Leaving Home for the Home Stretch

Hi y'all -

I gotta run, to the state fair in Syracuse to see Tesla! Luckily my brother saw that they were playing and so I plan on going. Flashing myself back to the glory days of 1988. Here are some pictures, I didn't really have time to write any captions to them, maybe later...

Seems like people were a little confused why I'm in Rochester. I'm not done at all, Rochester was just a stop along the way, and also happens to be where I'm from.
A great chance to see my family and little nephew Jason. It's been a great few days, I forgot how much I love my family.
I'm leaving this morning for Syracuse, and then I head up through the Adirondacks, through Vermont and New Hampshire and eventually Maine.

Gold you are right - it is anti-climatic. To be home. And I'm sure it will be anti-climatic once I get to Bar Harbor. There will be a rocky shore, possibly a few people milling about on the beach, and I will jump in the cold cold ocean and smile. I will take a picture for sure. I'm not looking for a cheering crowd, never was. This was and is a personal journey, a chance to loosen things up a bit. I had breakfast with my good friend Father Dan in Buffalo last week. We had a great conversation as we always do, but at one point I likened this trip to an angioplasty. Just clearing out the clutter in my mind, body and spirit. To let things flow.
I do feel a flow to life that wasn't there before. This blessed sip of life, these streams of living water. Things seem more natural and relaxed, I don't feel like a salmon swimming upstream anymore, as I once did, a guy driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
There is a deep gladness that I think was always there, perhaps it was obscured by clouds or veiled in secrecy, impeded by society's various requirements and canned recipes for success. I just decided to grow my own, cook things up from scratch.
The book What Color Is Your Parachute talks about vocation being where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. But what is the world hungry for? I'm sitting in my dad's basement listening to a song called Instrumental, by Jose Gonzalez. Sipping hot coffee, happy.

I have no idea what I'll do once I get to Bar Harbor, although that's becoming a frequently asked question. I will jump into the ocean, that's what I'll do.

My lifeguard friends.