do a blog for my time in Germany. How do I start?

[no longer fav aunt]

hope you have a long drive
what no mention of the turkey sandwich, pumpkin pie,rice krispie treats,chees-its or toothpics sent to you at airport by who used to be your fav aunt!!!!! sent to just you to welcome you back to america the day after thanksgiving because i'm thoughtful and caring. welllll. do hope your trip to denver goes well and that you feel better. love you sherry.... ok cory too still. take care of each other loved the blog. aunt jackie

[Sarah Lecky]

welcome back
Wow! What a trip! Had fun reading about your adventures around the globe. Glad you're back safe and sound. Colorado...one of my favorite places...best of luck and thanks for sharing your incredible experiences! Take care.