Home!

I must say. People in this country can not drive! After 800 miles on the interstate, we came up with a plan. There will be a cell phone lane created on the Interstates. People will pay to drive in them. Said lane will have guard rails on both sides.  The “cell phone tax” will cover the use of public servants (police, EMT’s, firetrucks) to remove the injured from the lane.

The rest of us can proceed down the road with a new relief that swerving vehicles, manned by people having meaningless conversations, will be sequestered to their own lane.

Perhaps 22,000 miles of backroad travel made me very anxious on the Interstate. Regardless, I’m so thankful to be home.

We rushed back to Maine. The plan had been to explore Washington D.C. a little more and visit longer with friends in Charlottesville, VA. We all missed my dog, Marco Polo.

The final big bang happened at Scoot Richmond. I owe Chelsea many thanks, perhaps for many lifetimes to come. She has my unlimited devotion.

There were quite a few people there to celebrate with me; old friends of mine as well as many scooterists.  Even Matt was there, from D.C., the guy who rode the final mile with me.The real guests of honor were Scooter and Ed, of the Genuine Love Bus fame. Chelsea thought it would be a nice surprise for me to meet Genuine’s other roadwarriors. I chuckled because there is something just so great about a company having both Peace and Love on the road.

After having managed to narrowly miss Ed and Scooter all summer long, it was nice to meet the legends. Ed took over as event photographer, thankfully. I think he said, “stick a fork in  her, she’s done.” Hear, hear. I was so completely beat that I don’t remember most of the party or the interviews. Thankfully, Dave Mangano’s podcast interview turned out just fine. Even after 5 celebratory beverages. I loved that my old friends finally got the chance to catch up with my scooterist friends.

Audre, my scooter, will be shipped home to Maine. I’m already itching to ride. It was a sad goodbye.

The next day was spent with my best friend, Jessica, and her new hubbie Stephen. Then on to Mom’s house, so that I could get a lecture. She told me I looked like crap. My Mom is very sick and our time together right now means a lot to me, especially now that I’ve relocated to Maine.  Karen, who represents the Department of Peace, donated her Marriott rewards points to us.  This gave us good beds to catch up on sleep and a nice pool for refreshing splashes in between visits.

Before P.E.A.C.E Scooter I would spend once a month in costume for a ladies arm wrestling league-better known as CLAW. Proceeds raised during the two hour sports performance went to local charities. And we are talking about 2,000 buck-a-roos in 2 hours! It was cool to stand in the audience and watch the drama, while catching up with my many incredible C-ville friends. I guarantee you’ve never before seen anything like this action. Tragedy Ann won the match and proceeds went to Food not Bombs.

Before the match, we all got together with Team LaLaLa. I love them and feel fortunate that they are both my friends and bosses.
There is a lot of work ahead, as I rarely managed to get in 5 hours a week while on the road. Team LaLaLa wrote the code for The Second Road website, which hired me to talent scout bloggers who write about recovery. It’s a great project and I want to help them succeed. Lawrence also gave me my first real writing gig, on his website, The Art of the Possible. I will be blogging once a week about my views on the Peace movement.

On the way back to Maine, we stopped at Kings Dominion. At first this seemed like a brilliant idea, especially to help ease the burden of a 14 hour drive home. On all of us, but mostly the nine year old. It was a good time, but I woke up the next day feeling hit by a train. I felt old. The adrenalin rush from upside down, triple-helix curve, plummeting hill rollercoasters  was more than my body could stand after 98 days on a vibrating machine.

We arrived back in Maine just in time to see the first hot air balloons launch for the weekend festival.

Currently, my room is a vortex of boxes sent home, mail, gear and general chaos. There were many thoughtful letters waiting here for me-thank you to those who wrote and sent in donations. In the next week I’ve got some checks to write to the chosen non profits! I finally chose newdream.org as the environmental organization recipient.

Please check them out, they seem to really comprehend the links between improving quality of life, protecting the environment and promoting social justice.

So that’s the scoop. This is a week of organization and long dog walks. I’ve got some more updates on the way, so STAY TUNED!