Transitions

Transition: movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another;

     I was born in Colorado twenty years ago and have lived in Colorado ever since. When I was younger, I was certain that there would never be anywhere else that I could call home. This colorful state was my home. It was where all of my friends and family were. 

     Around 2006 I started blogging on xanga. I made some really great friends through the groups (or whatever they were called) on the website. Suddenly I found that not ALL of my friends were Coloradans  and I knew that I was going to have to do some traveling at some point to get to meet them.

     Fast forward to summer 2010. I took a trip to Arizona to meet my blogging friend Naomi. I spent around a month out there - it was my first experience with being away from home for an extended time and pretty much my first time traveling alone. And? I *loved* it.

      Last summer I went to work at Grand View Camp in Arizona, spending yet more time away from home. That's sort of when I started to realize that "home" wasn't really where I lived anymore. It was more of a stopping place to come back to when there was nowhere else to be. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and friends in Colorado and I always miss them when I'm gone. I just began to feel that there was something more waiting for me somewhere - I just couldn't find it.

     A month after returning home from camp, I left yet again. This time I went to Wisconsin to meet another blog friend: Lydia. I spent three wonderful (and way too short!) weeks with Lydia and her husband Doug. I was so sad to leave and started to make plans to return as soon as possible. We even discussed the option of my moving to Kentucky with Doug and Lydia.

     Back home in October, I spent lots of time with various friends and applied for multiple jobs. Nothing came together, though. I began to think that all I needed was to get a very temporary job to make enough money to get back to Wisconsin. Viola! A job opened up for me to house-sit for three weeks. I stayed home for a month after the job so that my mom could go on vacation, then high-tailed it back to Wisconsin. Where I fell even more deeply in love with life. haha It was so good to be away from the city! Not to mention that the more I got to know people, the more I liked them. =) So I decided that I wanted to stay.

     Unfortunately, I had already signed a contract to work at Grand View again this summer. I tossed around the idea of backing out, but decided that I could wait a few months to make my Wisconsin residency official. Not to mention that I really like camp!

     Yesterday I arrived in Virginia to meet my friend JoAnna in person. I will be here for a few weeks until her wedding. After that, I'll trot back to Colorado for a few days before it's time for camp. Lord willing, I'll be back in Wisconsin in August! My friend Joyce and I have already picked out a cute little apartment to rent together. 

     I am so excited about my life right now! And I am so thankful that God has worked everything out so smoothly! I never would have thought when I started talking to people online all that time ago that it would eventually lead to an open door for me to start out on my own. I am also glad that I could take so many trips to get used to being away from my family before I actually move out.

     So... That's the latest in my life! I hope that I'll get to meet a few more blog friends in the future!
 

Vente

Time to cross something else off of the good ol' bucket list! And time to update my readers on where I'm at!

On Tuesday morning I boarded the bus bound for Milwaukee. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a trip! Wisconsin is lovely in the spring! I had so many mixed emotions about leaving, but I'll explain all of that another time. =) This post is about number 20 on my bucket list: Take a trip by train

In Milwaukee I switched from the bus to the train. The first part of my train trip was relatively short, going from Milwaukee to Chicago. Once I boarded in Chicago, though, I spend the next 21 and a half hours on the train. I learned a lot in that time. lol

First off, trains *are* better than buses. Traveling by bus feels like you're traveling mostly with lower class or even low-life people. Traveling by train feels more upper class. Even if not all of the passengers were high class people, they behaved like they were! (Read: much less swearing, no smoking, etc)

One problem that I had with the train was the price of food and such. I didn't bring as many snacks with me as I should have. I spent $6 on a tiny pizza. So on my next train trip I am going to pack more of my own food and definitely bring a couple of bottles of my own water.

Another thing that I learned is that if you want to be on time, Amtrak is probably not the best way to travel. My train ended up being over an hour late pulling into Charlottesville. The people working on the train as well as other passengers confirmed that this was normal. Apparently, the only destination that they make on time is either Philly or DC.

For overnight traveling, I really think that it depends on circumstances. If you can only have one seat to yourself, trains win for comfort. But if the seat next to you is empty, I was actually more comfortable on the bus than on the train. I suppose it really varies, though. Different buses/trains have different seats.

Trains definitely win in the luggage department. The first three checked bags are free, unlike buses and airlines. HUGE bonus there! They also transfer your luggage for you, while Greyhound does not. I found that to be very nice. It's not always fun to be lugging around two suitcases along with whatever carry-on items. Furthermore, Amtrak treated my luggage a lot better. With the exception of one of my suitcase handles getting ripped, my bags were fine. Whereas Greyhound? Don't even get me started. Mom and Dad bought me a great luggage set for Christmas and the bus trip was my first time to use it. Both suitcases suffered various rips and tears as well as getting completely filthy.

So that's the run-down on my recent travel experiences! I'm going to go see if I can get a few other posts in the works and get back into blogging!