Heading home and a word of Thanks

I'm returning to Canada today and by this evening, I'll be back in Toronto.  While I have enjoyed my trip, I'm excited and eager to be home.

Sun setting over the Rockies in Colorado. (A fitting image for a journey's end, I think).

This past month has flown by and I have had a lot of fun at each of the stops along my journey.  In the past week or so, a few of my friends have asked me about my favourite activity or favourite place from the states I have visited.  Really, that's not an easy question to answer.  Each state is very much different from the others I visited.  Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, Wyoming.  It's hard to pick a favourite when I did different activities in each location and when the climates differ as well.  I will say I was happy to find cold nights in Colorado and Wyoming.  It's a little weird to me when the temperature doesn't drop after the sun goes down...

This whole trip has been so much fun and such a wonderful experience. I got to meet so many of my friends for the first time--some that I only really knew of by name before this trip--and was blessed by each encounter.  To all those friends, thanks for the rides to and from my transport connections, a place to camp out while I visited, and food to sustain my existence. Ha! ;)  I am so glad that I was able to make time for this trip and that I was able to share life with each of you, if only for a couple of hours or a couple of days.  Until we meet again in person.

Banner from CleanPlace website.

But most of all, I really want to thank the person who "made" this trip possible.  As I was staying at her house, I couldn't really think of what to say, so I will do my best to articulate it here and now.  MangyCat, thank you a million moose for making CleanPlace.  If you hadn't wanted to connect and help teen writers, life would have been very different.  Because of you, we all met and have built lasting relationships within a welcoming and supportive community.  Before this trip, I never realized how supporting.  As I appealed to the group saying, "I will be in Colorado from X to Y, or Wyoming Z to D," so many people were willing to meet me and help me, even if we had never truly talked while "on" CleanPlace.  This is a legacy that you have created. Again I say, thank you!

To the friends on this trip and the ones I have yet to meet in person, let's do life together sometime in the future.  Until then,

May the road rise up to meet you. 

May the wind always be at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face, 

and rains fall soft upon your fields. 

And until we meet again, 

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

(Old Irish Blessing)