Well, as you may have noticed, I have not exactly been posting much in the last few months. I had taken a break from my blog and social media. There have been a lot of changes in my life, during which I felt silence was the better part of valor. Now that I have gotten beyond most of that, I am back and ready to begin my new adventures and share some of it with the world.
In the past year, I have traveled over 50,000 miles in my car and in excess of 7,000 miles on my motorcycle. I have visited all but ten of the lower 48 states and moved from my home of twenty years in Massachusetts back to the state of my childhood, Georgia, made brief but important visits with my Mother in Florida and my Grandpa in Ohio. I spent a good deal of time in Alabama, with my girlfriend and partner in life prior to our move to Costa Mesa, California.
My youngest daughter graduates from college in May, my divorce is final, my house has an offer and will hopefully be sold within the month and my family is beginning to find its way in this world!
On my adventure, this year, I spent a great deal of time in California, exploring the beaches, and towns along the coast and in the mountains living in my tent and cheap hotels. I saw the sunset on the a Pacific Ocean for the first time, committed the ashes if my loyal friend and companion Merlin, whom was a 14 year old a Bichon Frise, to the ocean and various other locations along the journey. I watched the sun rise and set over the mountain peaks around Copper Mountain, Colorado. Witnessed the onset of darkness as it enveloped the Redwoods and myself in northern California. Fell asleep to the roar of the surf on dark sand beaches, and awakened to the gentle crashing of the waves on those same shores. Felt the sharp bite of cold as it stole into my tent though the night, both in the mountains of Colorado and in the Sierra Nevadas of California. Awoken to find frost on the inside if the tent just inches from my face. Sat in the snow and stared with wonder at the hot sulfur springs erupting from the ground at Lassen National Volcanic Park in June. Fallen asleep with my sliding door open to the ocean and the I-5 in San Clemente as the sound of the rushing traffic and crashing surf washed over my soul. Lay in an attic bed, mere inches from the roof, listening to the winds of a tornado hurdle cars through the air and tear roofs from houses in the heart of Mobile, Alabama, while waiting and wondering if it would find me as it tore through the neighborhood only two blocks away. Spent sleepless nights with my hand in the bed of my partially paralyzed companion to both comfort him with my presence and monitor his movements in the night. Giving countless late night baths to clean him up and then hours holding and warming him and exercising his legs. I spent innumerable hours alone: writing, thinking, reading, riding, driving, contemplating life and capturing my view of the world through word and photography. There have been late nights in the hospital, visits to animal clinics and animal acupuncturists. Break downs of the body, both emotional and physical, as well as on trailers and moving trucks. Searches for welders and machine shops, long waits for road side assistance in the middle of nowhere and the pleasant surprise of an unexpected sunset in the dessert! I've been snowed on in the dessert, and snowed in in Texas. On the bike, I have frozen in Alabama and Florida and roasted in Missouri while sitting in traffic overheating. Learned to lane share in California to navigate and weave through the bumper-to-bumper traffic and avoid overheating. I have driven or ridden for up to 1,400 miles without stopping and hit the wall at 140 miles and stopped for the night. At a small two man shop on the side of the road i learned how to reset the maintenance light on my Prius and I have had my oil changed at big chain garages, where I taught them how to reset the maintenance light. There have been days, that I haven't talked to another living soul and others where everyone I encountered seemed to have the need to talk, either to share their story or ask after mine. I've seen men go out of their way to help a stranded motorist in need and a cop drive by without a look. Strangers have fed me in campgrounds in return for conversation and a telling of my story; another tried to rob me in the parking lot of a gas station; others scoffed at me for living the dream when I answered their inevitable question, "Where are you heading?" and I replied, "I don't know yet! Whichever way the wind takes me today!"
So, here is where I find myself! My sun and the wind have guided me here, to Costa Mesa, California...for the first time in a long while I feel at home. I can breathe, I can sleep, I can write again.
Today, I am starting my life anew! I am no longer bound by the conventions of how things should be, but by how I decide things will be!
Get out there...find your life anew!
Ride Hard...Live Well...it only takes one lifetime to get it right!
~Chris Wood
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