When People Ask Why

When I tell people my plan, the first question asked is "Why?"

As in, "Why would a 47-yr-old, single mom reduce her belongings down to what will fit into two small boxes (to be shipped) and one backpack (to be carried), and leave the town in Upstate New York where she's lived for the last 10 years to get on a Greyhound bus and wind her way around the country for two months before finally landing in Portland, OR?"
The answer is always the same. "Because I've always wanted to and because I can."

I'm originally from Las Vegas and have also lived in California, Alaska, Colorado, Wisconsin and Florida. I have friends and family all over the country and Facebook has brought many of them back into my world (yay!). I love to move. I love to travel.
I especially love to try on new towns. You know... see how they fit. See if I like the way I look in them. All that jazz.

However, my daughter does not share that passion, so when she was 10 I agreed to stay put and let her finish school in this town.

She graduates on June 22nd.
I leave on June 29th.

MY dream has always been to live in Oregon. I've driven through it on my way to here or there and I've spent a day or two there, visiting friends. Each time I've passed through, I've had a sense of Home. It has called to me for as long as I can remember and this is my chance to finally realize that dream.

My plan is to get a Greyhound Discovery Pass, which lets me travel for 2 months with unlimited stops, layovers, and transfers and use that pass to visit as many of the people that I love as I can on this journey to the next phase of Being Me.

I will stop in Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Idaho, Montana and Washington before I end my journey in Oregon.

As I have it mapped out, each stop will bring me to a friend or family member where I will enjoy a meal, grab a shower, and spend a night before moving on. My ultimate goal in this is to create a series of Kitchen Table Talks and connect the people that I love to each other and show how beautiful, magical, and similar we all are in our joys, challenges, and lives.