Roads keep turning... Jan 7

Today is Monday and I am in Athens, Georgia. Hopper, the Cutes and I hung out this morning, playing hide and go seek and making a trip to the library. I found a book about road trips that I’m going to use in order to go on a little expedition this week.  This afternoon I went for a walk in Dudley Park along the Oconee River (pictures below) and then buckled down on some freelance work I’ve been sitting on for a while. The good thing about freelancing while traveling is that you can still do it.  But you still have to do it…

I’m feeling better today, which is a blessing. I’ve drunk more tea in the last 3 days than this whole year put together.  7 days into the year, its totally true. I’m hoping to kibash this thing out of my system in the next few days. Being ill while traveling is so frustrating.  Being ill is frustrating.

Sounds like my dear Bear will be joining me for a few days at the Grand Canyon, which is super fun to think about! We are finalizing plans today. Woohoo!

There was a slight chance that Squirrel Ninja was not going to be able to join me for the 10-day trip we planned that starts on Friday. I was going to be real sad about that, but I just got word that he’s coming still, so yeah! That’ll be awesome.

Friends!

So here is the fun place that I explored today.

the first railroad bridge that went through Athens, GA

Biggest jungle gym ever.

And this is one of the signs in the park. These kinds of signs always makes me roll my eyes at the first settlers for not learning from the native people.

Changing topics, let me tell you a story about my friend, the Old Dog, back in Philly.  As I was readying myself to leave, I asked friends to share music with me for the 167 hours of driving I'm going to be doing over the next 3 months.  Most people forgot, but one day when I got to work, a present was on my desk from the Old Dog. It was a really nice wooden box, which is sweet because I gave him a special boxed container years ago for Christmas. If that was the extent of the gift, I would have been heart-warmed. But then I opened the box and saw a beautiful journal that his wife Swan gave me and then 24 wrapped CDs marked for 24 of the states that I'm driving through on my trip. Each CD has songs that have to do with the state or are by bands that are from that state.  I was shocked. I mean, who does that?  Great friends.  Jeesh.  So I've had this song in my head for the last few days, thanks to the Old Dog.