Sometimes, well, Time just gets away from you, you know? But then again, those of you who know me will be cringing already and saying “Dear God, don’t get Justin started on Time or else we’ll be here forever…” I do sometimes tend to over-pontificate on the subject with respect to relativity, non-linearity, and other mathematical blah blah blahs; so I’ll not digress now, and instead get straight to the narrative.
You may have noticed that it’s been almost a year since our last post of any substantive content which might let anyone know where we are and what we’re up to. So I’ll sum it up by saying that it’s been quite a year, then lay down the highlights, and a promise to be more diligent in our efforts to document our travels in the “future”. (There he goes again)
So let’s see… where did we leave off? In July of last year we were in Russia. After that we flew back to New York, got in the Elefante, drove to Washington D.C. to deal with more Russians at the embassy there for banal purposes of paperwork and stamps, then continued back North to Staten Island where we visited a very good friend from our jaunts down in Peru. Then it was further North up to Vermont and more visits to more people, mostly family of mine, in a curling arc that came back south through New Hampshire and then ended up all the way back down in Georgia. Somehow the momentum generated in that direction became its own force and before long I had let go of the steering wheel completely, then before we knew it we were all the way at the end of the road in Key West Florida! Not many options there in terms of route, so we had to turn around. The line became a bit tangled at that point, wrapping itself through New Orleans twice and across pretty much every stretch of road through the middle of nowhere in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia that exists, until finally we were so done with the Southeast that if it wasn’t for my family’s tenacious presence there we might never go back!
In all honesty though, there were some highlights. Again, the time went too fast and the stories are too many and too long to go through in a single piece of writing, so in the style of one of Melville’s lists of whaling ship rigging I’ll just list them here separated by semicolons (even though Melville used commas) and scatter some photos through the text for the sake of amusement:
Aya started walking; Justin landed a six foot alligator on a 10 weight; Khadizhat learned to paddle a canoe (more or less); Auntie Erin and Aya had contests of yelling and clapping (which Aya won); Justin, Aya, Khadizhat, and Sal Bruno got attacked on a Cape Cod golf course by an “equity member” of that “exclusive property” and Justin nearly ended up in prison; Grandma and Aya played innumerable games to their mutual and seemingly inexhaustible amusement; Justin took innumerable photos of birds that he will never get around to looking up the identities of; Aya started mountain biking; Justin found his first ever four leaf clover, then proceeded to find dozens more and eventually had a near ecstatic collapse when he found a five leafed specimen; Khadizhat and Aya went to Russia again; Justin went to Argentina again; Khadizhat created some amazing mixed-media artwork; Khadizhat and Aya made friends with lots of pelicans; Lots of progress got made on the wooden drift boat building project; Aya fell in love with picking strawberries; Khadizhat learned to drive the Elefante (our rig) like it was a Yugo; Aya helped Justin tie lots of flies; Justin got his teeth worked on by Dr. Frank the Horrifying Garage Dentist; Aya learned how to effectively catch tadpoles with a minnow net; Khadizhat taught Aya to do Yoga (and then Aya became Khadizhat’s coach); Aya got to do her first Easter Egg hunt; Justin caught various fishes from various waters; Aya got to spend lots of time with her best friend Lenore; Auntie Erin, Uncle Sal and Aunt Andrea, Cousin Andy and Aunt Molly, Uncle Zach and Aunt Caren, and all the Grandparents and lots of other family and friends all got to croon over Aya for as long as the fun lasted, then hand her back to Khadizhat and Justin if she cried; Aya got to feed Giraffes, and Pelicans, and stray dogs, and…; Aya learned to go potty in the potty (while taking advantage of the reading time of course); everything slowly but surely became more about Aya, Aya, Aya, Aya, and more Aya, all the time; and well, that’s about all I can remember at this point.
So off we are again to the North. Headed into Canada this time and soon to make a left. For a selection of photos from the post above just scroll down!
