17 Jun Home!!
The bus is at last clean, with all crumbs and unidentifiable sticky spots on the floor scrubbed away. Empty of backpacks, pillows, books, random bits of firewood and stray souvenirs, she’s sitting quietly in the yard now. Four weeks ago, we left Snohomish, WA to explore British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, Alberta, and a good chunk of the middle of the USA on the final leg of our long journey around the world in a short bus. Now it seems like it passed in a flash, though during the sometimes sleepless nights in our tents, the trip felt like forever.
There are many remarkable things we found on our journey around the top half of the planet, among the most startling is that the little bus never once had a breakdown, not even a flat tire. Testament to the sturdiness of American school buses, and to the vigilance of our team mechanics: Don and Tommy. We learned that a group of strangers jammed together in a short bus can and do get along, albeit with memories of high school cliques still lingering in our minds. We learned that practically the world over; most everyone you meet has a smile when they catch sight of a yellow school bus, regardless of the circumstances.
Mostly, though, we learned how much we all shared in common, despite having a total of 20 teammates from 6 different countries on board. Friendships forged in such close quarters are strong, and I hope very much that our teammates will always remember their summer vacations in 2013 and 2014 with fondness and good memories of each other and our little bus.
There are surely more adventures left for us, and the little bus, but for now she’ll rest, and we’ll rest, and the rest of the world will keep on trucking without our gas station stops, our campfires, and the good times spent on those long days on the road. Until then, we’ll just say thanks to our teammates and friends: those intrepid folks who rode with us on this amazing journey: Will, Tommy, Sarita, Pietro, Stefano, Eric, Chris, Cale, Dave, Caroline, Amy, Jan, Lina, Johnny, Alex, Adam, Amber, Hans, Kara, and Ralph. Y’all were all good company, and made this trip all that Don and I ever dreamed it would be…and more.