Travelin': Day 1

I left home this morning around 11:30, only an hour and a half after I'd planned, so really right on track for me. It had been a teary 24 hours or so leading up to my departure, getting ready to say goodbye to Dave for 9 weeks, and just feeling totally overwhelmed at what I was about to do.

I recently learned about a phenomenon that is considered the opposite of deja vu, called jamais vu. It's sort of like that out of body experience where you're looking down at your life happening before you, with this detached sense that it's not really happening to you. I've had that for the last week or so. It's nice to have words for it, other than, "dude...surreal..."

I have been telling everyone that I thought it would start to feel real when I actually pulled out of the driveway. Turns out, not so much. I mean, the leaving felt real, especially once I'd done the three errands I had to do on my way out of town and was actually on the highway. But I'm still not convinced I'm going to end up at dog training school. Perhaps actually getting there and moving in will be the thing that smacks me back into reality. But who's to say, really.

Anyway, the traveling: the goal was to make it to Roanoke or thereabouts, and I overshot by about 60 miles, so I find myself in Fort Chiswell, Virginia at a Hampton Inn. They have free cookies and wireless internet, hence the late-night blogging.

It was a great day for driving - cool, sunny, not too much traffic. I alternated listening to audio books and mix CDs, and only cried when I thought too much about what I was driving away from. Somewhere around Blacksburg I was overwhelmed with gratitude for so many things, so I figured I should write that down, in case I forget and revert to my normal ingrate self:

Today I am grateful:
1. to Dave, for understanding how important this is to me, and supporting me even though it means being without me for so long, and for loving me hard enough to let me go.

2. to the US government (no, seriously) for loaning me the money to go.

3. to the universe, the cosmos, the stars, or whatever for aligning properly so that this could happen.

4. for the beautiful weather and scenery I got to drive through today.

5. for the travel gods who kept me safe through the first 460 miles. Stick with me for a few more days, 'kay?

6. for the random dude who highway-hit-on-me today. You were super-cute, and I'm sorry I wouldn't give you my phone number, but at 65 mph, I wasn't really sure how. And also, you know, I didn't want to give my phone number to a stranger, especially one with West Virginia plates. But many thanks for the huge ego boost you gave me; nice to know this old married lady's still got it. ;)

7. to everyone at work who has been so ridiculously supportive. You do realize that everyone who hears about this thinks you're nuts for letting me do this, right?

OK, seven is enough. I have anticipatory gratitude for the folks I'll be staying with the next few days. Being in a hotel room alone is, shockingly, pretty lonely.

I'll try to take some pictures on the drive tomorrow so that there's actual photo documentation that this isn't all a very elaborate episode of Punk'd.