Sitting in a hostel downtown Victoria, the sky slowly turns red as the sun sets on another hot day. Darkness will soon creep in and this 4th floor bedroom will fall silent from the noise of the streets below. I look forward to a good sleep tonight after the drive from Campbell River today.
Its one of those things when you travel, no matter how much you like a place there comes a time when you know you have to move on.
We said goodbye to Jim but told him we would be back for sure, so get a spare key cut for you never know when we will be dropping in..
It was a pretty uneventful drive, except maybe for the huge traffic delays in Courtney, and then spotting some wild deer grazing along the road side.
I just kept thinking of Campbell River and the morning vistas from Jim's kitchen window. Snow capped mountains across Discovery Passage, or Mt Washington to the back of the house.
Maybe it's my age or all the years I did spend travelling, but there seems nothing really appealing about hitting the road anymore. Living in New Zealand and heading off for long weekend trips was more the norm for me, or us, and certainly takes very little in getting use to. Of course there is always the good friend that make those times more memorable and something to look forward to again. It's probably more the fact that at the end of it all you were returning home where you could just kick off the shoes and relax, even if there was the prospect of work the following day.
How times have changed. I loved being on the road, never knowing what was coming or where I would rest my weary head from one night to the next. One time whilst hitching from Melbourne to Perth in Australia, I never for a whole week sleep in the same place or even on a bed. It was the side of the road one night while road-trains roared past only meters away, another night in a public toilet with my backpack securing the door, that was gross, and a bus shelter that was less accommodating but still sufficed.. Of course I look back and smile even laugh quietly to myself, for I would change nothing. Cycling across Europe and sneaking into camp-sites, hitch-hiking up the west coast of America and across Canada, crawling out of a tent in the middle of the Rocky Mountains or on a lake shore at the foot of Mt St. Helen's in Washington as the morning mist rose from the forest canopy. You can't buy memories like these, you can only create them and make them your own.
It's not a cliche to say, 'life's what you make it', that's just the reality of how it is. It's truly no dress rehearsal, this is it, and I only wish more people knew that. My life to now has been a blast, I just want to enjoy it on a more mature level shall we say. But as long as it includes mountain biking and the people I love, then it's all good, more than good.
Pretty deep Jarly. How different all our lives have been and yet we can all end up on a hill in Rotovegas together. You should write a book about those memories - they would be good for someone like me who did things completely differently - to read and experience!
ReplyDelete