Martha

It is funny to meet someone traveling far away - free and outside the confines of your own space. It is another thing to see them again and invite them into that space - charged with the associations you have of it. No longer so free and unbiased.

I first met Martha traveling over a month ago in Seattle. I was staying with my old friend Luke and a friend of his came by one evening for a barbeque. He brought a few travelers along he was hosting through couchsurfing.com. Martha was one of them and had been doing a solo road trip across America for about a month now, continuing on for at least one more.

I was on my way to the San Juan Islands, and she was heading up to Vancouver. I convinced her to meet me in the middle and see the islands for herself. And so she came and we had one of the funnest and riches adventures in memory. Crammed with hiking and hitchhiking, gourmet food and red wine by a campfire, long conversations and simple pleasures exploring a magical place. And then she was gone...

Having perambulated from the Northwest down through California, the southwest, Texas, New Orleans and the deep south, she has now finally come full circle back to her native Boston. She is just in time to meet me as I've returned back east for the fall also. It feels different meeting in this space - but I'm enjoying being a guide. Learning to see and enjoy this place I come from with new eyes.