It's Go Time

It all begins. I finally 'finished' packing my big bag and weighed it. It was 75 pounds! That's 25 over the limit. Looks like there's work to do. So I opened he bag up on mom's stoop and dug in. Jettison those blank spiral notebooks, the hard cover novel, tent. Trade the flannel sheets in this bag for the small pillow in the other. I got it pretty close to weight and zipped it back up.

I said goodbye to Mom on that back stoop. I wondered if she might get all teary-eyed, but no, that's not her style. Never has been.

"Take care of your self mommy," I said. "Don't forget to eat."

When I checked in at the airport I was still eight pounds over and thus subject to a $100 fee. So right there at the counter I opened up the big bag and did the Sophies choice thing. Got rid of the snacks first. Peanut butter crackers and granola bars. Made it. Over by .a half pound but they let it slide.  I made it to DC then Shepherdstown, where I had a boozy fun night with long - time friend Shep.

Next stop: staging in DC

Farewell Tour Grinds On

The last leg of my farewell tour on the notorious Amtrak Lakeshore Limited winds through the Berkshires of Massachusetts. It's already an hour and a half behind schedule on the way to Boston. WiFi? "Only in the cafe care, and you're lucky if you get it there," says the conductor.

I look out the window and see cars whiz by us as we trundle along. There goes a guy on a bike speeding by. Now a jogger.  We pass a marsh and a turtle emerges and leaves us in the dust. A snail makes us look silly.

Total travel time,  Albany to Boston? Seven and a half hours–or about the time it will take to fly to Senegal. But I arrive to my son-in-law's garlicky lamb chops. I'm pretty sure I won't have anything like that waiting for me in Senegal. 

Awaiting Staging

September 13, 2015

I am on solid ground today, two weeks from boarding a jet in Washington D.C. to fly to Dakar with about 60 other new Peace Corps Volunteers. Saratoga is under my feet. More specifically, the Saratoga Springs Public Library is sheltering me from a late summer rain storm. Is there any place more soothing that a small town library on a Sunday afternoon? Not for me. Maybe that's why, during those aimless Vermont years, I applied for library school. Aimless no longer, i know exactly where i will be for the next two years. Well. not exactly, but approximately. I won't know exactly until halfway through training.