Home and away

Juan and I spent two-and-a-half weeks in California. Being back home was incredible. We were hosted in five different beds (six for Juan, since he was also in SoCal). We rode planes, traines, and automobiles…and scooters!

In addition to just spending downtime and eating great meals with people we love, we were in town to celebrate birthdays, to welcome a new baby into the world, to see a new home, and to attend a beautiful wedding.

The whole thing was pretty spectacular, and by the end, I was so saturated with sights and emotions that I could hardly speak. I wasn’t expecting to be bored at home, but I certainly didn’t expect to feel overwhelmed. I mean, after ten months on the road, you begin to feel like nothing can really faze you. But just go home for a week and watch two people totally in love read their vows to each other in front of all their families and friends. Walk into a hospital room where your childhood friend is resting with her fifteen-hour-old new baby. It’s a whole different sort of amazement than what we’ve been experiencing every day. I miss that a lot.

I was a little worried that returning to vanlife would be jarring and really difficult after being treated like visiting royalty for two weeks, but we fell right back into it after our red-eye back into Panama City. We spent the day sitting in horrible traffic reclaiming the dog, then the van, and trying to figure out some paperwork for next week’s Darien crossing. Then today, we had to exercise our greatest skills of cooperation as we struggled through van problems all day long in the terrible Panama City traffic. Somehow, we still managed to get done what we needed to get done. Having Milo with us always helps. Being away from him the past two weeks has made us realize just how he makes every place feel like home, whether we’re sweating in the van at night, settling into a dark hotel room, or trying to diagnose van issues on the side of a busy street, as long as we are together, we know everything is going to be okay.