Seattle, WA

I went back to Pike Place Market today and found the most amazing matted photograph, entitled "Road Trip." Guess why I bought it. I'll try to take a picture of it and post it; it's the perfect embodiment. I wandered around a couple of interesting neighborhoods, ate some smoked salmon belly and dried Rainier cherries, and called it a day. I've been holed up in my hotel room, attempting to plan out the last bits of the trip.

It's weird to think that now I'm officially on the last segment. I've been worried and anxious the last couple of days; worried about money, but also worried about next steps, moving, financing said move, and trying to quell the paranoia demons in my head. ("What if you move and it doesn't work out? What if you can't find a job right away? What if this really has been all a dream and you're going to wake up with the most epic hangover ever?") It's really cutting into my enjoyment of the trip, and I hate that. I'm only doing this trip once--I want to be able to enjoy the last three weeks of it, and not be constantly worrying about money or the details of moving. It's more than enough to worry about where my next hot shower and internet access is coming from, believe me. That's the other thing--living out of my car is finally starting to wear on me. I suppose that's normal, I've been doing it for six weeks, but perhaps it's for the best that I'm starting to look forward to not being on the road. Otherwise I'd never come home, and then my cats would be mad at me.

Speaking of hot showers and internet access, this next week I'll be traveling in some very remote parts of the country. Vancouver tomorrow, but then Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota, the Badlands in South Dakota, and then finally Denver next weekend. So if my blogging becomes sporadic, or nonexistent, it's because wi-fi = fail. My first priority will be sleeping in places with flush toilets and hot showers if at all possible; some of those national parks have hostels, but others don't, and I really don't want to have to camp in a part of the world where temperatures dip into the thirties at night, even in July. What's that all about, anyway?