It's been a minute....

I haven't posted nearly as often as I did during my cancer leg of my journey. I have failed at posting during my travels, but please know that I have enjoyed each new city and adventure I've been on. I've met amazing people, seen amazing places, and proved to myself that I am as independent as I've always thought. Traveling alone is scary, you are your own resource; as someone who routinely gets lost, the thought of having a dead phone while at dinner in a new location is terrifying. I get lost in Cbus, and have looped 270 more times than I care to admit.
I've stayed in hostels, utilized the app Couchsurfing, learned how to keep my phone charged, and relished the power of being polite and courteous, particularly when needing directions or information. In Seattle, I flew to an island and hiked and canoed while gazing at the luminescence of the ocean. I listened to the wave organ in San Francisco while watching the ships move past. I'm an expert mushroom hunter and sea lion observer from my stay in Oregon. I convinced a friend to take a boat around the bay to view gorgeous homes, sea life, and ocean tranquility in Maine. I fell in love with Austin, the people, the night life, food, and music. I continue to have a love affair with Boston and the ocean that holds my heart hostage, rocky and forbidding. I am still sweating from the humidity of Florida where my best friend forever resides.
The awe and grace of the Grand Canyon will forever take my breath away. I am a Vegas connoisseur after visiting twice within a few months and facing my fears jumping off a tower and riding rides at death defying heights at the top of hotels. I appreciate the beauty and awe inspiring architecture of an old city in Canada where I entered a basilica and left with a renewed passion for that which is old. I visited ruins and old towns in my birthplace in Arizona, and can attest to dry heat....it's fucking hot. I have seen family that I haven't seen for years and felt the love only family can offer, blood or otherwise.
If your heart has been pulling you to travel.... listen. There is so much beauty on this earth, and we only have so much time to view and appreciate. Don't keep that passport locked away, get some stamps, view some wonders of the world, break through your comfort zone. The world is waiting....